Jackpot Jimmy
03-05-2011, 10:17 PM
When March 1st comes around, every angler in Southern California knows what that means...it’s rockfish time! It’s the time when everyone goes out to try to get some taco meat, and the time when everyone loads up their tackle box and it magically gets 20 pounds heavier. Anyway, for me I look forward to this every year, and it either gets old very fast or is pretty fun and exciting. As for today, it was the latter.
We left the dock today with a load of about 22 anglers. On the way to the bait receiver we saw a school of one to two pound bones crashing on the surface. They were easily spooked as we had to make a quick turn around to go back and pick up Carlos, a.k.a. “Lingcod Sierra”. Oh well, at least it’s someone we all know. We quickly loaded up with sardines and headed out of King Harbor, en route to the rockfishing grounds. Our crew today consisted of Captain Steven Konrady, Kelsey in the galley, and Morgon and Alex working the deck. Also joining us for the day were a few people from the board…Greg (G-Money), Willie (Really Drunk), and the Guru himself, Steve (Ghetto Dad).
I decided today that I would try my best to fish a jig/shrimp fly combo the whole day, but I tied a double dropper loop as my stand-by rig. I decided to tie on a six ounce purple and black Jax Jig for my combo in hopes that it would produce. We arrived at our first spot soon after and dropped down to the depths…
Right away everyone was bent on some nice boscos and poinsettia rockfish. Tom, Bill, and I were fishing the jig/fly combo, and we weren’t producing like the guys fishing the double dropper loop, so I switched over to the double dropper loop, but that still didn’t help, so I went back to the jig. We made a few more drifts in this area and we picked a few reds and more boscos, and then it petered out, and we moved on to another area.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/billy_tradition.jpg
On the next area, we started to pick at some better quality rockfish. The guys fishing closer to the stern were pulling up some nice reds and more boscos. We also had a flurry with the salmon grouper, and these things were pulling hard, especially after hitting the jig. On one drop, my friend Bill got hooked up on a big grouper, and he couldn’t get a turn of the handle before the hook pulled. As good as the fishing was, we couldn’t escape the occasional tangle, and this was a tangle that turned out good no matter how bad the actual tangle was…two gangions, four nice cod…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/steven_tradition.jpg
The cod definitely were biting for a while…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/izick_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/jk_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/stevo_tradition.jpg
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I continued to pick away at the rockfish on my jig/fly combo. One drop I got bit on the way down and started winding, and it was really pulling. I was winding very slow trying not to spin them off, as it was heavy and they were pulling quite a bit. After a few minutes, I got it to color, and here was the end result…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/jimmy_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Jimmy_Reds.jpg
This really made my day…it’s not too often you can get a double on the reds like this around these parts, but it is possible with a little luck and skill! Afterwards we continued to pick on all species of rockfish mentioned, including a couple of nice salmon grouper for me on the jig. Soon, we were at out quota on rockfish, so we moved to the inside to load up on some sculpin.
The sculpin fishing was pretty instantaneous as long as we were on the spot. The wind was steadily increasing and it made it a little difficult, but we ended up getting quick and easy limits on the sculpin in about an hour. After this, Steven turned the boat towards Redondo and we idled in, as there were a lot of fish to clean.
We ended up with limits of rockfish and limits of sculpin for the day…a very nice way to start off the rockfishing season. It was also nice to fish with Steve, Greg, and Willie again. Hope to do it again soon guys! Quality and quantity on the cod – it doesn’t get better than that. Great times, great fishing!
Here are the rest of the pictures…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-62.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/003-65.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/004-55.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-74.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-57.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-42.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-36.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-39.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/011-28.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-30.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-29.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/017-17.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/018-10.jpg
We left the dock today with a load of about 22 anglers. On the way to the bait receiver we saw a school of one to two pound bones crashing on the surface. They were easily spooked as we had to make a quick turn around to go back and pick up Carlos, a.k.a. “Lingcod Sierra”. Oh well, at least it’s someone we all know. We quickly loaded up with sardines and headed out of King Harbor, en route to the rockfishing grounds. Our crew today consisted of Captain Steven Konrady, Kelsey in the galley, and Morgon and Alex working the deck. Also joining us for the day were a few people from the board…Greg (G-Money), Willie (Really Drunk), and the Guru himself, Steve (Ghetto Dad).
I decided today that I would try my best to fish a jig/shrimp fly combo the whole day, but I tied a double dropper loop as my stand-by rig. I decided to tie on a six ounce purple and black Jax Jig for my combo in hopes that it would produce. We arrived at our first spot soon after and dropped down to the depths…
Right away everyone was bent on some nice boscos and poinsettia rockfish. Tom, Bill, and I were fishing the jig/fly combo, and we weren’t producing like the guys fishing the double dropper loop, so I switched over to the double dropper loop, but that still didn’t help, so I went back to the jig. We made a few more drifts in this area and we picked a few reds and more boscos, and then it petered out, and we moved on to another area.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/billy_tradition.jpg
On the next area, we started to pick at some better quality rockfish. The guys fishing closer to the stern were pulling up some nice reds and more boscos. We also had a flurry with the salmon grouper, and these things were pulling hard, especially after hitting the jig. On one drop, my friend Bill got hooked up on a big grouper, and he couldn’t get a turn of the handle before the hook pulled. As good as the fishing was, we couldn’t escape the occasional tangle, and this was a tangle that turned out good no matter how bad the actual tangle was…two gangions, four nice cod…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/steven_tradition.jpg
The cod definitely were biting for a while…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/izick_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/jk_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/stevo_tradition.jpg
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I continued to pick away at the rockfish on my jig/fly combo. One drop I got bit on the way down and started winding, and it was really pulling. I was winding very slow trying not to spin them off, as it was heavy and they were pulling quite a bit. After a few minutes, I got it to color, and here was the end result…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/jimmy_tradition.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Jimmy_Reds.jpg
This really made my day…it’s not too often you can get a double on the reds like this around these parts, but it is possible with a little luck and skill! Afterwards we continued to pick on all species of rockfish mentioned, including a couple of nice salmon grouper for me on the jig. Soon, we were at out quota on rockfish, so we moved to the inside to load up on some sculpin.
The sculpin fishing was pretty instantaneous as long as we were on the spot. The wind was steadily increasing and it made it a little difficult, but we ended up getting quick and easy limits on the sculpin in about an hour. After this, Steven turned the boat towards Redondo and we idled in, as there were a lot of fish to clean.
We ended up with limits of rockfish and limits of sculpin for the day…a very nice way to start off the rockfishing season. It was also nice to fish with Steve, Greg, and Willie again. Hope to do it again soon guys! Quality and quantity on the cod – it doesn’t get better than that. Great times, great fishing!
Here are the rest of the pictures…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-62.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/003-65.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/004-55.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-74.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-57.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-42.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-36.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-39.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/011-28.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-30.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-29.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/017-17.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/018-10.jpg