By Scott Lenox
Published on August 24, 2024
Kristen and I headed out this afternoon to watch the OC Air Show from the boat and did a little fishing along the way. It was a beautiful day on the water and we have never seen so many boats in the bay or offshore. It was pretty crowded but everyone behaved well and enjoyed the great show and catch. The taug and sheepshead didn’t cooperate for me but Kristen caught a few puffers eating shrimp using our Deadly Tackle Hi-Lo Rigs.
After our fishing trip, I got a call from my sister’s boyfriend, Shaun, who had just returned from a trip aboard Talkin’ Trash with Captain Chris Little, telling me he thought they had set a new state record for a bluestripe tilefish. I contacted my DNR buddy Erik Zlokovitz and the guys at Crabs to Go to set up a weigh-in, and we weighed and measured the fish around 5:30 a.m. The huge bluestripe was 37.25 inches long and weighed 20.6 pounds, beating even the old state record of 20 pounds. Angler London Anthony caught the big tilefish on Talkin’ Trash using a piece of bait. The state record is considered “pending” until paperwork is filed and approved. Congratulations to London and the Talkin’ Trash crew.
Captain Chris Mizurak reported that the fishing was good for some and slower for others, but they still managed to catch some nice sea bass and flounder on board the anglers today.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a beautiful day at sea with wonderful conditions and a combination of mahi and sea bass for his crew.
Another rest in a good series of them.
Pretty..
Theresa and Brad dropped off the pyramid today at Captain Bob Gowar’s Memorial Reef. A large reef that is still growing: There are three Iron Lady loads, each with 110 tons of precast concrete, 4,670 reef blocks, about 131 pyramids, the tug “Steve’s Way” – Captain Bob’s barge and an as yet unnamed tug.
There is about 55 feet of bare sand between the barge and the first tug. That’s my goal lately with pyramids from Bear Materials in DE – trying to stitch all these pieces of reef together.
Not many more are needed for this task. However, there are many more spots that need to be filled or simply added.
The Mahi catch seemed to be a disappointment again. At 11:30 am we had a few nice sea bass, but no green beauties.
Old Murphy had to laugh when I announced that I would concentrate on bass for the rest of the day – less than two minutes later the first Mahi was in the air.
Even though she was a peanut, there was a coastal jumbo bull with her. (Coastal jumbos would be hidden under ice by my offshore friends…)
I retracted my announcement and continued with the Mahi hunt.
We stole a few, found nothing, and picked a few. When is it time to go in? … I continued east.
It was worth it. Finally we had a steadily improving bite; then a taste of mahi chaos – lots of fish on the line at once! Now that my customer’s expectations are sky high, Murphy must have laughed himself to death. After the flash, we didn’t catch any more fish.
Too close to predict: Craig and Gruve share the group.
The sea is as calm as a pond. As I paddle in, I hear: “Whale!!”
Right behind me were two magnificent fin whales. Big boys.
Almost…but not quite late enough for the Coast Guard to start searching for us, I turned east again – this time to see the sights.
And what a show. It took a while, but the next time they appeared, they were just a few meters from my bow. Everyone was speechless and in awe – no pictures!
But when we came back up, the cameras were ready.
Sweet.
Apparently not late enough; we also saw a humpback whale about three kilometers off the coast. Another great photo opportunity, it came up three times before showing us its tail.
I left 30 minutes early and arrived 2.5 hours late. A few hours of overtime definitely made the difference today.
I would do it again.
Cheers,
Monty
