The San Diego (Seaforth): Quantity, not quite quality: 20 Mar. (pics)

[BBL2Baja]

Boarded the 3/4 day out of Seaforth Landing yesterday to go get some rockfish. The San Diego boarded at 0530 with a whopping count of 9 anglers, four of whom drove all the way from Big Bear starting a 0130 earlier that same morning. Myself and my buddies John, Mark and Jerry had decided on this boat because of it's recent great fish counts and the fact that it had scored yellows on live squid two weeks before on the 3/4-day at the Coronados.

We made the right choice. Before I go on I must commend the Cap't (Ryan), deckies (especially John) and the galley cook for a GREAT trip. I've never been on the San Diego before and had only taken a Seaforth boat twice previous. I must say that Seaforth (who now also berths another great boat, the Dominator), now is one of my top SD landing destinations, along with H&M and Helgren's. The boat was clean, the crew professional, friendly and helpful and, most importantly, put us on fish. Plus, the galley chief makes a WICKED boatburger con queso. Always a highlight on a cattleboat trip. ;)

Yes, the quality of the fish was not quite up to par and there were WAY too many small sanddabs that fooled you into reeling up from deep water, but it was great to get some salt air and take home a respectable bag of taco and ceviche meat. My amigo Mark won the jackpot with an OK looking fish and I had the high bag count. I bagged three fish I shouldn't have, but John the deckie let me throw them to the gulls before cleaning what would have been nuggets. I ended up taking home 12 of the 15 I bagged.

Also, I was able to catch three on artificials, a goal I had set for myself while planning this trip. I want to thank everyone who helped me on my question thread about rockfishing with artificials. Heavy leadheads and a diamond jig drew the strikes. I also borrowed a Shimano butterfly jig from another passenger who we befriended. I wasn't quite as dextrous with it as he was and wasn't able to draw any strikes with it. Pretty cool toy, nonetheless.

After the trip, which also afforded me two really nice catnaps (something about sleep on a rolling boat with engine noise providing better sleep), we stopped again at Point Loma Seafood (sorry Rich!) for some of the best seaside chow there is.

Here's the pics:

Looking back at port at the Hyatt Islandia. At about 0600. Still dark, aspirations of big fish very high.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/0320080605.jpg

Destination in sight...
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/0320081012.jpg

My buddy John on one of his first of the day.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/0320080900.jpg

Mark and his "jackpot". Winning a JP with this fish actually gives us fodder to clown him with in the future. He shall see...
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/0320081344.jpg

And my take, three of which should have never seen the inside of my gunny. Guess I got excited. :oops: Gull food moments after the photo.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/0320081456.jpg

All in all, another fun, productive and very tiring run down to SD. Another one planned in a couple of weeks. The San Diego made our list of a boat to hop in the upcoming months, it's a class vessel. It also earned a nickname that I can't share here (just think of The Anchorman and Ron Burgundy's "translation" of San Diego).

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/syfaulk/ron-burgundy-3717.jpg
"Stay classy, San Diego"

Later,
Scott

[chris]

nice post thanks

[Gmoney]

hey scott
great post - always a pleasure to read your reports
so hard to be working and looking at your pix....i wanna get out now!
have a great weekend
thanks again for sharing with us
G$

[JapanRon]

Hi BBL2Baja,

Nice job on the fishys .... whatever the size. Artificial .... Sof plastics? How deep were you fishing? Drifting or anchoring? Was bottom hard-bottom or structure and getting hung up? Looking to fish the area in the future.

Great job on the report and fantastic pics ....

thank you,

JapanRon

[ghetto dad]

great job man, thanks for the report!!!

GD

[Ricky-Ray]

Great report and pics. Congrat's to your friend for JP.

[one_leg]

Scott, thanks for the post.

Imma have me a boatburger tomorrow myself about noontime.

O_L

[BIGRED KILLA]

Nice job on the bottom critters Those butterfly jigs work good they go to the bottom fast i have a couple of them and i have 6 of the cope cats that they had at the show for 5 bucks a piece thanks for the post.








Bigred

[BBL2Baja]

Hi BBL2Baja,

Nice job on the fishys .... whatever the size. Artificial .... Sof plastics? How deep were you fishing? Drifting or anchoring? Was bottom hard-bottom or structure and getting hung up? Looking to fish the area in the future.

Great job on the report and fantastic pics ....

thank you,

JapanRon

The artificials I used were plastics on heavy leadheads with a squidstrip. Also, when we were shallow, a diamond jig bounced off the bottom.

We started deep, from 250-300'. Then, later in the day fished at about 150'. The shallower we fished, the more whitefish we were able to hang (not that I was able to catch any whitefish, but my buddies did).

We drifted for the most part. We would stop on a spot, catch about 20-30 minutes of rockfish and then we would drift off the rockpile and start pulling up doubles of sanddabs, so we knew it was time to shove off. Later in the day, we anchored over the shallower spots.

For the most part, from what I heard, we were fishing the edge of rockpiles. When we fished shallow, it was over hard bottom.

Good luck!

Later,
Scott

[Oz]

wtg on your catches man :cool:

[sansou]

Very nice!

I absolutely agree with you that the "SD" is a great little operation. It's always so pleasant fishing around the Coronados....I just wish the moo-moos could get there to and from quicker!

...and then to end a good day fishing with a bite to eat at PLS is just icing on the cake!

[Wingnut]

That's a lot of good eating rock fish you got there Scott! :D
Well done on the "quantity" fishing! ;) :mrgreen: