9/3/05 - kid's fishing day, santa cruz

[alantani]

i was looking at the weather out of hmb friday night and i was feeling nervous. saturday morning i got to the highway 85 on ramp. i decided to turn right to santa cruz instead of left to hmb. part of the reason was the load we were going to carry. my total payload was 900 pounds, well within safety limits for my grady, but still a concern. this time i had myself, the dad from next door, a 200# bait tank and FOUR kids. total weight on the four kids was the same as two adults, but it was still no time for rough stuff. the open water out of hmb was out.

we launched out of santa cruz and grabbed a scoop of bait at "S" dock from bocci boy. sandra immediately piped up, "why are they so small?," and she was immediately shssh'd. it was not the quality that craig has, but good enough to get the job done.

we spent alot of time hunting. the natural bridges area has been pretty badly picked over. we were able to scratch out 15 rockfish, mixed grade. some were very small and kept only because they were hooked deeply. guess it was too easy to swallow those small baits. my daughter got three vermillions. this one was the biggest....



overall, they just spent alot of time standing around....





or just sitting, trying hard to shake off the dramamine....



mid morning, it actually looked like the seas were laying down a little, so i decided to take a little run up the coast. i wanted to get up to davenport, but we hit a windline halfway between natural bridges and davenport. there were several boats fishing in 50 feet of water. i cruised by a runabout and asked how he was doing. he held up 4 fingers, so we set up well away from him and dropped the lines in.

remember lynna? she's the one that caught the 19 pound ling cod on the last trip. well, her rod buckled over. her dad pulled the rod out of the holder and handed it over. when i saw the bend in the rod, i grabbed the gaff. peering into the water, we saw a brown sillouette. lynna already knew to back up, reel down and lift. i reached out with the gaff and stuck this....



it weighed out at 15#'s. i guess these kids are getting jaded, because they only screamed for 30 seconds when it came over the rail. then i held it up in front of everyone and is started flopping around on the gaff. that's when the screams really started!!! and there were four of them. my ears are still ringing. we got a photo after a brief period of attitude adjustment for our new guest.....



just another kid's fishing day aboard the eddie's brothter!