Rain, Wind, and Cold

Fishing Time: 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Weather: Cold, Windy, T-50

Moon Phase: 93% Moon

Location: El Capitan Reservoir

Best Bait:  Live shiner in 5 ft of water

Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

With a little daylight left after work, I picked up Bobber John from the house and we cruised up to El Capitan Reservoir.  Today San Diego got hammered by rain in the morning and the afternoon was windy and cold.  Not exactly great conditions for bass fishing, but you gotta take advantage when you can. 

We picked up some live shiners and cutbait from the tackle shop and made it to El Capitan.  We tossed out a couple catfish rods with cutbait and then began fishing live shiners for bass.  The wind seemed to get worse and the air colder as sunset loomed.  I managed one bass for our efforts, before the wind and cold temps pushed us off the lake.  I finally have a boat down here and the weather turns sour.  Sounds about right. 

Fishing Partner, Boat, and Saltwater

Fishing Time:  8:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Weather: Cool, breezy, T-60

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: Mission Bay, San Diego

Best Bait:  Drift fishing live sardine near the bottom in 12 ft of water.

Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

It was a 13-hour drive from Draper, UT to San Diego, CA pulling John’s bass boat.  Not much fun, but worth it as I now have a boat and a fishing partner to tackle these San Diego lakes for the next couple weeks. 

I’ve recently been getting some local intel on bay fishing here in San Diego, so John and I put it to the test for our first outing.  We launched the boat at Dana Landing in Mission Bay and made our way over to the bait barge to pick up some live sardines.  We were greeted by sea lions and an army of birds waiting to snag a few potential scraps.  

We were told it was $35 for one pass of bait.  No idea what that meant, but it sounded expensive.  Little did I know that one pass equaled one net full of approximately 300 live sardines!  We were in business.

We took our bursting live well full of sardines to the area where I was told is good drift fishing for California Halibut.  It was only 12 ft of water where we were drifting, but the sandy bottom gave us a good feeling we were in the right spot.

On our second drift I had the first hit of the day.  I gave the fish some slack allowing him to fully eat the bait and then set the hook.  It was the first halibut of the day, and of my life!  It wasn’t big, but it was my first and got us excited to do it again.

Another few drifts and this time it was Bobber John’s turn.  His reel started screaming and we knew immediately that this was not the same size fish.  The anticipation built as we waited to see what it was.  It turned out to be a very nice keeper halibut at 23-inches long.  They must be 22-inches long to keep.  What a fish! 

With one keeper halibut in the live well we made another 5-6 drifts with no bites, so we made our way over to a bridge that the tackle shop said holds fish.  We began our drift there and were rewarded with some spotted bay bass, barred sand bass, and a sculpin.  No more halibut were landed.  It was a fun day and a new experience fishing saltwater from a boat.

We utilized YouTube to figure out how to filet our halibut and took some nice chunks of fresh white meat home for dinner.  Yummy!

Rumors at El Capitan

Fishing Time:  7:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Weather:  Sunny, calm morning, 10-20 mph afternoon winds
Moon Phase:  8% Moon
Location:  El Capitan Reservoir
Best Bait:  Live shiner fished off bottom in 20 ft of water
Who Went:  Dunc

The weather has been a bit funky this past week.  Mostly sunny days, but the temperature has stayed cool in the low 60’s.  I wasn’t sure how it would affect the fish, but I’ve heard rumors of fish beginning to move shallow and stage for the spawn, so that had me excited.

Santa Ana winds were forecasted to arrive around 1 PM today, so I made it an early start in case I had to end the day early.  I was on the water at 7:30 and it was chilly until the sun finally peaked over the mountain around 8:00.  I started fishing shallow water hoping the rumors were true.  I was casting two rods today.  One set up with a live shiner, and another with a jig/trailer.  First fish of the day was the smallest bass since I have been here and wasn’t worthy of a photo.  It was caught on a live shiner in approximately 3 ft of water.  From there it was tough fishing.  I continued fishing shallow, but by 11:00 AM it seemed like no life was living from 0-10 ft.  It was time to change it up.

I moved into deeper water (15-30 ft) and set my slip bobber to keep the live shiner hovering near bottom.  Then I rigged up a Ned rig on my other rod and started casting deep.  Finally, my bobber disappeared and I had a nice fish on. A good bass in the 2-3 pound range.  

Rigged up another shiner and sent it back down then continued casting my other rod.  It didn’t take long and the bobber was down again.  This bass put on quite a fight and was just under 4 pounds.  Yeah baby!

