The Best Damn Fishin' Thread Evar

[Scot]

Sheesh! I have a love/scare relationship with the ocean, its beautiful and fun but also dangerous and when its that deep dark blue like off Carmel, Santa Cruz & the Oregon coast, its both beautiful and scary.

I would really enjoy kayaking and have wanted to do a kayak trip off the Seattle coast where you can fish, kayak among whales and then camp out on the islands

hope you'll keep posting more reports and pics from your trips

I used to as well. Every damn shadow or movement I saw had me thinking Jaws was gonna snap the back end of the boat off. Every seal or sea lion swimming by would startle the shit out of me.

Then I took up free diving and Spearfishing and eventually learned that the ocean isn’t the big scary place I thought it was. Eventually I took up scuba and started wreck diving. That completely changed the way I thought of the ocean.

I’ve come nose to nose with a few sharks while diving. Mainly leopard sharks in the 3-5 foot range, some Angel sharks, and a grey smooth hound shark or two. None that were dangerous or threatening.

Sea lions on the other hand can be unnerving. They get territorial and will do a drive by on you while barking in your face to let you know that you have invaded their space. They can be as big and bigger than me. So when they come flying straight at you then turn at the last second it freaks you out the first couple times.

 

[cml750]

I live 20 miles from the Gulf coast but I prefer fresh water fishing to salt water. I love fishing for Large Mouth Bass with Texas rigged worms. I can fish all day and never get a bite and still enjoy every bit of it. We have a camp near Toledo Bend reservoir (a lake that sits on the Texas Louisiana border). about 200 miles from where I currently live. The lake is great for both bass and crappie fishing. I do sometimes go down to the Gulf for fishing. Heck my daughter even won the statewide STAR tournament by catching the largest Gafftop in her age group almost a decade ago winning a $20,000 scholarship.

 

[Scot]

My fishing obsession started in freshwater. I’m sure pretty much everybody’s does.

As soon as I caught my first rainbow trout in a tiny little stream near JPL in Pasadena I was hooked. With in a couple weeks I was already fishing at Castaic Lake for largemouth bass. I was obsessed with LMB for a couple years. A buddy and I took 3 weeks one summer and towed my boat to 6 of the major lakes here in CA and had our own little Bass tournament. We would sleep in the bed of my truck at the Lakes parking lot/campground area. Then wake up and be on the water each morning as soon as the lake opened.

That trip is still some of my most fond memories of fishing that I have.

 

[cml750]

I live 20 miles from the Gulf coast but I prefer fresh water fishing to salt water. I love fishing for Large Mouth Bass with Texas rigged worms. I can fish all day and never get a bite and still enjoy every bit of it. We have a camp near Toledo Bend reservoir (a lake that sits on the Texas Louisiana border). about 200 miles from where I currently live. The lake is great for both bass and crappie fishing. I do sometimes go down to the Gulf for fishing. Heck my daughter even won the statewide STAR tournament by catching the largest Gafftop in her age group almost a decade ago winning a $20,000 scholarship.

Damn I made a typo. Our camp is about 100 miles from where we live not 200.

 

[yimyammer]

I used to as well. Every damn shadow or movement I saw had me thinking Jaws was gonna snap the back end of the boat off. Every seal or sea lion swimming by would startle the shit out of me.

Then I took up free diving and Spearfishing and eventually learned that the ocean isn’t the big scary place I thought it was. Eventually I took up scuba and started wreck diving. That completely changed the way I thought of the ocean.

I’ve come nose to nose with a few sharks while diving. Mainly leopard sharks in the 3-5 foot range, some Angel sharks, and a grey smooth hound shark or two. None that were dangerous or threatening.

Sea lions on the other hand can be unnerving. They get territorial and will do a drive by on you while barking in your face to let you know that you have invaded their space. They can be as big and bigger than me. So when they come flying straight at you then turn at the last second it freaks you out the first couple times.

Great stuff, keep it coming.

I cant wait to see videos and pictures from your next trip.

How cold is the water in Cali?

