October 2024 Fish Report: Chatter from Cheddar Bay

 Gentle Readers,

October found us scattered as we cast about in our own spheres of influence.  It feels like the tide of the season is in definite retreat for pelagics that mostly just grazed us on this cycle.

Isaac got out at Salt Point for  some camping and kayaking into the Norcal shallow water rockfish season.  This delicious and lucky cabezon was released because it did such a good job posing for the photo.

Tommy and Amelia went camping with fly rods.

They pulled on one cutthroat after another

    while dodging killer elk and moose on the trail and in their   campsite.

Your reporter got a first cast halibut that also was only briefly detained while fishing the high tide slack in Dana Point Harbor.

I was included by friend Mike on an impromptu charter for some local half-day bass fishing off San Clemente with Chris Bogseth of Left Bank sportfishing for a mellow escape from the daily grind. It has otherwise been mostly a shorebound existence during what has been some pretty high powered tuna action for others.

With the kids in town for the long delayed memorial for their grandparents, Tommy and Isaac joined the crew to  experience Atonement on October 7 with Secret Skipper for our first lobster hunt of the season.

We were headed out to fish the nooks and crannies of our secret spot on the lee side of Cheddar Bay at the Island of Romance. We had a nice visit with Baitmaster Mike and picked up sardines  before clearing the breakwater and starting our trip across the channel at 1 pm.

The ride over was on the bumpy side,as the weather stayed fresh and never did lay down for us.

We drop tested each rig to untangle the ball of confusion rope piles that ended our last season.

Bait was chopped and cages were stuffed as we were on station and ready for action hours before the real drops would begin.

Skipper invoked the blessing of the Lobster Gods as he performed the ritual "Crusty the Crustacean" dance that marks the start to another season of hauling at the hemp.

We had all gear deployed early and then proceeded to kill time chasing fin fish for a while. We avoided getting bit at a variety of locations while trying many different presentations.  The sea temp had just made a big drop and the fish were uninspired.

We had expected the seas to lay down, but the wind remained gusty enough to bounce us around into the darkness.There were several other boats working sets in the bay, but everyone had good lights and stayed out of  each other's way.

We pulled our  first set after a two hours soak, although only about 20 minutes was after dark.  We had a lot of pulls in the first set for big spider crabs and horn sharks, but it was a light harvest of four for ten on lobster. We went right back down and rolled through another set as the crawl was happening early.

We found that this time, males outnumbered females, which was not the case last year.  We had a lot of  by-catch and mean spiders to contend with, but the second set was better than the first, as we clawed our first two limits in three sets.  Once again, it was the shallows that were doing most of the catching.  Our 125, set in 90 feet of water, proved to be the workhorse, producing multiple legals on every pull while most of the rest struggled to produce, especially our deepest hoops beyond 200 feet.  We had about a 50/50 split on shorts to legals. 

We hit the doldrums and had many pulls in a row that did not produce any legals.  We were still pulling after midnight and inched our way past three limits with 50 pulls.  

We managed some really nice 2-3 pounders, along with bugs that had to be measured. We finally decided to start breaking down gear, starting with the deeps, as we made one last set, knowing that we would not get back until 3 am.

We pulled up one hoop that was crowded with kelp and produced threes legals, including one that was close to 6 pounds.  We finished strong, but had to earn it. The magic125 accounted for over a third of what we kept.

The ride home got progressively more dense as we motored into a heavy fog bank that progressively thickened as we got closer to land. As they say (in a Cheddar Bay/Pepperidge Farm accent), it was thickeh than sea-poop out theah as we navigated by pure radar love for the last 8 miles. We were really close to the Pedro light by the time we actually saw it.

We ended up with 26 bugs for four guys. Cleanup and stacking all of the gear in the truck is always easier with three or four guys.  Even with youth and numbers, it was still 4:30 am by the time your narrator crawled into bed to take a nap.

We did not get any shots of bugs on board, but snapped a garage shot of this big male. 

At 6:30, your reporter's alarm went off like a discount pager from Lebanon for the yard clean up I had to complete before heading down to Dana Wharf at 9 am for the long-postponed ash scattering for Wendy's Mom and Dad Sunday morning.

We were heading east as the morning sun burned a hole in the fog to backlight Rob on the way out.

The dolphins came out to play and delighted toddlers and adults alike as they rode the bow waves between the hulls of the Ocean  Adventure catamaran that provided a stable and comfortable ride just as the morning fog began to lift. 

It was a great send off.  

We had a really good family reunion and Holiday Celebration of Life with lots of old movies and slide shows of days gone by.

That evening, the boys posed for the mandatory Lobster-Life photos that are a prelude to the savage processing that we performed with ruthless efficiency.  We tailed and trimmed most of them for vacuum sealing, while putting a selected few on the BBQ for a late dinner with the offspring.

We broke out some of our prey a few days later to join up with birthday-boy Matt Sage, Randy and Suzanne for the time-honored gluttony of attacking way too much ribeye and lobster.  The next morning I took Isaac to the airport to head back to SF at 5am as our time together drew to a close.

Halloween is almost upon us and it feels like the summer season is over, though the tuna continue with their tease at the outer banks.

May all of you get the kind of candy you crave, whether it be door-to-door, or just feedbagging what you buy without feeling the need to share.

Daylight is now a diminishing resource, as it seems time for the clocks to fall back so we are not leaving for work while it is still night time.

Even as darkness consumes an ever-growing share of the calendar, we can see the light in knowing that 

            These Are The Days