Jackpot Jimmy
05-22-2010, 09:35 PM
After a month of boat work, the Tradition came back on line for its regular ¾ day run out of King Harbor. My friends and I were excited to get back fishing on her, but the weather looked terrible for the weekend, as it forecasted seven to nine feet swells and up to 35 knots of wind. However, as the weekend inched closer, the forecast improved, and we were all set to go. When dad and I packed up the car in the morning, the wind was up, but there was barely any wind to speak in Redondo. We left at 6am with a load of 15 anglers, and headed off to the bait receiver to load up with some beautiful sardines. Captain John then gave the safety speech and game plan, which was to head down the beach in search of barracuda, and fish the bass and rockfish if we didn’t find any. We then rigged up our rods. My friend Bill lent me his barracuda killer, a blue and white 544, which I rigged up on my 30 pound jig rod.
We continued south and saw some birds working on bait that dolphin were pushing up, but nothing in regards to the barracuda. There was barely any wind, but the swell was pretty big from the beginning. Johnny looked for the gar as we charged down below Point Vincente, and he found out that no barracuda had been caught down by the Horseshoe (in our range), so we stopped below Portuguese Bend to see if the calico bass wanted to cooperate.
Most guys fly lined a sardine back into the kelp, but the water was pretty churned up by the swell, and no life was to be found. I took this as a good time to practice my casting with the 544 (the best tip is to wind your line onto the spool tight, so the line doesn’t bunch up on the next cast). Johnny then made a move a bit north, but that spot was also dead. He then moved up the line past Rocky Point to fish rockfish before the wind came up.
I rigged up my jig rod with the Newell P-332 with a diamond jig/shrimp fly combo. I usually rig this up with a Roy Rose knot joining the main line and a leader together. Before I tie the Roy Rose, I make a knot in the leader to differentiate it from the main line. Then, I tie the diamond jig on the main line, and tie the shrimp fly on the leader so it is up above the shrimp fly. My friend Tom taught me a trick to minimize spinning of the shrimp fly – tie two ½ hitches with the leader after tying the shrimp fly; that way the leader hangs outward, and not down, so it doesn’t spin as much when you have a fish on the shrimp fly. I also like to use a lighter wire treble hook on my diamond jig, and a Mustad 3551 should be fine. They are dependable so they won’t bend when you’re on a fish, but if you are stuck in the rock, you have a better chance of the hook pulling out of the rock instead of it breaking. Thanks to my friends Tom and Bill for the tips.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/015-10.jpg
After a pretty bumpy ride against the swell where I almost lost it, we arrived at the rockfishing grounds and started a drift. My first order of business was to try for a lingcod. I gave up on doing it pretty fast as others were starting to get some nice fish on other rigs, so I went to my diamond jig/shrimp fly combo with the two ½ hitches. The wind was a steady five knots at this point, and the drift was not too fast, so a six ounce diamond jig was plenty. Two other guys and I were fishing the straight diamond jig and shrimp fly – no bait. We got some fish on this but I wanted to try something different, and I put a Gulp 3 inch smelt-colored minnow on my shrimp fly. My first drop with the Gulp produced a nice steamer-sized red. We drifted this area a few more times, and others were catching some nice reds and other miscellaneous rockfish. My friend Bill managed to catch an exotic on the bare shrimp fly, a Threadfin Bass. I’ve never seen one caught here in California. For more info, check out: http://www.mexfish.com/fish/thrbs/thrbs.htm.
Around noon, the wind finally became strong enough to produce whitecaps, and the drifts became faster. We picked away at the rockfish for a while, but it got harder and harder to stay on the bottom and feel the bite. After a few more hours we headed in, with some nice rockfish in the sacks. I’m hoping to get into some barracuda action in the coming weeks, and hopefully the weather will lie down. Jackpot went to one of those nice reds. Although it was a bit of a tough day, I had fun and learned some new things, and that’s all that matters. Great times, great fishing!
