bonus points

before engaging in rigorous activity, a warm-up is highly recommended. how does one warm up for catching big fish (something that 'for the house' is planning to do quite a bit of in 2010? by searching out, and watching the biggest swimming creatures in the world, whales!

on friday we redeemed our groupon-cupons for some whale watching. members of 'for the house': ameer. guest members: the yin yang twins.



cap't joe piloted the kitty kat. a catamaran, which moved faster in the water, rocked less, and used less fuel. thumbs up!


hold your breath, we may be going under!!!!



jon is the coolest whale watcher to sail (or motorboat) the seven seas.



we dubbed this sandwich "the harpoon" though i kept wanting to call it a torpedo.



and the payoff! we saw about half a dozen grey whales. they were migrating back north from mexican waters. sometimes they'd be under water for more than 5 mins, coming up for a puff of breath or



granted this gives us zero points towards the fishing blog competition between the fisherkings, in the event of a neck and neck tie, a photo finish if you will, biggest aquatic animal photographed may just be the razor's edge needed to decide the win. therefore this post is relevant, dare i say essential.

thanksgiving

for thanksgiving we went into the lion's den

what is the lion's den you ask? just see where hong is pointing in this picture:


that's right, lions live there. lots of them. and if you aren't the most skilled of all fisherman, the lions will steal your bait, then snap your line. but we ain't your average normal fisherman, we were armed with breakfast burritos and this was 6am on thanksgiving day.

oh right, hong was fishing too close to the shore when a big wave approached, and well -he got doused. notice his pants in this pic are soaked. this is 7am on thursday morning, in november. but that can't stop him, true lion's den fishermen push through, even when every step is accompanied by a squishy wet shoe and sock sound.


yes folks, this is a legal catch. senoritas have no size limit, and this is probably the smallest one ever caught by man. i think gene was saying that he thought his line was snapped and started reeling in when this guy came up. maybe.


sometimes, just to f-with you the lion's den will hook a garibaldi on the end of your line. these are the bright orange, very protected, state fish. no keeping these guys regardless. that doesn't mean you can slam them against the rocks as hong may or may not have accidentally done. it's surprising how easy it is to see a floating garibaldi from 200 yards away as seagulls poke at it.

unphoto'd yet honorable mentions of this thanksgiving outing:
1.) hong landed a 13" calico bass
2.) gene slipped and landed very hard on his a$$
3.) a seagull swooped in and stole our entire bag of bait
4.) alvaro's had no burritos, so we went to santana's, which was closed and ended at a random place where hong returned the horchata while in the drivethru
5.) as gene caught the smallest senorita, hong caught the biggest

hong & gene

a quick trip to la jolla with the domicile boys, we call this place "JAM97" because a big heart with the words 'JAM 97' were inscribed on the ground. that was our landmark, and the white 5gal bucket would sit on top if JAM97.

JAM97 has since eroded away, but we've memorized the location.

the catch:

hong went "into the lion's den" for this one. sheephead!

the deep sea

on a beautiful sd wednesday hong and i hit up the boat.
15 anglers including us, the water couldn't have been more glassy, and the weather could have been better.

here's what we got:

hong's biggest bonito, what a fighter.


a peek into my bag, bonito and mackerel.


measuring out hong's catch. i paid the deck hand to fillet my 7 fish and bag em up. most of mine were as big as the bottom four in this pic. the top two are sand bass, the big one is that bonito, and the lower 4 are mackerel.


a close up, twenty three inches = we didn't weigh this guy but i'm guessing near 654lbs, (give or take 650)

i took mine home and hooked up fish tacos!





bonus:

it's healthy to mix up your diet, fish and poultry are the healthy proteins. hong too the opportunity to hook into fish as well as birds on this 1/2 day trip. also, in this pic you can see hong's brand new birthday pole/reel [the black death junior].

off the shore...

hong and i went fishing off the la jolla shore on oct 12th.

it was a beautiful san diego day...
well, not ALL things were beautiful.

i caught a few of those big goldfishies, which happen to be the state fish (had to toss them back). hong got the winner this time:


we also caught some fishies that we call senoritas. hong insisted on measuring these two baitfish. gotta love that competitive nature!

for the house: flip that house

just when you thought you knew what was going on, they throw you a twist.

in the beginning of 2009 'for the house' and 'the fisher kings' agreed to a fishing competition/blog-off. the concept was a 3 on 3 tourney between the boys in michigan vs the california guys.

just when you got comfy, thinking that you knew all that as going on, a wrench gets thrown into your predictable gears.

there are now four additional team members for the house! (listed alphabetically)

where then, is the third original member you ask?

LaJolla Cove

this is where we fish. most people come here to take pics or vacation, for us it's the battle zone.

Hong nabbed the same fish 4 times, gene got a garabaldi. i didn't take a pic of the fish i caught cause it looks exactly like hong's 4.
we hit up fins fish tacos after, and i landed a shrimp burrito with a fish taco, the del mar combo.

the prize winner!

well boys, this contest is over before it's even started. this catch wins them all!

oh wait, that's hong.

nothing to see here folks...

hong in action

hong caught fishing...

hongs catch

hong caught a 10" rockfish and a 13" sardine off the coast.