Topics

181

Tackle Talk / Just Traded Rods...

« on: May 17, 2021, 05:17:04 PM »

Traded away an 8' Graphtech 15-30 that just felt too heavy to me. In return, I received my first Calstar, a 270h. Cut down to 7'6".







It's one of the lightest Calstars I've ever held, which was the selling point for me. I only started collecting glass rods in the last 9 months and only blanks that were built light.

Now I have 2 rods that cover the 25-30# live bait niche. Well...more like 5, but we're talking top of the depth chart here. I picked up a Shimano Teramar MH 15-40 8' about a month ago. Sweet, modern, thin, TC4 blank (composite blend I believe). Has a reel seat unlike the Calstar. Surprisingly similar in weight though. I think the softer tip on the 270h is gonna win me over when fly-lining sardines. The more I think about it, the more I think the Teramar isn't gonna beat the 270h for rail time, although it is a very cool rod.







Probably gonna put either an Avet MXJ on it or a Daiwa Sealine X20SHA, loaded with 40# braid. Though I'm currently winning 2 auctions on Torium 14s....I better lose at least one.

182

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Santa Barbara 5/12

« on: May 12, 2021, 04:25:31 PM »

After I'd pulled my boat up on dry land at the end of last week's trip, I noticed an air leak underneath the outer rim of one of the air valves. Wasn't quite sure what to make of it, if it was bad factory glue job on the air valve or what, so I monitored it for about 10 minutes, found it wasn't leaking a significant amount of air, and packed up to deal with it at home.

The next day I blew up the boat and the leak wasn't there anymore. Left it inflated overnight and no lost air. Totally weird. I sent a video of the leak to a repair shop and haven't gotten a reply, but my best guess is that the PVC may have expanded with the heat of the sun just enough to reveal the leak when it did at the ramp, and the PVC shrank back in the neutral climate of the garage.

I really wanted to make my longest trip yet this week up the Santa Barbara coast, but that was obviously not going to happen. I decided to launch out of SBH but keep within 30 minutes of the harbor. If the leak showed itself, I could head in quickly, and I brought the hand pump on board just in case.

Launched around 0730. Water was glossy until noon.



Came up on my whitefish spot. Last time it was limits in an hour on the kayak. First drop with the bass gear and I got walloped by the best of the day, but it got harder after that.



Picked off 6 and kept 3 over an hour before I decided to go check out some new spots.

Not a lot of current today, I'm surprised I got bit as much as I did. In 100' I was using 2oz of weight and keeping it under the boat. I moved to 150' and still only needed 4oz.

A little less life at the next spot, but I was getting pecked. Got my first ever Calico Rockfish, species #113.



Nabbed another before moving to the next spot. There was a boat where I wanted to be, but there were other boulders to be had. I had no problem getting bit here as well, and I nabbed a Rosy Rockfish.



Got a squarespot as well as another calico rockfish or two, then a second rosy. Felt like I'd gotten the gist of the spot, so I decided to head back to my whitefish spot to try and fill out my bag.

On the way over, out of the corner of my eye, I thiiiink I saw a ~3' blue shark go full aerial about 100 feet from me. Though to be honest, it reminded me more of a chinook jumping in the Sac River. Salmon isn't out of the question, but probably a blue shark. Lots of bait in the water everywhere today but no signs of cudas or bones yet.

Got another 2 whitefish and a blacksmith to round out the day.



Final bag.



The first couple whitefish in the bag had been chilled for a while, and the meat looked gorgeous.



Back at the dock at 1230. Leak never showed itself.

I had a DFW surveyor pick my brain for a minute at the ramp. She asked me if there was another name for a Squarespot Rockfish as I was rattling off my count, to which I said, "nope, a squarespot's a squarespot." I just looked into Milton Love's description of them, and he remarked, "Arguably, this is the most abundant fish on medium-depth Southern California reefs. We just see zillions of them."

