Shoe Flats 8/9

[plumbertom]

Launched out of Cabrillo about 8am and stopped at new bait receiver for some mixed 'dines and 'chovies, then headed out onto the 'shoe to try our luck.
Took Mark Weich's book "Between Two and Twenty Fathoms" with us cause it lists every ledge, rock, hard spot and other structure He found over 30 years of fishing.
Drifted over a rock he rates 3stars and picked up a nice sandy right away but after several more passes nothing was happening but a little mack action.
Another rock and more drift fishing this time I got a slug of a calico about 5lbs, CPRed it. Tried some more for the ones that followed it up but no dice.
Moved to the LA artificial reef and fished it. Ray hooked up with a good fish and brought it to the boat. Nice looking Ling but just shy of legal, CPRed.
Ran downhill to the flats and gave Izors a shot, no one home.
Spotted the short trip fleet fishing close in, about 60' of water, so we ran over and tried a few drifts. second time through Ray got a major over-spin on his reel and handed it to me to try and get it out. while he was holding my rod BANG he go's bendo big time and brought a nice Log to the boat. I finished clearing his reel and grabbed the net for that beri.
Fished a while longer with no results and the wind was starting to do its daily thing so we headed in.
No major action but a nice mixed bag and a nice day out.
All my fish came on 1oz. lead head with Berkley Powerbait 6" Pogys called "Sandy Candy" fished on 25lb P-line. Rays Ling ate a sardine on a sliding rig.
Sorry, the photo are in Rays camera.

[JapanRon]

Hi plumertom,

Great job on the fishing and excellent repport. Await your buddies photos.

thanks,

JapanRon

[Greg Madrigal]

Great report! Thanks! What time did the wind kick up? Also, IMO, 25lb test is kinda heavy for Calicos.

GM

[plumbertom]

The heavy line was because we were mainly trying to catch Beri's.
I wasn't targeting Calicos and when I do catch them I normally release them. I was tossing an iron that has been agood producer for me but they were not interested. Seems to me the last few Beri's I've caught on the flats have been picked up on or close to the bottom.
Sand bass don't seem to care about line size as much when they are stacked so I used the same rig for both.
There was a light breeze about 3-5mph out of the NW all morning.
About 1pm it started picking up and by 2pm it was a steady 20mph and the white caps were starting to roll.
Ray's boat is only an 18' North River alum. and in heavy chop it is a rough ride. We're both older anglers and that hard pounding take a toll on the ride in so we didn't stay for long.