Columbus day at La Jolla cove

Good morning,

Celebrated Columbus day with an all day solo attempt on the billfish. Planned to head north toward Carlsbad but the plan changed when I cruised through the cove area and found beautiful clear blue water just off the point. Water was 67.5-68.2 in the cove. The further north I went the colder and greener it got. In go the zuker 3.5 in B/P and the other was a MJG. At 12:00 things start to come alive and I spot a group of feeders within 2 miles of Scripps pier. By the time I cleared the jigs and got a bait ready they were gone. Back on the troll and spot a jumper. Draggeed the lures over it's last splash and shortly after that the rigger pops and I'm on. Didn't last long as the fish jumped off. No other strikes for the afternoon but, there are definitely fish there. Can't think of a better way to spend the holiday. Tons of huge mackerel schools in the canyon and all the action I saw was within 2-3 miles of LJ Point.

Scott

Spotted a 'group' of feeders, billfish, in La Jolla cove? Wow. I haven't seen a one all year.

Sounds like a good day. I would be happy just to have one on for 30 seconds my first time.

Good call staying in the blue water; nothing going up north. Maybe they will stick around for awhile off La Jolla, the charts look good.

Thanks for the post, I might try it one of these afternoons. :)

How bad do you want Mr. Spikey to stick? Next time you go through SQUIDCO on Barnett, check out the double hook / chain rig. C and R is iffy, especially when the fish has the second hook in the eye! Supposedly, the big money tourneys use this set up and if IGFA approved.....rt

RT,

That's exactly the hook that I had. The double hook rigged with the cable in between. I know I jinxed the whole day as I was prepared with the camera and fighting belt. It was pretty cool for me anyway because up until yesterday I had never got a marlin to eat one of my trolled lures. I think I've been trolling way too fast for them. I'm use to trolling my spread (for tuna) at 8 + knots. Yesterday I really slowed it down to try to eliminate as much wake and turbulence as I could and get the lures in the clear water. Seems that 6-6.5 knots did just that. Maybe that's why I actually got bit? I have made at least eight trips this year dedicated to getting a marlin. Saw many but, could not get them to eat the zukers. So yesterday was a milestone for me. Do any of you have other lures which work well at slower speeds? The other thing which I did different this time was find an area which looked fishy (warm & blue with birds and bait) and worked it hard for six hours. I'm really new at the marlin thing and have heard that the fish really get active during some point in the tide cycle (slack tide). Yesterday I saw the feeders then the jumper between noon and 1:00 PM but, nothing before or after that. I don't know exactly what that means but, could be a tide thing?
OK now I just have to figure out a way to ditch work this week while the fish are still around. We can't let Mike (No Slack) get away with the slaughter that he's embarked on. I tried a couple quick drops with the diamond jig in a half hearted attempt to narrow the points with a ling cod or rock cod to no avail.

Later,

Scott

Stay after them Scott. Sooner or later one will stick. I had 5 drop off before one stuck this year.

As far as hooks go, I still use single hooks on all my jigs. One hook, two hooks, ten hooks, if it's your lucky day one will stick.

Don't run all the fish off before the weekend. I'm stuck working 10 hour days this week with no hope of calling in sick.

Mike

Scott,

If you slow down too much you will get hammered by Mr Mako and lose your rigs; they love P&B. Keep it up to 7.5 - 8.2 nts. Dan and Ann hired Mike the Beak Hurt for a day to help them catch more fish and one of the big things Dan told me was to let the lures out farther back on a Blackman 26. Start on the 4th or 5th if you're trolling 4 lines, 5th or 6th if you're only trolling 2 lines. Alternate lures on following wakes. When you get up on the bridge and look back you can see where the water starts to clean up behind the boat and that's where the lures should start. I started doing this at the end of last year when Dan helped us catch one at Catalina and it has worked well ever since. It has changed my success ratio tremendously and we have had many 2-6 bite days this season.

So were you straight off Torrey Pines north of the cove or down even or below the point and off 2 miles?

Scott,

Chain hooks have chain between the hooks not cable. They generally have a better hook up % but they are definitely more dangerous on the release. I troll between 7 and 9 knots for billfish although I have caught them slower and faster. If they want the bait they can catch it. If I get a lure bite I kick it up to about 12 knots and keep going until I’ve dumped about half of the spectra off the spool. It’s much easier for the boat to keep a tight line than for the fisherman to do it. If a fish gets in the lures a drop back bait is generally a bite and is a much higher hook up %. Your doing the right thing, just keep at it.

RT,

That's great info for us billfish owners to have. Thanks for sharing. I was closer to LJ Point for the most part. There was a definite break in which the water got cooler and greener. The cooler greener water was out in front of Torrey Pines and the nice blue stuff was in tight and extended from the kelp right off the point to about midway through the canyon and out to about three miles. The water outside about 3 miles also started to drop off in temp. So there was really only about 6 square mile area in which the blue warmer water appeared to be. Again everything was in tight. On the ride back to MB, there was also a temp break about three miles off the beach and again the water was blue and warm (68 degrees) on the outside of that. It looked good to this untrained eye but, I didn't see any life in it.

My buddy Ken and I gave the area a good look today from 1 to 5PM. Good water color and temps, just no life. Probably a batch just passing through headed south. I think one was caught at the Pile today.

Scott thanks for the report, you can't catch'em if you're not on the water! :)