Aug 9 – Day 14 – Mimics and an unexpected return to LA

At 5am, Thomas and I left the house and quickly grabbed breakfast on our way to Dana Landing. When we arrived, Thomas’ friend Gary was already there with the boat ready to launch. Thomas and Gary fished together often and their launching procedure was quick and smooth. In no time, we were ready to head out of Mission Bay.

The waves were a little rough on this cloudy morning for the bay boat, but it just meant we would head out of the harbour at a slower speed. Once outside of the harbour, we went full throttle toward La Jolla. Our game plan was to fish La Jolla for a bit near the kelp beds, then find some rocky spot for rockfish.

Gary and Thomas started fishing for Kelp Bass while I tied on a dropper loop rig to look for new species on the bottom. Nothing wanted to bite my squid, but Gary and Thomas were doing well on Kelp Bass using swimbaits. At times, I was tempted to join them. However, I remained steadfast on my species hunt and continued to fish the dropper loop. After an hour of fishing for Kelp Bass, Gary was satisfied and we went to look for some rocky bottom.

At first, we looked around La Jolla for some deep rock bottoms. We were fishing in 200 feet of water. On our first drops, we caught a few Pacific Sanddabs. It indicated that we were on some sandy bottom. Thomas had never tried Sanddabs before. Being a personal chef, he immediate thought how to cook these little fish. We kept 3 larger ones that Thomas would cook up later. Along with these Sanddabs, we also caught a few Halfbanded Rockfish (Sebastes semicinctus) – new species #34. Initially, I thought these were juvenile Chilipepper Rockfish. However, the two bands on the rear end of the fish suggested they were HalfBanded.

A few drops and a couple of Sanddabs later, I finally had a slightly bigger fish. I initially thought this rockfish was a Greenspotted Rockfish. However, upon closer inspection at home, I suspected that this should be a Freckled Rockfish. Dr Milton Love had a look at my picture and also agreed it was a Freckled Rockfish (Sebastes lentiginosus) – a bonus new species #35!!! Sometimes it pays to take pictures of every fish you caught…especially when some of your fish display similar marking and colourations to each other.

I had mentioned to Thomas and Gary that I had never caught a California Lizardfish before. They said the Lizardfish could sometimes reach epidemic levels such that all you may catch are Lizardfish. However, none of us expected that I would catch two lizardfish halfway on the drop! The Lizardfish bit in about 100 feet over 200 feet of water and I had a double on Lizardfish on the same dropper loop rig! Aggressive little feeders, I could see how they can be an annoyance. Luckily, once I crossed off this species, we didn’t encounter them for the rest of the morning. California Lizardfish (Synodus lucioceps) – new species #36.

Our area stopped producing any rockfish and only small Sanddabs were biting. Thomas suggested to look at one area he had been wanting to try just outside of Mission Bay.

A short ride later, we were watching the sonar in 120 feet of water searching for any rough bottom or any humps. Circling around the general area, we finally found a hump that rose from 100 feet to 70 feet. By this time, the water had calmed down and we could slowly drift over the small spot. Even so, it only takes a few minutes to drift over the spot. It was a tiny hump.

Small as it may be, it held fish. When we drifted right over the rocky hump, the rockfish began to show themselves. We were soon catching some rockfish. I thought I would take a better picture of a Greenspotted Rockfish since the sun poked out of the cloud. It was good I took another set of pictures of this fish since this was the real Greenspotted Rockfish (Sebastes chlorostictus) – new species #37. I would have missed this new species if I had not taken extra pictures (since the previous fish was a Freckled Rockfish instead.) The Greenspotted Rockfish has smaller round green spots on a slightly lighter coloured back. The markings tend to look more uniform and regularly connected instead of the irregular vermiculations found on the Freckled Rockfish. I also noticed that the pictures of Greenspotted Rockfish on reputable sources shows a white edge on the upper and lower lobes of the caudal fin while the Freckled Rockfish shows an orange edge.

A few more drops later, I caught a real Rosy Rockfish (Sebastes rosaceus) – new species #38. Again, I recorded this extra species with the aid of extra photographs of fish since the fish I caught on the Gentleman ¾ day boat was in fact a Greenblotched Rockfish. They look extremely similar, and in fact, it took Dr. Love’s expert eyes to distinguish the two. The Greenblotched has green markings on the back while this is lacking in the Rosy. Both the Rosy and Greenblotched Rockfish has pink-purplish marking on the head and nape areas. They look extremely alike!

Meanwhile, Thomas and Gary were competing with my species hunt but catching a Yellowtail Rockfish and a Blue Rockfish, both species that I had yet to catch. Here’s Thomas’ Blue Rockfish. It was surprising to find this fish south of their typical range and feeding on bottom as opposed to suspended.

When we drifted off the rock, we would reset the drift. The lack of strong current and wind allowed us to drift slowly over the rock and we capitalize on the opportunities.

On the second last drift, I hooked into another red bodied rockfish with white spots. This one was a Honeycomb Rockfish (Sebastes umbrosus) – new species #39. This one was much easier to identify from its related species by the honeycomb-like patterns on the side of the body due to dark edges on the scales.

After about an hour, the fish stopped biting. At about 12pm, we decided to call it day and headed back to the launch. Strangely, Dana Landing and a couple of other San Diego launches do not have wash down facilities. Gary had about an hour drive and a wash down at home so he left promptly. Thomas and I went for a Mexican burrito lunch before going home.

We were chatting about the plans for the next day to go offshore in search for Yellowtail. It was then that I realized I had left my passport at my aunt’s apartment and the Yellowtails were in Mexican waters. So the decision was quickly made for me to get my Mexican fishing permit, then drive to LA to get the passport, and return to San Diego in the evening. Initially, I had planned a fishing session with Kevin that evening. It was very unfortunate that I had to cancel so I could drive back to LA to retrieve my passport…even more so when you read below. So very sorry I couldn’t fish with you Kevin!

The rest of the day was just time on the road. I was caught in a bit of rush hour traffic and didn’t get back to my aunt’s apartment until 5pm. After a quick 1.5 hour nap, I was back on the road toward San Diego. Again, I was caught in the tail end of rush hour and I didn’t get back to San Diego until 9pm. I got my passport though, so all was good, right?

When I got back to Thomas’ house, Thomas gave me some good and bad news. The good news was that there was a fresh report where people encountered Yellowtail just 30 miles out of Mission Bay in US waters. The bad news was that a meeting between US and Mexico government to resolve the visa issue was not decided, and there were no visa being sold on that day, such that we would not be able to fish in Mexican waters. Thomas and his friend Craig did well at the Coronado Islands in Mexican waters on Wednesday and most of the fish were caught on kelp paddies in Mexican waters. We were now limited to finding fish either offshore outside of the Coronado Islands or within US waters.

I guess our game plan was complicated by several factors. For starter, Craig owns the boat with a partners and fishing at the Coronado Islands without proper visa could risk boarding by the Mexican coast guard and subsequent fines or even confiscation of the vessel. Then, seeing as I was a Canadian citizen far away from home, and so was Michael who were to join us tomorrow, we really didn’t want to get into any issue with Mexico. In addition, the chance of finding fish on offshore kelp paddies would require more gas in Mexico waters as compared to searching for them in the US waters. Thus, we decided to fish in US waters the next day.

That night, Michael (a friend of mine in Toronto who conveniently were also visiting San Diego the same time that I was) arrived in San Diego. He had some trouble finding Thomas’ house and arrived fairly late. After a quick dinner of fresh yellowtail sashimi and yellowtail poke courtesy of the skillful Thomas, all of us were in bed before 12am. We had a day offshore waiting for our attention.

 Aug 10 – Day 15 – It is a big ocean out there!

Michael had never fished in the ocean. I was excited for him since this would be his first ever saltwater experience. I still remember the first time I fished offshore on my friend Todd’s boat in Hawaii. The anticipation was almost to great, so I could just imagine how Michael would feel.

While Thomas met with Craig to fill up the boat, Michael and I went to grab some breakfast and coffee before getting to Dana Landing. We arrived just a minute before Thomas and Craig arrived. After a quick hello, we started loading up Craig’s 21-foot boat and prepared for launch. I got on the boat to help Craig prep the boat while Thomas backed the trailer. Another smooth launch later, we were slowly making our way out of Mission Bay. As soon as we were out of Mission Bay, we felt the short 2-4’ swells that would build on this day. In the morning, the wind was light and there were hardly any wind chop. Our plan was to head out 15 miles at a good speed before slowing down to start searching for kelp paddies. This was the third trip for Craig on his new boat and it was a good shake down offshore run for Craig.

The ride was smooth for most part aside for the occasional swell that we could not dodge. Thomas was lying down in the cubbyhole just under the helm to test out his seasick comfort station LOL. Several times, Thomas was bounced around quite well when we hit a few waves.

Finally, we reached our starting point and a few trolling feathers were sent out. While searching for kelp paddies, we trolled hoping to pick up a fish on the blind. Between Michael and I, it was our job to search for kelp paddies on the tower. It was interesting that this job were given to a couple of kelp paddy fishing noobs since we really had no idea what to look for. Most of my past experience was looking for bird piles or porpoises since kelp paddies were not found in Hawaii. On a cloudy day, the water took on a deep blue that made it difficult to look for the low-lying kelp. Thomas taught us to look for calm slick on the water (since a pile of surface debris would prevent chop from traveling through the debris and calms the water right around the debris). He also said it would be good to look for birds sitting on the water since they could be sitting on a kelp paddy. Most importantly, kelp would appear as a small green patch of colour against the blue ocean, although it would be harder to see this when it was cloudy. Personally, I found it most effective by looking at a 45 degree angle to the path of travel. I scanned up and down along this 45 degree path to search the face or the crest of swells and wind waves for any indication of kelp. I found that this systematic method worked well for me, much better than scanning the entire area and missing a kelp paddy as I look away to scan another area (which had happened prior to changing to my method).