So shame on her for not knowing!

8 Whitefish
4 Calico Rockfish
2 Rosies
1 Blacksmith
1 Squarespot

Didn't feel like a 16 fish day, but dinks will make you feel that way I suppose. Good trip nonetheless.

183

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Anacapa 5-5

« on: May 05, 2021, 08:30:28 PM »

Forecast looked great for it today, with sub 10kn wind all day and a 2.5ft swell @10 seconds coming from the SW, so I decided to finally make the leap and cross the channel to Anacapa today. Left a float plan with a couple people and was out of the harbor about 0730. Plan was to pick off a few rockfish on the way over, and then yo-yo for yellowtail for a couple hours before heading in around noon.

Choppy, splishy splashy ride across. I had some fog up at my house in Newbury Park but it was probably 2-3 miles of visibility at sea level, which made the landfall of Anacapa a little more exciting. Pulled up on the rockfish spot and picked off 2 reds on my first two drops. Thought that was a sign of things to come but I was barely getting pecked for the next hour, so I moved on to the entree.





On my first drift right on the tip, I saw a single large boil, but other than that I didn't see too much life. I'd start in 80-90ft of water and drift into about 50ft while yo-yoing a butterfly jig (because I've seen a disproportionate amount of NZ kingfish jigging videos, I felt more confident in that than a jax), then I'd work a little way west and drift again. Never saw any substantial marks on the sonar in the mile or so I worked.

After a little less than 2 hours, I thought I was seeing more white caps than before, so I bailed. I stopped one more time on the rockfish spot, which had turned on a little bit more. Picked off a few more eaters and a couple squarespots.

Funny thing about the squarespots. I have a pic for my life list of one hooked by the tail, and today I caught another one by the tail. Maybe they just school up densely, or maybe they're learning something from threshers.



I got an extra one or two fish just waiting for a couple freighters to clear the shipping channel, but I still had one to beat while crossing the channel. I crossed its line with probably 3/4ths of a mile to spare, but even then, that thing bearing down on you is scary s#it!

WOT all the way back across the channel, which was a nice change of pace from taking my time slamming into wind swell all the way there. Cleaned my fish outside the harbor this time. I noticed they were spitting up remnants of what appeared to be anchovies. Realized later that I missed one in the bag..



I was reading that a new species was discovered a little after 2010, the sunset rockfish, which is a (really really) close relative of the vermillion. There's little color variance between the two, and aside from testing their genealogy, the only notable difference between the two is that sunsets tend to stay deeper than 100m (328' [and 1"]) and vermillions stay shallower than that. I can't afford to throw a 23andMe at my rockfish right now, but I was fishing in 330-380' so I feel like I can count a sunset rockfish in my report today.

184

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / SD Bay 5/1

« on: May 01, 2021, 07:35:16 PM »

Well since half the board was out there today, we can stack it all up right here.

Arrived at the ramp about 0630, launched about 0730. I got 2 dozen ghost shrimp to target bonefish over at Big Fish Tackle in Seal Beach, along with some lugworms in case the bait stealers were present.

First drift I got a 5 star skunkbuster:



First spotty in like 10 years for me, I don't fish harbors south of Malibu very often.

Next one was probably my best of the day:



It became immediately obvious that we might burn all the ghost shrimp on the spotties that were clearly everywhere, so we started bouncing around the back bay trying to isolate the intended target. Jared switched over to an underspin and started picking off spotties a lot quicker. I gave in to peer pressure and picked off a few before I decided we needed to burn off the rest of the ghost shrimp before the wind made the drift too quick.

Found a croaker.



Ended up getting the manic, drag scorching bite I was looking for around 1130 but it popped off after a few seconds..

By about 1300 we were through our shrimp and went to flukes and swimbaits for the steady pick on spotties.

Highlight of the day was the VHF lighting up out of the blue with "SS Ass Rack here, does anybody copy-" Took a minute to gather myself to respond. Nice meeting you at the ramp, Tim!


