Since I arrived here around the first od March I have been recording my YT catches and as of April 4th I was at 19. I was not counting the smaller school sized rats that I was running into but only ones that I would consider harvesting if I was in the need for freezer stock. Probably 12 lb or above. Since April 4th it has been a real struggle getting number 20. The yellowtail appeared to have vacated the area around that time. There was no particular weather event that happened at that time. No change in water temp. No change in water color. I continued to hit the usual spots and got a chance to really explore some new areas when the usual spots did not produce. There was always fish to be caught but just not the right kind. I had a couple noteworthy catches during the period since April 4th. One was a huge Rubber Lipped Surf Perch (why do they call them surf perch? Every one I have caught have been in 50 to 70 feet of water) which I caught on a Sabiki of all things. The thing was 16 1/4 inches long.
I also landed what was probably my PB calico. 23 inches in length . I forgot the girth but it taped out to just shy of 8 lbs.
As I struggled to find number 20 I even tried to hire one of the local pangeros for a day to get my YT fix. He basically said save your money, they're gone.
Well I went out again yesterday morning out of San Roque and finally picked up number 20. Taped out at 28 lbs. He was mean. I really thought I had hooked a much larger fish. They just seem to fight harder down here. Here's a picture:
We have had a couple interesting weather related happenings over the past couple weeks. First of all, about 2 weeks ago the water temp took a dive. I was out on a Tuesday and the temp was at 65 degrees, which was the warmest I have seen and I went out on Friday, and it had dropped to 59 degrees. I hit it on the following Monday and it was 58 degrees. I don't think Southern California has seen 58 degree water since 2013.
The week end after the water temp drop we had a day of rain. Thunder and lightning type rain. It put on a real light show over the ocean in the middle of the night and then rumbled and flashed and sprinkled most of the day. It finally gave way to a beautiful tropical sunset in the west and a full double rainbow in the east. We had a total of .27 inch of rain. It's amazing how poorly this area handles rain. The streets were a mess, and I couldn't even get out to San Roque the next morning because of the mud and runoff.
That's it for now. Gotta get after number 21.