Morro Bay Fishing Report 7/9/2017

[pjstevko]

All my trip started at 1:30 am leaving Three Rivers after trying to get 4 hours sleep. I made the necessary 3am stop at Denny's in Kettleman City  for breakfast and then carried on to the coast....

[Swami805]

Chicken fried steak? That looks so good, great way to start a fishing trip.

[Big Tim]

I know there are more pics than just breakfast PJ  I do love a CFS at Denny's

BT

[pjstevko]

Now that the world has stopped pitching and rolling I'll continue with my trip report....

I arrived at MBL right at 5 am and got in line to check in and right behind me in line was a local fishing legend, Dave "Papa" of Papa's Jigs....His lures are sold from Alaska to Mexico....

It was a light load with only 20 people checking in so my hopes were high,  weather was a little foggy with a light breeze, it was gonna be a great day.... Plus I had a brand new rod and reel to break in 

[pjstevko]

We started loading early since everyone was there early and I was one of the first in line so I'd have a chance to snag a prime rail location so I had towards the front of the boat. As I'm about to start getting situated up front the "rental rod company group" started to head towards the bow and the group leader yelled to the others "we're gonna be at the bow"..... I immediately grab my #### and move to the stern because I knew if I stayed up front I'd spend all day in tangles..... Amazingly there was plenty of room at the stern and my new rail neighbor was "Papa" of Papa's jigs and a young man named Victor from Fresno. We spent the ride out of the harbor just chatting it up and Papa gave us a steal of a deal on any of the jigs in his bag $5 each! His jigs usually sell for $8-12 each.... I bought a couple 14oz octopus jigs before we cleared the harbor...

Once we cleared the breakwater the swells hit us, the seas were running 6-8ft every 5-8 seconds, it was snotty! Poor Victor started getting seasick about a half  hour after we started the steam north. He was seasick literally the whole day. After about an hour and half Captain Brad got on the microphone and said it was too rough to run all the way to Cape San Martin so we'd stay local and fish until we got limits.

At our first spot everyone's first drops produce big reds and it was on fire for the next 3 hours. John from San Diego who was fishing next to Papa got his rockfish limit within the first two hours! We targeted rockfish for the first couple hours then moved on to find the lingcod and that didn't take long at all. We had a full boat of rockfish and lingcod limits in 6-7 hours including poor seasick Victor and the crew! Our 12 hour trip was cut way short due to limiting out in about half the amount of time, that's a great problem to have!

Overall it was another great trip with captain Brad out of Morro Bay Landing!

[pjstevko]

More pics

[thorhammer]

Nice PJ! Glad you finally go to blood that Jiggy after a year!

[Big Tim]

Nice haul PJ...Dave is a reel nice guy. I like that octopus jig you got the big red on.

Tim

[pjstevko]

Nice PJ! Glad you finally go to blood that Jiggy after a year!

This was actually the 3rd trip for the jiggy! It's a great little reel...

[pjstevko]

Can someone "right" my pics for me?

[Bryan Young]

Sweet. I so wish I could have gone fishing...wait, I don't like the conditions. I'm glad I couldn't go, but he fishing looked epic.

Do you have pics of the PaPa lures that you bought?  I have heard of the jigs but don't know anything other than that.

Thanks
Bryan

[pjstevko]

I only bought the octopus style but he sells other styles too

[pjstevko]

The final outcome.....

And homemade rockfish crevice...

[Swami805]

You had me at the chicken fried steak! Looks like you put together a fat sack. Nice call migrating away from the rent rods. Thanks for the report.

[bhale1]

PJ,
Looks like you had a good trip! I noticed that you had your Daiwa BG along. How did that work out for you? I hear lots of good things about them, but would be interested in your opinion (review)... Glad you had fun!
Brett