Rpt-Sat.-04-21-12 SCI Reds.

[Tunaslam]

Fishing with Dave Robinson, on his 28’ Farallon “Hooked”, with friends Bob, Kevin and Jeff.. We left Dave’s slip in Newport Harbor at 5:00 am Saturday morning. Our destination was San Clemente Island, past the East End, Pyramid Point, and China Point.

The seas were grease calm, as forecasted; the skies were extremely overcast, a bit foggy with visibility about ¼ mile or less. We cruised to the Island at 23 knots. The Porpoise were out in force, with an occasional sighting of a whale. We passed Kelp Paddy after Kelp Paddy, oh if it was only tuna season, with water temps at 70+ degrees. Dream on.

Dave set us up on a waypoint that he marked on the way home on his last trip. We all dropped down, some of us fishing Jigs, and others fishing the Lucanus Lures. I was using my usual 8oz. Jax Jig with a Shrimp Fly tied 18 inches above the lure. I hit bottom, reeled in my slack, yo yoed a few times and wound up. I was bit on the wind up. A good head shake, and some feisty moves on the way up. A nice Copper Rockfish:



Dave also caught a Copper, Jeff caught a small Red, Kevin and Bob caught Starries. On our second drift, it wasn’t much to write home about, mostly nursery fish, good only for bait. So Dave headed further down the backside of the Island to some known spots, which usually yielded our targeted species of big Reds.

My next drop resulted in a double on small Chili Peppers, which I released, one swam down the other became bird food. Then I went on a Bocaccio frenzy. Back to back Doubles on good sized fish.





Then I came up with another Double, yet this time the second fish was a nice Red:



My first Red and a big Bocaccio:



The Bocaccio were thick as flies, with everyone catching a few and trying to release them, with some success. We also had a great bite on nice sized Starries, Green Spots and Santa Marias. We had to work hard to get bit by the Reds. On this drift almost everyone caught a Red.

Captain Dave came up with a couple of back to back Reds, as did Kevin:



Jeff with a nice Red:



Bob with a nice Red:



Here is Jeff with one of our decent sized Green Spots:



Myself with another Red:



The wind remained grease calm until 2pm. Even then it only got up to about ten knots. We had to keep moving from spot to spot to avoid the ever present Bocaccio, which seems to have infested the area. On our next drift, Dave again found the Reds on the chew. I was fishing with my knockoff Lucanus outfit, and got hammered by the biggest Red of the day, probably 7 to 8 pounds:



Bob got hot and caught a couple of Reds:



Jeff and Bob having fun with their Reds:



The wind came up, the current started ripping, and it was time to call it a day at 3:20pm, so we headed home. We finished the day with 22 Reds, one Lingcod, and enough miscellaneous Rockfish to fill our limits.

Thanks Dave, for another fantastic adventure. Hook up! Cory

[fishincrave]

Looks like great times were had nice eating fish congrats on a successful day ...


Sean

[DockRat]

Great SCI Rockies there.
DR

[JapanRon]

Hi Cory,

Read the report again ... as usual. Super trip, report, and pics.

thanks,

JapanRon