We started looking for any signs of kelp. Thomas was the first to find a strand of kelp in the water and it gave Michael and I an idea of what to look for. It took a long ride before I spotted a buoy in the distance. This ended up being a long gill net set by commercial fisherman that had no fish associated with it.

Another 20 minutes passed before Michael found another couple of kelp strands that we did try for a quick 5 minutes. No one was home on this small bit of kelp.

I then saw a gull sitting on a patch of slick water, but upon closer inspection, the gull was just sitting on a current break where and eddy had likely formed.

We decided to make a move in the 270 degree direct. When we moved off, we found less and less indication of kelp. An hour later, I finally saw another small strand of kelp that we decided was not worth our time. It was a good sign to finally see another bit of kelp though. Kelp often built up where two current meets and where you find some kelp, you are likely to find more. Another 15 minutes passed when I spotted a bit of green on the face of a wave. I stomp on the roof of the cockpit to notify Craig and Thomas came out to see a paddy that worth at least a try. This kelp paddy was just slightly bigger than a study desk, but on this slim picking day, it was something we couldn’t pass by. Thomas threw out a few live sardines and chunked a few dead sardines to see if anyone was home. He pinned a sardine by the nose, casted out the Saltist 40 and passed the rod to me. This was the first time I flylined a sardine toward a kelp paddy, so I was not sure if I was doing it correctly. Thomas said I should keep just enough tension to let the sardine swim off, but not too much slack in the line. As the boat drift around the paddy, I had to point the rod tip toward the paddy and walk around the tower to follow the bait. Craig also had a sardine out but neither of us was receiving any attention after 5 minutes of soaking. Craig decided to start the engine and we slow trolled the sardines around the kelp for a couple of passes before moving on. Thomas said that in truth, the paddy was too small to hold fish, but you just never know so we checked it out.

Michael and I went back to looking for paddies. Instead of paddies, we found a pod of whales. Michael had never seen whales before so this was a great experience for him. Craig even took the boat closer to the whales so Michael could have a better look (rest assure people…we were still keeping a distance away from the whales).

When we went back to searching for paddies, it took another 30 minutes before I saw another bit of kelp poking at the peak of a swell. This kelp paddy was the size of a large dining table and this was the biggest patch we’ve seen all morning.  The kelp paddy looked really good from a distance. I said to Michael “All we needed was one good paddy.”

Thomas started chunking when we were still a good 40 feet away. He also tossed a few sardines at the paddies. We didn’t see any fish coming out of the paddy at the bait. Thomas nose hooked a sardine on the baitrunner rod and handed the rod to Michael while Craig fished another freelined sardine on the Saltist. Another 5 minutes later, the sardines were still being ignored. It was a bit disheartening that this great paddy sitting in 74 degrees water didn’t held any Yellowtail or Dorado. We didn’t even bother to slow troll the sardines around the paddy. We just took off. Back we went to look for more paddies. Although the fishing was tough, Michael and I were just having a blast on the tower.

We didn’t see any more paddies, but we did find one Fin Whale close enough to us. My camera was in the cockpit and I didn’t get any pictures. This was one from Thomas.

By 10am, we decided that it was a lost cause search for the few and unoccupied paddies. So we headed back to La Jolla to soak a few live sardines hoping to hook up some home guard Yellowtails, or perhaps a White Seabass. We got a couple sardines in the water but soon found that the water was too dirty and the lines were often fouled by sea grass or kelp. It was too difficult to drift some baits, so we decided to fish on some rocky bottoms so at least we can get Michael a few new species.

Just like yesterday, we searched around the La Jolla but we didn’t get any action. Thomas suggested that we fished the same rocky area we found yesterday. The only issue was that the GPS coordinates were saved on Gary’s GPS LOL. We did find the area again but couldn’t find the same hump we fished yesterday. Nonetheless, we sent some dropper loop rigs to the bottom and soon hooked up Sanddabs, and various rockfish. I’ll let Michael report his catches. Thomas was fishing a sabiki rig since I told him we would be fishing for Leopard Shark the next day and he was trying to jig up a few mackerels for me. Aside from a few good size Pacific Jack Mackerels, Thomas also caught a Sardine! He asked me if I would like to fish the sabiki for Sardine. I really should have given it a go, but I was determined to fish the dropper loop for a Blue Rockfish or a Yellowtail Rockfish (since I know they are in the area). To tease me a little, Thomas caught a Yellowtail Rockfish on the sabiki! He was catching my target species again!

I caught some more Halfbanded Rockfish, Greenspotted Rockfish and Rosy Rockfish. Just as we were going to call it a day, I set the hook on yet another rockfish. When I saw the brown back with white blotches and some yellowish fin, I was getting excited. Once the fish was in the boat, I could see the pinkish tinge on the pectoral fins, the black blotch between dorsal spines 8 to 12 and counted 8 anal fin rays. YES!!! It was a Yellowtail Rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) – new species #40!!

After landing the Yellowtail Rockfish, we decided to call it a day. Again, we were at Dana Landing and there was no wash down facilities. I felt bad that Craig had to wash down the whole boat on his own. Craig, on the other hand, felt bad that our original plans to fish the Coronado Islands for Yellowtail had to be changed and we ended up not finding any of them offshore in US waters. But that’s how offshore fishing goes. You never know where fish may be from one day to another. Fish could move in and out of an area, or completely turn off fishing if conditions change. Craig gave Michael and I an invite to return to San Diego any time to fish with him again, as soon as the Mexican visa issue is resolved. Craig was rather impressed that we spotted quite a few paddies on such a tough day, especially since we were both new to paddy fishing. I was glad I made a new friend with a boat to fish for pelagics LOL.

After Craig left, Thomas, Michael and I went for some tacos. This was the first time Michael had fish tacos.

After lunch, I just needed a little nap. Fishing offshore certainly takes a toll mentally and physically. However, I wanted to get Michael on a few more San Diego species, so we only took a couple hours of nap and we were ready to head out again at 5pm.

I had a spot in Mission Bay in mind where it could yield multiple species. We didn’t have any bait, but Thomas gave me some squid strips, the fresh dead sardines leftover from the morning and some parboiled sand crabs.

It was a just a short drive to the spot since Thomas’ house was located near the airport. I did have to search for the location again since I took a wrong exit and ended back at Dana Landing LOL. However, we soon found our way and arrived just after high tide.

The tide was dropping so there was a bit of water movement.  We sent out three rod. Michael and I each fished a 7’ rod with a Carolina rig and parboiled sand crabs. I also sent out half a sardine on a 5/0 circle hook on the 12’ surf rod. The bites were far and few in between. However, Michael had a tap on his rod and landed his first Barred Sand Bass!

A while later, I heard my baitrunner went off and had Michael grab the rod and did a typical hook set. However, I was using a circle hook and the hook did not set.

I baited with another pieces of sardine and it took another 30 minutes before we got a good run. Michael took the rod again. This time, the fish was really running with the bait. When Michael tightened the line and applied some pressure, he said he felt the fish on the line…but then it all went slack. After reeling in the bait, we found the hook point was pushed back into the bait and the hook never set. Darn!

It then went quiet on the long rod. Michael landed a couple more Sand Bass. I was hoping that we would find a Spotted Bay Bass for Michael, or some other possible Mission Bay species such as Sargo, White Surfperch, Yellowfin Croaker, Spotfin Croaker…or maybe even a Lizardfish.

The sun was setting and the bit on the sand crab died. We were chatting with someone who used to browse on SCSF but he had not been on the board for a year. After he left, I was just commenting that nothing was going on with my long rod when it went off. This time, the fish picked up the bait, took a short run and dropped it. I took the rod in hand. I felt the fish picked up the bait again and ran left about 10 feet before dropping the bait.  It never came back for a third bite. It might have been a shark…either a Leopard Shark or a Smoothhound Shark.

Since it was now dark, I said to Michael that we should switch the light rods to squid so we could perhaps catch some sharks or rays. As if it was magic, it took all of 5 minutes before the rod went off. Michael was over excited and botched the hook set. A fresh piece of bait was put on but then the other rod went off. This time, Michael set the hook properly and a nice little fish was on the other end. When we got it close to shore, we saw that it was a baby Bat Ray…and Michael’s first Bay Ray!

After a quick CPR, we rebaited with squid a third time. Another 10 minutes passed when Michael’s rod had another fish and it was a second baby Bat Ray.

For some time, I noticed the occasional tiny twitch on the long rod’s tip. The baitrunner never went off, but something was bugging the bait. I thought it was either a crab or lobster ripping off bits of sardines. Since we were busy landing bat ray, I left the long rod alone. When I noticed that even the rod tip stopped twitching, I should check my bait to make sure it was still there. I started reeling in my line and felt rig tangled in the eel grass bed. When I finally got the rig out of the grass, I noticed a little wriggling on the line. I thought it might have been grass fouled on the line causing the pyramid sinker to swing on the retrieve. When I had the rig close to shore, I saw something splash on the surface and realized I had a fish on the line!

By complete luck, I caught my first Thornback Guitarfish (Platyrhinoidis triseriata) – new species #41! I guess it was good I was using a circle hook since the fish must have swam against the weight of the sinker and the hook set itself. I was actually surprised that this 17” fish did not pull any line. I’d take a lucky catch any day!

By about 9pm, the tide had bottomed out and reached slack low. We watched the Sea World fireworks just before leaving for Thomas’s house. It was great to add 2 more species for Michael.

