PB Spots

[DarkShadow]

So I'm minding my own business on Saturday, quietly extracting three-pound spotted bay bass from somewhere between the S.S. Financial Mistake and the M/V Divorce Settlement, when I make the fatal error.

I make eye contact.

I wave.

Huge mistake.

Next thing I know, some dude in one of those $10,000 motorized kayaks changes course like he'd just spotted a wounded gazelle on the Serengeti. I'm thinking maybe he's going to ask if the bite's been good.

Nope.

I've accidentally wandered into a floating TED Talk.

For the next several minutes I receive a complete unsolicited seminar covering:

the local fish report...
where I should actually be fishing...
what I should be throwing...
his 'sponsors'...
his Instagram...
his YouTube...
his "don't forget to smash that Subscribe button" speech...
and finally...

...a complimentary bag of garlic-scented hand pours that now have my float tube smelling like an Olive Garden dumpster behind a Bass Pro Shops.

Now don't get me wrong.

If pouring plastic in your garage is your weekend hobby, respect. Have fun inhaling burnt PVC fumes, melting through old microwaves, and permanently seasoning your clothes with non-biodegradable glitter. But if you’re out here treating the local harbor like an infomercial and trying to monetize your garage project, you better be ready for the most basic question in bait design:

What does your bait do that I can't already buy?

The answer always is:

"Well...it's got custom colors!"

Cool.

So instead of Silver Smoke, you've invented Smoke Silver.

Instead of Morning Dawn, you have Sunrise Dawn.

Game changer.

Then I look closer.

Same $hit Netcraft molds we've all drooled over since we were 12 years old still ordering from mail catalogs.

Same ugly craw with the bent appendages.

Same crooked swimbait.

Different logo.

Different Instagram handle.

Same bait.

Anyway...

While my float tube slowly absorbed Eau de Garlic Swimbaits and I contemplated whether I now owed this guy a Like, Follow, Subscribe, Notification Bell, Patreon membership and whatever else these dudes do

...I happened to catch my personal best spotted bay bass.

Turns out I was too busy actually fishing.

The full story is on SoCalAngler

https://www.socalangler.com/personal-best-spots/

[Gotfish?]

3 lb spotty is very nice. Get these so your thumb doesn't get chewed up: https://www.basspro.com/p/bass-pro-shop ... per-pliers . I hear that really bad things happen if you thumb a halibut.

Nice that you figured it out and it worked. Usually, when I get confident, the fish put me in my place. I remember on July 4 years ago when I got 85 spotties off Tidelands. 2 days later, I barely got 10.

Spotties love bargain bin baits, all colors, custom or not. They will still bite grubs, swimbaits and craws after the tails or claws have been bitten off. I usually put a fresh one on when that happens but if the bite is good, I just throw it out again. Sort of like turning the lure into a Ned bait.

[Dannicus]

Haha awesome report.

[DarkShadow]

3 lb spotty is very nice. Get these so your thumb doesn't get chewed up: https://www.basspro.com/p/bass-pro-shop ... per-pliers . I hear that really bad things happen if you thumb a halibut.

Nice that you figured it out and it worked. Usually, when I get confident, the fish put me in my place. I remember on July 4 years ago when I got 85 spotties off Tidelands. 2 days later, I barely got 10.

Spotties love bargain bin baits, all colors, custom or not. They will still bite grubs, swimbaits and craws after the tails or claws have been bitten off. I usually put a fresh one on when that happens but if the bite is good, I just throw it out again. Sort of like turning the lure into a Ned bait.

Appreciate the tip with the fish gripper! But honestly, I’m trying to keep the tube as lean and mean as possible. I see guys out on the water looking like full-blown battleships—12 rods, 3 POV cameras, sonar units, and even powered troll motors mounted on a float tube. I’d rather keep it minimal. I stick to a strip of FlexTape on the thumb—for whatever reason, good old FlexTape outperforms all that overengineered 3M stuff, I have just found out. Plus, that shredded bass thumb is a badge of honor. If I ever drop coin on a lip gripper, it’ll be one of those fancy CNC cut aluminum things, but for now, standard pliers on my life vest and a piece of tape is all I need. I’ll cross the teeth-and-halibut bridge when I get there!

