Bait, Barracuda and Beaked Dolphins, Oh My! (LJ)

[Gflann]

An eventful day at LJ. No YT or WSB but a few interesting moments.

Launched at dawn and stayed inshore searching for bait. Impatience got the best of me and I couldn’t resist chasing birds offshore. I brought my rockfish set up so I knew I’d be able to make the offshore sprint worth it. Got to the diving birds about 2 miles off shore and bait was boiling everywhere. Unfortunately it wasn’t YT but a bunch of Barracuda. It was awesome watching the breach while occasionally getting spooked by a pelican crashing after bait 20 ft away.

I decided to have fun with the Cudas and put on what I know is irresistible...a Yo Zuri diving minnow with a rattle. I trolled that around for 3 Cudas with the biggest at 30’’. All released. I was able to quickly pickup a few nice green backs and continued further offshore to a few rockpiles I had marked.

Then I was amazed by the biggest pod of Dolphins I have ever seen. I got to see some of them charge bait in a line pushing up a ton of water and then what looked like them slapping them with their tail. It felt like planet earth until my fly lined mack made a couple short clicker spurts and then the clicker goes off. I put the reel in gear and WHAT A FREIGHT TRAIN. For a second I thought it was a YT but not even the homeguard I caught in April ran this hard. I even put it the drag on full (28 pounds) and it looked like I was going to get spooled. With the dolphins all around me I just assumed that’s what it was and quickly put my thumb on the spool and the line broke. It was 30# mono.

Since I was offshore I put my rockfish set up to use with a couple strips of squid. Released 4 medium size Red’s and kept two. Broke my PB for Vermillion’s at 5.9 pounds. Alot of work in 250’ to land those and descend several so I called it a day and started the long trek in.

Once again LJ gives out another amazing day....tight lines.

[FISH11]

Sounds like a great day a La Jolla. It's awesome when there's a big show put on by the local wildlife. The Dolphin are magical, they always bring a smile to my face. After a great day, you still got to bring home some dinner. Tight Lines!

[Pocoloco]

Thanks for the kayak report. Looks fun. I have never seen a dolphin take a bait, just the big fish or seals that swim with them.

[tcsdallas]

Great job

[JohnMckroidJr]

Interesting report -- and nice rockfish! When I worked on Headboats in SoCal, it was rare to see a dolphin get hooked. Tunas are known to feed with dolphins -- ya never know?

[NiksYak]

Sounds like a great day OTW. Well done.

[Gflann]

The dolphin thing is a total hypothesis...no other mammals I could see. Wasily could have been a sea dog below the surface. Perhaps it was a mermaid!

[PapaDave]

I've actually hooked a dolphin twice on the kayak, accidently, once in LJ on a mackerel and once at Dana Point on a sardine. I was fly lining a sardine in a open spot in a kelp bed when a missive school of sardines rushed under the kayak, followed by a frantic pod of dolphins chasing them. Got picked up and trust me, you don't want to hook those, there's no stopping them.