When we got back, Thomas was preparing dinner. He made yellowtail sashimi and yellowtail poke and we also had some salad and rice.  Everyone was pretty tired after a day of fishing so we all went to bed soon after dinner.

Aug 11 – Day 16 – Meeting an old friend for the first time.

Michael and I had a surf session this morning. We were to meet with Kaipo and Elijah in the Carlsbad area at 6:30am. I was especially excited since I would be meeting an old friend for the very first time.

You see, about 5 years ago, Elijah found one of my Hawaii fishing report on a Hawaiian fishing website. Elijah was living in the Bay area at the time while I was living in Toronto. At the time, he was interested in the fishing opportunities in Hawaii, especially for Peacock Bass. After conversing over email, I found that we shared mutual interest in traveling and fishing. We had the same ideals and detailed approach to fishing. We started sharing more techniques and even started sharing GPS coordinates for specific species targets. Soon, we were talking about taking trip together some day. Strangely, we discussed planning overseas trips together before we had even met or spent a day sharing the waters.

It was a mix feeling to meet someone whom I had become so familiar with for the very first time. Fortunately, all the anxiety was for naught since Elijah was the same great personality online as he was in person. We quickly rigged up our rods and took our first fishing adventures together.

Before we left our parking spot, Elijah said he would be searching for his first Corbina today. Just a few days ago, Elijah had hooked into a small Corbina and lost it in the surf zone. I said that it would be an absolute pleasure to be there for his first Corbina. We got down to the beach and met Kaipo. Kaipo and I had been chatting a little about fishing in Hawaii. He gave me an invite to fish the Carlsbad area to try for a Spotfin Croaker. So it was with great company of Michael, Elijah and Kaipo that we explore this stretch of beach for Corbina and Spotfin Croaker.

Michael had never fished in the surf so I helped him get started. We looked for sand crabs and found some thumb-sized crabs. I collected a full pocket of big sand crabs and started fishing. Before I even got into the groove, I saw Elijah hooked up! Oh yeah! It looks like a good fish too!!! I got closer as the fish the tired and it was a Corbina! I was so stoked, but also anxious for Elijah at the same time. The fish was in the surf zone, the danger zone. But it was a lot of worrying for nothing since he surfed the Corbina up the beach like an expert. Awesome….completely awesome!!!

We got back into fishing and I felt a little tap-tap. My sand crab came back half eaten. That’s a sign of some Surfperch in the area. I switched to a smaller hook and picked a jellybean-sized sand crab from the sand. After a couple of drifts, there was a solid take and I pulled in a Barred Surfperch. Since Michael had yet to catch a fish from the surf, I suggested for him to change to a smaller hook and put on a 2” plastic grub. It didn’t take long before Michael caught his first Barred Surfperch. Wicked!

I went back to fishing a large hook and large sand crabs. On one cast, my sand crab was just coming in with the waves when I felt a little tap. It was strange to get hit so close to shore in such skinny water. The fish couldn’t give much of a fight since there was little water to swim in, and to be honest – it was small. It did solidify a confirmed Leopard Shark catch for me. That little shark could barely fit the sand crab in its mouth, but it was fair hooked on the lower jaw!

Between Kaipo, Elijah, Michael and I, we leap frogged down the beach hoping to find more big fish action. However, we worked hard for nothing more. We decided that it was time to fish a different beach.

A short drive down the highway we reached a beach a little south. Kaipo said this beach is good for Crobina and it is a good beach for a bit of sight fishing. At the beginning, we really don’t know how we could sight fish in that water. However, Elijah and I soon figured out that we need to look for flatter areas on the beach where the water is shallow, causing the waves to flatten out and the sand to settle. This gave us windows where the water calms and clears and good visibility to search for these ghosts.

Steve was also on the beach looking for Corbina.

It took at least an hour before I spotted my first Corbina in the skinny. It was so ridiculously cool seeing that fish swim in the shallow. The entire time I had my Carolina rig casting into a pair of deep holes within a nice trough. I thought the fish might be sitting in the holes waiting for the right surf to charge the beach. I soaked a large sand crab for a long while without getting hit, but seeing the Corbina swimming in the vicinity told me I had the right idea.

Letting a bait soak in one spot trying to catch a randomly cruising Corbina was just the wrong technique though. Based on everyone’s lack of action fishing the trough, the fish were just not feeding in the deep water. They were coming onto the beach to feed on the sand crab beds. You could sit a bait on the bed and hope for a Corbina to find it, but that is a really low percentage game unless a fish is consistently feeding on the same bed. The only way to get these fish was to pitch a sand crab to fish that you spot, similar to flats fishing for bonefish.

And just like flats fishing for bonefish, it was much easier said than done. By the time you spot a fish, it was likely on the move. Even with the rod at the ready to cast, bail open and line on your finger, there was little time to make that cast. The surf environment is even more unpredictable than a calm flat. The fish could be visible one second but then disappear under white foam on the incoming wave in the next second. If, and that’s a big if, you made that cast and lead the fish with the sand crab, the waves again introduce some uncertainly. There were a couple of fish where I made the cast leading the fish, but either an incoming wave or an outgoing wave washed the sand crab around and the window of opportunity was lost. Like always, you cannot cast directly at a fish since that would spook them immediately. Sight fishing for Corbina was extremely difficult, but so very addictive! Kaipo, Elijah and I spent over 3 hours just looking for Corbina to cast to. And since the tide is constantly changing, what was a good flat one moment could be unfishable another 15 minutes later. We did a lot of walking often looking for a new flat to fish. Michael, on the other hand, stuck to the pair of holes I started at and fished that area hard. He did see a pair of Corbina in front of him and a pair behind him on the incoming wave.

By 12pm, there were just too many people on the beach on this Saturday. We were just about to leave when a Game Warden showed up to check our licenses. It felt good to present my non-resident licenses LOL. We chatted for a little bit and he welcomed me to California and wish me luck for the rest of the trip.

At 1pm, we decided to call it a day. We were hungry, but most importantly, we wanted to explore other areas for other species of fish. We bid farewell to Steve and Kaipo and left them on their quest for Corbina.

We took our time having lunch. We were waiting for the tide change since high tide was at around 2pm. After lunch, we bought some ghost shrimp and razor clams. I also picked up 2 small sand spikes. In 2008, I visited Angler’s Choice in San Diego and found a small packable sand spike. I had not been able to find them anywhere else. It was great to find that these were still available at the store and I grabbed the remaining two in stock LOL.

Now, the difficult decision began. Elijah mentioned a few spots he knew where there were opportunities for variety of target species. One spot he mentioned could yield bonefish. I already a plan the next day to fish for bonefish, but I thought it would be fun since all three of us were after our first Eastern Pacific Bonefish. Elijah also mentioned that the area Haller’s Round Ray, Butterfly Ray and Smoothhound Shark, all of which were my target species. Thus, we headed over to the location to spend the afternoon.

Michael and I initially fished from the same spot, however, I suggested to Michael that we should spread out along the shoreline to cover area. I took Michael’s spot since there was a little bit of beach where I could put my sand spike for the long surf rod. Michael moved about 20 feet to the left of me while Elijah was another 30 feet from Michael to his left.

I cast out a piece of sardine for the long rod and a ghost shrimp on the lighter rod. Michael was also fishing ghost shrimp but using a smaller hook. He was the first to get a strike but missed the fish due to the smaller hook. I suggested that he should make a switch for a large hook and he drew first blood on his first Haller’s Round Ray. Elijah also caught a ray while my rods were silent. Finally, as I was setting up a second light rod, I got a hit and caught my first Haller’s Round Ray (Urolophus halleri) – new species #42.

These little rays had a stinger near the end of their tail. You really had to watch out when handling them. Usually, we flipped them over on their back and use the rod butt to hold the fish down while unhooking the fish with hemostat. I usually just nudge the fish back into the water with my rod butt. The further my hands from the fish, the less chance that I would get jabbed.

It seemed like all we could catch were these Round Rays. However, I broke the monotony with a Shovelnose Guitarfish.

Michael was getting little bites but kept missing the hooksets. I put on a fresh ghost shrimp and it soaked for a while before I started to get some little bites also. I took the rod in hand and felt a small fish, so I set the hook. I start reeling in the fish and there was not much of a struggle. I was telling Michael that it was just a little fish when I saw a long, silvery fish on my line…it couldn’t be! When the fish got close to shore, it went on the afterburner and took off! Wow! This little fish can take some drag!!! I already knew what this fish would be…and I was a nervous wreck trying to land it. Finally, I had the fish in hand and made sure I moved far away from the shore. YES!!! It was my first Eastern Pacific Bonefish (Albula esuncula) – new species #43!!! Some people search for year for one…but with a bit of luck and Elijah’s intel, we found one!

I know that bonefish sometimes travel in a school. So I ran to grab Elijah and told him to cast toward the same spot. Only minutes after Elijah had cast out the rod arched over and the spool was singing! Could it be? Yes it was!!! Bonefish for Elijah too!!!

 Now it was Michael’s turn. He cast to the same spot using two rods and set them into my sand spikes. I moved my rod over to his spot and fished with squid. Elijah found a little space in between and tossed out a ghost shrimp. Another 10 minutes passed when Elijah hooked up our third bonefish of the day. In the meantime, I caught another Round Ray and so did Michael.

Elijah was still soaking a ghost shrimp around the area and he his bait was picked up by another bonefish. That’s four bonefish for the group! As if that wasn’t enough, Elijah landed a fourth bonefish soon after. Simply amazing!!!

I was fishing mostly with squid strip hoping to catch one of the Butterfly Rays that I saw coming close to shore. After Elijah caught his 4th bonefish, I switched back to ghost shrimp. Shortly after, Elijah and I had a double header on a Shovelnose Guitarfish and a Thornback Guitarfish. I felt bad for Michael since he was just catch Round Rays and we were catching the other species.

I checked the time and it was around 5pm. We had originally planned to fish the surf with Chris for Leopard Shark, California Moray Eel and Grass Rockfish. However, Chris texted me at around that time to say he had to work. It was a little late to make other plans to fish another location, so we decided to stay at the same spot to give Michael extra time to find his bonefish.

Michael was missing a lot of hits. He was often setting the hook forgetting that the spool was set with a light drag. Elijah and I gave him a few pointers. Finally, Michael had a good run on the rod. We were really hoping this was it…it has to be. Michael was having a ride of this life. When the fish got close, I was almost scared to land it. It was Michael’s first bonefish, and it would not give up. Every time I gently handled the line, the fish would run off. After 3 or 4 tries, I finally had the fish in hand. Michael said he finally realized how hard saltwater fish can run.

We were basically content for the day. Elijah had a 1.5 hour drive home, but we just hung out with a few rods soaking. We were surprised that we haven’t caught any Spotted Bay Bass since anywhere in San Diego Bay has them. We were hoping that Michael could catch one. On one of the very last casts, Michael had a small fish on and he finally checked off the Spotted Bay Bass! Now we were ready to go.

It was just a few hours before that I met Elijah in person for the first time. A few hours later, I was saying goodbye. Even though we only had this short day together, I was glad we had finally met and we would definitely meet again in the future. We were both just waiting for our career to be established and life settle down a little before taking a trip together. Hopefully, it will not be too far away in the future.

This was also Michael’s last day in San Diego as well. He was headed north so he got a ride with Elijah. I wished Michael good luck on this trip north and said we would discuss fall muskie plans when we’re back in Toronot.

I got home just in time when Natasha was starting dinner. Natasha was the daughter in Thomas’ host family. We had some of Thomas’ fried Pacific Jack Mackerel and his marinated Sardines. Yes, we were eating the fresh sardines left from the offshore trip. They are great eating and I don’t understand why people never took the extra bait home to eat, while they buy canned sardines from the store. Strange people…

After dinner, Natasha and I chatted for a bit before Thomas came home. Although I had fished a whole day, I wasn’t really tired. Thomas and I sat there chatting about fishing and Hawaii and time flew. It was 1am all of a sudden and I had to get to bed. I had another early start the next morning.

Aug 12 – Day 17 – The last fishing day…

Wow! It seemed just like a few days ago I arrived in Los Angeles. Time really flies when you are kept busy. This was already my last fishing day.

I had been chatting with Roy for a while and we had exchanged some fishing information in the past. When Roy visited Quebec in the spring, he asked for some fishing information and I provided what I could to help. He caught a number of new species, but most impressively a muskellunge on his own! When he heard I was going to visit San Diego, he said he’ll bring his boat and we can fish San Diego Bay together. We thought it would be a great idea since both of us were looking for our first Eastern Pacific Bonefish. We were inviting two bonefish masters with us today – Phong and Nicky. I had fished with Phong on my visit in 2008. It was Phong who showed me some areas around Mission Bay and helps me catch my first Spotted Bay Bass, Barred Sand Bass and California Halibut. It was great to have a chance to fish with him again…plus his prodigy Nicky.

We met at the boat launch at 6am. My GPS lead me a little off the boat launch, but I did eventually find the right place. We quickly loaded up the boat and Phong backed the boat into the water. Soon, we directed the bow toward the back end of San Diego Bay.

Phong and Nicky had lots of experience fishing on the kayak for these fish. Unlike the typical Bahamas or Belize bonefish experience, these bonefish reside on deeper eel grass flats in 4-6 feet of water. They like to slide up and down from a deeper channel to feed on the flats. When we found the right area, we positioned the boat on the edge of the channel so we could fish toward the deep side and the shallow side.

Similar to yesterday, I was rigged with a Carolina rig and baited with live ghost shrimp that Phong and Nicky had pumped up. Roy, on the other hand, was wielding his fly rod with a sinking line. We quickly sent out bait and put the rod on the rod holder. It is basically a sit and wait game.

Nicky, however, took out a second rod to fish with a plastic grub on the jighead. The Spotted Bay Bass were quick to respond to lure jigged and retrieved over the grass beds. Meanwhile, our ghost shimps and Roy’s fly were largely ignored.

Phong soon joined Nicky using a second rod. At one point, they even took out a crankbait and caught fish on that too. I kept soaking ghost shrimp since I was also hoping to catch a China Croaker or a Smoothhound Shark. I also switched to squid strip for a while to see if it was more attractive for the sharks and rays.

When the Spotties got a little more picky, Nicky tipped the plastic grub with ghost shrimp to keep catching. He certainly had a knack for catching fish.

The adults were not really getting much action. The tide was a little slack without much movement and the bonefish were not feeding. We were actually quite content to just chat and share stories. I guess I was also a little fished out too since I took a rather relaxed attitude toward species hunting. I was mostly just letting a ghost shrimp soak, only checking once in a while when the line was fouled by eel grass.

When Roy put down his fly rod, I asked if I can toss it around. I had cast a sinking line before, but I don’t really have much experience with it. It was nice just getting a few casts on the rod. On my first real cast, I let the fly sank to bottom before starting a strip-pause retrieve. I bounced the fly just above the grass beds when it was hit. The fish was fun on the fly rod, a little stronger than I had thought, since it was a 9” Spotted Bay Bass. We were going to take a picture but the fish jump back to freedom as soon as I unhooked it.

Out of the blue, Phong’s ghost shrimp was hit and there was a good fighter on the line. It was a Yellowfin Croaker. When the tide is right, there are quite a few in the bay, but for today, we only caught one.

Phong stuck again and this was a better fish. He was the shape of a Smoothhound Shark and asked if I want to take the rod to check off another species. I really appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t take hand offs (unless we’re trolling and anyone can take a rod).

I went back to soaking a ghost shrimp since the Smoothhound took a ghost shrimp. Finally, I had a good hit on the rod and set the hook. The fish came flying out of the water and surprised everyone. It was a baby bat ray, a tiny little one, but fun nonetheless on the light rod and light line.

Nicky caught a few more Spotted Bay Bass and it was already 10am. Phong and Nicky had some afternoon plans so they had to leave early. I had a drive back to LA in the afternoon so as much as I would like to continue fishing, I had to call it a morning too.

Roy let Nicky take the wheel for the ride back. Late in the morning, there were much more traffic on the water and at the ramp. We had to watch for other boaters and people on stand-up paddleboard. We waited patiently at the boat ramp for our turn, even to dock the boat so Roy can get the truck. While Roy was away, we were checked by a Game Warden for our catch. We didn’t keep any fish so there was nothing to check. We also chatted with a girl taking a catch census while we were preparing to wash down the boat.

After washing down the boat, Phong and Nicky had to go. Before we left, we took a group shot.

It was a really great time fishing with all three of them. It was the perfect way to spend my last fishing trip with some great friends just to enjoy time of the water. I hope we could do it again on my next trip.

I texted Thomas to let me know I was done fishing. Thomas wanted to have lunch with me before I drive back to LA. We had Pho and he wouldn’t let me pay. Even off the islands, Thomas kept all that aloha with him. Thanks for everything Thomas, from offering a place to stay to hooking up some boat trips with your friends to all the lunches and dinners you treated me too. That’s some hospitality I would love to repay in the future.

After lunch, I went back to take a nap before leaving. Just after packing the car, Thomas and I took a picture together in front of the gorgeous saltwater reef tank that was at his house.

Before I left, Thomas gave me a chunk of yellowtail and some dried Jack Mackerel to bring back to my aunt. He packed them with ice so they would keep fresh for the ride back. It was good there were extra ice since I was stuck in traffic due to two accidents. It took me 3.5 hours to drive back to LA on a Sunday!

When I finally arrived back to my aunt’s apartment, it was close to dinner time. I cut some yellowtail for sashimi and we also have the dried Jack Mackerel. Anthony ordered a lobster from this restaurant so we had a great seafood dinner!

After dinner, I stayed up a little bit to pack some luggage. When I was packing, I felt a little series of earthquake. I’m sure most Californians were used to small earthquakes. It was just a little unsettling for me LOL. Apparently, more earthquakes can occur during hot weather. It was been a few hot days.

Aug 13 – Day 18 – Headed home.

I spent most of the morning packing. When I was fishing, I tended to just toss gear and tackle randomly in the car. There was a lot of reorganizing to make things fit again. Most importantly, I had to watch the weight restriction for my checked baggage.

My aunt and I went out for a quick breakfast before returning the rental car at noon. We had just enough time to have lunch with Anthony before I did some last minute packing. My flight was to depart at 10pm, but we played it safe and I got to the airport at 7pm. We took one last picture at the airport.

Apparently, there were some sort of flight delay on another flight and we had extra passengers on my flight to Toronto. The plane still had a few empty seats and I was one of the lucky few to have an empty seat next to me. It was a pretty comfortable red eye flight back to Toronto, but I didn’t get much sleep.

When I arrived back in Toronto, I was looking for my rod case. I usually have to get my rod case from the oversized baggage area, but my rod case wasn’t there. This was not the first time my rod case was lost. Luckily, this was at the end of my trip and not the beginning of it! A day later, they did deliver my rods to my apartment and all the rods were intact. Otherwise, it could have put a sour end to such an exceptional trip.

From the start to the end, this trip was nothing short of a huge success. Yeah, the fishing was exceptionally productive (43 new species in 17 days, 47 species in total!), but it was really all the people I had to chance to meet and share time on the water that made it very worthwhile. It was a great opportunity to see my friends’ microscopy facilities and had a better understanding of their job responsibilities. It has been a few years since I’ve visited my aunt and cousin and it was great to spend some time with them again. This trip was one to remember for a long time…and it would be very hard to beat!

Aug 5 – Day 11 – I like “old, dead stuff”

I had an extra day since my Catalina Island trip was pushed forward a day. There was a place I had wanted to visit for a while. This was La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum. What a great way to spend the day looking at “old, dead stuff”!

My aunt and I took it easy in the morning and didn’t get to the museum until 10am. When we arrived, we saw one of the tar lakes that were formed from the mining of asphalt.

However, natural seepage of oil continues to occur within Hancock Park encompassing the excavations sites and the Page Museum. It is this pooling of oil and asphalt that had trapped Ice Age animals in the past resulting in many well preserved fossils.

My aunt and I at the entrance.

Statue of American Lion at the entrance.

Once inside, I was like a kid in a dinosaur museum LOL.

Harlan’s Ground Sloth (Paramylodon harlani)

Ancient Bison (Bison antiquus)

Yesterday’s Camel (Camelops hesternus)

American Mastodon (Mammut americanum)

Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi)

California Condor (Gymnogyps amplus)

Dire Wolf (Canis dirus)

Saber-toothed Cat (Smilodon fatalis)

American Lion (Panthera atrox)

Western Horse (Equus occidentalis)

Short Faced Bear (Arctodus simus)

Turkey Vulture and Coyote

I was so glad to have a few hours to explore such a cool place!!!

That was mostly it for the day. I went to my cousin’s apartment and used the internet to catch up on work emails and had dinner with my aunt at night. I went to bed early to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Aug 6 – Day 11 – Wiggle, wiggle!

We didn’t rush Monday morning since the only plan was to pick up the rental car. I was originally planning to pick up the car at noon, but my aunt forgot a letter at my cousin’s apartment and we needed to go back to get it. It was an hour drive away so I called the rental company to delay my pick-up until 4pm. After picking up the letter and having lunch, we arrived at the rental company at 3:45pm. They had a couple of hatchbacks available but both are missing a cover for the hatchback such that anyone can peer into the back compartment of the car. Since I would have lots of fishing gear in the back, I was hesitant to use those cars. Not many cars were rolling into the lot late in the day and it took us about an hour before a newly washed and cleaned hatchback with an intact rear compartment covering. There were others waiting for a car but I ran over to take it. I’ve been there for an hour…I have first pick!

Finally, I could be on the road again. Earlier in the day, I had waited for Jason and Jonathan’s replies to see if they could fish today. Unfortunately, Jason was not feeling well and Jonathan had to work. At the end, it was just Jeremy and I fishing the surf at Santa Monica.

The drive to Santa Monica from LAX car rental was not as busy as I had anticipated. However, there was a cop that decided to stop someone in the middle lane and to write a ticket in the middle lane that he created a huge traffic jam. What an idiot! I was to meet Jeremy at 6pm but didn’t get there until closer to 6:20pm. When I arrived, we decided to leave the long rods in the car and explore the beach for a good spot to soak some bait.

Jeremy worked ahead while I collected some sand crabs. There were a good number of thumb sized sand crabs and it was easy picking for a couple dozen of good bait. Keeping the live sand crabs in my pocket still creeps me out sometimes as they crawled around. Once I had enough bait, I realized my #10 hook was a bit too small for the thumb-sized sand crab. I retied my rig with 8lb fluorocarbon leader and a #4 octopus hook. I pinned a sand crab on the hook and stopped to fish one end of a hole that Jeremy was working.

I cast into the hole and noticed a left to right current. With a 3/4oz egg sinker for the Carolina rig, I was able to let the rig slowly rolled in the current. Maybe 15 minutes after I started fishing, I felt a heavy weight on the other end with line slowly pulling out. I thought it was kelp so I tried to reel in to clear the clutter. However, something on the other end responded and started to run! There were a few short but quick runs. I didn’t know what it could be, but I guessed it may be a large Yellowfin Croaker. Soon, I realized it had to be a pretty big croaker to pull so much and for so long. I start to suspect that perhaps this was a Shovelnose Guitarfish. Finally, I had the fish in the skinny surf and saw the telltale signs of the dorsal fins and caudal fin of a Shovelnose. It took 4 attempts to surf the fish onto the beach. Jeremy was already at my side and quickly ran to grab the tail of the fish for me to bring it higher up onto dry sand. It was a nice 30”+ class Shovelnose Guitarfish (Rhinobatos_productus) – new species #29.

These fish will thrash a lot when you handle them, thus earning the nickname “Wiggles”. I could be quite difficult doing a tail hold like this on a frisky fish.

After checking off the Shovelnose, I was on a mission for Yellowfin Croaker. These fish are usually very plentiful along the Santa Monica coast. However, it was just my luck that few had been caught the days before my visit. I tried at it regardless but it was Jeremy that found one which soaking a piece of squid in the surf.

I decided to get the long rod and start soaking some squid too. The sun has set and dusk could be the start for long rod action with targets including Bat Ray, Shovelnose Guitarfish and Leopard Shark.

It took a long while before we had a serious bite. Jeremy’s rod went off and soon was not a decent fish. He knew immediately that it was a Shovelnose. When the fish was finally on the sand, I ran down to grab it. The fish of course wiggled and sent a pile of sand into my T-shirt.

Yet, I managed to hang on and landed this nice Shovelnose for Jeremy.

We thought the bite would be red hot, but it took another long while before Jeremy’s rod went off. This fish was just slightly smaller than the last one, but this one came in much easier. It still managed to send a pile of sand toward my face.

We set out the bait again and I noticed some little twitched on my rod tip. I thought it was either kelp or a crab was picking at my bait. I left it alone and something was still picking at the bait. About 15 minutes later, the twitches stopped so I thought the crabs had picked my hook clean. I start reeling in the line and felt a tiny bit of weight and struggle at the other end. I thought maybe it was a piece of kelp with a bit of resistance in the surf. However, when I finally got the rig onto sand, I noticed that something fell off my hook. I immediately went to grab the mystery object and it was a baby Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata) – new species #30! They are so cute at that size.

It appeared that the little shark had just hung onto the bait the entire time and up onto the sand. I didn’t see a hook puncture wound on the shark so that’s my assumption. Hey, it did bite and I got it on a hook and line system…so I’m counting it!

Jeremy and I fished until 9pm but that was all the action for the day. I think he and I both had one more short run on the long rod but the fish was not serious enough to hold on too long for us to set the hook. It was a great night spent fishing and chatting with another person who is interested in species hunting. We decided that if I don’t have other evening plans tomorrow that we would fish at Santa Monica again.

Aug 7 – Day 12 – Only needed one fish…

I got some information from Randy where to spend a few hours in the morning. I was on the hot trail for a California Kingcroaker (aka Corbina), a Spotfin Croaker, a Yellowfin Croaker or a Walleye Surfperch. Randy gave me a couple of options. One end of the north Orange County beach would yield a better chance at Corbina and Spotfin but less Yellowfin or Walleye. The other end would be the reverse.

I started the morning trying to find the right lifeguard tower to search for Walleye Surfperch at the early incoming tide. The low water helps to concentrate fish into holes and troughs. However, I couldn’t find the right area and decided instead to try for Corbina and Spotfin. I started fishing near one of the three lifeguard towers that Randy pointed out. There were some nice troughs but a strong left to right current. I had to use a 3/4oz egg sinker on the Carolina rig and shorten my leader to 12” since it kept washing in the surge and tangling with the sinker. The waves were not too bad in the early morning but it got worse and worse as the tide fills in.

I was glad to have kept a dozen thumb-sized sand crabs from the evening before. The sand crabs at this beach were higher up the beach and they were more difficult to find during low tide.  I pinned on a sand crab and started working down current. I cast far out to work in the 2nd trough as Spotfin Croakers are often found in deeper water. There was also a chance I could run into a Yellowfin Croaker. I also spent some time working the 1st trough for Corbina or any Surfperch feeding close to shore. Unfortunately, after 2 hours of fishing, I had covered the distance of 4 lifeguard towers.

The tide was starting to fill in and it started washing and exposing the sand crab beds. I decided to work upcurrent seeing the change in opportunity. I thought that this would be perfect time when Crobina would crash the beach to root for sand crabs on the incoming wave and then retreat on the outgoing wave. I read that you can place the sand crab-baited hook on the crab beds and wait for an incoming wave to wash in. A Corbina could move in with the wave to take the sand crab. So I tried that for a while soaking the sand crab at each beds for a few minutes. I would then cast into the trough and see if there were any Corbina sitting back in the trough.

At about 9am, I was back in the area that Randy had suggested. As I was watching a wave recede, I thought I saw a fish turned around in the wave. I didn’t get a good look, and it would just be something I had imagined, but I decided to spend a little more time fishing this one particular spot. There was just a slightly deeper hole within the trough. I cast my sand crab into the trough and let it tumble in the current downcurrent. On the fourth drift, I felt a bit of weight so I pulled the rod tip up. All of a sudden, the fish came alive and took a strong and lengthy run. I immediately knew this was a nice fish. I didn’t know whether it was a large Yellowfin Croaker, a smaller Corbina or a smaller Spotfin Croaker. All I knew was that I needed to keep tension on the line since the fish was running everywhere in that trough. At times, the fish was running so fast that my line would part water and roostertails would form! As the fish tired and coming toward the beach, I had to keep the line tight when the waves wash toward the beach, and let out line as the waves wash out. This is the only way to keep a fish hooked in the surf. If a larger wave washes up the beach, you may even need to run up the beach to keep the line tight! I did this dance at least a half dozen times trying to surf the fish up the beach. The fish had a very good idea as to when to swim back out to deep water on the outgoing wave. It was rather difficult trying to beach it. But alas, the fish was tired enough that it could not longer run out on the outgoing wave. I watched for a larger wave to surf the fish much further up the beach. Until this time, I saw a glimpse of the fish and knew it was a Corbina. However, I thought it was only a small juvenile. When I finally had the fish up the beach, I was astonished by the fish sitting on the wet sand. I quickly ran down to grab the fish and brought it toward the dry sand area. It was a nice grade Corbina…my first California Kingcroaker (Menticirrhus undulates) – new species #31…one very close to breaking the 20” barrier!

That was all I needed to feel great for the morning of fishing. I did continued to fish but the tide was really coming in and the shore break got rough. This lady thought she would challenge the waves, but after this picture, she was knocked down by the next wave on her butt. Silly people…she got up alright thought but she was done with entering the water LOL.

I ended my morning at 10am completely satisfied. I got back to Monterey Park just in time to have lunch with my aunt.

With a short afternoon nap, I was up and ready to fish again at 4pm.

Jeremy and I were meeting again to fish at Santa Monica. I’m now intent on putting all focus on Yellowfin Croaker. Jeremy was a little delayed since he forgot his cell phone, so I started fishing first in the same area we fished the evening previous. After making a few sand crabs, I made a cast into the hole and soon felt some weight and the drag pulling. I set the hook but the “fish” did not respond. I started reeling in and found a string of kelp. I cast out again and the next cast was kelp, and so on and so forth. When Jeremy arrived, he found out quickly as well and we decided to fish on the other side of the jetty where Jeremy said there should be less kelp. It wasn’t the case on this day. I would say 4 of my 5 casts were fouled. The only blessing of this evening was getting the chance to meet Milton, Robert and Bobbie, all legendary anglers of BIG Barred Surfperch. Since the conditions were poor, I decided to spend the time to make some big sand crabs since I would be fishing with Randy, Saburo and Brian on the next day.  It is no wonder that Robert and Bobbie consistently catch both quantity and quality. Robert’s perseverance earned him a Barred Surfperch. I was just happy enough to chat with them with they fished. When it finally got dark, We all decided it was time to leave. Milton, Robert and Bobbie gave me all their sand crabs. I had bait of various sizes, but there were some very nice large crabs that could pay off tomorrow. Thanks guys!

Aug 8 – Day 13 – Third time’s the charm.

This was my third continuous day surf fishing. I’m meeting Randy, Saburo and Brian in the morning and learning from some of North Orange County’s best surf anglers. These guys had recently caught Spotfin Croakers in the area and I was hoping they could help me add a few more surf species.

We arranged to meet at 6am, but a little detour later I arrive about 10 minutes late. A quick hello later, we decided to park our car at a restaurant where we would eat after fishing, and car pool to the beach together.

After hearing that I caught my first Corbina the day previous, the gang decided that we should start fishing for Yellowfin Croaker, Barred Surfperch and Walleye Surfperch. We arrived to good conditon and I revealed my stash of sand crabs to them. Instantly, I became their favourite person LOL. Everyone grabbed a few sand crabs and started fishing. While Saburo, Brian and I stayed close and worked a few holes thoroughly, Randy worked down the beach much quicker. About 45 minutes later, Randy came running to grab me. He said he just found a spot where he caught 4 Barred Surfperch and most importantly a Walleye Surfperch. So I followed Randy to this area where there was a tongue of sand jutting out into the surf surrounded by deeper waters on either side. The perch were sitting in the deep trough on the left side of the tongue of sand. Randy gave me a number of 2” plastic grub and said I should cast it out as far as I could and retrieve it with a steady crank. On my first cast, I managed just two cranks when I felt weight on the other end and a fish was on! The fish was not too big but fought with good spirit. I thought it was a large Barred Surfperch. To my delight, it was a Yellowfin Croaker (Umbrina roncador) – new species #32. I owe this fish to Randy for showing me the hole. Thanks Randy!

From this hole, Randy caught a few more Barred Surfperch and I caught a couple more. However, the tide soon filled in enough that the fish moved on.

We slowly worked back toward Saburo and Brian. On the way upcurrent, Randy hooked up a better fish briefly but the hook came out. Total bummer!

Saburo and Brian caught a few surfperch but didn’t find any bigger fish. The fishing slowed to a crawl and we decided to move to another beach.

We checked out Dog Beach and saw many dog walkers with their best friends. The beach was really flat and there were no structures – so we moved on. We finally decided to fish the beach where I caught the Corbina yesterday. The waves were a little more fishable today even though we arrived today at the same time that I left yesterday. We immediately went with big sand crabs to search for Corbina and Spotfin Croaker. It was here that Randy recognized Alan who was one of the original members of SCSF who no longer post on the site. Alan was a great wealth of information and it was nice meeting him.

While fishing the big sand crabs, some of them came back half eaten. Sometimes I would feel a sharp bite and the fish disappeared after the one bite. Sometimes I don’t even feel a bite but reeled back a chewed up crab. Since the bigger fish seemed to be absent, I tied on a #10 octopus hook and put on a jellybean-sized sand crab. After a couple of casts, I felt a sharp tug and hooked a Barred Surfperch. Randy decided to fish the 2” plastic grubs again. He caught a couple of Barred Surfperch and then a Walleye Surfperch! Seeing that there might be a few Walleye Surfperch in the area, I switched to the 2” plastic grub too. I quickly caught a Barred Surfperch. A few casts later, I felt a hit out further and fought a smaller fish to shore. As soon as the fish was on the beach, I could see the telltale large eyes and the black tips on the pelvic fins. Yes! It was a Walleye Surfperch (Walleye Surfperch) – new species #33!

We continues to pick at more Barred Surfperch with the occasional Walleye Surfperch and Yellowfin Croaker. Our main targets, however, were nowhere to be found. By 1pm, we were hungry enough to call it a morning. We went for a big brunch while listening to stories and adventures from Randy, Saburo and Brian. Between the three of them, they had stories that could entertain you for days! Fishing and chatting with the three of them were very easygoing and it felt like I had known them for years. It was a great pleasure to have met all three of them. Thank guys!

By 3pm, we decided to split. I got back to my aunt’s apartment at 4pm and took a two hours nap. By 6pm, I packed up my gear and got ready for the drive to San Diego. My aunt came home just in time to say goodbye and I got on the road at 7pm. It was a pretty decent drive south to San Diego in the evening. At least the traffic was flowing as soon as I was outside Los Angeles. The drive was simple since all I had to do was follow Highway 5. By 10pm, I arrived at Thomas’ house. Just before reaching Thomas’ house, I had to use the washroom and stopped at a 7-Eleven where I grabbed a quick dinner too. Thomas and I chatted for a while before he went to bed. He had just fished for yellowtail that day and we would be getting out on his friend’s boat the next day. Both Thomas and I went to bed before 12am.

July 31 – Day 6 – Sacrificing for a lingcod

This was one of those anticipated boat trip. I’ve been following the fish count and Queen of Hearts always had a good track record returning with limits rockfish. I was not so much interested in getting a limit, but rather knowing that the consistently good rockfish fishing would give me a really good chance to add some northern rockfish species.

I thought the boat depart at 6am. However, I was mistaken with the salmon trip.  I could have had a better nice sleep at the motel instead. With an extra hour to spare, I went for a McD’s breakfast and got on the boat at 6am. The deckhand Mike was very friendly. He was smiling and greeting everyone. Soon, we were cracking jokes and he was interested to hear about my species hunt. He said I should be able to catch a Lingcod today. Juvenile Lingcods are regularly caught in the area but they do not show up on the fish counts. He also said I have a real good chance to catch a Kelp Greenling (aka seatrout). That got me really excited for the day ahead!

Our plan was to fish shallow in the morning during the lower tide. As the tide rose, we would fish deeper since the shallow water would become too difficult to position for the big boat.  The swell and wind was up a little bit and 60 feet of water was as shallow as we would fish.

The 1-hour boat ride took us south along the coast to a rocky point. I guess the waters were so fertile that the captain spent little time to search for a spot. The order to “send ‘em down” came quickly. The first fish of the day came just as quick. I started the day with a Black Rockfish.

I started filling the sack quickly with 2 Black Rockfish about 1lb each before something else came up. I had been waiting for this striking rockfish to show up – a China Rockfish (Sebastes nebulosus) – new species #13!

There is a similar looking species called the Black-and-Yellow Rockfish. I searched for one all day but didn’t find one. It leaves an accomplished goal for next time. I read that Black-and-Yellow Rockfish is more common catch in the shallow waters closer to shore.

Following the China Rockfish, there were some commotions to the right of me a few people down the rail. A good fish was on the line and it was a legal size Lingcod! The person was using a diamond jig and a whole squid as bait.

I dug through my tackle bag and found a 5oz vertical jig. I cut off the dropper loop and put on the jig. On the first drop, I got hit before the jig hit bottom. There was a better fighting fish on the line. It wasn’t a Lingcod, but a 2lb Gopher Rockfish!

On the next drop, I thought I got a tap on bottom. When I set the hook, the line didn’t budge and I knew the jig had snagged bottom. Darn…$15 gone bye-bye.

After losing my only heavy jig, I returned to using the dropper loop. Instead of using a bare hook, I put on one of my squid skirts used for trolling tunas. The skirts were about 4” long and I thought the larger profile would increase the likelihood of a Lingcod bite. I put on a whole squid on the hook and fished this rig for about 20 minutes without a bite. Meanwhile, someone beside me caught a Canary Rockfish, and a person behind me caught a big Kelp Greenling. At last, I decided to return to the simple bare hook dropper loop and plug away at rockfish. I caught a few more Black Rockfish before the captain gave the order to pull up the lines so we can fish deeper.

We moved out to 120 feet of water and the good fishing continues. By now, I had about 7 rockfish in the sack. More Black Rockfish went into the sack and the deckhand came by to do a boat count. He saw the smaller 1lb Black Rockfish and asked if I want to use them for bait. I didn’t know you could use rockfish for bait, but since he offered, I said…SURE!

So instead of squid, I was now fishing with a fillet of rockfish. The larger bait started to attract larger rockfish. We started catching Canary Rockfish and the release weight came out quickly. Canary Rockfish is a protected species and they often suffer from barotraumas, thus a release weight was needed to help bring them down the depth where equalization of the water pressure would allow them to swim off on their own. I caught 3 Canary Rockfish in total – new species #14, including this chunky one that was the biggest Canary this day.

The fillet-o-rockfish also brought in the largest rockfish of the day. I thought this was a Black Rockfish. However, someone pointed out it was a Dusky Rockfish. I’m not too sure…so I’m not calling it yet. It’s still a big rockfish nonetheless!

I was culling more of the smaller rockfish for bait. I really, really wanted to catch a Lingcod. Everyone around me was catching Lingcod here and there of all sizes. I was doing the same thing they were doing. In fact, I was catching more fish than they were for most part. There was a guy to my right with a Seeker rod and a Shimano Trinidad that couldn’t even buy a bite. It’s always funny seeing someone with all the bling-bling but no shred of fishing know-how. With only 1 hour of the day left, he only had 3 small rockfish in the sake. He was nice a guy so I started stuffing his sack with some of my small rockfish.

At the third last stop of the day, I finally felt a good THUD on my line and had a guess what it could be. I set the hook and this fish had a little more spirit than the rockfish. Finally, I saw the long shape and my knees were shaking! YES!!! It’s a Lingcod (Ophiodon elongates)!!! – new species #15.

It wasn’t a big one...probably 19” max, but when you fish for a target all day and you have probably one shot in your life to make it happen, it felt darn good to accomplish that target!

For the rest of the trip, I returned to squid strips in hopes for a Kelp Greenling. However, that target wasn’t meant to be. I’ll have to catch it next time.

When 2pm came about, we started steaming toward port. The boat limited out on rockfish. I had my personal limit of rockfish and I managed to stuff the limit of rockfish for the guy beside me too. I know I had commented previously on this kind of activity. Yeah…kinda hypocritical…I’ll admit. Anyway, there were so much fish to clean that the captain slowed the boat and took 2 hours to get back to port. Even so, there were still fish to be cleaned when the boat was docked. My fish were one of the last to be cleaned. I was in no hurry. I’d rather chill out with the deckhand Mike. I would say that this was the BEST partyboat I’ve been on. The captain knew his spots, the deckhands were friendly and worked real hard and the fishing was phenomenal if you know what you are doing. I would highly recommend this boat to anyone.

I asked Mike to set aside a couple of the smallest Black Rockfish fillets for me. After packing the rest of the fillets in a cooler of ice, I took the fillets to the restaurant beside the dock and have a couple of fish tacos done up. A few more dollars added a generous plate of sweet potato fries and a large helping of vegetables. I was so hungry, and the food so good, that I demolished most that food in one sitting. My server asked me initially if I needed a takeout box. I said “No, let me work on it.” When I was done, there was just a few heads of broccoli and a handful of fries left. He was surprised how much food fit into a little guy like me…yeah, I get that a lot LOL.

After the big meal, I took a nap in the car before driving south to Monterey Bay. I was going to hop on one of Randy’s sportfishing boat for a second rockfish session. However, I called the shop and they changed the rockfish trip to a salmon trip. I had no interest in spending $75 and my valuable time fishing for salmon (something I can catch anytime at home). That threw things into a little snag though. If I were fishing at Randy’s, I would park at the lot and sleep overnight just like I did at Half Moon Bay. However, since I wasn’t fishing, I couldn’t access their parking lot. I had to find a motel at last minute. Luckily, I found Cobblestone Inn in the area. For $120 a nice, they gave me a really nice room that was priced at $200 at regular price. I was kind of happy to have a plush bed for the night. I went to bed early and planned to sleep in since I didn’t really have any plans determined.

August 1 – Day 7 – Marine life in captivity and in the wild

I woke up at 7am, turned off the alarm, and woke up naturally at 9am. After a nice shower, added ice to my cooler of rockfish fillet, and packed the car again, I was on the road to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

If I had fish on this day, I would have rushed the aquarium visit. It was actually nice to have the time to go through this awesome display of native California marine species leisurely. I arrived just in time for the feeding to begin at the kelp forest display. It was difficult to take pictures in the dim lighting. This is the best I could get.

There were so many of kelp associated species I was drooling over. Of course the Kelp Greenling and the Black and Yellow Rockfish had to make a showing to taunt me. There were also Rubberlip Perch and Black Surfperch that swam by with their tongue sticking out.

After the feeding session, I made my way to the Jellyfish Experience. I tried my best to get some decent shots of them.

Next, I went to the Seahorse display. There were seahorse and relatives here, including sea dragons…

Pipefish

…and of course seahorse

They don’t move too fast, but even a bit of movement in the dim light resulted in a blurry picture with the longer exposure. Oh well…you’ll just have to go and visit the aquarium on your own.

I made my way to the open ocean display next. All I could think about looking at the creatures that constant push the bait in the tank was…

“I wonder how big that Bluefin Tuna is…”

“Man, that’s a big Dorado!”

“I would love to make poke with that Yellowfin Tuna…”

“I’ll get a chance at those California Yellowtail soon!”

Man, it was a torture seeing these pelagic species swimming round and round in safety! LOL

I checked out the tidal zone display and saw some Zebra Perch. They are so hard to encounter and catch that I didn’t even put them on the target list. Outside, there were some sea lions on a rock and some otter in the kelp beds. There appear to be aquarium staff observing the otters by binoculars.

I spent a total of 4 hours in the aquarium. By then end, I was just hopping to get fishing again. Seeing fish is nice…catching fish is better! I grabbed a quick hot dog lunch and made my way to Wharf #2.

Wharf #2 is a pier that is either a bit hit, or a bit miss. Most of the days are misses. I we really just hoping to encounter a couple of definite targets – Grass Rockfish and Speckled Sanddabs.

When I first started fishing, I saw a little girl catching crabs with squid. These crabs were about 1” across the carapace. Quite often, I can see little flatfish on the bottom swimming toward her bait. I assume these are the Speckled Sanddabs.

I rigged up a #16 hook and a squid tentacle on a Carolina rig with 4lb leader. On the first cast, I felt a tap, tap, tap! I set the hook and caught a Pacific Staghorn Sculpin, a species I had caught in British Columbia in the past.

After releasing the sculpin, I cast my bait out again. This time, I felt a little resistance as I slowly crawled the rig back to the pier. When I had the rig close enough, I could see a little flatfish holding onto the bait. I tried the set the hook and reel up but the fish just let go.

After repeated attempts, I finally decided to let my squid tentacle soak for a while. This time, the little flatfish had time to chew the bait and swallow it. I finally hooked one of the Speckled Sanddab (Citharichthys stigmaeus) – new species #16! These little flatfish doesn’t grow big at all. Mine was only 3” long.

The sanddab was deeply hooked. Since I had already caught one target and I had no intention to deep hook more of these little fish, I moved to the corner of the pier to fish around the pilings. Some of the pilings had seaweed growing on it or near it. This was where a Grass Rockfish could be found.

My first cast toward a piling resulted in a series of little taps. When I set the hook, I saw a little fish on the line and was extremely delighted to find an Onespot Fringehead (Neoclinus uninotatus) – new species #17. This was one of those bonus species catch I run into once in a while. When you fish enough, you get these bonuses here and there.  After this one, I caught a second one in a piling that was just 15 feet away.

I fished the pilings one by one and tried all sides of the pilings. I had even cast under the pier to see if the fish were further back.  All of the pilings were empty of fish.

I went back to the mid zone of the pier where I caught the Speckled Sanddab. I tried to cast out toward an eelgrass bed to soak squid. However, the crabs kept picking the bait off the 5/0 circle hook. At the end, I started looking into the surf zone to see if there are any surfperch around.

As soon as I started looking, I could see little flashes of silver in the surf zone. It was now close to 6pm. Most of the beachgoer had left and I could cast directly into the surf. Casting directly at the school of silvery fish resulted in an instant scattering of the school. However, if you cast beyond the school and work the bait back into the school, the fish would immediately swarm on the bait. Using a small strip of squid on a #10 octopus hook and a Carolina rig with 6lb leader, I quickly caught a few Shiner Perch.

It appeared that most of the fish were Shiner Perch. The schools of perch would move about. Ever few minutes or so you would need to look for the school after they moved off.

I was hoping that there were some other surfperch species. I was hoping for a Calico Surfperch. However, after weeding through over 10 Shiner Perch, I finally found something different…a While Seaperch (Phanerodon furcatus) – new species #18!

