Jackpot Jimmy
04-16-2011, 08:07 PM
The day started out with a trip to the bait receiver to load up on some nice sardines. Meanwhile, my friend John Kim threw out a little dart on six pound test to snag some mackerel to use for the big grouper and possibly a lingcod. He scratched out about ten pieces. We then headed out of King Harbor en route to the rockfishing grounds. It was a little bumpy on the way out but it wasn’t too bad and the wind was relatively calm. Meanwhile, everyone rigged up their rods. Most opted to use the double dropper loop, but a few of us fished the jig as it was very successful on the big grouper earlier in the week. Soon, we were at the fishing grounds.
The first drift produced very little and afterward a short move produced great results. Everyone started going bendo on some quality grouper and reds. I was fishing my usual Jax Jig/Shrimp Fly combo while cheating by putting a strip of squid on the shrimp fly because some reds caught on the first drift were caught on squid. As I was bouncing my set up off the bottom I got bit and started winding. It bit sort-of like a grouper and it was fighting like a grouper, but unlike grouper, it never stopped fighting. It even looked like a grouper as it came to color, but when I bounced it, I realized it was a nice big chilipepper that weighed 3-1/2 pounds! Meanwhile, everyone was pulling up some nice big grouper. They were voraciously eating the jigs and absolutely slammed them when they bit. After a while, we were at our quota on the grouper and we moved on to find other rockfish.
For the remainder of the day, we bounced around and picked a few nice boscos (including one caught by me that weighed three pounds), some nice reds, and a few barber poles. As we got into the afternoon the wind came up and made the drift from slow in the morning to fast. We were fishing an area that had a few rocks along some hard bottom, so some people opted to fish sand dabs. That paid off for one person who hooked and landed a nice lingcod weighing about nine pounds – nice job Carlos! Others managed to pull up some nice reds after this, but the wind made the drift pretty much unfishable, but we were out of time anyway, and headed for the barn.
Besides the wind in the afternoon, it was a nice day of rockfishing overall. The cod definitely wanted to eat the jig for the better part of the morning, including several eager reds on top of all the voracious salmon grouper. The biggest grouper weighed eight pounds and the biggest red weighed around four pounds, making this day a great one for quality. I hope it continues. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-65.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-76.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-60.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-51.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-45.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-39.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-42.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/011-31.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-32.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-31.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/016-16.jpg
The first drift produced very little and afterward a short move produced great results. Everyone started going bendo on some quality grouper and reds. I was fishing my usual Jax Jig/Shrimp Fly combo while cheating by putting a strip of squid on the shrimp fly because some reds caught on the first drift were caught on squid. As I was bouncing my set up off the bottom I got bit and started winding. It bit sort-of like a grouper and it was fighting like a grouper, but unlike grouper, it never stopped fighting. It even looked like a grouper as it came to color, but when I bounced it, I realized it was a nice big chilipepper that weighed 3-1/2 pounds! Meanwhile, everyone was pulling up some nice big grouper. They were voraciously eating the jigs and absolutely slammed them when they bit. After a while, we were at our quota on the grouper and we moved on to find other rockfish.
For the remainder of the day, we bounced around and picked a few nice boscos (including one caught by me that weighed three pounds), some nice reds, and a few barber poles. As we got into the afternoon the wind came up and made the drift from slow in the morning to fast. We were fishing an area that had a few rocks along some hard bottom, so some people opted to fish sand dabs. That paid off for one person who hooked and landed a nice lingcod weighing about nine pounds – nice job Carlos! Others managed to pull up some nice reds after this, but the wind made the drift pretty much unfishable, but we were out of time anyway, and headed for the barn.
Besides the wind in the afternoon, it was a nice day of rockfishing overall. The cod definitely wanted to eat the jig for the better part of the morning, including several eager reds on top of all the voracious salmon grouper. The biggest grouper weighed eight pounds and the biggest red weighed around four pounds, making this day a great one for quality. I hope it continues. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-65.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-76.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-60.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-51.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-45.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-39.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-42.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/011-31.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-32.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-31.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/016-16.jpg