Liteliner
06-23-2008, 06:28 PM
Finally after a month of trying to get out on a 3/4 day it happened sunday. Wife wakes me up at 4 and my buddy gets to my house at 415. Right on time. Hit up my favorite coffe house (7 Eleven) and grab a french vanilla to get the blood boiling and we are off. We arrive at Long Beach Marina at 5 and wait for a long hour before we set off. Went to take a look at the boats while we were waiting and wtf.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0005.jpg
Didnt even get on the boat yet and we got skunked. Was it a sign of a great start to the day turned sour? We shall see........
We started off the morning in search of some cudas in some great lookin weather.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0009.jpg
Drove around for about an hour with nothing to show for so we head to the sculpin grounds. Started heading out and ran into this.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0017.jpg
Thick fog outta nowhere. Wow its gonna be an awful day. Damn that skunk. Finally get anchored up and everybody starts pullin in tiny 10-12 inch sculpin including us. We were fishing chunks of sardine. Lots of guys were using two fish traps and an 8 ounce weight and bringing in two at a time. I didnt want to waste my swimbaits on sculpin so kept with the sardines. About 30 minutes later captian repositions the boat and he did it pretty good. Guys start bringin in very nice sculpin. My buddy and I decide to use something we wasted lots of money on but really never tried. Thats right the expensive Lucanus Jig many of us hear so much about. First drop with the red and black 5 1/2 oz Lucanus and I get this fatty.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0025.jpg
First fish ever on the Lucanus Jig for me. Not just that but also a new PB sculpin for me. Didnt weigh it but im thinkin between 3-4 pounds. Thought if they day was gonna be sculpin fishing only I would probably win jackpot. Next drop and another nice scully.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0027.jpg
For the next hour or so my buddy and I destroyed the sculpins. We only kept five big ones. Released atleast 30 above average sized scullys between the two of us. So I now highly recommend you rockfish guys to give it a try. I was fishing it on a calstar xl with a daiwa saltiga with 25# pline and felt every nibble. You just drop it to the bottom and let the current do the rest. Its that easy.
About 12 now and capt wants to go get some calicos. Im game. Hour later we get to the kelp yard. Anchored up and started chummin. Took awhile but the calicos finally started to show. Lots of newbies on the boat today though along with the corner hoggers. Some of the newbies would flyline a sardine out and not let them run. I showed a couple of the newbs what flylining was and they were thankful. Tried to show some others and they were not so thankful. Got the glare from quite a few.
An hour into this and calicos are up chasin bait and here is this boat with 25 people all gettin tangled up with only one or two calicos. I finally get tired of trying to flyline in a web of tangles so I switch over to the swimbait. I watched and waited til the current started pullin everybody's lines together and then I launched my first cast towards the kelp. Five cranks into it and my christmas tree bighammer gets hammered. Fish on. About a four pounder. Next cast on the drop bam fish on. Nice two pounder. Next cast no bam as I was almost to the boat and bamm fish on. By now everybody is tyin on swimbaits and castin on the side of the boat with me. I sneak away from the tangles once again and the back of the boat has like three people fishing the flyline. I see the bass still boilin so I switch to a flyline and get two more calicos in quick. To much action for pics so waited til afterwards.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/calicos.jpg
The bite shuts down finally after two jet skiers decide to fly right between the boat and the kelp line. They also gave us the finger when the deckhand started screamin for them to go around. Tough guys they were I guess. Called it a day around 4. Jackpot went to a hispanic dude fishing cooked cocktail shrimp on the bottom. He was on of the corner hoggers and I got three glares from him for castin over him. HEHE... He ended up with 8 sheephead. Biggest went 10 pounds. Quite a few nice calicos aswell. Biggest was about six pounds. Very nice day to be on the water. The fog made it quite cool til round 2 so it was great. No sunburn.
Finally tally
5 calico bass
5 sculpin kept
15 released sculpin
10 sanddabs
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0005.jpg
Didnt even get on the boat yet and we got skunked. Was it a sign of a great start to the day turned sour? We shall see........
We started off the morning in search of some cudas in some great lookin weather.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0009.jpg
Drove around for about an hour with nothing to show for so we head to the sculpin grounds. Started heading out and ran into this.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0017.jpg
Thick fog outta nowhere. Wow its gonna be an awful day. Damn that skunk. Finally get anchored up and everybody starts pullin in tiny 10-12 inch sculpin including us. We were fishing chunks of sardine. Lots of guys were using two fish traps and an 8 ounce weight and bringing in two at a time. I didnt want to waste my swimbaits on sculpin so kept with the sardines. About 30 minutes later captian repositions the boat and he did it pretty good. Guys start bringin in very nice sculpin. My buddy and I decide to use something we wasted lots of money on but really never tried. Thats right the expensive Lucanus Jig many of us hear so much about. First drop with the red and black 5 1/2 oz Lucanus and I get this fatty.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0025.jpg
First fish ever on the Lucanus Jig for me. Not just that but also a new PB sculpin for me. Didnt weigh it but im thinkin between 3-4 pounds. Thought if they day was gonna be sculpin fishing only I would probably win jackpot. Next drop and another nice scully.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/PICT0027.jpg
For the next hour or so my buddy and I destroyed the sculpins. We only kept five big ones. Released atleast 30 above average sized scullys between the two of us. So I now highly recommend you rockfish guys to give it a try. I was fishing it on a calstar xl with a daiwa saltiga with 25# pline and felt every nibble. You just drop it to the bottom and let the current do the rest. Its that easy.
About 12 now and capt wants to go get some calicos. Im game. Hour later we get to the kelp yard. Anchored up and started chummin. Took awhile but the calicos finally started to show. Lots of newbies on the boat today though along with the corner hoggers. Some of the newbies would flyline a sardine out and not let them run. I showed a couple of the newbs what flylining was and they were thankful. Tried to show some others and they were not so thankful. Got the glare from quite a few.
An hour into this and calicos are up chasin bait and here is this boat with 25 people all gettin tangled up with only one or two calicos. I finally get tired of trying to flyline in a web of tangles so I switch over to the swimbait. I watched and waited til the current started pullin everybody's lines together and then I launched my first cast towards the kelp. Five cranks into it and my christmas tree bighammer gets hammered. Fish on. About a four pounder. Next cast on the drop bam fish on. Nice two pounder. Next cast no bam as I was almost to the boat and bamm fish on. By now everybody is tyin on swimbaits and castin on the side of the boat with me. I sneak away from the tangles once again and the back of the boat has like three people fishing the flyline. I see the bass still boilin so I switch to a flyline and get two more calicos in quick. To much action for pics so waited til afterwards.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/lypeter23/calicos.jpg
The bite shuts down finally after two jet skiers decide to fly right between the boat and the kelp line. They also gave us the finger when the deckhand started screamin for them to go around. Tough guys they were I guess. Called it a day around 4. Jackpot went to a hispanic dude fishing cooked cocktail shrimp on the bottom. He was on of the corner hoggers and I got three glares from him for castin over him. HEHE... He ended up with 8 sheephead. Biggest went 10 pounds. Quite a few nice calicos aswell. Biggest was about six pounds. Very nice day to be on the water. The fog made it quite cool til round 2 so it was great. No sunburn.
Finally tally
5 calico bass
5 sculpin kept
15 released sculpin
10 sanddabs