Dropped my boat in at Newport. I wanted to sea trail it after picking it up from the shop and make sure it was good to go for Saturdays SWBA Round 2 in Dana Point.
Bad news is my boat took a dump 4 miles from Newport. Good news was that we stopped right next to a little structure spot I had marked. Pete starts fishing while I mess with the boat. On like his second drop Pete says he's bit. I look over and he's bent big time. This thing wanted back to it's home bad. I'm thinking it's a big ling. He's got it on braid and puts the wood to it. Turns out to be a 7.5 Sand Bass.
I drop the trolling motor and we make a couple more drifts over the spot for nothing. I meter around a bit and find some good looking stuff. Over the next hour or so, we had 21 total fish, 20 sand bass and 1 calico. The quality was excellent with our biggest 5 going, 7.5, 6.25, 5.5, 5.5 and 5, for about a 30 pound bag. Most of the other fish were solid 2.5 to 4 pounders with only like 2 small fish, including the Calico. We had multiple doubles and a triple.
We got towed home. Next mornings tournament was a disaster due to the boat issue. Trolling motored around the harbor breakwall in horrible looking water till the batts died and got towed home for a second time in less then 12 hours. Managed 3 small sandies and a dink calico for the DNW. Doh!