Fishing July 4th

[Vansmack]

I too hit the water for the 4th and fished NPH as planned for one of my few times ever fishing in salt water, the first time for my wife. We rented a skiff at 7AM and headed for the bait barge like Maverick told me. There were probably 8 or so other boats fishing the area and a bunch of people throwing out from the jetty, no one was catching a thing though. So we load up with anchives and sardines, paid our money, rigged up and the lines hit the water. It was a bit breezy so it was kind of hard keeping that little boat off the rocks, out of peoples lines, etc. 15 minutes go by and my wife says she thinks she has a fish. Hell yeah that's a fish! It took her about 5 minutes to land an approx 18.5" hali (see below). I told my wife she needed to hold it for a picture but as I was handing it over it started acting like, well, a fish out of water. It flopped around a bit, she then declined to hold it so it was released as planned. While I had heavier gear with us, at this point, expecting bass of some sort, we were using light poles with 4lb line, she took extra care not to lose it.

That was it for fish, for us or anybody else we saw. Due to the winds in the channel I headed back to the island to try around some docks. There, my wife managed to catch a tied up boat and two docks. We didn't take pictures of those catches. We gave up on that pretty quick and headed back to the bait barge were we drowned bait a few more hours. About 2PM we called it quits, now I'm back home where it is 95 degrees.

So here is my wife's 1st hali....

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/vansmack_photos/CBP1sthali.jpg

[ryryk]

Sounds like fun. Bet ur wife is hooked now huh? How much was the rental n what model did get if u don't mind me asking.

[Vansmack]

Sounds like fun. Bet ur wife is hooked now huh? How much was the rental n what model did get if u don't mind me asking.

She likes to fish but we don't make it out much. We will be trout fishing next weekend on the Merced River. She's from up that way.

About the skiff. It was the DLX4, the "deluxe" model, $115 for all day (6AM-5PM). It seems to have a more user friendly for all on board bait tank and electric start. The next one down has the bait tank hanging over the transom and no electric start. For $10 it was worth it to me. I saw people on the pull start ones pulling a number of times before they started, not good when the wind is pushing you into the rocks.

They come with a bag of frozen bait too.

http://www.pavilionskiff.com/id5.html

http://www.daveyslocker.com/skiff_rentalsNEW.html

[ryryk]

Thank u for the info. How much are the bait scoops runnin?

[Vansmack]

Thank u for the info. How much are the bait scoops runnin?

$20 for two scoops. Got a lot of sardines that weren't really needed but didn't run out of anchovies anyway so it's all good.

[Indo-angler]

Congrats to the wife for a nice flattie!

Cool report, thanks!

Tight lines on your next trip!

[HESBROS]

Good to see you and your wife got out together. Congrats to the wife on the Hali. The wind can make it very challenging to fish the harbor, especially in a boat or skiff with no trolling motor to keep you on a line. It also messes with your casts during dock fishing. If you go again, the mooring area's where all the boats are moored up also holds fish. If it is not too windy you can drift around them. Also try right off the coast guard station.

[klocked]

Good job out there Vansmack. NPH is well worth going back to. You'll find more fish in no time after a few more visits.

[MAVERICK27]

Great Hali!! Sorry it was slow for you! I fished it Sunday and had a very difficult time finding bass for most of the day as well. We ended up with about 8 bass, two sharks, two rays two halis..one legal. BUT most of my fish came from a different spot. The water temp had dropped nearly 10 degrees, I believe that is what drove the bass deep and off the bite. I guess you went on that one off weekend :( Don't let that stop you!! The next couple of weeks will break wide open if the water temp comes back...and the tide :)