So we (me and buddies Marty Gramkow aka Hot Line, and Dan Garo) left my house in Ventura at 2:45am Saturday, arrived in Avila @ 5:00 to be 5th in line, after breakfast , launch and bait we left the harbor @ 6:45 (hoist didn’t open till 6:00) Anyways we decided go look at the outer edge of the San Lucia bank then work our way towards the Doughnut, under flat calm conditions we get to our numbers and the water temp was 59.5-60 but it seems that you had to have 62 or better to get the fishies, so we kept heading towards the doughnut at about 7-8 miles short the temp shot up to 62.5 and we put the gear in and @ about 6 miles short got our first single jigstrike which would set the pace for the day, so we kept trolling towards the doughnut picking away at singles on the jigs but no bait fish to speak of except one bluefin that ate a dead chovie slid back on the slide by Marty. Virtually no signs of life out there! No bait, no birds, and only a few jumpers, but it was epic glassy calm weather out there! We ended up with 8 apple cores small mid to high teens fish, all troll fish, and one 19lb bluefin on the dead chovie! First bluefin for my boat, and Marty’s first, no he didn’t eat the heart! But he did have some bluefin sashimi while we were cutting fish on the inside! Hot jig was a bright pink/orange/yellow/green sevenstrand, it got 6 of our 8 jig fish. The guys that bombed it straight out there and fished on the outside of the doughnut seemed to do a bit better and got a much better grade of fish! Also it sounded like the fish went off after we left! DOH! But the hoist closes a 5:00pm O well great time anyways!….Larry

P.S. the new F350 diesel pulled those hills like they were nothing!