Fishing San Diego Bay with Gene and Jake

Meeting Gene and his grandson Jake at the dock an hour early was a great idea. We had originally scheduled our afternoon trip to start around well - afternoon. But upon seeing how our weather was once again changing, we decided starting earlier to avoid the late afternoon fog would be a safer way to go. Boy were we right. Even moreso, there was another storm brewing. I don't know if it was the storm, the wind change, or getting to our school after two other boats were already on it, but the bite had tapered off a bit.

After Chuck and I had a slamfest the day before, I spent a little time getting a limit of ghost shrimp for Gene and Jake to use on this day. When we got on the water and saw a distinct absence of birds, I felt really proud about having ghost shrimp on board. There's a lot to be said about too much pride, and even more to be said about the Spotted Bay Bass that roam San Diego Bay. I gave Gene a spoon to tie on, and took a cast to show Jake how to use it. While I was handing Jake the rod, a fiesty Spotty clamped on to the iron and pulled like a dog not wanting to give up his chew toy. Jake was happy, and Gene and I crossed our fingers to not become victims of the curse. You know, the Catching a Fish on the First Cast Curse. Dump, Dumm.  

It took only a few casts before Gene relieved us of that worry, and we were all wiping our brows and shaking off the angst, in anticipation for more bites. After getting as many fish as we could from that spot, we ventured a bit to see if we could find the birds. The ghost shrimp were lacking in appeal, and that lead me to believe we were still on a pinhead bite.

We got on a creek channel that held a bunch of fish for us, but the cold South West wind was really starting to take its toll. I told Gene that I really thought that the storm was going to hit. We made our way back down the runs, catching a few more fish on the way, and beat the storm in. Within a half hour after parking the boat, the wind and rain starting hitting my Chula Vista driveway pretty good. I'm glad we bumped our trip up early.

Official numbers cruncher's report:

22 Spotted Bay Bass (released), 8 Jacksmelt (released), 1 Mackerel (released) 

Thank you for reading.