In 1988 I invited my friend Allen and his wife Marcy to go saltwater fishing off Point Loma in San Diego in my 17-foot Sea Nymph deep V Aluminum boat. I told them we would be fishing off the kelp beds on the entrance to San Diego Bay looking for Calico bass, Yellowtail, and the usual inshore species of fish biting that day. Both of them were eager to wet a line with me.
We drove down to San Diego from Orange County and arrived at the Shelter Island launch facility very early in the morning. The place was a beehive of activity that morning with lots of anglers launching their boats to fish the bay and inshore fisheries that San Diego is well known for. We were not going to be using any live bait. I told Allen and Marcy that we were going to rely on fishing only with plastics on this given day. They both were hesitant to fishing with plastic baits. Being novices to ocean fishing they were relying on my fishing experience to guarantee some success that day.
We motored out past the harbor entrance into open ocean where the swells were a lot bigger than I normally have seen on previous trips but I wasn’t too worried as I had a lot of confidence in my well rigged vessel. Traveling past the Scripps Institute we found some kelp beds in shallow waters. There was a rip current pushing the kelp sideways and the water was as clear as it could be. Looking over the side of my vessel the depth view was at least 12 feet or more which is really good on any given day.
I tied on an anchovy pattern AA swimbait and then handed out a couple to my fishing buddies. “If you look down in the water you might be able to see the bass hiding under the kelp leaves” I told them. Then I told them to yo-yo the swimbaits up and down the kelp and this will entice the bass to bite. It didn’t take too long for them to get the hang of it and a couple of nice average size keeper bass came over the rail. They were both having a great time fishing. The bass bite was getting a little slow as the day continued so we decided to move. I asked them if they have ever caught Spotted Bay Bass before and told them that the old navy pilings on the other side of the harbor entrance was a hot spot for them if they wanted to give it a try. They both agreed and off we went to the Point Loma harbor entrance which was a very busy place at that time of the day with boats large and small zigzagging all over.
We were about halfway across the harbor entrance when the ocean erupted in a huge amount of large bubbles. It looked like a Jacuzzi all around us. I had no idea of what was going on at that moment. Then to our starboard side, rising from the depths, an enormous Trident Submarine was moving at speed into the harbor. We were just in front of the submarine and literally had to accelerate my vessel as fast as possible to avoid being rammed. A Trident submarine to those of you that are not familiar with its size is approximately 300 feet in length. The sub missed us by maybe 10 yards and created a huge wake as it moved into the harbor. We were all pretty shook up by our narrow escape and our little vessel was being thrown all over the place by the turbulence that was created by the Trident Submarine. It was quite something and you won’t forget seeing one up close and personal like we just encountered. We watched in awe, the submarine motoring into the harbor. The San Diego Harbor is more or less owned by the United States Navy and has the right of way coming and going into the harbor. Submarines are considered stealth vessels and don’t make themselves visible to the general public so surfacing at the mouth of the harbor was probably their orders of operation. That would be a guess on my part since I have no military background in these matters. We did manage to fish the pilings but caught nothing. Our encounter with the submarine really shook us up and we couldn’t care less about Spotted Bay Bass after what we had just been through. I motored slowly back to Shelter Island and left for the day but boy did we have a good story to tell my work buddies on Monday morning.
