Newport 6/29
 

Decided to get out of the house this morning at around 730 and see what felt like biting what I had to offer. The plan was to catch some macks and drift the edge of the kelp with a trap rig with the mack, but I couldn't find any mackerel this morning. Also, what didn't help was my FF deciding not to work this morning which made fishing a bit more difficult. So, my friend and I ended up fishing the kelp off of CDM, he was using squid which only got him a small calico. I was using shrimp which landed me a small calico and two perch, then my friend had to leave early. After that, I continued south to the beginning of Crystal Cove which produced 2 sheephead, both were just short. Then I found a school a smelt at around 1030, caught a couple smelt and used them for bait. Within the first 30 min of dragging the trap rig, I got some action yielding a 13" sandbass but that was it. The rest of my drifts were completely dead. I couldn't go to plan B, which was the all so trustworthy rockfish, since my FF wasn't working. So I called it a day at 1 pm.

Oh ya, forgot to mention it was extremely foggy when I first got out there. The first picture shows my view of the shore, or lack there of. Mind you, I was somewhere between 200-300 yards from shore. Also, sorry about the poor picture quality, there was some moisture on the lense plus its from a crappy phone camera.

not bad, especially considering you were fishing in the dark. did you find out what was the problem with the FF? last time mine crapped out i unplugged and replugged all the wires and voila! it worked

thanks for the intel. it seems like catching bait outside of newport is nearly impossible now.

Usually I unplug and plug it in again and it works, but this time it didn't. I found that some moisture got in the battery pack and basically corroded all the metal inside of it. Its not an expensive fix at all, it will only cost like a $1.50. I think I'll be taking out the batteries after every trip for now and letting the pack air out.

Good job making it work without the FF. Did you try the boilers when you were inside?