6/29 La Jolla AM

[Aaron&Julie]

Ditto what everyone said. Beautiful day on the water, plenty of bait to be had at the cans, and clean, clear, warmer water. Everything you could want minus the right kind.
I went solo while Julie studied for her class. Looked like I launched first(?) at 4:30AM, and I finally landed at about 1:30PM. I wasn't going to give up easy with the best conditions I've seen in months.
Must've paddled 10-12 miles, with high expectations. Had some short biters on the spanish macks, which were probably barries or juvenile WSBs. Saw nothing that got my pulse racing until an hour before I quit. I drifted with the west wind towards the cans, still in deep water. I attached a trap hook to my weighted setup and bounced along the bottom. A short while later, I brought this rig up to check on its condition, and a 4-5 foot, about 50-60 lb. mako follows it all the way to my yak. And he wouldn't leave either, even after I poked his head a couple of times with my paddle. After the initial surprise, I thought what the hell and dropped the rig in front of him. He jumped on it, but I air-balled on the swing and he made off with the bait. I remembered I had a shark rig setup so I quickly put on the wire leader. Baited with a dead and live spanish, cutting them to leave a trail of blood. He never returned.
I threw the iron for awhile ending up with a rockfish, short barrie and some big greenies to show for it.
Just couldn't believe some quality fish didn't show up.