Phantom Fish in San Diego Bay

[Team Ball's Out]

Feb -8 -07
Left Shelter Island launch ramp around 4pm with my son Nicholas, brother Richard, nephew Jason 32, his buddy Brandon 22 both army Apache Helicopter pilots who drove out for the long weekend from Arizona and Tony Jason’s future father in-law. Off we went looking for the underwater Cock Roaches.
We headed to the bait barge and loaded up with some deen’s. We set out 10 hoop nets in all. We started around the green buoy and let them soak for a good while. In the mean time we fished for halibut. We had a dollar pool going for the first legal fish on board. Well we did not have to wait to long and Tony was the first one bit. It pulled like a nice Bass put he pulled up a Mantis Shrimp! :104167739 Outstanding colors Green with aqua an blue tail. We have dealt with these on Guam before and they can give one heck of a thump with their front legs. They are so strong they can crack open shells. We tossed him back.

Off we went to make out first pull. Well the tide was coming in and the current was ripping. Most of our buoy’s were almost under water :104167739 not a good thing. 50' of line in 38' of water not a good combination for hooping. To make a long story short we lost 8 :104167739 :104167739 of the old style nets float and all. We did recover #6 and #3 all white with Red and White DOT tape on the. We are missing 1,2,4,5,7,8,9,10 in San Diego Bay. I would have to guess they are gone or some one picked them up and has a nice set up. That’s fishing.:104167739 :104167739
We did have one hi-lite of the night, Brandon hooked into something HUGE. This poor kid was being worked hard. He kept pulling and tugging he was on the rail for about 15 mins. He was gaining line and losing line. Well being a slow night my brother Richard was tossing a diamond jig and hooked Brandon’s line. Seems like he told everyone on the boat but poor Brandon. Brandon is use to catching Trout, Blue Gill and Bass but as far as he knows he was hooked to something big and was in for a battle. Richard was on the other side of the boat and was pulling like hell. Brandon was so intent on getting his fish he got tunnel vision he never looked back. This kid was so excited. We even got the gaff out and were ready to gaff the phantom fish. We had such a hard time keeping from laughing. Classic comedy at it’s best. We never did tell him and we won’t. This is something he is going remember for the rest of his life.


We ended the night with a small Bay Bass that was tossed back.
20 dollars in bait.
100.00 in lost hoop nets:104167739 :104167739 :104167739 :104167739
10.00 in gas
Brandon hooking in to a phantom fish and being railed for 15 min in one heck of a battle, PRICE LESS!

[fishingrick]

Thats a cool story about the phantom fish . It was a tough nite we lost two nets and had one reterned, only got one legal bug ,that was every bodys story at the dock that we talked to coming in at mb.

[Bottom Line]

I always check the tides before I go - On last friday's trip I knew it was going to be a ripper so we worked an area in 38' (for one nice bug) that was protected from the current - we redeployed our nets to what turned out to be an excellent spot (20 more bugs) at 8:30 since peak high tide was at 9:00.

Check the tides and save your gear!

[sdfishkiller]

If you waited til the tide slacked they probably would have floated back up. they get free floating kelp stuck on them and get pulled under when the tide is ripping. . You could probably find them the next day. Put up a description, somebody found some of them, unless they got pulled into the channel (50-65+ft.)

[Bottom Line]

Just got off the phone with a buddy of mine that was out buggin last night - he lost 2 hoops and went back out this morning to find them. Bottom line is that he found all 8 of your missing hoops right where you left them by the buoy near the the bait receiver. He DIDN'T pick them up but there's a good chance they are still there.

[fishingsolo]

Nothing like a long soak.

[Bottom Line]

Originally Posted by fishingsolo

Nothing like a long soak.

There were bugs in the 2 hoops my buddy picked up at first light this morning!

[fishingsolo]

SWEET. Now its going into a neg low tide hope he gets out there to get his gear.

[balls out bro]

We got out there today around 330 and recovered 5 more sets. Problem is they drifted towards the sub base in inside of the bait docks, We put them by the green bouy by the receivers and found they drifted up to a mile away. we worked down current from last night and found them east of where we put them and as far away as the launch ramp. total recovered today was 5 plus two from last night so seven out of ten not bad. If anyone finds them please post it here. White bouy with red and white DOT reflective tape. and it also should have a number on it.

[Bottom Line]

Originally Posted by balls out bro

We got out there today around 330 and recovered 5 more sets. Problem is they drifted towards the sub base in inside of the bait docks, We put them by the green bouy by the receivers and found they drifted up to a mile away. we worked down current from last night and found them east of where we put them and as far away as the launch ramp. total recovered today was 5 plus two from last night so seven out of ten not bad. If anyone finds them please post it here. White bouy with red and white DOT reflective tape. and it also should have a number on it.

Glad you guys got out there and recovered some of your gear!
I may go out during the week and will keep an eye out for the rest of your stuff.

[balls out bro]

That would be to cool this is for U. Thanks for the offer and good luck buggin.

[Blackfish]

to Brandon

Great post...sorry you lost your nets...bummer!!!!!