Inshore La Jolla - struggled to catch anything

[Tail Chaser]

What do the halibut look like on your depthfinder?

In all seriousness... My Unit is set up so you can clearly see the second echo... I use bottom lock sometimes... My old furuno was the best for halibut... you could watch the fish feed and know when you were about to get bit.

 

[Tail Chaser]

You're kidding right ? La Jolla has been shitty for quite a few years now.

Not for me it hasn't!
Shit I always take my new fishing buddies there to catch real fish... The Yellows are a different grade. And the WSB are easy if you know how to fish them...
Same as any sport boat.... There is a guy that limits out on big fish while others struggle to even get bit...
How light do you fish?
Spectra? Mono? Flouro? Bait? Artificial? It all matters.... YOU KNOW THIS!

 

[plj46]

BS

 

[KXKH]

La Jolla is a complicated place, but they do hold fish...including yellows up to 50lbs class. I haven't fish La Jolla enough to say I've fully figured out that place. But I have caught yellows there every year since 2014. I don't know what is considered a hot year for yellows in La Jolla, but catching 2-5 each time I make a trip to La Jolla from NorCal is good enough for me (2-3 days of fishing). I did limit last year when the squid showed up, that was intense.

It is an interesting place, where you have days that you may need to drop down as low as 20lbs or even 15lbs to get bit from a mossback fly lining a green/blue back. Then there are times that it's full blown with yellow boiling in a particular areas. Sometimes the fish decides to push up shallow, you will have to fish inside of the kelp forest. Hell, there's a notorious guy name Kevin Nakada, he catches them so much in La Jolla and figured them out well enough that he will only sight fish for them a lot of the time.

The locals that fish La Jolla a lot tends to keep a really tight lip of whats going on there.

 

[plj46]

La Jolla is a complicated place, but they do hold fish...including yellows up to 50lbs class. I haven't fish La Jolla enough to say I've fully figured out that place. But I have caught yellows there every year since 2014. I don't know what is considered a hot year for yellows in La Jolla, but catching 2-5 each time I make a trip to La Jolla from NorCal is good enough for me (2-3 days of fishing). I did limit last year when the squid showed up, that was intense.

It is an interesting place, where you have days that you may need to drop down as low as 20lbs or even 15lbs to get bit from a mossback fly lining a green/blue back. Then there are times that it's full blown with yellow boiling in a particular areas. Sometimes the fish decides to push up shallow, you will have to fish inside of the kelp forest. Hell, there's a notorious guy name Kevin Nakada, he catches them so much in La Jolla and figured them out well enough that he will only sight fish for them a lot of the time.

The locals that fish La Jolla a lot tends to keep a really tight lip of whats going on there.

Years ago we would have 40 and 50 fish days in my skiff.Two guys and every bait in the tank got used.

 

[KXKH]

Years ago we would have 40 and 50 fish days in my skiff.Two guys and every bait in the tank got used.

I want that kind of experience. It was cool when the schoolie BFT showed in 2015 in LJ though.

 

[plj46]

I want that kind of experience. It was cool when the schoolie BFT showed in 2015 in LJ though.

I'd like to have those days again but feel they are long gone.

 

[feeshkilla]

Install a trolling motor with a "spot Lock" function. A game changer for staying on a location with zero drift.

Advantages
1. no drift
2. keeps bow into wind and weather
3. line almost straight up-and-down
4. almost zero snags, or tangling with others
5. spare motor
6. extra weight forward keeps bow down and keeps boat from porpoising. I do not need trim tabs to keep bow up or down, just motor trim.
7. use less weight to get down
8. easy to remove to store or repair with "hockey puck" accessory
9. Installed it myself with a few location challenges for batteries and motor.

Disadvantages
1. cost
2. where to put the batteries and install the motor
3. learning curve
4. getting someone to fix it in a timely fashion if it broke. Only one repair location in all of southern CA, Trolling Motor Doctor in Long Beach.

I have a saltwater Minn Kota 36vdc, 112 thrust, 60" IPilot with auto retrieve and deploy. I only use it for spot locking for rockfish. Once dialed in easy to use.

I could have gone with a 24vdc unit but did not want to buy something that proved to be too small. The 60" shaft is just long enough for my boat. On big swells almost comes out of water. I followed the install charts for shaft length. If I had to order another for this boat it would be the 72" shaft.

View attachment 1274764

Yup, once you have/use spotlock there's no going back...EVER!