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Not full, but some pretty nice hauls in each pot. We averaged about 3-5 keepers in each pot of the 4 we had. Dropped em back in and went to work the rings for another hour and a half before checking em again. About 11 we decided to pull all the rings and check the pots and head in. One new thing I learned today is especially in a small boat like mine, GPS is a wonderful thing. Because my FF was down I couldn't mark any way points of where my pots were and we spent a lot of time searching for pots.
By our second pot though Ethan and I had our limits. We were swapping for some better commercial grade crab, double checking each crab, double counting every one. We saw DFW at the ramp when we launched so we were taking no chances. Lets triple check just to be safe. After we pulled our third pot we were super freaking excited to have the problem of too many keepers on board. Finished swapping crab out and organizing everything around. We put all of our keepers in a pot and I stacked it next to me on the side of the boat where I was sitting. At this point we have all 5 of our rings on board, 3 of our pots that probably now weigh about 15lbs each or more, one of which has two limits of crab in it, plus Ethan and myself who are not the lightest guys in the world. Yea my boat is pretty weighed down at the moment and yes we are very cramped on space in my little 12fter. I make a sharp turn to go and get our last pot, then it happened.
My boat leaned to the side too far because I put the pot with all of the crab in it on the side and we were taking on water over the side of the boat. The worst part is I didn't even notice because I had so much gear in my line of view of it. Ethan started yelling at me and when I felt the water rushing in past my feet . . . . yea its safe to say I was maybe a little more then lightweight terrified. Ethan says "Start bailing!!!" I am reaching for the cup I use to bail the water out of my since my boat leaks a little already, and in the process I'm rocking the hell out of this boat sloshing the 10+ INCHES!!! of water that's in my boat side to side threatening to tips us over. Not one word came out of my mouth when all of this went down, but Ethan saw my face and he knew I was about to have a panic attack, so he finally yelled at me "MARK STOP MOVING AND SIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOAT!!!" I sat down got a hold of myself looked up at the open ocean and of course saw not one single other boat around us, and I have never felt so small in my entire life. Ethan grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and started bailing us out. Seeing that and just taking a deep breath allowed me to regain my composure and I got my bottle and we bailed for the next 30 mins to get stable again.
I have to take this moment to give a huge thanks to my deck hand and one of my best friends Ethan for keeping his cool and helping me when I lost mine. If it would have been anyone else out there with me. It might have turned out very differently.
We grabbed our last pot. Did another count on all of our crab just to make sure and we got the hell out of there. Boat back on the trailer by 1300. With that we pulled limits!!! Still super happy about that. A huge lesson was learned and I would have to say I hope to never drop the First Impression in the salt again. I will if I don't have any other option, but Ethan and I got plans for something bigger and better.
Grabbed the girls and went into town for lunch. Last time we came out we found this little mama pop shop that is awesome.
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Did I mention it was small?
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These guys have delicious food and great prices. Highly reccomend it!
For me though, my Bodega trips never end there. I always have to make it out at low tide to fish for rock fish and poke pole. Back to Doran we go. Came out to the rocks and Ethan and I started tossing texas rigged tubes with a good amount of success.
First blood
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The only non gopher we caught all day
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Besides this short little cabby
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Giving some love
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The poke pole queen showing off her skills
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I still can't get over how trippy looking these guys are
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After Ethan and I had about a limit of rockies in the box we took off in search of some clams. Took us forever, but we finally found one. Brought the clam tube today to make life easier on us.
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The clam came out in a jiffy, but the tube . . . . that's another story. First time using this tube, and when Ethan and I tried to pull that thing out and it would not budge. We were working in a sand/clay/muddy area and I'm sure that didn't help. We spent nearly 45 mins trying to dig it out and even managed to get water in and around it to try and get it out of the ground. We tried until the handle broke off and we had to leave it. There was no way we were getting that thing out of there that night. Hopefully someone will find it and it will make their day, if they are willing to spend 2-3 hours digging it out.
With a little bit of light left, we tried for more rockfish while we could.
Fishing during sunset, a beautiful sight.
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Our average size was getting smaller by the minute though
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We were still killing em though
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Ethan managed to drop one in the rocks
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Finished the night off there. Probably landed 20+ rockfish between Ethan and I keeping 8 the were of size. Deni and Jazzy also brought in several eels out of the rocks. Headed home around 1730.
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Bye Bodega I'll be back soon.
Made it home and was up until 0100 cooking and cleaning crab, fish, and taking care of the boat. All worth it though.
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Happy man.
Ethan and I are getting my 17.5ft spectrum together and hopefully it will be running by next week so we'll have this to take out instead of my 12fter.
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We got a new lower unit on its way that will hopefully put this thing back on the water.
This one has seen better days
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The paint job for the name isn't done yet, but I did name it Da Shark Jon.
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Big Thanks to Deni for her Great art work.
Hopefully my next Bodega report will be from me taking this thing out.
Till Next Time Guys!
Mark
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