04-30-2006, 02:20 AM
[size 2]Hey guys,
Went out on the Premier yesterday. Fished for Rockfish up past and around Rocky Point. Danny was running the boat, with second-ticket Carl, Mitch doing main deck duties, and Manny in the galley and helping on deck. We had another light load today with 11 anglers.
Short Report: 11 anglers got their limit of Salmon Grouper/Bocaccio, a number of Sculpin, many nice Reds/Vermillion, some Chillipeppers, big Chuckleheads/Copper Rockfish, couple of Whitefish, a small yet legal Sheephead, at least one plump Blue or Black Rockfish, jumbo Starrys (don’t laugh), couple of nice sized Treefish, and a few sand sanddabs. At Least 2 barely under-sized ling cod and a couple of sharks to 3 foot + released. A few pesky mackerel made their appearance for a short while too. Total Rockfish caught 106. Not one single, solitary, measly, lousy, crummy, short or otherwise Sandbass or Calico caught …. to my knowledge!
Long Report: Overall….. the size of the various species of fishys were larger than what has been the usual fare in recent weeks from that area i.e. above average! Bacaccio to 5lbs+, Reds to 4lb+, and other select rockfish going 2 to 3 lbs.
Danny got us some frisky anchovies before heading out of Angel’s Gate and up the Palo Verde coastline toward Rocky Point. No live or fresh-dead squid for us in the bait tanks today. We’re pretty much spoiled on getting the squirters ….. dead or alive! Not much of a sweat as we always have plenty of frozen, whole squid thawing on the way to the fishing grounds. That everybody fishes squid strips for the majority of rockfish species is a gimme anyway.
Hanging out on deck was great as it was overcast and fairly warm, yet not quite short-sleeve weather for most of the trip. Perfect for chillin’ on the sundeck. Conditions were nice with not much wind, having a little chop to the water with maybe a modest 1 or 2 foot swell. What was disappointing was the nasty brown, fairly cold water that we plowed through the entire run to Rocky Point and beyond! We never could find any really clean water. Yech!
After the usual safety speech and a summery of what to expect for the first part of the day’s fishing, most put in their galley orders and pretty much set to getting their tackle ready for the first drop. I rigged one setup for drop-shotting to depths of 200 feet, another with a Jerk-it plastic bait/4oz leadhead (giant sluggo) for depths up to 150 feet and lastly an outfit rigged with a plastic swimbait/1/2oz leadhead ready for any shallow-water or surface action that might occur. On occasion, barracuda will travel along the Palo Verde coastline, although they are pretty spooky in the shallower water and hard to entice to hang around…. no matter how hard you chum! Most other anglers fished dropper loop rigs with 4 to 6oz torpedoes.
During the first part of the trip we hit various spots, picking up a nice variety, as well as grade, of fish at each stop. We pretty much anchored for the rock fishing and didn’t really do any extensive drifts. Commonly, a boat will set with one side or the other being over the ‘spot’ the majority of the time. Today we were often ‘perching’ (birdie type perching) on a number of spots so that you could get bit pretty much anywhere on the boat.
During the last couple of hours of the trip, we worked our way back down towards Point Fermin stopping within site of some of the usual landmarks i.e. the White House, Boilers, Marineland, etc. Seems like quite a few other moo moos were dotting the horizon although we never really got that close to them, nor they us, for we passengers to see who they were. I had to strain my eyes to see through the haze for even a fleeting glance at that veritable jewel of the coast, an unparalleled fishing mecca, and playground of untold numbers of WSB and home-guard yellowtail. sniff !! Sniff !!
The Fishing: I fished plastics over half the time and bait whatever time was remaining. Caught lots of fish with the Jerk-It tipped with squid. Caught one really big Whitefish (first time) on the plastic. Actually, I caught most of my keepers on the plastic while being pestered with the starrys and smaller species fishing squid strips. My bait rig was the usual in-line, dropshot setup. Tried the whole squid and 3/4oz leadhead setup for bass wit the final score being no hits, no runs, no fishys in the sack …. oh ya ….. no errors either!
