Ambassadorhawg
05-17-2010, 06:34 AM
Not sure if any other members were on the boat, but here's my take on the weekend...
We made or reservations back in March at the Fred Hall show. It saved us each a few bucks. Plus, it's always nice to stop and chat with Captain Frank for a few minutes.
Arrived at the landing at about 8:15PM on Friday. Did anyone feel that little shaker at about 8:15 that evening? We did. Met up with the other guys in our group of 12. At about 8:45, the crew called us to come aboard and load our garb. I got my usual bunk and my usual rod rack spots so it was like coming home.
We were in for a bit of weather on the trip and that was discussed during the group meeting with Frank on the bow before we left the harbor.
We ended up out at San Nicolas to avoid the bad weather out West. It was rock-n-roll all night long on the ride out, too. We awoke to almost no breeze which would eventually become a flat out snotty 30 knots late in the after noon and on into the night.
Our first a half dozen stops were versions of just how good rockfishing can be. Reds were flying over the rail at brakeneck speed. These were good grade fish, average 3-4 pounds with plenty of 5 pounders and some 6 pounders mixed in. I did not see a single Red under 3 pounds on the first day. Many guys ended up with full 10 fish limits of these big Reds!
As a bonus, one of those spots had some hungry Lings who wanted to play. My buddy got two pushing 15 pounds apiece on one drop! We fished in 240'-300' for that stuff. Frank says its been biting out there for a few weeks now.
We settled on the anchor into a few spots in about 100' of water. The Whiteys wanted to play a bit, too and we ended up with about 3/4 limits around on those. I chose not to fish for those. In fact, I didn't touch a single piece of bait all weekend long. The fish were biting the jig plenty good in shallow water, too. It was mostly Chuckleheads and Johnnys in shallower and I had a blast catching them on light tackle.
When we finished up with that stuff, we tried a few Halibut drifts for nada.
We then ducked out of the wind on the East end for the night. We awoke to a little breeze and headedup the backside to try for more Whiteys on the East end kelplines and ridges. Those didn't want to play so we headed out to deeper stuff at that end of the Island. It was scratchy at best. A slow day overall but we still manged to get enough to round out our full limits of cod for the trip.
I fished a 12 ounce jig in the deeper stuff and a 4 or 6 ounce jig in the shallower stuff. I also tried plastics for a while but it was clear that the fish prefered the jig this year. Any colr jig was working but orange/gold was the top producer for most.
We made or reservations back in March at the Fred Hall show. It saved us each a few bucks. Plus, it's always nice to stop and chat with Captain Frank for a few minutes.
Arrived at the landing at about 8:15PM on Friday. Did anyone feel that little shaker at about 8:15 that evening? We did. Met up with the other guys in our group of 12. At about 8:45, the crew called us to come aboard and load our garb. I got my usual bunk and my usual rod rack spots so it was like coming home.
We were in for a bit of weather on the trip and that was discussed during the group meeting with Frank on the bow before we left the harbor.
We ended up out at San Nicolas to avoid the bad weather out West. It was rock-n-roll all night long on the ride out, too. We awoke to almost no breeze which would eventually become a flat out snotty 30 knots late in the after noon and on into the night.
Our first a half dozen stops were versions of just how good rockfishing can be. Reds were flying over the rail at brakeneck speed. These were good grade fish, average 3-4 pounds with plenty of 5 pounders and some 6 pounders mixed in. I did not see a single Red under 3 pounds on the first day. Many guys ended up with full 10 fish limits of these big Reds!
As a bonus, one of those spots had some hungry Lings who wanted to play. My buddy got two pushing 15 pounds apiece on one drop! We fished in 240'-300' for that stuff. Frank says its been biting out there for a few weeks now.
We settled on the anchor into a few spots in about 100' of water. The Whiteys wanted to play a bit, too and we ended up with about 3/4 limits around on those. I chose not to fish for those. In fact, I didn't touch a single piece of bait all weekend long. The fish were biting the jig plenty good in shallow water, too. It was mostly Chuckleheads and Johnnys in shallower and I had a blast catching them on light tackle.
When we finished up with that stuff, we tried a few Halibut drifts for nada.
We then ducked out of the wind on the East end for the night. We awoke to a little breeze and headedup the backside to try for more Whiteys on the East end kelplines and ridges. Those didn't want to play so we headed out to deeper stuff at that end of the Island. It was scratchy at best. A slow day overall but we still manged to get enough to round out our full limits of cod for the trip.
I fished a 12 ounce jig in the deeper stuff and a 4 or 6 ounce jig in the shallower stuff. I also tried plastics for a while but it was clear that the fish prefered the jig this year. Any colr jig was working but orange/gold was the top producer for most.