We are a week late due to some mechanical problems on the truck, but the wait was definitely worth it.
Last week, we had a small issue with the truck not starting. I first thought it was a failed starter, but with a replacement starter, it still would not engage. At least I thought it was not engaging. After some investigating, I discovered the flywheel was spinning free from the engine. As a result, the torque converted welded itself to the adapter plate and also had to be replaced. After a couple $$$$, we were back on the road and ready to go fishing.
Got the boat launched and headed over to the bait dock. I have the live well mounted and wanted to try it out to keep the bait fresh this year. Loaded up with 4 pounds of bait. We were surprised by the size of the bait this year. Pretty large means not as many per pound. We should be ok. The bar crossing was ok today and ocean was a little rough. We headed straight out to one of my goto spots that seemed to produce more than not last year. Getting the bait out of the live well and trying to hook them on the leaders proved to be a little tricky. For some reason, they just would not stay still for us to run hooks through them. 🙂 Got the lines in the water and before too long, fish on! We had very good success last year running just a diver and leader with anchovies. We decided to keep it simple and do the same this year. It seems to still be working. The time between bites was a bit long, but the day overall was consistent. Lots of fish caught. Many wild coho had to be let go. Even managed to hook one chinook on a spinner, but it was a bit short and had to be let go as well. One of my crew caught his first keeper and even though it was legal size, he decided it was not big enough and let it go. Well, the fish gods did not seem to like that and rewarded him with natives the rest of the day. The rest of the boat limited out with some nice coho.
The first trip of the season did not disappoint.