I set up one rig specifically to go after the lings but it doesn’t seem to do so well with other species. I’m using a 7 ½ foot All Star Inshore Graphite rod that I have re-wrapped with AFTCO graphite roller-guides for use with 30lb test Professional Pro braid. This rod is great to pull a bull-dogging lings, cabazon, and sculpin out of the rocks but for lesser, softer-mouthed species, I’m losing fish. Using circle-hooks a number of years, I’ve cured myself of striking the fish like I would with J-hooks but still the combination of a stiff, shorter, MH-HD rod and a line with practically zero stretch is making me rethink things. I don’t like whippy rods!
The angler beside me, fished pretty much only trout and some bass, had things dialed in big-time. He used a 4-5 foot main leader with two hooks on smaller 10 to 12 inch lengths of mono evenly spaced along its length and a 3oz torpedo sinker. Fished exclusively anchovies. This angler got 4 doubles nearly in a row on Reds/Vermillions, Reds/Bocaccio, etc., etc. Funny thing is that the 3 guys on each side of him weren’t even close to his hook ups. Guys started crowding in closer and closer to us but to no avail …. It was his show! I loved it and had a great laugh!
Lots of birds, small macks, and one sea lion visited the boat. Saw a bunch of vegetation that had matted pretty thick and was a resting place for birds and food source for a herd of anchovies that were nipping at its edges. Flylined a bait out hoping there might be something pushing the chovies up from underneath but alas …. no takers.
Aside: Lings were obviously more interested in a big meal than my chovie offerings. I know because …… looking in a bait tank trough I noticed a couple of 12 mackerel that had been fished and displayed the unmistakable marks of Mr or Ms Lingcod’s toothy bite. Doh ! Why hadn’t I taken one of those mackerel, cut a couple of filets off it, and fished that! Dang ! Double Dang!
Another aside: Pierpoint Landing will start its Summer schedule from May 1st this year. The Premier will start the day at 6:00am. Check with the landings office for other boat’s scheduled departure times.
Still another aside: Did you know that Pierpoint Landing’s senior discount is available for those 55 and over?! Just recently realized that it ain’t necessarily so at other landings.
Due to bad weather on Wednesday, the K of C'ers (club members) and regulars kinda shifted over to today! As is often the case, almost everybody had either a bag of fish or some nicely cut filets. We got back to Pierpoint at around 5:00. I was home by 5:30.
JapanRon[/size]
[signature]
Went out on the Premier yesterday. Fished for Rockfish up past and around Rocky Point. Danny was running the boat, with second-ticket Carl, Mitch doing main deck duties, and Manny in the galley and helping on deck. We had another light load today with 11 anglers.
Short Report: 11 anglers got their limit of Salmon Grouper/Bocaccio, a number of Sculpin, many nice Reds/Vermillion, some Chillipeppers, big Chuckleheads/Copper Rockfish, couple of Whitefish, a small yet legal Sheephead, at least one plump Blue or Black Rockfish, jumbo Starrys (don’t laugh), couple of nice sized Treefish, and a few sand sanddabs. At Least 2 barely under-sized ling cod and a couple of sharks to 3 foot + released. A few pesky mackerel made their appearance for a short while too. Total Rockfish caught 106. Not one single, solitary, measly, lousy, crummy, short or otherwise Sandbass or Calico caught …. to my knowledge!
Long Report: Overall….. the size of the various species of fishys were larger than what has been the usual fare in recent weeks from that area i.e. above average! Bacaccio to 5lbs+, Reds to 4lb+, and other select rockfish going 2 to 3 lbs.
Danny got us some frisky anchovies before heading out of Angel’s Gate and up the Palo Verde coastline toward Rocky Point. No live or fresh-dead squid for us in the bait tanks today. We’re pretty much spoiled on getting the squirters ….. dead or alive! Not much of a sweat as we always have plenty of frozen, whole squid thawing on the way to the fishing grounds. That everybody fishes squid strips for the majority of rockfish species is a gimme anyway.
Hanging out on deck was great as it was overcast and fairly warm, yet not quite short-sleeve weather for most of the trip. Perfect for chillin’ on the sundeck. Conditions were nice with not much wind, having a little chop to the water with maybe a modest 1 or 2 foot swell. What was disappointing was the nasty brown, fairly cold water that we plowed through the entire run to Rocky Point and beyond! We never could find any really clean water. Yech!
