#27 Named It Twice

Tuesday 7/28/26

With water temps offshore around 76 degrees the time to get out there is now! Since we take our kids fishing with us we have to pick our weather windows and we try to go when there is low wind and not too much swell. Today was a beautiful day. The bait barge was out of bait, so we had to make our own. We got a nice tank full of mackerel and pointed it south west. We looked hard for kelp patties but struggled to find one for a while. We saw some Risso’s dolphins around the North 9 but no kelps. Once we started to see more bird activity we kicked the trollers out. We had a random spot of small fish (presumably bonito) boil off our bow, but no biters on the trolling gear. A short amount of time later we spotted two terns dipping and found our first kelp patty of the day. It had nice size to it. We set up on it and got two live baits in the water. With our baits feeling nervous we got bit in no time. Doubles! It was pretty rad having two nice dorado hanging at the same time, jumping out of the water doing what they do. A few minutes into the fight we had one break off, and it looked like the teeth cut the leader. Luckily we still had one fish hanging. We got it to the boat, gaffed it, and it was an angry one! It violently beat the deck, so we quickly threw it in the fish hatch on ice. We tried to get the fish to bite again on live bait with no more luck. I casted a surface iron just beyond the patty, and on the retrieve I got bit. The fish ran for a few seconds, did a head shake in the kelp and it must not have been hooked very good because it popped off. That was that for that kelp, and we had to look for more. Throughout the day we searched far and wide and found a few more kelps with bait on them but no other signs of fish besides one random Dorado breezer that didn’t go for the trolling gear. It was a great day on the water, and we were glad to have one nice Mahi Mahi to bring home.

Earlier in the day while fighting this Dorado, I lost a gold Oura ring. I went to turn the handle and it flew off my finger! I guess it was a sacrifice to the sea. If a fish ate it on the way down and someday you find it in their belly let us know! At least I got a nice Dorado and a great memory being doubled up on the fish so nice they named it twice.