Having had success a couple weeks earlier, decided to try again with the whole family if the conditions would cooperate. launched boat, bought bait and picked the family up at 9am. plan was to see if the yellowtail at LJ was still biting, but decided to look outside since the weather and wind were nice. we cruised about 18kts. About 10 mile off la jolla, my daughter spots a paddy. we pull up, throw bait, pin on a few small sardines and wait. nothing is happening but we are seeing some small fish around. Decide to try something different and found a large sardine in the mostly small bait from MB. 'dine takes off and is picked up. hand it to my son, he flips the bail, and its deja vu. He brings it to the boat and hangs it while i try to get my daughter on one. Bite was very odd, they would only touch the larger sardines and were hard to hook. most baits were bit on the side (like a dog bone). picked up 10+ times but only 4 found the hook. As most of the bait was small and the couple bigger ones were beat up, we decided to slow troll them. that worked well, hooked quite a few including a bull to 15+ lbs and some much better hens.
Probably the oddest behavior (besides them not swallowing bait) was that as we would slow troll, they would follow in the prop wash. literally 3ft behind the prop. we would drop bait on them, they would swim up to look at it, and then return to follow the wash. odd.
All said and done, we probably hooked 8-10, and kept the bull. Smiles all around. Super stoked to enjoy it with the family. unbelievable.
Probably the oddest behavior (besides them not swallowing bait) was that as we would slow troll, they would follow in the prop wash. literally 3ft behind the prop. we would drop bait on them, they would swim up to look at it, and then return to follow the wash. odd.
All said and done, we probably hooked 8-10, and kept the bull. Smiles all around. Super stoked to enjoy it with the family. unbelievable.