After the usual safety speech and a summery of what to expect for the first part of the day’s fishing, most put in their galley orders and pretty much set to getting their tackle ready for the first drop. I rigged one setup for drop-shotting to depths of 200 feet, another with a Jerk-it plastic bait/4oz leadhead (giant sluggo) for depths up to 150 feet and lastly an outfit rigged with a plastic swimbait/1/2oz leadhead ready for any shallow-water or surface action that might occur. On occasion, barracuda will travel along the Palo Verde coastline, although they are pretty spooky in the shallower water and hard to entice to hang around…. no matter how hard you chum! Most other anglers fished dropper loop rigs with 4 to 6oz torpedoes.
During the first part of the trip we hit various spots, picking up a nice variety, as well as grade, of fish at each stop. We pretty much anchored for the rock fishing and didn’t really do any extensive drifts. Commonly, a boat will set with one side or the other being over the ‘spot’ the majority of the time. Today we were often ‘perching’ (birdie type perching) on a number of spots so that you could get bit pretty much anywhere on the boat.
During the last couple of hours of the trip, we worked our way back down towards Point Fermin stopping within site of some of the usual landmarks i.e. the White House, Boilers, Marineland, etc. Seems like quite a few other moo moos were dotting the horizon although we never really got that close to them, nor they us, for we passengers to see who they were. I had to strain my eyes to see through the haze for even a fleeting glance at that veritable jewel of the coast, an unparalleled fishing mecca, and playground of untold numbers of WSB and home-guard yellowtail. sniff !! Sniff !!
The Fishing: I fished plastics over half the time and bait whatever time was remaining. Caught lots of fish with the Jerk-It tipped with squid. Caught one really big Whitefish (first time) on the plastic. Actually, I caught most of my keepers on the plastic while being pestered with the starrys and smaller species fishing squid strips. My bait rig was the usual in-line, dropshot setup. Tried the whole squid and 3/4oz leadhead setup for bass wit the final score being no hits, no runs, no fishys in the sack …. oh ya ….. no errors either!
I set up one rig specifically to go after the lings but it doesn’t seem to do so well with other species. I’m using a 7 ½ foot All Star Inshore Graphite rod that I have re-wrapped with AFTCO graphite roller-guides for use with 30lb test Professional Pro braid. This rod is great to pull a bull-dogging lings, cabazon, and sculpin out of the rocks but for lesser, softer-mouthed species, I’m losing fish. Using circle-hooks a number of years, I’ve cured myself of striking the fish like I would with J-hooks but still the combination of a stiff, shorter, MH-HD rod and a line with practically zero stretch is making me rethink things. I don’t like whippy rods!
The angler beside me, fished pretty much only trout and some bass, had things dialed in big-time. He used a 4-5 foot main leader with two hooks on smaller 10 to 12 inch lengths of mono evenly spaced along its length and a 3oz torpedo sinker. Fished exclusively anchovies. This angler got 4 doubles nearly in a row on Reds/Vermillions, Reds/Bocaccio, etc., etc. Funny thing is that the 3 guys on each side of him weren’t even close to his hook ups. Guys started crowding in closer and closer to us but to no avail …. It was his show! I loved it and had a great laugh!
Lots of birds, small macks, and one sea lion visited the boat. Saw a bunch of vegetation that had matted pretty thick and was a resting place for birds and food source for a herd of anchovies that were nipping at its edges. Flylined a bait out hoping there might be something pushing the chovies up from underneath but alas …. no takers.
Aside: Lings were obviously more interested in a big meal than my chovie offerings. I know because …… looking in a bait tank trough I noticed a couple of 12 mackerel that had been fished and displayed the unmistakable marks of Mr or Ms Lingcod’s toothy bite. Doh ! Why hadn’t I taken one of those mackerel, cut a couple of filets off it, and fished that! Dang ! Double Dang!
Another aside: Pierpoint Landing will start its Summer schedule from May 1st this year. The Premier will start the day at 6:00am. Check with the landings office for other boat’s scheduled departure times.
Still another aside: Did you know that Pierpoint Landing’s senior discount is available for those 55 and over?! Just recently realized that it ain’t necessarily so at other landings.
Due to bad weather on Wednesday, the K of C'ers (club members) and regulars kinda shifted over to today! As is often the case, almost everybody had either a bag of fish or some nicely cut filets. We got back to Pierpoint at around 5:00. I was home by 5:30.
JapanRon[/size]
[signature]