And just a real quick summation of my evening session from my trip down to SD- Thanks to intel from Steve and Michael I went after corvina last night and got 4 blowups on the spook in a 30 minute period, but couldn't connect. Got a YFC on the swimbait to break the skunk for that session. Got effectively teased by both corvina and bonefish! I'll be back down soon enough.

185

Fishing Talk / Little Trip to SD..

« on: April 29, 2021, 07:16:30 PM »

Figured out a couple hours ago that I have Saturday off, which gives me a surprise 3 day weekend. Feel like I can't sit at home for 3 days straight, so I'm booking a hotel Friday night in San Diego, and launching the Mosquito in the back bay Saturday morning. The hope is to find bonefish, and/or bass if we find some current.

I'm gonna check into the hotel at 3pm tomorrow (Friday) and leave myself the afternoon/evening to try some shore action, in or out of a bay. I'd appreciate some company and/or guidance if any locals are free to join. Top priorities for me right now would be corvina, followed by micro critters, and soupfin (kinda offseason I assume though). But getting into just about any bite, from bass to perch to micro critters would be time well spent.

186

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / New PB Leo

« on: April 12, 2021, 11:46:47 PM »

Went out tonight fixin' to wet some wire leader for the first time in a couple months. Arrived to find some kelp in the wash but it turned out to be manageable. Hour and a half in, I brought in my mackerel to find only some skin. Threw another tail piece out, then saw the rod jump. Looked like a 7 bite. Grabbed the rod and waited a minute for it to come back, and it did. It started swimming away, I reeled tight, and it was a quick but bouncy fight in. Turned out to be a 53" male Leopard.



I wish I'd been able to get a portrait with it, but it was extremely uncooperative.

No more bites after that, but it turned out to be a night for a grunion run. Thought about using them for bait but decided to let them be, but I took some voyeur shots.



I've got a decent amount of ray and mack in my freezer that's getting old, so I'm just gonna have to get out some more and burn that off in the next month or two.

187

Freshwater Boat Fishing Reports / Two Days on Clear Lake

« on: April 11, 2021, 08:40:11 PM »

Got back yesterday from 3 nights/2 days of fishing at Clear Lake. I was too beat from the 9 hour drive home to turn back around to the beach and represent VC in the bat fight, so I'd like to apologize to the county for which I brought shame to.

Arrived Wednesday evening about 6pm to Kelsey Creek campground, my buddy Jared was already there. Very nice campground pretty much right on the water with a creek around the edge of it.

Launched Thursday morning at about 7am. Very cold to start, about 35º. Warmed up quick to 65º or so by 9am. We were fishing flats in about 4-8' of water adjacent to tules to start. Jared got the first two fish in the boat with the jerkbait, about 1.5 and 2lbs respectively. Then when I was throwing a c-rigged 13" black Gambler curly tail worm, I got bit by a solid 3.75lber. First fish on the 13" worm so I was stoked.



I got my outboard back right before leaving for the trip, but it was still giving me some problems on the startup, and when I would drop from WOT back to idle it would misfire and die on me. I futzed with the idle RPM screw on the carburetor which didn't seem to help, but the engine smoothed out its performance after 11am.

We moved up to some docks and I picked off a 2.8lber and farmed another at the boat a few casts later. Then the next dock we found a ton of crappie on beds. I put a crappie jig right on their nose and I ended up catching 4, Jared 1, before we went back to focusing on bass.

Biggest one: maybe 15".



Prior to the trip I googled to see if any restaurants catered to fishermen by having a dock to tie up on. I found a few scattered around the lake and we settled on Boathouse Bar on the far north end of the lake. The water was too low to tie up on their dock, but Jared called them and a waiter came out and helped us beach the boat then seated us. Very strange but wonderfully convenient deal.

I got the Anchor Burger, which was incredible after 6 hours in the sun.



The wind picked up quite a bit after lunch so we had a nasty ride back across the lake back to the ramp.



Tried a few spots with underwater structure but no bites so we called it around 5pm. Threw the boat on Jared's car for the short ride back to camp so we could save some time in the morning.



Morning #2 we were on the water about 6:30am. At first we went toward the south side of the lake, which has a steeper gradient around the shore, but we turned around back to the flats going north after 30 minutes.

Jared had 2 fish in the boat with a t-rigged senko by 11am and I was struggling. We went back to the crappie bed so I could put something in the boat, but there was somebody already sitting on the spot. So we decided to hit the docks adjacent and hope they would leave relatively quickly. Jared put 2 more fish in the boat with a wacky rigged senko while I continued to struggle.

Finally about 2:30pm I got bit and landed my first ever jerkbait bass, with the LC Pointer.



Moments later I got another on a t-rigged senko.

Finally after an hour and a half, the boat left the crappie spot, and we went over to find hardly any crappie around. Either they or someone decimated the spot for the sake of a fish fry, or the crappie finished up real quick with their spawning.

We headed back to the tules and got a couple good drifts with the wind blowing us perfectly parallel to shore while we casted jerkbaits and crankbaits. I ended up catching a crappie on the jerkbait on the first drift, then Jared went full bendo. Aaaaand he fouled a blackfish!



We each farmed several fish on the last drifts, I think I was able to land one out of 3 on the Pointer. Called it a day at about 5pm again.

I will certainly be back to Clear Lake. Very pretty and lots of fish potential. Maybe we'll make an annual go of it. Maybe a June trip next year.

188

Freshwater Boat Fishing Reports / Almost Forgot it's a B.O.A.T.

« on: March 28, 2021, 06:05:59 PM »

Trying to not type too cranky here...

Went to Cachuma today, woke up at 0600, arrived around 0800. Ranger at the kiosk had me take the boat off the car and unravel it for the Quagga inspection. Then roll it back up, put it back on the car, drive a couple hundred yards to the washdown station. Take it off the car, unravel it, wash it, roll it back up, put it back on the car...take the outboard out of the car, flush the outboard with their hot water...outboard was being stubborn to start and stay on but we got it going just long enough to get the water to flush through the coolant system. Put it all back in the car and went another 100 yards to setup near the ramp but it was still gonna be a haul to dolly the boat by hand to the water. Did it, I'm young.

Super not stoked on that start, took like an hour longer than I wanted, and a gigantic pain in the @ss to deal with quagga inspection and their system with the inflatable setup. But I got the boat in the water, outboard didn't show the same fickled nature once in the water.

Rolled out to the shallow end of the lake, hoping for spawning bass with the full moon and the Spring and all. Didn't see any bass bedding, but they were boiling intermittently. Bounced between a dropshot worm and a spinnerbait til I got the skunk off in the sticks with a short green bass. Made me feel better.



Not long after, I noticed I had a pinhole air leak in my boat on the waterline. That's what I get for fishing the sticks I guess. Not a critical issue, it'll be just a dab of Gorilla glue at home but still not great to see.

Felt like the bass weren't really happening, but with a fish to my name I figured I'd make a run to the deeper, clearer end of the lake and try carolina rigged roboworms and maybe troll for trout while I eat a sandwich. I make the move and after about 2 miles, my motor stutters and dies. Woof. Yada yada yada stall-start-stall-start. After Plan B, C, and D went out the window I was headed for the ramp while the engine was working. Half a mile short of the ramp, it cuts out and won't start back up. So I rowed half a mile.

So I'm looking for a shop that'll give the ol boot scooter a good look-over. Definitely avoiding lakes with quagga inspections from here on out as long as I'm doing the inflatable thing.

189

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Marina Del raaa

« on: March 18, 2021, 09:01:47 PM »

https://youtu.be/Tt-tG6ufH90?t=193

Arrived at Marina Del raaa around 0730.



First stop in 70 feet of water. Metered a lot down there but didn't look like gamefish. A couple squid tentacles later, I'd caught oh bout 8 bad boy blacksmiths.



Headed into shallower and shallower water looking to get away from them. They were everywhere, probably by the thousands. Eventually headed up the coast in tight to Malibu looking at boilers. Very nice clear water but cold! 54º, woof. Saw a ton of girabaldis but they wouldn't bite. Not that I'd want them to, that's illegal.

Threw swimbaits and squid at boilers for no action. Found a kelp forest that was quiet. Decided to go back to deeper water. Found a whitefish spot. Caught 4, kept one decent one before moving on.



Lake-like conditions today, but when I made the move to go further offshore to 200-250ft, which was a 10 mile run from Malibu, the wind slowly but surely put the hammer down. Started off at WOT and slowly had to back off more and more until I found myself crawling half a mile from the spot. Finally went with the conservative decision and just bailed on the fishing and headed in with the following sea. Slow steady slog back to the harbor was broken up by different pods of dolphins leading me for what must have been a couple miles. Very nice, kind of sacred moment, to have the company of 20+ dolphins hanging out with me for so long after a solo day.

190

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Quick Trip CIH 3/14

« on: March 14, 2021, 03:21:21 PM »

My weather sources were all over the place for today. One said barely a whisper of wind, another said 20-30mph all day. So I figured I'd head down to the harbor, and if it was too windy at the launch then I'd turn around and head home, but otherwise I'd just plan for the afternoon wind. And with the clock moving forward, it was as easy as could be to wake up before sunrise.

Arrived at 0700 at Channel Island Harbor ramp, didn't seem bad at all. Maybe up to a 5kn wind. Wasn't as cold as I thought it'd be either.

First stop was Hueneme Canyon, looking for those sablefish that Ben made look so easy to catch. First stop was in 530ft which was shallower than I wanted to be (said no one ever) and I basically set up wrong. I noted I was drifting west instead of the expected east, but really barely moving. I thought I'd be scaling the wall of the canyon fairly quick but I wasn't, and no bites. So I reeled reeled reeled up and reset in 800ft of water. Still more shallow than I wanted to be but a short period was making me a little queasy so I was working hastily. Soaked that for a bit, before some birds were chasing bait for a solid 10 minutes nearby, so I couldn't help but reel up and chase that. Though by the time I got to them it was a whole lotta nothin'.

I really didn't want to deep drop again, so I decided to check a couple potential rockfish spots a few miles away. On my way over, I saw a whale spout. There was a whale watching boat creeping up on the whale so I didn't hang around for fear of messing with their operation.

Continuing my way over, in a mess of scattered broken kelp stringers, something big rolled on one of the kelp stringers. Like sea lion or good size shark. It didn't come back up, so I didn't wanna hang around for that either. Then a stringer caught on my motor, blocking my cooling intake, so I had to sit idle to pull the stringer off the motor for a second, right by where I saw the sea monster roll....

Arrived at my rockfish spot. 200ft of water. Started getting nibbles fairly quickly, decent amount of bait in the water. Then the bait left and I stopped getting nibbled. Reeled up and found a decent dab. Skunk off.

Moved over a little for the next drift. Nothing for a few minutes, then I got slammed. For lack of bites prior, I had a feeling of what it was.

And I was right.



Spiny Dogfish aka Pinback. Pretty cool, for about 3 seconds. Then it tangled the hell out of my line so I had to bring it aboard. Found that my eBay 7/0 live bait hooks are trash when I tried to unhook him with pliers and I was just bending the hook shank around instead of making way on the barb. Cut my line in 3 or 5 places and let him go.

After that, I figured I didn't want to deal with another pinback, and there didn't seem to be much else around. The short period was getting to me more, though peppermint oil was helping. So I decided to head in. I ended up stopping on the breakwall for about 30 minutes pitching a fly lined squid at the boulders. Got robbed once.

When I got back to the ramp, a DFW surveyor practically popped out of the bushes and asked me some questions about what I was targeting. The sablefish thing threw him for a bit of a loop.

191

Freshwater Boat Fishing Reports / Hunting for Everything 3/12

« on: March 12, 2021, 06:11:02 PM »

Got the call last night to take today off, so immediately checked the forecast for wind and packed the car with the boat s#it before I was even sure where I was going. I knew I wanted to do freshwater and brought it back to Piru after deciding I needed a thorough crappie hunt, and I wasn't sure if my boat/outboard were bone dry to pass quagga inspections elsewhere.

Woke up at 0630, left the house at 0730, arrived at 0830, on the water at 0900. 54º water temp. I was hoping bass would be staging to spawn but not in that cold of water. Thought I would explore the north arm that looks to wiggle past some trees and out of sight. Turns out, right at the tree line, it turns to about a foot deep. So that idea was done. So I started casting for bass around the timber to see if I could knock a couple out quickly with a spinnerbait, but nothing was happening. Moved over about 50 yards and started seeing bunches of marks in 6-12ft of water. Pulled out the hair jig and went to work bouncing. Felt like I hooked timber and then felt a little tick, set the hook.

Viola, species #111 black crappie! Decent one too.



15 minutes later, switched colors from black/green to white. Bam, another.



I kept switching colors hoping to really dial them in, but I couldn't get any more bites, then the wind picked up quite a bit at 1000. Decided to finally make use of my anchor on the area, but finally gave up around 1030 in search of...well, whatever I could find.

Started on my way to the south end of the lake, just metering the bottom, getting a sense of just how inaccurate the Navionics topography is for the lake. The gradients are vaguely accurate but the depths are all over the place, even adjusted to water fluctuation, which appeared to be about -50'.

I was eyeing some bass up and down the water column in 20-40ft of water, so I put out a deep crank to troll while I gathered an understanding of the lake. What I heard, though, was that there are brown trout in the lake. Nice ones too. And it's worth jigging a 1/2oz KM in deep water. So eventually I made a b-line for the dam area, which surprisingly only topped out at 60' of water. But there were TONS of marks.



I would assume those are trout marks, but I'm surprised they'd be that thick, considering it may have been 10+ years since the last trout stock, from what I've gathered. Too big of marks to be bait, though, and bass aren't gonna be in wolf packs in late winter. I set up anchor and jigged over them, and put out the 1000 size baitfeeder with coho eggs for a solid hour before I'd had enough taunting. On to bass.



Went over to a stretch of shoreline that I liked last week and parked myself in some timber and casted parallel to shore and into deeper water with an LC pointer for a bit. Occasional bass boils fueled my hope. Eventually I mixed in a dropshot roboworm. Finally got a quick bite on the dropshot but it spit it out real quick. Decided to throw out some catfish dough on the baitfeeder while I continued to be teased by boiling bass.

Eventually, around 1400, the wind got even more stiff and it just got too nasty to bother, so I packed it in.



Catching the crappie made this one a big victory on paper, but being taunted by multiple other species afterward left me feeling a little sore about the trip. It's becoming a goal of mine to catch a panfish/bass/cat/trout slam at a SoCal lake, which might be impossible this time of year, but it seems like a fun, ambitious exercise to hone all the different skills for each one and put it all together in a single day.

14 deer in this frame:

192

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Double Dipping

« on: March 04, 2021, 08:26:23 PM »

At the end of my PV run, my outboard didn't want to start up or even turn over after running/idling the whole 7 hour trip.

Thankfully, when I got back to my house, my boater neighbor happened to be in his front yard, so I told him about my adventure then mentioned my potential motor woes. He said he could do a little diagnostic and tune up the carburetor right then, so I dollied it across the street, filled a bucket with water, and he got it going better than before. Phew!

So just to make sure that I wouldn't find out in the middle of the Sant Barbara Channel that he and I collectively screwed up my outboard, I needed a little shakedown trip somewhere relatively safe. Oxnard looked to be windier than I should be bothering with, so instead I took the first day of my weekend yesterday to do a shakedown at Lake Piru, which I'd never been to before. I packed up my car in a light rain, got over there in an hour, and spent a few hours on the lake chucking a 1/4oz KM, and a spook, as I was seeing bass boils intermittently. I got one tap on the KM and that was that. Real nice little lake, though. I was hoping for crappie but it must be a few weeks too early still. Best part was my motor sounded great and started up just fine.



On to the main event, my rockfish opener. I watched a number of buoys from Redondo to Santa Barbara, and watched reports for what new deep areas were going to be hype and what would be a potential jackpot. Ended up choosing Santa Barbara Harbor to launch.

Arrived at 0745. Setup took a little long, I got the boat in the water at about 0830. Started off with the outboard stalling and burning some oil...turning over though. A few minutes of futzing and easing off the choke and I was golden.

Lake Pacific outside the harbor, boat cruising at it's WOT max of 15mph. Once I got about 4 miles out, some gentle 3-4ft rollers with a huge period made an appearance, still able to skim right along.

Just short of an hour ride and I get to my spot 12.5 miles out. Drop down to 425ft with 16oz and my line is sideways pretty quick, so I went to managing my position via reversing every minute or so, which worked like a charm.

My fish finder wasn't picking up much at that depth, just some light scattered marks from the bottom to 50ft up, but it wasn't something I'd base any decisions on. Just trusted the fact that there was a reef so there should be fish around. First drop, hit the bottom, feel light hits, some heaviness. Feel almost like I'm fishing mono, not sure if my braid sucks that much or I'm rusty or it's just dinks down there. Finally give up and reel up, does feel heavy...got one. Foot long greenspot.



Noticed I was drifting west, and I set up on the reef assuming I'd drift east, so I took a few minutes to slide east. From there I got bit and bendo as soon as I hit bottom every drop. Get the fish in the boat, unhook; freespool my rig back in the water and throw it in the rod holder while I iki the fish, cut the collar, throw it in the kill bag; grab the rod, reverse the boat til I'm on top of my bait, at which point I make contact with the bottom; instantly hook up, and do it again. Had my limit in no time. All greenspots too. I don't think I've ever gotten a limit of rockfish off of one species, so I was pretty baffled by today.

Just as I pulled up my last fish to limit out, a boater swings by and chats me up. Compliments my rig, we chill for a minute, then he hands me his business card (a little unusual place for that but hey) and we split.

I still had some sanddabs to hunt lings with, so I reset my drift and dropped my dab down. Waited a minute and then I was bendo, but didn't feel big...pulled it up and it was another greenspot, and it bit the bare hook above my dab....thanks a lot pal! Now I gotta poke you all over, rig my descender...a pound weight couldn't get him down to start so I had to poked him in 2-3 more spots to finally get him down.

Dropped again, waited...started getting nibbled, grabbed, dropped....bendo. Again not huge...pull it up and a greenspot had torn the dab to bits and inhaled the head. Alright, I thought I could weed out the rockfish, but I guess not. Headed out of there to avoid any more potential trouble.



Motored back toward the mainland and decided to make a stop around the Summerland shoreline to see what the kelp looked like. Wasn't as thick as I remembered, so decided with my rockfish setup rigged with a pound weight that I'd half-assedly bounce ball some squid while I worked my way back toward the harbor. Laid back between the tubes of my boat while hanging onto the rod. Tried for about 45 minutes until I got a little too comfy and started feeling sleepy, so I packed it up and motored back to the ramp around 2pm with no halibut but a whole sack of greenspots.



This trip more offshore was a benchmark I was working toward, and it worked out well. Steadily learning and unlocking the possibilities of what I can do.

~30 miles, about $6 in gas.

193

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Palos Verdes 2/24

« on: February 24, 2021, 10:06:17 PM »

Conditions lined up nicely to take the Mosquito out on its first legal trip ever this weekend, so I got my OC friend Jared hyped up on a trip launching out of San Pedro. I settled on the game plan of working the Palos Verdes area and work underwater structure. I just got the Navionics app on my phone, so I have nearly unlimited topography at my fingertips, which is mind boggling to me still. I heard a couple reports from the area claiming 30 bass days fishing in 50-100ft of water so we were optimistic about finding at least a few bass.

Left Newbury Park at 6:30am and arrived at Cabrillo Beach boat ramp at 7:55am. On the water by 8:30am. On the way out we saw two humpback whales inside the harbor. Not sure how uncommon this is for LB but it sure sucks for them. There were 3 when we got back into the harbor.

First stop was in about 90ft of water. Lots of marks, no biters. Irons, swimbaits, and squid were on the menu today. 3 drifts and we kicked out further west.

Next stop, 60ft, lots of marks, no biters.

Next stop, 40ft, good marks, no biters.

We hopped from boulder to boulder, most had good looking marks on them. Bait shoals were around several which made it easier to confirm that I was definitely seeing some game fish. One stop I saw a number of very thick marks. Maybe seabass?? Maybe yellowtail??? Definitely not hungry!!!

Around noon we'd gone as far as we wanted to go west so we started rock hopping our way back, hoping maybe time would get the fish to open their mouths. 2nd stop coming back, we get a couple mackerel. Eh. Then Jared got a fat 15" sculpin that went back. He didn't know what it was, and he can handle fish, but I said let's not put that in the boat today, thanks.



He follows that immediately with a short but vivid turd roller on the drop.



Made a few more drifts on that rock but it wasn't giving it up anymore so onwards we went to a few more boulders for maybe one more mack. Ran by the confused whales again and was off the water around 2:30pm.

Man! I hope it was tough for everyone else out there, cuz with talks of 30 fish days, that trip made me feel stupid. I seemed to find a number of stacked spots at least, which gave me a little bit of hope in my new tech. Maybe we should have tried the kelp, but water is still pretty cold so I figured they'd all be down deeper. Beautiful day to be out at least. And I still haven't skunked out on the Mosquito. Bringing home a couple macks for that sweet dry aging .

Seems like every time I'm at the ramp, somebody is curious about the Mosquito rig. This time at the ramp, it was a particularly squirrelly character...

194

Fishing Talk / It was fun being a pirate but

« on: February 18, 2021, 11:41:33 PM »

Figured 15 weeks was enough time to give the DMV to cash my check I mailed them so took the last two days to get the registration dealt with. Stood in line for over an hour at the Thousand Oaks DMV yesterday only to be turned away before getting a number, cuz they were gonna close in 45 minutes....today I went to Santa Paula DMV and line was around the building, nope! Tried a AAA in Camarillo and I was in and out with my CF number in 10 minutes.

Sticker won't stick well on the inflatable, so the clip-on wood plank on the bow is the way to go. Fun little project.

Next stop, San Pedro!

195

Food & Recipe / Dry Aged Fish

« on: February 09, 2021, 07:51:06 PM »

Dry aged fish popped up on my instagram. I saw it and I was like what??? No way. So I googled it.

https://www.foodandwine.com/cooking-techniques/dry-aged-fish-joint-sherman-oaks

Serious artisanal stuff going on there.

Now I wanna try it, but it does seem like something that's gonna take some trial and error. I like the idea of the meat firming up a bit and somehow getting less fishy and getting more complex flavor. Just hope that complex flavor isn't gonna make me deathly sick for days.

I won't be socking my sanddabs away for a week, or eating them raw, but this made me wanna keep them in paper towels in the fridge for a few days and see the effects on the texture and fishiness.


Anybody heard of this before or have experience with it?