As for getting 'humbled'... I hear you, but half the time I think they didn't stop biting, they just moved 5 feet to the left under a different dock tier because the tide pushed! Case in point: I just took a run down to Huntington Harbour yesterday on what was supposed to be strictly a scouting mission—just checking launch access, channel geometry, dock setups, and now, natural cover. Put the pattern to work in brand new water and absolutely whacked 'em. I've realized some of these patterns are year around. And at Huntington, I've got a pattern now that runs when the water is moving, and is a horizontal pattern, instead of a vertical one. It was awesome seeing a totally new concept be placed in front of me.

And you hit the nail on the head with the bargain bin and chewed-up plastics. Spotties are opportunistic scavengers—the harbor is basically an InSinkErator. Which makes it all the more hilarious that guys are out here dropping $14 for a 3-pack of glorified trout jigs or worshiping at the altar of 'Warhead-Ultra-Custom-Tackle' like it’s alien technology. Meanwhile, a 25-cent tube or a mutilated worm with no tail bounced past a piling gets crushed all the same.

Marketing departments are eating good off these harbor bros it seems.

[Gotfish?]

I have also noticed that the pilings with current are much more likely to hold fish than the pilings at the end of the row where there is much less current. Most of the docks in San Diego Bay are sheltered somewhat from the current so docks usually don't produce numbers as well as flats here although I prefer to throw to structure instead of flats. Dock fish are better quality though.

If your thumb does get chewed up, super glue is much better than New-Skin Liquid Bandage to cover it up. Stings less and lasts just as long or more. Just make sure it is set before touching anything; to be safe you can dip it in water as that makes it cure instantly. Works great on cuts too.

Trivia: a spray on version of super glue was used in the Vietnam War: https://www.google.com/search?q=super+g ... b&ie=UTF-8

There is no risk to using it on superficial cuts and abrasions. You wouldn't want to use it to close up open heart surgery though.

[DarkShadow]

I have also noticed that the pilings with current are much more likely to hold fish than the pilings at the end of the row where there is much less current. Most of the docks in San Diego Bay are sheltered somewhat from the current so docks usually don't produce numbers as well as flats here although I prefer to throw to structure instead of flats. Dock fish are better quality though.

If your thumb does get chewed up, super glue is much better than New-Skin Liquid Bandage to cover it up. Stings less and lasts just as long or more. Just make sure it is set before touching anything; to be safe you can dip it in water as that makes it cure instantly. Works great on cuts too.

Trivia: a spray on version of super glue was used in the Vietnam War: https://www.google.com/search?q=super+g ... b&ie=UTF-8

There is no risk to using it on superficial cuts and abrasions. You wouldn't want to use it to close up open heart surgery though.

I tried the Super Glue version once before but forgot the part about letting it dry, and glued my thumb to my car handle.

I've always wanted a fancy lip gripper like a Kahara or something, but I know where it will eventually end up. (At the bottom of the sea)

[Carpkiller]

Nice videos.
I really liked the one where you tossed it over the dock line...and fished it anyway.
Because...I've *never* done that.

As for making homemade plastics...

It only takes a few weeks for the plastisol smell to go away.

And as the great fisherman Alphonso Bedoya once said, "We don' neeeed no steeking colors."

But it helps to use the latest rigs...like this cheburashka/neckbreaker jighead with 3D eyes....

or a ball head jig...

I scammed a ton of money out of Gotfish for some these baits....and as far as I know, he's never caught diddly with 'em!!

[Bendo]

Bass Thumb is a badge of honor!

[Gotfish?]

Bass Thumb is a badge of honor!

I'm waiting to see halibut thumb.

[Bendo]

I Thumbed my first Triggerfish in Mulege Mexico, to the sound of my Dad going
“Noooo!” It bit thru the tip of my Thumb so cleanly it looked like a Hatchet cut. It didn’t even bleed for a good 10 secounds, then it wouldn’t stop. I had a giant bandage the size of a golf ball on my cranking hand the rest of the Yellowtail filled trip. Luckily it all grew back for future damage. I’m sure “Halibut Thumb” would be similar.