Midnight Monsters

During the early part of October, we had some killer weather. Super hot days, triple digits, with evenings that stayed in the 70s. Great weather-for evening bass fishing! I started fishing my Rage Toad Strike King frogs, Texas Rigged and weightless. Ripping them across mats drew loads of strikes-including one monster that snapped me after exploding through the grass. I hooked far more than I landed, unfortunately.

Check out that belly, hahaha!
On one of these nights, the moon was totally full, and the fish treated the open water like a clear-sky, sunny day. Fish wouldn't come out from under the trees or mats, perhaps spooked by how illuminated the water from from the moon. I haven't seen that before, certainly wouldn't have predicted it either.

Also managed to get one fish on a new lure-a chatterbait! I am still learning how to fish these jig/spinner hybrids, but they sure have a great vibration. Landing fish right away on a new lure really helps build confidence in it.

The usual (saltwater) suspects...

As much as a I love bass fishing, I can't resist hitting the salt. The sheer variety of fish to be caught brings me back every time. I've been fishing the ocean the last few weeks, and caught these while fishing a jetty in Orange County. Here's a little perch, caught while throwing jigs tipped with cut shrimp.

Spottie! I love how these fish absolutely nail your lure, fight like a saltwater smallmouth bass, never give up. I need to learn more about targeting these guys, I usually only end up with loads of dinks.

The sculpin here are awesome. This guy totally caught me by surprise, quite the mouth on him. Check out those colors! The water near the jetty's have lots of salad right now, making the fishing pretty tricky, but it's worth it.

I love Newport Beach. It can be super crowded at times, but just getting down to the ocean from the stinky Inland Empire is so absolutely worth it.
I've been getting into some epic freshwater largemouth bass action lately, lots of pics to come soon!

Blastin' the Fly

When I'm not fishing, I'm probably perusing the myriad of fishing videos on the 'net. Feast your eyes on this awesome YouTube find:

Someday, I'll leave my spinning gear at home and try to learn fly fishing, properly (Top secret: I do have a fly rod, just haven't bothered to use it much). While I love fishing conventional gear, there is something magical about fly fishing. Forget skinny trout, I'll be chasing the fat greenies, throwing topwaters frogs and mice.
P.S.Fishing tomorrow and Sunday. Hooray!