We had two boats out fishing plus Myron and the stenographer. Of the rentals it was a 50% skunk rate – the other boat had trouble finding anything. Myron and the stenographer also had a 50% skunk rate – the stenographer again found some nice large browns which he decided not to keep. Myron went on a three hour tour looking for a big ‘ol flatty – he did not find one.

Bait was a bit harder to find today. In the morning bait was spotty and thin though jiggable with a fish finder. Throughout the day bait was in fact popping out of the water all over the place though there wasn’t much to see on a meter. Around 1:00 this afternoon bait moved in very thick around the west side of the wharf – dense enough for a throw net. We’re not sure where things stand bait wise now.

Weather was again beautiful – no clouds, warm, nobody on the water, light winds. That’’s supposed to change a bit tomorrow – we’re supposed to get some more fog.

As it happens today saw a repeat of a sequence of events only seasoned fate watchers would expect. That sequence is where Myron pulls up next to the stenographer, drops his hooks, and gets all halibutted up within about 10 mins while at the precise same moment (as signalled by the telltale “whoop whoop” from Myron’s boat) the stenographer’s gear gets all nice and snagged up in a rock.

As it happens this comedic sequence played out about a month ago, but you know:

“ha ha ha – fate has once again pulled a fast one on me hasn’t it – ho ho ho no joke is too old for good ol’ fate is it ha ha ha” etc etc. – Stenographer’s head 9/1/2010

(Fate ultimately coughed up a couple of nice quality consolation prize brown rock fish for his trouble.)

Bait has been plentiful-ish today. Myron left around 6:30 this morning – at that time bait was popping just outside the marina. He had some trouble getting them on the hook, so he thinks they might have been fingerlings. The stenographer found a nice huge super dense ball just outside the marina at about 10:00 this morning and loaded up with sardines and a kingfish before he went looking for Myron’s fish.

Right now bait is starting to come in off the wharf again. All in all lots of really good signs, just not many boats out there playing the game.

Stephy channelled all the guilt she had from her somewhat lackluster stint as guest stenographer into a wish that someone would catch *something* today before we tucked the camera away for the night. It worked! Steph has some pretty deep pockets in the guilt department it seems.

Whatever – good job Sambo and Steph! Whew – it’s nice to be a fishing report again

Things are awfully slow in here Capitola. We only had one rental out fishing beside Ed’s, and that boat only caught a couple rock fish. It’s kinda looking like one of those situations where the lack of anyone catching anything kinda circles right around and becomes the very reason that nobody’s going out to fish. Too bad you can’t put irony on a hook – we’ll be haulin’ in monsters!

If you look really really closely at the zoomed in version of this photo, you might see a dolphin jumping out of the water – we’ve had lots of dolphin activity in here the last few days. Best take your time doing it, cuz it is the only photo we have today. Ed just took it to mellow the stenographer out a bit. It is not working very well though.

If it is sardines you’re looking for however, you are in luck. They are on fire right next to the wharf right now – you can jig them up with no effort at all. This morning bait was in fact hard to find, but it certainly has moved in right now. Roy Boy is one the case – he’s been fishing the wharf all day and claims he’ll stay on it til dark, so we’re all rubbing our lucky beads and hoping for something there.

Ed went fishing around the “back 40″ – from Soquel point to Seascape and from 80 to 30 feet of water. He was looking for ghosts. He did not find any. He did see plenty of good fish signs around Adams reef and spent some time doing drifts there with some bait he’d jigged up. He caught and released three short lings and missed about four good bites. He caught and released five nice octopuses as well. He thinks he should have fished there longer instead of looking all over the place – there definitely was some action to be had.

And that dear readers is the best we can do today. Please come down and rent a boat and catch some fish so we can de-lame this fishing report. It is so sad.

Steph just expressed some fear that the stenographer is going to brow-beat Ed and Steph through the next several posts. At the moment this sounds extremely entertaining. We shall see. Regardless however, we are back – sorry for the silence.

It was at this point that Ed started using the new camera, which by default takes photos with a higher resolution, which the web site is not set up to accept, which yadda yadda yadda….. (“It Is Not My Fault!!!!”).

The list of excuses is so dizzyingly long that the stenographer is still trying to get his bearings. Steph is now claiming that I may no longer take any sort of vacation that is longer than 48 hours. I just think we need to up the incentive part or something. Sigh.

Anyway, this photo here is from the first indication that things were going awry – this is the photo of Nico and Kevin all the way from last Monday when they could not figure out how to post pictures. The relevant text from that post is:

“Nico and Kevin smiling wide with 6 Walleye Perch, a Pampano perch and a Jacksmelt. They caught them on the wharf using wharf set-ups next to the cleaning table. (We’ll post the pic when we are able to.)”

NOTE that “when we are able to” was apparently NEVER. Sigh sigh sigh.