Newport Harbor

A lot has happened to the Salty Dogs this year, it hard to believe it's only been a year it seems so incredibly long ago, that I was so hot to trot with fishing, but needless to say were back and salty as ever!!
So The Capt'n(Greg), Sam, and I headed down to Newport Harbor and met up with Darin and his roommate Tony.
We then unloaded and trolled out to the harbor and fished in the inlet. After getting tons of nibbles, and Darin's small little guy we headed out into the ocean and just at the right time. Suddenly we were surrounded by dolphins herding fish and they were all around us, we all just kind of sat there in dis-belief...it was surreal, and so much greater than any theme park could provide. We decide to let them fish and we headed to the other side of the inlet. We were about a mile and half or more off shore, in 200 feet or water when we decided to just drop our lines to see if you could get anything. We were definitely not prepared for any sort of sea fishing. Here was a boat full of guys with spinning roads deep sea fishing...classic!! Then suddenly a grey hump surfaced, and then a spray of water and air, as a whale passed us. It was a good way's from us, but you could make out that it was much larger than our little boat. It was about this time that we all reeled in and headed back. There just something about being out of your element with creates that dwarf you like insects...
We headed back but not before Greg landed another dumb seagull going for his bait, and checking out the seals on the floating bell...

All in all, it had to be one of the best dog trips to date, we didn't catch much, Darin caught a mystery fish, and Greg landed a little Hali, but it had to be the day, had to be the weather, the wildlife, or maybe it was just so good to be back together fishing. Either way it was one for the books and it put the taste of salt water back in my mouth, and for a salty dog that's all it takes!!





(Is texting while trolling against the law as well?)














Unfortunately I was busy fishing and didn't have my camera out for the whale, but here's Greg's little Hali...

I can easily say that I'm truly grateful and blessed to call these guys Family!!

So I went down to hang out with the awesome in-laws that God has blessed me with and I was able to go fishing with the boys. Greg had "the Salty Dogs" shirts made, so we all had our shirts on and off we went to surf fish the Ventura/Santa Barbara area. Unfortunately there seemed to be a storm blowing in so we didn't get a nibble, and it was really cold and the sea was full of mudd and foam, so we headed home to barbque dinner. All in all it was another great trip!!

We weren't completely skunked at Goleta this trip, but it was a close call!! Without a single nibble in the surf we hit the pier. Sammy was able to land a couple little guys, and Greg was able to land a seagull that got snagged in his line after trying to rob his bait!! (They were all C&R). Enjoy the photos!!

"Sharks...they only bite when you touch their private parts."
So the weather men told us that it was gonna rain, fellow fisherman told us it couldn't be done, but we being "The Salty Dogs" said screw it, we're Salty Dogs for a reason. So we went out surf fishing know full well that "the storm of the year" was scheduled to hit the beach around the same time.



It was cloudy and gloomy, and we had no luck surf fishing!! Refusing to be skunked at our most favorite location, (Goleta, Isla Vista) we headed over to the pier to give it a shot as the water off the shore was really muddy. The water past the breakers was much more clear. Within 10 mins of Darin setting up one of his rods it got hit, and we has able to hook up with this bad boy!!


Unfortunately the line pulled out and we weren't able to land it, but it gave us hope. Then Sammy was able to land this little guy.


After this catch it began to rain and we started pulling up our lines. We were finding that our bait was gone but with little to no notification of nibbles??





So I decided to throw out one last try of mackerel only this time I would nurse the rod to see if I could feel nibbles. It was really hard to feel the difference in nibbles and rises in swells...We decided to call it a day and I began to reel and after a day of being stuck on things I figured I was just stuck again so I began pulling on it and it was coming just slowly and "Dirty Dog"(Darin) said I think you got a fish man, and I agreed thinking it was just a mackerel or something because it really wasn't putting up anything of a fight. All of a sudden this guy popped up to the surface, and we started freaking out..."We got another Shark!!"















We were finally able to land this beautiful Gray Smoothhound shark. We didn't have any way to measure him but in the picture that I'm holding it you can see it goes from above my head to my mid-thigh, and I'm 6' so I'd rough guess 3-3.5'. Although some of these pictures look like we're hurting him, he was returned promptly to the sea and quickly swam away!! Go get bigger and tell your friends!!
This is the third Salty Dog trip to Goleta Pier with 100% complete success!! This just proves...don't listen to your weatherman!! We are addicted to catching more sharks!! Enjoy!!