took the boat out for a quick run down the coast yesterday. been trying to schedule a day on the water with these guys for the last 3 months and finally found a date when everyone could make it. my crew was made up of 3 dads from the local elementary school (doug, jeff and eric) and an 8 year old (eric's son scotty). ok, this is not a good start......
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we launched out of half moon bay and saw the bait receiver open. ok, so i'm going to waste all of the frozen squid i bought the other day. we're getting a scoop of live bait!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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$50 might seem like alot, but it will be well worth it if the fish get picky.
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seas were flat calm for a change. i ran 20 miles down coast to the "triangle of death," right off of san gregorio. we blew past a party boat half way down. it turned out to be dennis baxter of the new captain pete.
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i make it a point to always fish in 60 feet of water or less. that way i can safely release a fish if it is undersized or the wrong species. the entire triangle was stacked with fish, top to bottom.
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jeff stuck this nice ling cod on the very first drop!!!!!!!!!!
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most of the fish were blues in the 1 to 1.5 pound range like this one that doug caught. note the small single treble hook. this is my preferred live bait rig for rockfish. i use a 7 foot trevala rod rated 20-50. the reel is a daiwa 17 line counter with an oversized handle grip, loaded with 50# spectra. the spectra is tied straight through a slider to a swivel. the minimum weight i use is 4 ounces. 6 or 8 ounces is preferred. the leader is three feet of 30# maxima ultra green with a small no. 4 treble hook and a perfection loop on both ends. the live anchovie is hooked topdown through the nose and sent to the bottom. as soon as a rock fish hits, the treble hook is immediately set by the 4, 6 or 8 ounce weight. these fish are almost always lip hooked. we did not have a single rockfish that was gill hooked or gut hooked the entire day. i have found that lighter 1, 2 or 3 ounce weights allow the rockfish time to swallow the hook too deep. that's why i use the heavier weights.
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when we get away from the school fish, we will find ling cod. we also find these vermillion. this one tipped the scales at 7 pounds whole. just because the screen on the fish finder is blank, it doesn't mean there are no fish.
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scotty was not to be outdone. here's ling cod #1.......
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.... vermillion #1 (note the hook placement), ........
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.... and ling cod #2. we had just been smoked by an 8 year old!
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scotty's dad, eric, finally caught something of note.
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at one point, captain baxter pulled in close to us and started a drift. i remembered the squid, nosed in and passed it over. glad the bait did not go to waste.
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we ended the day with a legal limit of rockfish (including 3 vermillions and a cabezon) and 3 ling cod.
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i had the kid drive on the way back. at 25 kts, scotty was flashing a slightly more nervous smile.
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back at the dock, scotty crawled into the truck and passed out. we were soaped, scrubbed, rinsed and dried in a record 45 minutes.
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this was a nasty little surprise. one of the guys snagged this spectra late in the morning and it pulled out of his hands when he was trying to clear his line. now i know why. i'll have to pull the prop later this week. hopefully it did not dig any deeper than this.
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scotty says he's gonna be really good the rest of the year and ask santa for one of these for christmas.........
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