Day 3 Saturday August 2nd~

Derby day~ so was planning on taking schu7498 and husband Danny out for the derby but work got in the way for her so just decided to do the derby solo. Got up at 3:30 to hot pot of coffee, filled the thermos and was at the launch at 4:40am. Only a few boats ahead of me so put in the Tin cup and as I was coming back down the hill there was a line up of about 15 boats so just missed the 2nd rush of the morning- motored out of the launch and saw there must have been a 1st rush because there were already over 100 boats workiing the Owen's beach area and clay banks. So decided to run over to start my troll by the girl scout camp where I know the bite has been pretty good.

As I passed Dalco point saw lots of bait on the surface and was tempted to just start there and only about 2 boats working the area. But chose to join the other 50 boats already over by the camp, so got my gear down starting with a hand tied white hootchie with tinsel skirt underneath and strip of herring. Depth was about 120 feet so started at 45 since not a lot of light on the water yet. Passed quite a few guys that had not seen a fish caught and when working my way south saw Fish Dawg and fish princess fishing. Told me he just saw one caught on the point so kicked myself as that is where I should have started! Follow your gut right? Anyway, about 7am a strange cloud appeared over head and soon heard some rumbling thunder. Not too long after felt the first little rain drop but soon turned into a full on down pour~ got everything I could under the top and hunkered down to wait it out. What was weird was the sun was shining pretty bright during it all. (check out photos) Could be the reason the bite was off this morning too but soon it cleared away and things got nice again.

Not a whole lot of action for anyone so after tide change around 10am I ran over to the Redondo area to see what I could muster there~ only a couple boats over there and could see why as it was dead and not even much bait. Gave it until about noon and then headed back to Owen's beach to finish the day and hopefully get 1 fish before the 1pm weigh in. Got back and worked it hard and soon there was a mad dash to the launch and since I had nothing to weigh in just took my time and fished some more. By 2:30 looked pretty clear so got back and was out of the water in less then 15 minutes so pulled up to the upper launch area and found a hose by the bathrooms so was able to clean all the salt off the boat and flush motors before the awards.

Went back down to the boathouse for the festivities and the winning fish was a 20.84 fish caught I believe up at Jeff head for top prize of $3500! There were lots of cool prizes for everyone and kids that caught fish but this time was not going to miss out on the raffle. A lot of guys who caught fish got this cool tackle bag with tons of gear in it too. Sooo, when it came to raffle time my name got called and turns out they had some of those left over so handed me one! The guy next to me said " hey, that was what I got for catching a fish!" Pretty cool so all in all another great derby put on the PSA folks and look forwar to the next one I can get in.

Hopefully can get out this week for the early morning tides and get the nookie skunk off the boat!! haha See you on the water!

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