East Butterfly on 7/5

Russ (Time Out), his son Chris and I left Mission Bay about 3:00 am. Had decided to head to the E. Butterfly since the 390 shut off on Sunday. There was a bit of a swell but nothing to serious. At the gray we found a paddy loaded with school size (8-10 lbs) yellows. Took 4 for the grill and left the rest to bite another day. Got to the spot and found the albies were on a serious diet. Found lots of bait but no takers. Worked the area over pretty good and got our first hook up around 10:00. Few minutes later we got a double, one came unbuttoned and the other was a bonita. Worked an area roughly 4 miles E/W and 7 miles N/S. The To The Limit was working roughly the same area when they headed out to explore some new areas. By now the swell was up and was topped with a delightful wind chop, conditions turned lousy. About noon, the bite starts to go off and we take two more troll fish. To The Limit located a small spot of fish and called us in on the bite. We finish up with 3 more troll fish for a total of 6 albies and 4 yellowtail for the day. Pulled the lines in at 1:30 and headed for the barn. Not a bad day given the seas and the late bite. Thanks again to Jeff and Dan for calling us in on the spot.

Nice job Charlie,

You didn't need to get more albies than that anyway, what with the high mercury content and all. Were the albies good size? I heard some of the albies being caught out there were the smaller models?

Fish were 15-20 lb grade, nothing huge. It was a late bite and I guess boats did better after 3-4:00.

Most offshore fish bite early and better in the late afternoon during the full moon period :confused: