My Community
Personal Craft Fishing => Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports => : BenCantrell February 05, 2021, 01:51:08 PM
-
Hey guys, hope everyone's having a good start to the year. I wanted to share some unusual catches from the kayak last month. Rockfish and other federal groundfish are closed Jan and Feb, so like previous years I shift my focus to deep dropping for miscellaneous flatfish that do not have a depth limit or other weird fish that aren't in the regs. I ended up catching a pair of sablefish, which are unfortunately in the list of federal groundfish, so back down to the bottom they went with a descending device. The first one came from 1100 ft, and the second one from 1150 ft, both from the center of La Jolla Canyon. Bait was sardine chunks, and I also used a green strobe light and chum cage packed with chopped up sardines to attract fish.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50839817797_66837d29f2_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50842589351_f67958a0ce_c.jpg)
There were tons of dolphins out. Usually they're just passing through and ignore me, but this time a few of them stuck around to play underneath my kayak.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50841864008_35ebbbbe83_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50839817742_be49f55718_c.jpg)
-
Cool report as usual. When you’re dropping that deep, are rockfish just not that deep, or are you fishing away from structure? Though without any structure I think there would be a lot of down time between bites. I wanna try this, maybe next time I head out.
-
I'm dreading getting to fish 600ft and here you are at 1100+!
-
Cool report as usual. When you’re dropping that deep, are rockfish just not that deep, or are you fishing away from structure? Though without any structure I think there would be a lot of down time between bites. I wanna try this, maybe next time I head out.
Thanks! I stick to the center of the canyon to avoid rockfish, and so far it's worked. And yeah it's a lot of time sitting out there with no bites. ;D
-
And yeah it's a lot of time sitting out there with no bites. ;D
At that kind of depth, it must be a lot of 'winding' when you do get bit :o
-
Jeez, that's a lot of reeling! My old arms would need an electric reel!
Super cool catches Ben. One year there was a bunch of fang tooth showing up and rat fish were common catches back in the day. I can't wait to see what you pull up next.
-
Haha thanks, yeah it's a ton of reeling, but it's what keeps me interested in fishing. I love the idea of pulling something new up.
Ratfish become more common as you go north, especially up by Seattle. But fangtooth? Wow, I had no idea people caught those! Escolar get caught occasionally when people fish big baits for swordfish in the canyons.
Sadly I think I'm about done with my time in CA. I'm getting ready to move soon. I'll post when I have my plans figured out.
-
Moving?!?! Like somewhere new or back in your old neck of the woods?
-
Looking at the east coast of Florida... :)
-
Interesting, so can sablefish regulate the gas in their bladder to avoid decompression? Always a treat seeing all the pokemon you catch!
-
Interesting, so can sablefish regulate the gas in their bladder to avoid decompression? Always a treat seeing all the pokemon you catch!
Yeah I didn't see any signs of barotrauma.