Rpt-Wed.-11-06-13 Fun Codding at San Clemente Island.

[Tunaslam]

On Wed.-11-06-13, I went fishing with Dave Robinson, on his 28’ Farallon “Hooked”, with friends John, Ron and Jim. We left Dave’s slip in Newport Harbor at 5:15 am Wednesday morning. Our destination was San Clemente Island, to the West end as the East End was closed according to the Navy?

The seas were very calm, as forecasted; the skies were clear with outstanding visibility. It is always nice to start the day off with a surreal sunrise:



We cruised to the Island at 23 knots. The Porpoise were out in force, many pods. We passed one big Kelp Paddy after Kelp Paddy, oh if it was only tuna season, with water temps at 64+ degrees. Dream on. We reached the west end at 7:45 am with a bit of a washing machine swell, however the winds remained calm.

Dave set us up on a waypoint that he had not fished in quite some time. The meter lit up like a Christmas tree. I was using my usual 8oz. Burnt Orange Jax Jig with a Shrimp Fly tied 18 inches above the lure. I hit bottom, reeled in my slack, and I was slammed immediately. I looked back and all five of us were bent. I came up with a double on the Bocaccio. We caught five Boccaccio and Captain Dave caught our lone Red.

A second drop by all resulted in a duplicate performance by me, and everyone else, except John, who caught a Red instead of a Bocaccio. Dave landed his second Red. It was a great start to the day. It remained wide open on the Bocaccio, with a mix of Santa Marias, a few Starries, Green Stripes, a Johnny Bass and one 24” Lingcod caught by Ron. I made ten drops and caught 20 Bocaccio, insane? Fortunately most of my releases went down.

One of my big Bocaccio that I kept:



Dave moved us outside the nine and to the back side of the Island. The Santa Ana winds chased us off the West end and on to the runway. It was scratchy fishing with strong currents running into the Island. We picked away at some nice Copper Rockfish, more Santa Marias and lots of Bocaccio, yet no more Reds?

The Santa Ana winds died down and we moved back to the nine. It took a while, yet Dave found a few more Red holes. Yep, we doubled our count to six.

Here is Jim with his first Red of the day:



And I finally caught one Red too:



Dave set us back up on another Red hole and Ron caught his first of the day:



Dave added our second Lingcod to the total:


Another big Bocaccio for me:



The wind remained calm all afternoon, and we finally hit limits of Rockfish kept, so it was time to call it a day at 3:00pm. It was a pleasant ride home and we cleaned fish outside the harbor and we docked at 6pm.

Thanks Dave, for another great day of fishing on the big pond.
Hook up! Cory

[jaggerbub]

Another great read. Wish I had as much time on the water as you do...