Topics

16

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Florida shore stalking

« on: April 28, 2021, 09:25:42 AM »

Got my first snook in freshwater, same spot where I posted the bowfin and longnose gar previously. It hit a freelined golden shiner.





Also upped my PR for longnose gar. It's not the longest I've caught, but it's definitely the heaviest.



I've been on the hunt for a juvenile tarpon, but on my last attempt I caught the biggest bass of my life instead. It hit a Voodoo Mullet swimbait. 7-8 lbs maybe?



Here's a dump of random FW species.

Brown hoplo


Mangrove snapper


Mountain mullet


Freshwater goby


And a bonus gator that came over when I caught the largemouth bass. He looked around 100 lbs.

17

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / on the board with finetooths

« on: March 28, 2021, 06:32:41 PM »

I have something to report! This morning I got a 3 person crew together, and we fished the same spot from a few weeks ago. Gear was a Spinfisher VI 9500 with 80 lb braid and a 12' Carnage II 30-65 lb 4-8 oz. Bait was cut ladyfish, jack crevalle, and bluefish. The ladyfish was the clear winner in terms of getting bit. Terminal tackle was an 11/0 wide gap 3x Mustad, 3 ft of 200 lb coated steel cable, 3-way swivel, 40 lb mono going to 8 oz sputnik, and 3-4 ft of 200 lb mono.

Finetooth #1


Finetooth #2


Finetooth #3


Finetooth #4


Finetooth #5


And a few action shots.










Honestly we were perfectly happy that nothing big showed up. It would have been nice to get a blacktip as well, not sure if they're still migrating through or if that's over for the year. It'll be interesting figuring out where the different shark species hang out. Nurse sharks will probably be closer to structure. Bull sharks will be near inlets so they can go in and out of the intercoastal. Other sharks like the blacktips migrate through. It'll be a lot to learn!

18

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / landed in Florida

« on: March 18, 2021, 08:48:33 AM »

Hey guys, just checking in to say that the move was successful. I can also report that I went shark fishing near Sebastian Inlet last weekend, but I got my ass handed to me by something much bigger than the sharks I'm used to. I was hoping for a 30-40 lb blacktip since I heard they are currently migrating through the area, but I learned the lesson that when you send a bait out you don't get to choose what bites. I'm guessing it was a big bull shark. I sold off all my heavy gear over the past few years, so now I'll have to put together a new setup. Not sure yet if I want to go spinning or conventional. I still like the idea of casting baits, but kayaking them out would let me do a shorter rod, heavier line, and longer wire leaders.





In other news, I have no problem catching weird little fish, haha.

19

General Board / headed to Florida

« on: February 20, 2021, 09:10:21 PM »

Hey guys,

I'm moving to Sebastian, FL at the end of the month. I know I haven't been here for all that long, only 3 1/2 years, but it feels much longer than that. It's been great fishing with a good number of you guys, and in particular thanks to Tom, Steve, Binh, and Mike for showing me the ropes. Everyone I've met out here has been extremely welcoming and generous, and I'll never forget that.

The kayak will get a lot of use in FL, but I also plan to dust off the surf fishing gear and see what sharks I can add to the list. I'll be sure to check in and post pics of any that I catch!

And if any of you are ever in the area, be sure to give me a holler.

Ben

20

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / January sablefish

« on: 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.





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.

21

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / December La Jolla rockfish

« on: December 21, 2020, 09:19:06 AM »

Short report from Saturday. Used Google Earth to pick out a bunch of new spots to try that would all be around 400 ft deep. First few were close to where Scripps Canyon joins La Jolla Canyon. Nothing but halfbanded rockfish and sanddabs off them. Moved to my go-to spot on the south edge of La Jolla Canyon and loaded up on reds (sunset rockfish) and one nice bocaccio. Four of the fish went to a friend at the beach, three went to a neighbor, and three got filleted at home for me to eat over the next few days.







