My friends with boats told me it would be like this for the first few trips but I guess I just did not believe them. Now I see they were correct, and I have to admit it’s a little frustrating.
Sorry there will not be any fishing pictures or any pictures for that matter, as my outing was once again cut short.
Here’s what happened:
I woke up early again, eager to fish, more confident than the last (Even though the seas would be rough) time and filled with anticipation. I was out of the house by 4:15 AM, I stopped to pick up some ice, the bait, and a little something to eat and, and I was at Matheson Hammock Marina before they opened the gates at 5:45 AM.
It was blowing pretty hard, I knew it would be rough out there, but I have gained a lot of confidence in my little boat because it handles the rough water so well. I felt no apprehension other than that I was alone, and fishing or boating alone is never really a good idea, more so when seas are rough. Still I was committed to making the trip and I would be a little extra careful because I was alone.
I put the boat in the water, parked the car and trailer, and was off again before sunrise. I recently invested in the Garmin G2 Vision card, an accessory for my chart plotter that allows for more safety when navigating because it plots the safest possible course for you automatically. I selected a heading to Marker 21 with plans to catch my live bait there.
It was slow going with the bait fish; it took me around 40 minutes just to catch a little over a dozen. Mostly pilchards, but I got lucky and pulled out 2 pinfish and a little jack. I picked up anchor headed for bug light where I thought the chances of catching bait would be better, but there must have been 30 or more boats around the light so I said screw it and kept going. My plans were to do some jigging anyway, and livies were a bonus, so what I had would do since I was not planning on being out all day anyway.
I was running south for a wreck that my friend mike gave called the Blue Fish, it’s in around 100 feet of water and I thought it would be a good place to start. The Sea’s were rough, mostly 4’s and 5’s, with the occasional 6’s mixed in. Half way to the wreck I noticed my chart plotter was giving me a warning, it said “Sounder lost.” I slowed down to idle, and pressed OK. No big deal I thought probably just a glitch because of the high seas, and the bouncing. I tried everything I could to get it back up and running, I turned it off and on again twice, I disconnected and reconnected the wires, I even took off the front panel to get a look inside the center console to see if I could figure it out and nothing worked.
I knew that without an accurate reading of the bottom I would be fishing blind, and that was a good recipe for coming home empty handed. I did not give up though; I headed for Bluefish anyway hoping to get lucky. I tried fishing the general vicinity for about and hour, there were other boats in the area, some flying Kites, other trolling and others doing what I wanted to do drift fish. I didn’t see anyone catching any fish so I did not feel so bad. I thought about heading for the next spot but then I thought better of it and headed home.
So for those of you keeping score, still no major fishing to speak of on my boat. I hope to get the kinks ironed out soon and I can have a nice story and some good pictures to show you.
Till then…
Sorry there will not be any fishing pictures or any pictures for that matter, as my outing was once again cut short.
Here’s what happened:
I woke up early again, eager to fish, more confident than the last (Even though the seas would be rough) time and filled with anticipation. I was out of the house by 4:15 AM, I stopped to pick up some ice, the bait, and a little something to eat and, and I was at Matheson Hammock Marina before they opened the gates at 5:45 AM.
It was blowing pretty hard, I knew it would be rough out there, but I have gained a lot of confidence in my little boat because it handles the rough water so well. I felt no apprehension other than that I was alone, and fishing or boating alone is never really a good idea, more so when seas are rough. Still I was committed to making the trip and I would be a little extra careful because I was alone.
I put the boat in the water, parked the car and trailer, and was off again before sunrise. I recently invested in the Garmin G2 Vision card, an accessory for my chart plotter that allows for more safety when navigating because it plots the safest possible course for you automatically. I selected a heading to Marker 21 with plans to catch my live bait there.
It was slow going with the bait fish; it took me around 40 minutes just to catch a little over a dozen. Mostly pilchards, but I got lucky and pulled out 2 pinfish and a little jack. I picked up anchor headed for bug light where I thought the chances of catching bait would be better, but there must have been 30 or more boats around the light so I said screw it and kept going. My plans were to do some jigging anyway, and livies were a bonus, so what I had would do since I was not planning on being out all day anyway.
I was running south for a wreck that my friend mike gave called the Blue Fish, it’s in around 100 feet of water and I thought it would be a good place to start. The Sea’s were rough, mostly 4’s and 5’s, with the occasional 6’s mixed in. Half way to the wreck I noticed my chart plotter was giving me a warning, it said “Sounder lost.” I slowed down to idle, and pressed OK. No big deal I thought probably just a glitch because of the high seas, and the bouncing. I tried everything I could to get it back up and running, I turned it off and on again twice, I disconnected and reconnected the wires, I even took off the front panel to get a look inside the center console to see if I could figure it out and nothing worked.
I knew that without an accurate reading of the bottom I would be fishing blind, and that was a good recipe for coming home empty handed. I did not give up though; I headed for Bluefish anyway hoping to get lucky. I tried fishing the general vicinity for about and hour, there were other boats in the area, some flying Kites, other trolling and others doing what I wanted to do drift fish. I didn’t see anyone catching any fish so I did not feel so bad. I thought about heading for the next spot but then I thought better of it and headed home.
So for those of you keeping score, still no major fishing to speak of on my boat. I hope to get the kinks ironed out soon and I can have a nice story and some good pictures to show you.
Till then…
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