01-20-2017, 09:10 PM
By Thursday of last week all of the rainstorms had left my normal hard deck haunts of Hyrum and Mantua with some very slushy ( if not sketchy) conditions. With these ice conditions, and the cisco run not happening yet, my local fishing plans for the weekend weren't shaping up and I decided it was time for a warmer "Plan B." I checked the weather Thursday night and saw it would be cooperative with my plans. I told my wife and kids to pack up and be ready to leave the next morning to visit my wife's grandpa in San Clemente, CA. We helped the kids play hookey from school and made the marathon drive from Cache Valley to SoCal on Friday the 13th (maybe not the best day to take a road trip, but I'm not superstitious!). I made sure to pack the most important items... THE FISHING GEAR!!!
We arrived late Friday evening. After we got all unpacked and said hello to grandpa, I went and got some bait and took my oldest daughter down to the pier. We fished in the rain from about 9:30 -11:00pm. I caught a decent sized yellow-fin croaker (no pic) and my daughter had a few nibbles but mostly it was just ball after ball of red seaweed. Some guys at the end of the pier had better luck than we did and caught a 3.5 ft horned shark.
Saturday morning (1/14) we made it out to the pier about 9:00am. Right off the bat my youngest girl caught a small croaker.
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I told my wife that I was glad the kids were catching fish, but it would be awesome if we could catch something that you definitely can't catch in Utah, like a stingray or a shark. The fishing gods must have heard my wish as a little while later my heavy rod with a 2/0 hook and squid head went bendo. I brought in a fun-sized bat ray, a new species for me. If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, catch something on a pier. After posing for photos for/with complete strangers I tossed my winged friend back into the water.
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After the bat ray excitement died down, my middle daughter was really getting bored and wanted to be done fishing. I convinced her to hang in there a little longer. Good thing, it was only 5 minutes before she had some tugs on her line. She was too short to both reel and see over the pier railing so she asked me to see what she had caught. I told her it was a shark and her eyes got wide in disbelief. (Rightfully so, because as a dad, I like to tease the kids a bit.) She was super excited when I lifted a 14 inch leopard shark over the rail. It had taken the miniscule piece of squid on the size 8 octopus hook. After the kids got a picture with it and got to touch the shark's skin, we sent our spotted visitor back to the water to grow up some more.
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We had to leave the pier after the shark in order to catch our whale watching tour boat from Dana Point. The kids were ecstatic to see three whales (one of them a new calf), sea lions and pods and pods of dolphins.
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I fished again from 10:00pm to midnight. I wasn't able to land anything but I had bait thieves big enough to steal whole squid off of a 2/0 hook. This happened 5-6 times until I was out of bait and called it quits.
My oldest daughter didn't catch anything and was a little bummed out, but she is getting old enough to understand that fishing isn't always catching and that if she keeps it up she'll eventually get the big one.
Sunday was spent playing with cousins the kids don't see much and Monday was the marathon drive home. Lots of driving for such little time fishing, but it was worth it to have some awesome memories with the kids. I know at the very least one third grade girl got to go to school on Tuesday and say she caught a shark over the weekend.
The good news is that now Hyrum and Mantua are all frozen up again and maybe I can punch some holes soon.
[signature]
We arrived late Friday evening. After we got all unpacked and said hello to grandpa, I went and got some bait and took my oldest daughter down to the pier. We fished in the rain from about 9:30 -11:00pm. I caught a decent sized yellow-fin croaker (no pic) and my daughter had a few nibbles but mostly it was just ball after ball of red seaweed. Some guys at the end of the pier had better luck than we did and caught a 3.5 ft horned shark.
Saturday morning (1/14) we made it out to the pier about 9:00am. Right off the bat my youngest girl caught a small croaker.
[inline 20170114_103005.jpg]
I told my wife that I was glad the kids were catching fish, but it would be awesome if we could catch something that you definitely can't catch in Utah, like a stingray or a shark. The fishing gods must have heard my wish as a little while later my heavy rod with a 2/0 hook and squid head went bendo. I brought in a fun-sized bat ray, a new species for me. If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, catch something on a pier. After posing for photos for/with complete strangers I tossed my winged friend back into the water.
[inline IMG_1482.jpg]
After the bat ray excitement died down, my middle daughter was really getting bored and wanted to be done fishing. I convinced her to hang in there a little longer. Good thing, it was only 5 minutes before she had some tugs on her line. She was too short to both reel and see over the pier railing so she asked me to see what she had caught. I told her it was a shark and her eyes got wide in disbelief. (Rightfully so, because as a dad, I like to tease the kids a bit.) She was super excited when I lifted a 14 inch leopard shark over the rail. It had taken the miniscule piece of squid on the size 8 octopus hook. After the kids got a picture with it and got to touch the shark's skin, we sent our spotted visitor back to the water to grow up some more.
[inline 20170114_112610.jpeg]
[inline 20170114_112828a.jpg]
[inline 20170114_112700.jpg]
We had to leave the pier after the shark in order to catch our whale watching tour boat from Dana Point. The kids were ecstatic to see three whales (one of them a new calf), sea lions and pods and pods of dolphins.
[inline 20170114_153949_128060.jpg]
[inline 20170114_170208.jpg]
I fished again from 10:00pm to midnight. I wasn't able to land anything but I had bait thieves big enough to steal whole squid off of a 2/0 hook. This happened 5-6 times until I was out of bait and called it quits.
My oldest daughter didn't catch anything and was a little bummed out, but she is getting old enough to understand that fishing isn't always catching and that if she keeps it up she'll eventually get the big one.
Sunday was spent playing with cousins the kids don't see much and Monday was the marathon drive home. Lots of driving for such little time fishing, but it was worth it to have some awesome memories with the kids. I know at the very least one third grade girl got to go to school on Tuesday and say she caught a shark over the weekend.
The good news is that now Hyrum and Mantua are all frozen up again and maybe I can punch some holes soon.
[signature]