Species for the day were Pacific sanddab, halfbanded rockfish, sunset rockfish, bocaccio, squarespot rockfish, lizardfish, and sheephead.

22

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / Pacific hake and stripetail rockfish from the kayak

« on: December 15, 2020, 05:36:41 PM »

Sorry guys, it's been a while! I was super stoked to get these two new ones on Saturday.

https://bencantrellfish.blogspot.com/2020/12/newport-beach.html





Yes they're tiny, and no that doesn't bother me one bit! 

23

Fishing Talk / species fishing (and snorkeling) Sept and Oct update

« on: November 02, 2020, 09:21:20 AM »

Behind on the blog again, so here's a quick photo update from the past two months. 

Calico from La Jolla, kept a few legals to eat, they were really good.


Salema, LJ.


Whitefish, LJ.


Honeycomb rockfish, LJ.


Calico, San Pedro.


Sand bass, San Pedro.


Midshipman I found splashing on the surface in San Pedro. Scooped him up by hand to take a photo.


Blackgill rockfish, San Pedro. +1 to the lifelist


Shiner perch, Ventura.


White croaker, Ventura.


Pond Loach, freshwater stream in LA. Probably released by the Buddhist temple nearby. +1 to the lifelist


Arroyo chub, freshwater stream LA.


Giant kelpfish, snorkeling Catalina. Didn't end up fishing at all while I was there.


Halfmoon, snorkeling Catalina.


Trolled mackerel that got crushed in Carlsbad, probably by a yellowtail.


Jacksmelt, SD Bay.


Barracuda, SD Bay. My first from the kayak.


Round ray, Harbor Island.


Grumpy bass, Harbor Island.


Gray smoothhound, Harbor Island. I've been carefully checking each one I catch to see if any are brown smoothhounds.


Diamond ray, Harbor Island. Didn't weigh, but I'd guess 25+ lbs.


Moray, LJ tidepools.


Woolly sculpin, LJ tidepools.


Opaleye, LJ tidepools.


School of zebra perch and opaleye, LJ tidepools.


Zebra perch, LJ tidepools. I gave underwater microfishing a try. It's surprisingly fun. I need a thicker wetsuit though if I want to do more.


Rosy Rockfish, wreck alley out of MB.


Sheephead, wreck alley out of MB.


Swordspine rockfish, LJ.


Pinkrose rockfish, LJ. ID gets tough for these guys.


Greenblotched rockfish, LJ.


Longspine combfish, LJ. Caught by my friend, would love to find another!


Bay blenny, MB. Caught snorkel fishing.


Orange terror, snorkeling MB.


Dwarf surfperch, snorkeling MB.


Jacksmelt or topsmelt, snorkeling in MB.


Spotted kelpfish, snorkeling in MB.


Rockpool blenny, snorkeling in MB.


Sharpnose seaperch, wreck alley.


Blackeye goby, wreck alley. +1 to the lifelist.


Cabezon, wreck alley, +1 to the lifelist, and definitely a highlight for the year!


Olive rockfish / Johnny bass, wreck alley.


Pacific sanddab, wreck alley.


I told myself I'd dedicate more time to catching a yellowtail from the kayak, but as you can see that clearly didn't pan out, haha. I'm easily distracted by the little fish.

24

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / prickly sculpin and tule perch

« on: September 01, 2020, 12:12:41 PM »

I haven't been able to kayak the past month because of a wrist issue. It's been a while since I caught a new species, so I did a mini road trip up to Big Bear and Lake Gregory to catch some easy ones. Added prickly sculpin and tule perch to my lifelist.

Prickly sculpin (+1) and green sunfish from Big Bear.







Tule perch (+1) from Gregory.





And then a bonus LMB from the Santa Ana River. Was hoping to see some arroyo chubs since I haven't caught any in a few years, but all I saw were bass.





Since I'm already writing this post, last weekend I checked out a ditch off the Sweetwater River because I heard there were sailfin mollies living down there. Sure enough I saw loads of them, but I couldn't get one to bite. I took some underwater photos so at least I have proof they're there.



Bycatch were California killifish, topsmelt, and chameleon goby. There were tons of round rays too, but I avoided them.

25

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / 31 mile La Jolla Canyon paddle

« on: July 27, 2020, 04:15:24 PM »

Did 31 miles on the Trident on Saturday, following the contour of LJ Canyon and then coming back with the help of the westerly wind and slight current to the south. Big thanks to Tom for going over what to expect if I had paddled to the 9 Mile Bank instead. I think fighting the current on the way back would have made it pretty miserable. The route I ended up doing wasn't bad - in fact it was easier than some of my 20 mile paddles before I added the rudder. A Catalina crossing doesn't seem so intimidating now! I had one rod with a 3 oz megabait ready to throw at pelagics, but other than a few small schools of bait I didn't see any fish. There were plenty of dolphins, and a few times a bird would dive, but then it would always fly off to look for better prospects.

5:15 AM launch.


Wave Buoy about 10 miles out.


Underside of the buoy.


Huge school of bait underneath, didn't see any predators though.


15 miles from shore, the wind died completely.


The last mile, wind was moving me along at 1 mph if I stopped paddling.


Garmin screenshot.

26

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / Kayak pelagic ray

« on: June 27, 2020, 08:36:20 PM »

I'll write something up in the next day or two, but for now here's some pics of the pelagic ray I caught in La Jolla today.

27

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Arizona road trip

« on: June 21, 2020, 11:18:44 AM »

Road tripped over to Arizona last weekend and added Gila trout and Apache trout to my species list. It felt good to get out of town!

https://bencantrellfish.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-big-arizona-summer-road-trip.html

Gila Trout


Apache Trout

28

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / A couple of kayak reports

« on: June 09, 2020, 07:58:08 AM »

My outings have been getting pretty repetitive. I'd really like to get something trolling a big lure (yellowtail, mako, bonito, cuda, etc), but it hasn't happened yet. I think it will happen soon though with the water temps finally getting into the upper 60's.

A few random notes:

• Watched my neighbor from a few units down catch a 75-ish lb sevengill from his boat. He has his buddy decided to keep it unfortunately.
• I had OEX install a rudder on my kayak, but I haven't tried it out yet. It looks like they did a really good job though.
• My little Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500's have both finally bit the dust, so I'm upgrading to Fathom II 12 star drags. Excited to try them out.
• I met up with Chris last week to look for Makos. We saw a few signs of them, but no one showed interest in our baits or stuck around for long.
• End of September. Paddle to Catalina, 3 nights of camping, and then paddle back. It's happening.

https://bencantrellfish.blogspot.com/2020/05/first-attempt-trolling-la-jolla.html

29

Fishing Accessories / free 6 ft heavy duty rod holder

« on: May 31, 2020, 02:40:21 PM »

And I mean really heavy duty. Only a true man can carry this from their vehicle down to the beach! (Seriously though, it is really heavy.) Free to anyone who's going to catch sharks with it.

Also a 7 ft stake if someone wants to make the biggest rod holder of all time.

30

Fishing Accessories / free Simms waders that have lost their waterproofing

« on: May 31, 2020, 02:06:41 PM »

I have a pair of Simms chest waders that need a new home. They've lost their waterproofing, so over the course of a surf session you'll end up getting wet feet. Simms does $60 repairs for their waders, which I assume would include waterproofing. Anyone interested? I'm happy to give them away for free to anyone who will get some use out of them and catch some sharks.

https://www.simmsfishing.com/discover/service/returns-repairs

I also have a pair of heavy duty wading boots, but if you're interested in those I would want to get something for them. I bought them for wading in rivers. For surf fishing I just use cheap Walmart water shoes.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/simms-freestone-wading-boots-for-men

Here's the waders in action.