Bill and Morgon with a Threadfin Bass
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-50.jpg
My Red caught on the Gulp
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-37.jpg
Jim with a Nice Red caught on the Bare Shrimp Fly
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-23.jpg
Ray with a couple nice reds.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/013-12.jpg
Morgon with the Jackpot Fish
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-23.jpg
Jackpot Red
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-15.jpg
Victory at Sea
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-13.jpg
Look at those whitecaps!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-19.jpg
We continued south and saw some birds working on bait that dolphin were pushing up, but nothing in regards to the barracuda. There was barely any wind, but the swell was pretty big from the beginning. Johnny looked for the gar as we charged down below Point Vincente, and he found out that no barracuda had been caught down by the Horseshoe (in our range), so we stopped below Portuguese Bend to see if the calico bass wanted to cooperate.
Most guys fly lined a sardine back into the kelp, but the water was pretty churned up by the swell, and no life was to be found. I took this as a good time to practice my casting with the 544 (the best tip is to wind your line onto the spool tight, so the line doesn’t bunch up on the next cast). Johnny then made a move a bit north, but that spot was also dead. He then moved up the line past Rocky Point to fish rockfish before the wind came up.
I rigged up my jig rod with the Newell P-332 with a diamond jig/shrimp fly combo. I usually rig this up with a Roy Rose knot joining the main line and a leader together. Before I tie the Roy Rose, I make a knot in the leader to differentiate it from the main line. Then, I tie the diamond jig on the main line, and tie the shrimp fly on the leader so it is up above the shrimp fly. My friend Tom taught me a trick to minimize spinning of the shrimp fly – tie two ½ hitches with the leader after tying the shrimp fly; that way the leader hangs outward, and not down, so it doesn’t spin as much when you have a fish on the shrimp fly. I also like to use a lighter wire treble hook on my diamond jig, and a Mustad 3551 should be fine. They are dependable so they won’t bend when you’re on a fish, but if you are stuck in the rock, you have a better chance of the hook pulling out of the rock instead of it breaking. Thanks to my friends Tom and Bill for the tips.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/015-10.jpg
After a pretty bumpy ride against the swell where I almost lost it, we arrived at the rockfishing grounds and started a drift. My first order of business was to try for a lingcod. I gave up on doing it pretty fast as others were starting to get some nice fish on other rigs, so I went to my diamond jig/shrimp fly combo with the two ½ hitches. The wind was a steady five knots at this point, and the drift was not too fast, so a six ounce diamond jig was plenty. Two other guys and I were fishing the straight diamond jig and shrimp fly – no bait. We got some fish on this but I wanted to try something different, and I put a Gulp 3 inch smelt-colored minnow on my shrimp fly. My first drop with the Gulp produced a nice steamer-sized red. We drifted this area a few more times, and others were catching some nice reds and other miscellaneous rockfish. My friend Bill managed to catch an exotic on the bare shrimp fly, a Threadfin Bass. I’ve never seen one caught here in California. For more info, check out: http://www.mexfish.com/fish/thrbs/thrbs.htm.
Around noon, the wind finally became strong enough to produce whitecaps, and the drifts became faster. We picked away at the rockfish for a while, but it got harder and harder to stay on the bottom and feel the bite. After a few more hours we headed in, with some nice rockfish in the sacks. I’m hoping to get into some barracuda action in the coming weeks, and hopefully the weather will lie down. Jackpot went to one of those nice reds. Although it was a bit of a tough day, I had fun and learned some new things, and that’s all that matters. Great times, great fishing!
Bill and Morgon with a Threadfin Bass
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-50.jpg
My Red caught on the Gulp
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-37.jpg
Jim with a Nice Red caught on the Bare Shrimp Fly
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-23.jpg
Ray with a couple nice reds.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/013-12.jpg
Morgon with the Jackpot Fish
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-23.jpg
Jackpot Red
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-15.jpg
Victory at Sea
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-13.jpg
Look at those whitecaps!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-19.jpg