The Maximum Gusto crew was itching to get out and bend the rod.  Last year at this time, we were pointing the boat east and heading to the canyons for some yellowfin.  We were hoping to do the same this year, but things didn’t work that way for us this year.

With the water temperatures in the canyon a little cooler this year, very few reports and sea surface temperature shots that were very scarce, we decided to try our hand at thresher shark fishing.  The weather was calling for nice smooth seas and….rain.  Some of the crew took an extra day off on the long Memorial Day weekend and got ready to go.  We pushed off dock at 8:00 AM and headed for the “old grounds” where we have caught thresher sharks before.  Upon arrival we found the water temperatures to be an acceptable range for thresher shark.  One problem….the drift was almost non-existent and we had a hard time getting a good chum slick going.  

After a few hours we decided to change up the game plan and head to a reef site that was close by and go for some sea bass.  Sea Bass opened just the day before so if there was ever a time in the season to catch some keepers, now was the time.

We ended up with 22 keeper sea bass and 2 keeper flounders.  For the Maximum Gusto, this was one of our more successful trips inshore on a wreck/reef.  We very rarely do this kind of fishing and when we do, we almost never catch a legal flounder, much less 2 of them.  We know people who do very well on flounder, but that doesn’t seem to be our forte.  

With any luck we will be heading offshore in the very near future for some tuna!  We know of some biting, we just need to get there!

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