Last Night

Last night two friends and I went lobster fishing, normally I know that's not huge news, but two days ago a large storm had come though southern CA and the weatherman was saying that there would be no wind and no rain and he said the waves would be 3-5 feet.

We got these a little late, my friend Greg and I towed my boat and Caesar met us at the boat ramp, just because he lives in that part of town. As we were leaving the dock two boats where heading back in. The skipper of one of the boats told us the water was very rough and that they had taken two large waves over the bow, they felt lucky to get back in safe. They suggested we put my boat back on the trailer and try it another day. We thought we'd poke our head out side and just see how bad it really was. it was around 7:30 by the time we cleared the breakwater and the guys were right, it was rough, wet and keeping cold fast. We drove about a half mile out and then I turned the boat around, but when I turned the boat back I was able to get a good look at the seas thanks to the millions of lights along the Los Angeles area. I felt it was safe to at least give it a try, so I turned the boat around and headed back toward the fishing grounds. We did hit a few large waves, but I just cut back my speed and all was well. I was surprised to see we where the only boat on the reef. We worked hard, battling both high seas and wind. After three hours of lobster fishing we only had two legal size lobsters and nine crabs for the three of us. Now the seas had gone from 4-5 feet to 5-7, with a few ten footers mixed in and it also started to rain. Now it was time to call it a night.

Fishing in the dark is always a challenge, but adding big seas, wind, and rain made things even worst. The hard part was that I just couldn't see the waves as they came in and I didn't want to have the boat sideways just incase a large wave came in. I stayed on the wheel most of the night, keeping us pointed into the waves as much as I could. ending the night with so few bugs was a disappointment, but the most important part of going fishing is to return back safely and we did that. I guess the safe thing would of been to just put the boat back on the trailer and drove home, but as they say the boat wasn't built to sit on the trailer and I love to go fishing, even in the rain with strong winds and high seas, it's just what people like us like to do.