I didn’t get any more bites for quite a while and the wind started to pick up right on schedule.  Of course, it was right against me, and the direction I had to kick back to my car.  I began kicking and kept a shiner out as I slowly made progress against the strong wind.  I was rewarded with a few more bites and one more bass.

It was a struggle getting to the shoreline and at some points I was kicking as hard as I could making no progress.  It showed me how easy it would be to get in trouble on a float tube.  After over an hour of continuous kicking, I finally made it to shore.  I ended the day with 3 fish and was hoping for better action with all the rumors of shallow bass, but maybe the funky weather had something to do with it.  Either way I caught a 4-pound bass and that’s enough to keep me happy!

New Area at Lower Otay Lake

Fishing Time:  2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Weather: Sunny, calm, T-78

Moon Phase: 59% Moon

Location:  Back of Otay Arm in Lower Otay Lake

Best Bait:  Live shiner under a slip bobber, fished near reed line in 3-5 ft of water

Who Went:  Dunc

Work finished early today, so I headed straight to the tackle shop to pick up some live shiners.  After that, it was off to Lower Otay Lake for some afternoon fishing in my float tube.  The area I fished today was new to me, and it looked like a largemouth oasis.  It was in the back bay of the Otay arm of Lower Otay Lake.  There were large trees coming out of the water and tullies everywhere.  I was excited to try it out. 

I worked the underwater tree stumps and along the tully lines trying to get my bait as far into the reeds as possible without letting the shiner snag me up.  Not much was happening, but after an hour or so, my bobber finally went down.  It was a small bass, but got me out of a skunk.  

I continued down the shoreline casting to every tree stump and close to the reeds.  I landed two more small bass, but that is all I could entice with the live shiners before running out. 

I changed to a Ned rig, but received no bites.  For such a great looking area, it didn’t produce like I had hoped.  Either way, it was fun to try some new water.  While kicking back in to shore I saw a big soft shelled turtle.  Took this photo, and you can see his little head popped up next to his large soft flat shell...

El Capitan on Super Bowl Sunday

Fishing Time:  10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Weather: Sunny, calm, T-75
Moon Phase: 79% Moon
Location:  El Capitan Reservoir
Best Bait:  Live shiner fished shallow (3-6 ft)
Who Went:  Dunc

Work has kept me very busy this week and more family visited last weekend, so I haven’t had any time to fish.  I was itching to go this Sunday, and couldn’t resist the idea of El Capitan.  I have fished other lakes here in San Diego and drove by others to scope them out, but unfortunately most of them are surrounded by tullies and not accessible with a float tube or by walking the shoreline.  El cap just provides the best option for a float tube, and besides, I like it the best.  It’s further away from people, has good structure, and it produces!

I got a late start on Super Bowl Sunday.  I spent the morning contemplating whether I should bag fishing and watch the pre-game shows, or go fishing and then come back to watch the game.  I finally told myself, you won’t get the chance to fish these lakes much longer, and then jumped up and walked out the door.

Once I started kicking my way out onto the lake I knew I made the right decision.  The temperature was in the high 70’s, very little wind, and an absolutely beautiful day to be on the water.  Less crowded on Super Bowl Sunday to.

I started out with a Ned rig and then a jig/trailer, working it from shallow water all the way out to 25 ft deep, watching my fish finder and trying to see what depth the fish were holding.  I saw the most fish between 10-15 ft, so I worked thoroughly worked that zone with the plastics only to get one bite on the jig.  I turned over to the live shiner and set it at a depth of approx. 10-12 ft and on the first cast I landed the biggest fish of the day at 3.5 pounds.  Thought I had it dialed in, but went another hour or two with no bites. 

I moved to deeper water and tried depths from 15-25 ft, but still no bites.  It was time to go shallow.  Again, on the first cast in shallower water my bobber immediately disappeared and I caught my second fish of the day.  However, this time it wasn’t a fluke and fishing shallow was the ticket.  I continued to catch fish, casting near brush in 3-6 ft of water.  

Towards evening the bite really turned on and something fun happened…  I saw a few fish surface, so I casted towards them.  I started having bass chasing my minnow up to the surface and hitting them like I was fishing a topwater bait.  I would see an explosion near my bobber on the surface and then my bobber would disappear.  It was a blast and lasted for about 20 minutes.

I landed around 10-12 bass today and couldn’t get myself to leave the lake until I was out of shiners.  I missed the first half of the Super Bowl, but whatever.  Just another year with the New England, Patriots defending their title.  However, there luck finally ran out and the Philadelphia, Eagles stole it from them when they stripped Tom Brady in the final two minutes to win the game.  It’s about time the Patriots lose!