Jackpot Jimmy
10-09-2011, 05:44 PM
After the storm during the week I was thinking that fishing would be on the slow side and conditions would be funky, but my hopes for the day were raised when I got down to the boat and saw that the tanks were filled with live squid. We had a light load of nine anglers for the day, and after clearing the harbor, Captain Taras told us that we would be putting the live squid to use in heavy structure, and to rig up with some leadheads, because we would be going structure bass fishing!
After an hour or so ride up the coast we started fishing. The wind was pretty calm so Taras told us he didn’t know how we would lay, and soon after anchoring we swung quite a bit but we relocated the structure relative to the boat, and started catching. We had a consistent bass bite all morning. I lost a few bass right off the bat on my spectra to mono rig (probably because I’m not used to it) and switched to straight 20 pound mono and that helped a lot. We had to cast up current and let our leadheads drift down the side, and then start dragging along the structure.
We would have flurries followed by short lulls that prompted Taras to give us a five minute warning, which was reset whenever someone caught a bass. We ended up moving but stayed relatively close to where we started. Here we landed more bass along with two halibut, weighing about eight pounds and 13 pounds, 8 ounces. Both were caught on the leadhead and live squid, which has worked better for halibut along these structure spots than the dropper loop.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/001-84.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-78.jpg
Throughout the day we caught a lot of sculpin. Most were short, but there were some really nice sized ones landed. I thought we caught more legals, but we only ended up with around 30 sculpin.
A couple of things I noticed about the bass were that they were eager to bite, but not so eager to eat the squid all the way. The bass that we were getting were coming up barely hooked, and a lot of casualties resulted from pulled hooks. Next, from what I saw, the chartreuse colored leadhead seemed to produce better for the most part during the first half of the day. However, I fished with a watermelon colored leadhead with most of the day and was one of the high sticks. So I suppose you could say in the long run color really doesn’t matter, but it may seem so during the short term.
Anyway, back to fishing. Like I said earlier, we stayed around the same area for the better part of the day and had pretty good results. I think we had around 70 to 75 bass by 2:30, and Taras told us to wind in our lines and we’d try another spot.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-91.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-61.jpg
This next spot was brutal even for the sculpin. You couldn’t waste half a second (yes, even with the sculpin), or you couldn’t get them out of the rock. After a while the bass started to bite, but all I could catch were sculpin and a nice treefish. After a while at this spot, my friend Pedro hooks something big, and when fishing these spots it can be one of many big things. It turns out it was a huge cabezon – one that is the biggest I’ve ever seen!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-75.jpg
After that nice feat, we still had some more time left. I noticed that the guys getting the bass were fishing with heavier heads, so I switched to a two ounce darker leadhead and heavier line. I got a couple more bass on this set up. The bass bites were instant.
Taras gave us until 4pm as the bass started to get with it at this last spot, and then we had to head for the barn. It looked like it was going to be pretty close with Tom’s halibut and Pedro’s cabezon, but the halibut ended up winning the jackpot. After the jackpot weigh-in, I found Pedro’s cabbie to weigh 11 pounds, 4 ounces. Check out the comparison in size below.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-55.jpg
We ended up with 64 sand bass, 22 calico bass, 2 rockfish, 1 cabezon, 2 halibut, 28 sculpin, 31 perch, and 2 black seabass released for the day. While it wasn’t stagnant on the water, a slight breeze with current made all the difference today as far as having some conditions to work with. This was the nicest day of bass fishing I’ve seen in a while. While it’s not easy fishing, it’s pretty fun and quite rewarding. Great times, great fishing!
After an hour or so ride up the coast we started fishing. The wind was pretty calm so Taras told us he didn’t know how we would lay, and soon after anchoring we swung quite a bit but we relocated the structure relative to the boat, and started catching. We had a consistent bass bite all morning. I lost a few bass right off the bat on my spectra to mono rig (probably because I’m not used to it) and switched to straight 20 pound mono and that helped a lot. We had to cast up current and let our leadheads drift down the side, and then start dragging along the structure.
We would have flurries followed by short lulls that prompted Taras to give us a five minute warning, which was reset whenever someone caught a bass. We ended up moving but stayed relatively close to where we started. Here we landed more bass along with two halibut, weighing about eight pounds and 13 pounds, 8 ounces. Both were caught on the leadhead and live squid, which has worked better for halibut along these structure spots than the dropper loop.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/001-84.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-78.jpg
Throughout the day we caught a lot of sculpin. Most were short, but there were some really nice sized ones landed. I thought we caught more legals, but we only ended up with around 30 sculpin.
A couple of things I noticed about the bass were that they were eager to bite, but not so eager to eat the squid all the way. The bass that we were getting were coming up barely hooked, and a lot of casualties resulted from pulled hooks. Next, from what I saw, the chartreuse colored leadhead seemed to produce better for the most part during the first half of the day. However, I fished with a watermelon colored leadhead with most of the day and was one of the high sticks. So I suppose you could say in the long run color really doesn’t matter, but it may seem so during the short term.
Anyway, back to fishing. Like I said earlier, we stayed around the same area for the better part of the day and had pretty good results. I think we had around 70 to 75 bass by 2:30, and Taras told us to wind in our lines and we’d try another spot.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-91.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-61.jpg
This next spot was brutal even for the sculpin. You couldn’t waste half a second (yes, even with the sculpin), or you couldn’t get them out of the rock. After a while the bass started to bite, but all I could catch were sculpin and a nice treefish. After a while at this spot, my friend Pedro hooks something big, and when fishing these spots it can be one of many big things. It turns out it was a huge cabezon – one that is the biggest I’ve ever seen!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-75.jpg
After that nice feat, we still had some more time left. I noticed that the guys getting the bass were fishing with heavier heads, so I switched to a two ounce darker leadhead and heavier line. I got a couple more bass on this set up. The bass bites were instant.
Taras gave us until 4pm as the bass started to get with it at this last spot, and then we had to head for the barn. It looked like it was going to be pretty close with Tom’s halibut and Pedro’s cabezon, but the halibut ended up winning the jackpot. After the jackpot weigh-in, I found Pedro’s cabbie to weigh 11 pounds, 4 ounces. Check out the comparison in size below.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-55.jpg
We ended up with 64 sand bass, 22 calico bass, 2 rockfish, 1 cabezon, 2 halibut, 28 sculpin, 31 perch, and 2 black seabass released for the day. While it wasn’t stagnant on the water, a slight breeze with current made all the difference today as far as having some conditions to work with. This was the nicest day of bass fishing I’ve seen in a while. While it’s not easy fishing, it’s pretty fun and quite rewarding. Great times, great fishing!