04-01-2006, 08:29 PM
Hey there guys,
Went out today (Friday) on the Premier, with Danny running the boat, Chris on deck, and Manny in the galley. Targeted the local rockfish at the 'shoe'. Light load with only 10 anglers on the boat. Everybody must be holdin' back a day waiting for tomorrows' April 1st Ling Cod opener.
Short Report: 10 anglers caught 6 sheephead, 35 rockfish, 35 whitefish and 8 sculpin. And .... a number of sand dabs. Released a bunch of ling cod as well as short sculpin and whitefish.
Long Report: Quality of fish was generally good with no monster sheephead, rockfish included .. starrys, nice sizded reds to 3-4 pounds, average salmon grouper, barber poles, johnny bass, sugar bass, and whitefish that went to maybe 3 pounds. Frozen squid was the ticket today for the trip. Fished depths of from (in my estimation) 100 feet to at least double that depth later in the day.
Fishing was done both at anchor as well as doing drifts along certain stretches. Danny worked relentlessly hitting many, many spots for a few fish then moving along to another hole, flat hard bottom, or reef. Concentrating on getting a better grade of fish ..... we'd move off a spot pretty quickly that turned out to yield only under-sized fish. Everyone seemed to be picking up a legal fish at every stop as well as the unavoidable short sculpin, whitefish, and even a number of ling cod.
The weather was warm and sunny all day long. The wind stayed down, there was a decent current, and nothing more than a gentle, almost non-existant swell. Couldn't expect better rockfishing conditions.
On wildlife, we saw very few birds, not much bait on the surface .... but...... don't know what Danny metered. Then ... he struck....I had a very nice fish hooked up and was in the heat of battle when along came Mr. sealion. He or she grabbed my fish and made me think I had a WSB until the thief surfaced with my fish. Naturally he ain't turnin' loose of this ill-gotten gains. Don't know what I had but it must have tasted good! Where are the Great Whites when you need them!
As always ...I tried fishing plastic starting at 1 then 1 1/2 and lastly 2 ounce leadhead for ziltch. Fished the Jerk-It which is usually a great sculpin and ling cod vertically fished plastic. Looks like a sluggo. Tried both the 8 and 10 inch models. As has been the case recently, I gave up after about 40 minutes and a couple of stops then fished squid strips pinned on two size two circle hook drop-shot rig threaded on a 4 foot length of 20lb test flurocarbon with spiderwire braid as the main line. Fished 6ozs initially to finally end up using 12 oz torpedos at the end.
Aside: Kinda scarry. I'm actually starting to see how it would be interesting to intentionally do rock-fishing. Especially with the thought that you might run across a big ling or halibut.
Another aside: Noticed that with Spring Break for kids coming soon, Pierpoint's 1/2 day and 3/4 day ...including the Premier..... will offer the 'Kids Fish Free' promotion from April 8th running to April 23rd! (check their site for further details on this promotion)
Yet Another aside: Fished when Chris has been decking a couple of times now and this guys is a class act in my book. Seems like he was schooled from SD to points north. What a difference a good deck makes.
With the crummy weather Wednesday and our usual trip cancelled, not to be denied .....three hardy K of C'ers (club members) made the trip today and .... glad of it! Everybody had a good bag of fishys to take home that wanted them. We got back to Pierpoint around 4:30.
JapanRon
[signature]
Went out today (Friday) on the Premier, with Danny running the boat, Chris on deck, and Manny in the galley. Targeted the local rockfish at the 'shoe'. Light load with only 10 anglers on the boat. Everybody must be holdin' back a day waiting for tomorrows' April 1st Ling Cod opener.
Short Report: 10 anglers caught 6 sheephead, 35 rockfish, 35 whitefish and 8 sculpin. And .... a number of sand dabs. Released a bunch of ling cod as well as short sculpin and whitefish.
Long Report: Quality of fish was generally good with no monster sheephead, rockfish included .. starrys, nice sizded reds to 3-4 pounds, average salmon grouper, barber poles, johnny bass, sugar bass, and whitefish that went to maybe 3 pounds. Frozen squid was the ticket today for the trip. Fished depths of from (in my estimation) 100 feet to at least double that depth later in the day.
Fishing was done both at anchor as well as doing drifts along certain stretches. Danny worked relentlessly hitting many, many spots for a few fish then moving along to another hole, flat hard bottom, or reef. Concentrating on getting a better grade of fish ..... we'd move off a spot pretty quickly that turned out to yield only under-sized fish. Everyone seemed to be picking up a legal fish at every stop as well as the unavoidable short sculpin, whitefish, and even a number of ling cod.
The weather was warm and sunny all day long. The wind stayed down, there was a decent current, and nothing more than a gentle, almost non-existant swell. Couldn't expect better rockfishing conditions.
On wildlife, we saw very few birds, not much bait on the surface .... but...... don't know what Danny metered. Then ... he struck....I had a very nice fish hooked up and was in the heat of battle when along came Mr. sealion. He or she grabbed my fish and made me think I had a WSB until the thief surfaced with my fish. Naturally he ain't turnin' loose of this ill-gotten gains. Don't know what I had but it must have tasted good! Where are the Great Whites when you need them!
As always ...I tried fishing plastic starting at 1 then 1 1/2 and lastly 2 ounce leadhead for ziltch. Fished the Jerk-It which is usually a great sculpin and ling cod vertically fished plastic. Looks like a sluggo. Tried both the 8 and 10 inch models. As has been the case recently, I gave up after about 40 minutes and a couple of stops then fished squid strips pinned on two size two circle hook drop-shot rig threaded on a 4 foot length of 20lb test flurocarbon with spiderwire braid as the main line. Fished 6ozs initially to finally end up using 12 oz torpedos at the end.
Aside: Kinda scarry. I'm actually starting to see how it would be interesting to intentionally do rock-fishing. Especially with the thought that you might run across a big ling or halibut.
Another aside: Noticed that with Spring Break for kids coming soon, Pierpoint's 1/2 day and 3/4 day ...including the Premier..... will offer the 'Kids Fish Free' promotion from April 8th running to April 23rd! (check their site for further details on this promotion)
Yet Another aside: Fished when Chris has been decking a couple of times now and this guys is a class act in my book. Seems like he was schooled from SD to points north. What a difference a good deck makes.
With the crummy weather Wednesday and our usual trip cancelled, not to be denied .....three hardy K of C'ers (club members) made the trip today and .... glad of it! Everybody had a good bag of fishys to take home that wanted them. We got back to Pierpoint around 4:30.
JapanRon
[signature]