Highway away from your comfort zone.

We have all heard the saying if it's not broke don't fix it or don't mess with a good thing. Any attempt to improve on a system that already works is pointless and may even hurt it. Sounds like loser talk to me. This is America, where you can compete to be the best at everything from video games, beer pong, grilled cheese sandwiches, surfing and yes of course fishing. There is a reason why The United States has metaled 2,296 times in the summer Olympics and Argentina has done it only 66 times. We strive for perfection. If we're not happy with our results, we are willing to take the highway to the danger zone by stepping out of our comfort zone. 

From top to bottom: 4" roboworm morning dawn, 5" senko and a topwater revo. My weapons of bass destruction. 

I was inspired to write this post after fishing a tournament at Castaic Lake in July. The bite was great, I must have caught 15 bass in the 1-1.5 pound class on the drop shot rig. What I was doing was working, but with time running out and 7 or 8 pounds in the live well, I knew it wasn't enough for a victory. Deciding to switch it up to entice a bigger bite I risked the sure thing for the unknown on the highway to the danger zone! It paid off when a 2.15 pound fish masticated my wacky rigged senko on a flick shake weighted hook. This improved our total weight, enabling us to cull one of our smaller fish but it was too late.  

My old friend, kong island.

We finished with a total weight of 7.74 pounds good enough for 6th place. I believe if we would have hair-pinned out of the comfort zone and into the danger zone a little sooner, we could have finished 4th.

Happy in my comfort zone. 

It's hard to try something new when what you are doing is already working. Change takes effort and risk. Most people aren't willing to gamble a comfortable existence for an opportunity at supremacy, but you'll find the ones that do are often reaped the biggest rewards.  America would not be the country it is today if it wasn't for people taking risks and I would not have enjoyed the movie Top Gun if it was all Goose and no Maverick. So put on your leather jacket and go grab your aviators, you know you want to be Maverick, Goose was the safe one and we all know what happened to him.   

In memory of Goose, we love you.

Skyman out

The Goose is loose. 

It's Party Rock on a Boat!

Is that your rod or mine?

Crowds and fishing go together like reading Shakespeare at a LMFAO concert. Maybe if you wear industrial strength ear plugs you can get through a page or two but you are not going to finish Hamlet. Save yourself the trouble and go down to the library. Lines get tangled, tempers get flared and the occasional stomach gets really upset all in the name of catching a few fish for dinner. 

The crew! 

Our trip out of Marina Del Rey on the New Del Mar started at 7:30 am. We picked up bait at the bait dock and cruised out to our first location. The deckhands dropped anchor while we dropped our set ups in the prospect of catching rockfish.  Our rig was simple, a 3 ounce weight held down a lively anchovy that was hooked through the nose like a Fall Out Boy groupie. The hard part was catching the fish and not the other anglers or pelicans that waited right beside our boat opportunistically.  

Bait gone bad.

We caught Sculpin, Cabezon and Red Snapper as we battled for position on the boat like Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley did on the hardwood for a rebound. Boxing out anglers and snatching up loose fish as we reeled them in from their ocean haunts. While all this activity was happening on the boat the swells really started to pick up and made me queazy. I have always fantasized about kicking the crab out of the Bering Sea with the Deadliest Catch crew, but after this little outing on the calm waters of the Santa Monica Bay I realized vomit would be coming out of my ears battling the stormy seas of Alaska.

We caught dinner! 

Our party boat arrived back at port around noon and we all had enough fish to take home for dinner, which was great. But for me, fishing is an activity enjoyed best with the company of few, while partying is a fun activity to enjoy with the masses. So next time, I'll take my beer and jean shorts to the LMFAO concert, my Shakespeare book to the library and get my fish tacos at Wahoo's.

To fish, or party. That is the question.

Getting the thumbs up from the deckhand. 

Skyman out.