Tidelands (San Diego Bay) 4/22

[Robert]

Made it down to Tidelands a little before 6:00 A.M.. Took this shot of the Coronado Bridge. It was a beautiful morning! No wind what so ever until
a little before 11:00! The water was like a mirror.The sky was overcast and the temp was perfect. I wore a t-shirt all day and was comfortable. Bob and Jackie
showed up about 15 minutes later. We launched a little before 7:00. Nobody else on the water fishing but us and it was as flat as a sheet of glass!



Bob was cool enough to hook me up with a couple of Reeb grubs. Those baits have some great action! I hooked up on a legal spottie right away. The action died down where I was, so I paddled over to where Bob & Jackie were fishing.



Bob was hooked up to something big! I'll let him tell that story.

About 7:30 we moved out to main channel to do some dropshoting.



I caught this short halibut on the Gulp New Penny Shrimp. I landed a couple of bass also. The tide went slack around 8:30 and the bite really slowed too.



We made a move over to the flat in front of the Anfib base.



Right before we got to the flat I saw something chasing bait. I grabbed my spinnerbait rod and immediately fired off a cast and put the rod in the rod holder. I paddled about two strokes and BAM! Fish on. My second keeper spottie of the day. We got to the flat and did a bunch of chucking and winding with spinnerbaits. I think Bob & Jackie are sold on spinnerbaits now!
The bass hit those spinnerbaits like a freight train!



I trolled with the spinnerbait at the edge of the flat and nailed 3 keeper spotties in a row! I got slammed by the first. Unhooked him and casted out.
I put the rod in the holder and didn't paddle more than 10 ft and then BAM!
I did this three times in a row. I caught a bunch more spotties casting the spinnerbait and throwing plastics. The bite was picking up. Around 11:00 the wind picked up and we decided to fish close to the bridge and sailboats. We fished the last hour there for a few more bass before calling it a day a little after Noon.



We managed to land dry after battling the massive waves at the beach! What a great day on the water! I managed to catch
close to 20 bass with 5 keepers and a 14 inch halibut. Jackie and Bob
it was great fishing with you guys as always! Let's do it again soon!
When we rolled the kayaks back to the cars there was plenty of parking
still available. It's not usually like that on the weekend at Tidelands.


Robert

[Beachem]

Robert,

Thanks for the invite we sure had a great time. First time trying one of the Reebs lures and I get slammed and taken for a ride. It was a give and take battle for close to a half hour but in the end my bay rod didn’t have enough backbone to get what ever it was off the bottom and the line broke.

This was the start to a very unusual day on the bay. After making a couple of stops in the channel for a few spotties, Jackie and I followed Robert to the flats on the south side of the Coronado bridge. Here we busted out the spinner baits and I started to whack them the right away. I must have caught 8 or 9 on 10 casts. I get a call from Jackie to come over check out what she just caught. I’m speechless, anybody know what this is? Whatever this is got a little pissed and started squirting ink or something.


I get the mystery thing off the hook and we make a move. I switched to a MC swimbait and Jackie continued using a spinnerbait. Couple minutes later I get another excited call from Jackie letting me know she got her first halibut! And on a spinnerbait no less!


As Robert said, the wind picked up and we headed in. Not sure how may spotties I caught, somewhere between 15 to 20 - I lose track after a while. Jackie caught the mystery thing, a halibut and around 15 give or take a few spotties.

Another nice day on the big bay.

BC

[PerryC]

Awesome Guys-N-Gal,
I'm a wishin' I was a fishing. I heard good stuff about the Reebs plastics, and I have been doing some spying and got the scoop on them now I'm glad to hear the spinners were putting a beating on the bass. I just ordered some of the heavier units from Trix Jetty Worms in the 1.5oz weights, so I know what I'm going to be trying when heavier weights are called for. I wish I was there to see Jackie get the hali on her spinner bait, that would have been a kick. Some of the larger halibuts have been caught by casting at something chasing bait up by the surface, and low and behold large hali's were caught. Jackie's looked like a legal sized 'butt to boot.

Seaslug may know what that is that Jackie caught. It may be some type of seaslug from the looks of it. Just my WAG.

Perry