Jackpot Jimmy
10-17-2010, 10:49 AM
We headed out of the harbor shortly after 6am with a mix of anchovies, sardines, and live squid for bait. The Redondo Special had five seabass the day before, so we would be starting out with that and moving on to something else later. I rigged up my kelp cutter set up with a light leadhead. Soon, we were at our first spot and we dropped the hook.
There was maybe a trickle of uphill current when we dropped the hook, but conditions were pretty slack – but we decided to try it anyways. I pinned a live squid on my leadhead and casted out and was able to sink to the bottom. I started bouncing it up and down for a little while. Suddenly, I thought I was stuck in the kelp, but it had a little give, so I started winding steady, and about a quarter of the way up, it gave a violent headshake, and I kept winding slow and steady while feeling the spectra doing its job of cutting through the kelp. About five feet below the surface, the fish got stuck in some weeds, but I just held it steady, not to shake the fish loose, and the fish came out itself. Soon, the fish came on the gaff and up and onto the boat.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/003-59.jpg
The halibut weighed in at 12-1/2 pounds, my second legal halibut for 2010, the first one being caught in King Harbor a few months back. Afterwards, I retied and did the same technique, and I hooked up again later on. This fish had the similar pattern, and while my hopes were high, they were quickly put down when I saw that I had hooked a swell shark. Oh well…I shook it off the hook and went back to fishing. At this spot, there were a ton of spanish mackerel, mackerel, and short barracuda that provided some action to those fishing anchovies. A little while later, all of those fish vanished, and a couple minutes later, our friend Ray hooked something that quickly broke him off. It might have been the right kind, but we’ll never know for sure. After that, we moved on to find a little better condition.
Throughout the early morning, we tried various spots for little to nothing to show for our efforts, so we headed up the line to put some fish in the bags. After a run up the coast we dropped the hook again and started slaying the sculpin. Most of the sculpin here were actually all pretty good sized, with very few shorts. We also caught more treefish than usual…and remember - they smell like pine! After a while, we were close to limits on sculpin, so we moved on to find some bass.
Ray with a couple of sculpin.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-41.jpg
The first structure spot we fished was pretty hard to find due to the monsoonal weather, so we soon moved on to a little bigger spot. This spot was also a little hard to find, but once we found it, we were getting bit. When there was a bass bite, there was a lot more “Zing-Pow!” than catching, but it was still fun and exciting. I missed two bass but they didn’t get a chance to break me off in the rocks. My friend Bill was fishing 25 pound and was getting broken off by the bass, so he went to 40 pound test and couldn’t buy a bite…so, this is the part of structure fishing where you have to use your good judgment and determine what needs to be done. We ended up with a few bass and some more sculpin for our efforts.
Bill with a nice structure bass…he caught this one on the way down.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-62.jpg
I think we ended up with close to limits of sculpin, some bass, and my halibut for the day. It was okay, but the weather made it a little tough in the afternoon. I think the weather is going to be on the bad side this week, but I hope it doesn’t put a damper too much on the fishing. Anyways, great times, great fishing!
Another Picture of My Halibut
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-31.jpg
There was maybe a trickle of uphill current when we dropped the hook, but conditions were pretty slack – but we decided to try it anyways. I pinned a live squid on my leadhead and casted out and was able to sink to the bottom. I started bouncing it up and down for a little while. Suddenly, I thought I was stuck in the kelp, but it had a little give, so I started winding steady, and about a quarter of the way up, it gave a violent headshake, and I kept winding slow and steady while feeling the spectra doing its job of cutting through the kelp. About five feet below the surface, the fish got stuck in some weeds, but I just held it steady, not to shake the fish loose, and the fish came out itself. Soon, the fish came on the gaff and up and onto the boat.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/003-59.jpg
The halibut weighed in at 12-1/2 pounds, my second legal halibut for 2010, the first one being caught in King Harbor a few months back. Afterwards, I retied and did the same technique, and I hooked up again later on. This fish had the similar pattern, and while my hopes were high, they were quickly put down when I saw that I had hooked a swell shark. Oh well…I shook it off the hook and went back to fishing. At this spot, there were a ton of spanish mackerel, mackerel, and short barracuda that provided some action to those fishing anchovies. A little while later, all of those fish vanished, and a couple minutes later, our friend Ray hooked something that quickly broke him off. It might have been the right kind, but we’ll never know for sure. After that, we moved on to find a little better condition.
Throughout the early morning, we tried various spots for little to nothing to show for our efforts, so we headed up the line to put some fish in the bags. After a run up the coast we dropped the hook again and started slaying the sculpin. Most of the sculpin here were actually all pretty good sized, with very few shorts. We also caught more treefish than usual…and remember - they smell like pine! After a while, we were close to limits on sculpin, so we moved on to find some bass.
Ray with a couple of sculpin.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-41.jpg
The first structure spot we fished was pretty hard to find due to the monsoonal weather, so we soon moved on to a little bigger spot. This spot was also a little hard to find, but once we found it, we were getting bit. When there was a bass bite, there was a lot more “Zing-Pow!” than catching, but it was still fun and exciting. I missed two bass but they didn’t get a chance to break me off in the rocks. My friend Bill was fishing 25 pound and was getting broken off by the bass, so he went to 40 pound test and couldn’t buy a bite…so, this is the part of structure fishing where you have to use your good judgment and determine what needs to be done. We ended up with a few bass and some more sculpin for our efforts.
Bill with a nice structure bass…he caught this one on the way down.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-62.jpg
I think we ended up with close to limits of sculpin, some bass, and my halibut for the day. It was okay, but the weather made it a little tough in the afternoon. I think the weather is going to be on the bad side this week, but I hope it doesn’t put a damper too much on the fishing. Anyways, great times, great fishing!
Another Picture of My Halibut
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-31.jpg