06-01-2009, 05:13 PM
Went out prefishing for a small tube tournament scheduled for this Saturday. It’s going the first tube event I’ve heard of locally, and it’s being held at the San Diego River. I know that not many of you are familiar with my area, but there are no “real” rivers in San Diego. The SD River is made up of scattered ponds, connected by creek-like flows most of the year. The only time the river actually flows is when it rains in the winter.
The particular stretch that I fish (and where the tourney is being held) runs right through the busiest shopping area in San Diego County. It’s like something out of the fishing show “City Limits”, if you’ve ever caught it. It’s where joggers mix with the homeless, and jokes about dead bodies come up a lot in fishing talk. It’s a little disgusting, until you launch. Once you’re in the water though, the dense shoreline growth shields you from your surroundings, and it’s surprisingly peaceful.
So onto the fish… I had something going, a particular bait that had been showing a lot of promise for this body of water. Today it was getting me slow but steady bites (and fish). I was still mixing in other techniques, trying to come up with alternate ways to catch fish, especially when the lone ‘tooner I was sharing the water with, crossed paths with me. I didn’t want to give away my tactics, in case he turned out to be prefishing as well.
Once he was out of sight, I went back to that bait that had been working for me. I flipped it into some tules, and the instant it hit the water there was a boil and a flash. I set the hook with my reel still in freespool, using my thumb to hold the spool. I thought it was pretty entertaining, but from the flash I figured it was about the same size as the fish I had been getting. I got the reel in gear and the fish started pulling some drag, getting itself deeper into cover. It felt like maybe a little better fish, so I kicked away from shore and dragged it out into open water.
Once I got it in open water, it still refused to surface and I even had to tighten my drag. The fight kept going for awhile and I realized it was a good one. After a long while, she shook her head and it definitely was a nice fish. I was happy that she chose to fight underwater for the most part, and after a few minutes I knew she was tiring. I finally grabbed a hold of her thick lower lip and hoisted her up with a yell.
She had a disappointingly skinny midsection, looking like she was spawned out. Still, with the big head and length she stretched the digi scale to 6-3. Not a monster, but my best in quite awhile and my biggest from the tube. Just as I had rehearsed with the little ones, I hooked up the camera boom and got the shot. Worked like charm.
Ended the day with 7 fish and one missed bite for a best five of 12+ pounds in about 3 hours of fishing. And no dead bodies.
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The particular stretch that I fish (and where the tourney is being held) runs right through the busiest shopping area in San Diego County. It’s like something out of the fishing show “City Limits”, if you’ve ever caught it. It’s where joggers mix with the homeless, and jokes about dead bodies come up a lot in fishing talk. It’s a little disgusting, until you launch. Once you’re in the water though, the dense shoreline growth shields you from your surroundings, and it’s surprisingly peaceful.
So onto the fish… I had something going, a particular bait that had been showing a lot of promise for this body of water. Today it was getting me slow but steady bites (and fish). I was still mixing in other techniques, trying to come up with alternate ways to catch fish, especially when the lone ‘tooner I was sharing the water with, crossed paths with me. I didn’t want to give away my tactics, in case he turned out to be prefishing as well.
Once he was out of sight, I went back to that bait that had been working for me. I flipped it into some tules, and the instant it hit the water there was a boil and a flash. I set the hook with my reel still in freespool, using my thumb to hold the spool. I thought it was pretty entertaining, but from the flash I figured it was about the same size as the fish I had been getting. I got the reel in gear and the fish started pulling some drag, getting itself deeper into cover. It felt like maybe a little better fish, so I kicked away from shore and dragged it out into open water.
Once I got it in open water, it still refused to surface and I even had to tighten my drag. The fight kept going for awhile and I realized it was a good one. After a long while, she shook her head and it definitely was a nice fish. I was happy that she chose to fight underwater for the most part, and after a few minutes I knew she was tiring. I finally grabbed a hold of her thick lower lip and hoisted her up with a yell.
She had a disappointingly skinny midsection, looking like she was spawned out. Still, with the big head and length she stretched the digi scale to 6-3. Not a monster, but my best in quite awhile and my biggest from the tube. Just as I had rehearsed with the little ones, I hooked up the camera boom and got the shot. Worked like charm.
Ended the day with 7 fish and one missed bite for a best five of 12+ pounds in about 3 hours of fishing. And no dead bodies.
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