My cousin lived right on Manhatten Beach and I remember we'd walk down to the ocean and I'd be shocked at how cold it was. I remember putting our feet in the sand and some crab or something would mess with our toes, freaked me out

 

[yimyammer]

I live 20 miles from the Gulf coast but I prefer fresh water fishing to salt water. I love fishing for Large Mouth Bass with Texas rigged worms. I can fish all day and never get a bite and still enjoy every bit of it. We have a camp near Toledo Bend reservoir (a lake that sits on the Texas Louisiana border). about 200 miles from where I currently live. The lake is great for both bass and crappie fishing. I do sometimes go down to the Gulf for fishing. Heck my daughter even won the statewide STAR tournament by catching the largest Gafftop in her age group almost a decade ago winning a $20,000 scholarship.

I grew up bass fishing and loved it but only in the ponds littered across the farms in our vicinity, every time I fished in a big lake, I couldn't catch a damn thing and I was too impatient to ver learn how. I heard the bass fishing was great at Lake Fork even there I got skunked

 

[Scot]

Great stuff, keep it coming.

I cant wait to see videos and pictures from your next trip.

How cold is the water in Cali?

My cousin lived right on Manhatten Beach and I remember we'd walk down to the ocean and I'd be shocked at how cold it was. I remember putting our feet in the sand and some crab or something would mess with our toes, freaked me out

Water temps range from the 40’s to the 60’s

Right now it’s 57. Yes our waters are always cold. You typically don’t dive in less than a 6mm wetsuit. I also have a dry suit for the really cold stuff. It’s never really needed. But it helps when waters are below 50.

I miss the water in Florida that was in the 70’s and 80’s where I didn’t need a wetsuit at all to go spear fishing

 

[Scot]

 

[yimyammer]

These look fun, ever used one?

 

[Scot]

These look fun, ever used one?

I’ve never even seen one before

But when I used to fish inside Newport Harbor on my boat and kayak I would see guys using float tubes to fish the harbor which is kinda similar but you sit inside it with your legs in the water with flippers on to propel yourself

Granted, it’s probably not the best way to catch a shark, but it always looked like fun to me. Just way to much work

Now imagine sitting 6 (or less) inches off the water and getting bit like that? That’s a fucking thrill that never gets old! Scares the shit outta me every time! Absolutely love it!

 

[Scot]

These look fun, ever used one?

I’m really impressed with how stable that thing is. When he got bit by that giant grouper that took the tip of his rod all the way down into the water the platform never even dipped and stayed stable the entire time. Great performance on that platform

 

[Scot]

Here are some of my rigs. Most of my reels are in a reel bag. I typically don’t leave them attached to the rods unless they have reel anchors and are screwed onto the rod with a bracket underneath. Those are just a pain in the ass to remove and put back on so I will leave some of those attached.

 

[yimyammer]

very nice, I cant wait for you to get on the water and come back here & post some videos

I was amazed at the stability of that skiff as well. Id personally prefer that to letting my feet and legs dangle in the water which would give me BIG TIME Willies!

 

[Scot]

very nice, I cant wait for you to get on the water and come back here & post some videos

I was amazed at the stability of that skiff as well. Id personally prefer that to letting my feet and legs dangle in the water which would give me BIG TIME Willies!

Pretty cool little set up

It already had the battery and trolling motors for propulsion. So you could easily add a fish finder with navigation down low and out of the way.

I really liked that it had the rod holder attached to the seat so you don’t have to bear that load yourself. That starts to kill your lower back pretty quickly. The best part of the entire set up is that the seat rotates and you can make sure you are always facing the fish no matter which way it runs with just a simple shuffle of your feet. Unlike every other platform out there where you need to change the direction of the craft to face the running fish. A circular platform is perfect for fishing the ocean where you can hook into a monster that can completely change direction in a second.

The only thing besides the fish finder that I would change is to add some form of back support. Even if it’s only six inches. Sitting on a stool like that for hours would not be comfortable and really kill the lower back

 

[cml750]

These look fun, ever used one?

Are you talking about the girl in the bikini or the skiff?

 

[Scot]

Finally out on the water again

 

[yimyammer]

^^How was it?^^

 

[Scot]

Way too short

The generator that was just replaced 3 days ago started giving us failure codes again. So we had to head back home today.

We only caught a few short Calico Bass on the first day out there. Then we had to leave first thing this morning. So we only got a few hours of actual fishing in.

 

[touchdown]

 

[touchdown]