There were other fishermen coming on the pier. I assume they are out fishing after work or after dinner. They were surprised that I was catching fish in the surf zone. They said they don’t usually catch fish so close to shore. I don’t know if the good fishing was a freak occurrence or not. Personally, I know that surfperch species are often found in the surf. You really just have to look for them. To me, it was just that these people never look hard enough for these little fish. One guy watched me catch a few and we chatted for a bit. After my 5th Shiner Perch, I asked if he would like to have some for halibut bait. He quickly grabbed a bucket and got there just in time as I reeled in another Shiner Perch. Strangely, fishing on demand was very difficult. After he brought the bucket, the Shiner Perch suddenly became very tight lipped and the bites slowed. I did catch one more Shiner Perch for him before the tide rose higher and the perch scattered. By now, it was 7pm and I had to get on the road.

I had an hour drive ahead to Santa Cruz where a friend of mine lives. He had a little 6 months old boy in the house with another 2 years old boy. He warned me that I may not be able to sleep at the house, but his sons were very quiet that night. The reason I went to his home after 8pm was so he can put his sons to bed and he could go out for a drink with me for a couple of hours. He was a microscope facility manager as well and we spent some time talking shop as well as just chatting about life in general.

August 2 – Day 8 – Driving through the Danger Zone

I woke up at 5am to cries of the 6 month old. It was just a little bit of crying for attention and the house was quite again. I fell back asleep and work up at 7am. Ben was already up spending time with the boys while his wife got ready for work.

Ben made us an oatmeal breakfast and his 2 year old warmed up to me pretty quick. After breakfast, his in-laws arrived so Ben was able to get ready for work. I drove Ben to UC Santa Cruz and visited his microscopes. The equipment was spread across several floors in different labs, but Ben will be setting up a room for a few microscopes including a new 2-photon that would require some earthquake proofing.

After I bid farewell to Ben, I was making my way to the highway when I saw these guys on the highway.

It was pretty cool to see these on campus. A little past the deer, there was a trailhead with a warning sign of Mountain Lions in the area. Yeah, those deer would attract lions alright.

I drove south on Highway 101 and had the intention of taking it all the way to LA. However, I got a call from my aunt and she wanted to have dinner together that night. I decided to take a short cut across to Highway 5 instead. I stopped at Paso Robles for a semi healthy McD’s lunch.

As I drove on Highway 46, I stopped at a rest area for a quick after meal nap (I get real tired after a meal). I looked at some of the information panels at the rest area to find the San Andreas Rift Valley was in the area…and the fault ran somewhere under those hills.

There weren’t a lot of photographing opportunities…until I reached Pyramid Lake during a washroom stop.

I started my drive at 11am from Santa Cruz and got back at around 7:30pm. I ran right into Thursday rush hour and spent 1.5 hours on the city highways. It wasn’t any worse than Toronto rush hour actually, but it was a delay nonetheless.

My aunt and her boyfriend Anthony and I had dinner that night. I had plans to meet up with Dave the next morning, so I was off to bed early for an early start for some bay fishing.

Aug 3 – Day 9 – From nothing to everything

Dave and I had arranged to fish Alamitos Bay to try for Diamond Turbot. Dave had some intel that was worth exploring. I got to the area at 8am and rigged up a dropshot rig with size #14 hook. I had just put on the Gulp! Sandworm when Dave and his son Evan arrived. Dave made a couple of PVC sand spike and a PVC ghost shrimp pump just for my trip! Thanks man!

While Dave and his son started pumping shrimp on the low incoming tide, I started fishing because Dave spotted a Diamond Turbot in the area. I worked the dropshot rig slowly along bottom and got hit close to shore. I missed the hit on the first cast, but connected on the third cast. Unfortunately, it was a Pacific Staghorn Sculpin. :(

When Dave caught enough ghost shrimps, we started using them. I switched to a Carolina rig with a #10 octopus hook, however, it didn’t improve on our hunt for the target species. Every ghost shrimp was gobbled up by a Staghorn Sculpin as soon as the rig was close to shore. At 9:45am, Dave had to move his car at 9:45am. No longer had he got out of screaming range that one of his rod went off! I got to the rod, tightened the drag, set the hook and handed it off to Evan.

The fish was giving Evan a good tussle. At one point, I had to give Evan an tiny hand and a little bit of coaching. When Dave came back, we had the fish on the beach. It was Evan’s first Spotted Bay Bass!

I stole some pictures from Dave.

For the rest of the morning, we were loading up on Sculpins. This was Evan’s first Sculpin!

Time flies when you’re catching lots of Sculpins LOL. Soon, Dave’s wife and his two other sons arrived at the beach. His wife took a picture for us.

As the tide filled in, we saw a lot of 1-2” baitfish pushing up the beach. Dave and I switched to the dropshot rig again and we fished 2” twitch shads. After a good while, Dave was hit and landed a small California Halibut. I was hoping that a Diamond Turbot would ambush these baitfish in the shalllows and mainly focused close to shore. No one was home though.

When 2pm arrived, I had to leave. I had to return the rental car at 3pm. It was just my luck that the tide was just dropping and Dave saw another Diamond Turbot in the water. I could stay no longer and the Diamond Turbot will have to be an unachieved target. Next time, I think the game plan would entail low tide and sigh fishing for these tricky flatfish. Blind fishing resulted into much unwanted Sculpin bycatch.

I got to the car rental company just in time after topping up the gas tank and getting some frozen peas and fresh shrimp for bait (for my next leg of the trip). The night before, I was contemplating when I would visit Catalina Island. Jonathan had informed me on Thursday that he had to work on the weekend and our Catalina Island trip had to be canceled. I was thinking that I could save a day in my itinerary by visiting Catalina Island on Friday evening and Saturday. It was thus decided that I would take the 5:30pm ferry across to Catalina Island and return on Saturday at 8pm.

Anthony picked me up at the rental car company and took me to a quick lunch. He dropped me off at the ferry terminal at 4:30pm and I could hardly contain my excitement. I’ve read much about the lore and legends of Catalina Island and its fabulous fishing. As the ferry left port, I took a picture of Long Beach.

My aunt told me the ferry ride would take 2 hours. Maybe that was back in the day with a slower boat. I fell asleep on the Catalina Express and woke up to commotion an hour later. Wow! We were already there! The sun was setting over the mountainous island and it was difficult to take a good photograph of Avalon from the water.

Soon after landing, I headed to the other side of the Cabrillo Mole. The Cabrillo Mole a pier where the ferries dock in Avalon. The busy ferry side of the pier was obvious restricted to fishing. The ocean facing side, however, was where some good fishing could be found.

Immediately next to the pier was a grove of kelp forest extending some 30-40 feet from the pier. This provided great habitat for many fish species. I could immediately see one of my target species in the water, the bright orange Garibaldi – the saltwater state fish of California. I quickly rigged up a light dropper loop rig with 15lb mono, #8 baitholder hok, a 2oz sinker and baited the hook with a strip of squid. As soon as the rig hit water, a swarm of Blacksmith rose up the water column and surrounded the bait! It was just that easy I caught my first Blacksmith (Chromis punctipinnis) – new species #19. Here is a better picture of a Blacksmith I caught the next day.

These Blacksmith were grabbing the hook if I suspended the bait. I tried to punch the rig to bottom. Once there, the bites were less frequent. While watching the Blacksmith swarm my bait, I saw a torpedo shape glided by and the smaller fish disappeared. All I can remember was the forked yellow-coloured tail. I was told it was not uncommon for Yellowtail to cruise the kelp beds. However, very few, if any, shore angler had ever hook up to one from the Cabrillo Mole.

Since the smaller fish sought refuge when the Yellowtail passed by, it took a few moments before I felt a solid tap. I set the hook and a spirited fish fought back. I did not expected this fish to be caught at Catalina Island. In fact, I was a little disappointed I did not find one on the Gentleman ¾ day. It was an absolutely delightful surprise that this Treefish (Sebastes serriceps) found my hook – new species #20!

Another 10 minutes later, something hit my squid and took a run! I had my drag set a bit light since most of the fish were smaller in the area. I was surprised by this runner…a Pacific Jack Mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus) – new species #21. Just in case something larger comes by, I kept one for bait just in case.

The Jack Mackerel was fun, and I returned my rig to the bottom quickly hoping to catch the school again. The bite came quickly, however, this fish decided to dive for bottom instead of the erratic run of the Jack Mackerel. It was a great fight on 8lb mainline and a lighter rod. I was surprised and elated to see a reddish flash in the fading light. Yes!!! This is possibly the hardest target for me to catch at Catalina Island. I was extremely pleased to have checked it off so early in my trip! I was surprised that the California Sheephead (California Sheephead) – new species #22 – took my squid strip. I read they were picky eaters and prefers sea urchin, baby lobsters and live squid.

As the light disappeared, the bite disappeared. However, I started noticing a number of fish busting on the surface. They looked smaller. I was hoping they were Chub Mackerel or perhaps small Bonito. I kept one rod fishing on the bottom with squid while I rigged up the 9’ surf rod with a 1/2oz Kastmaster. I casted the Kastmaster past the busting fish and worked them through the activity. Nothing was big enough to grab the lure. I did catch another Treefish on the squid at about 9pm. Some people came down to the pier after dark. An older gentleman came to fish beside me and we got chatting. He had a swimbait on the line and said he was looking for Pacific Barracuda. He said the busting baitfish was Flying Fish. This was the first time I saw Flying Fish so close to shore.

The bite was really slow in the dark. By 10pm, most of the people had left the pier. The last group of people to left the pier caught what appeared to be a moray eel. I wanted to catch one and kept the bottom rod with squid fishing the whole time but no eel found my bait.

When the last group left, I was joined by another local angler on the pier. He was fishing on the side of the pier where the ferry docked by day. At night, no one was around to stop people from fishing the ferry dock. I watched him as he targeted Kelp Bass unsuccessfully with swimbaits. I couldn’t see any Kelp Bass swimming around, but there were plenty Garibaldi.

When he left, I was finally alone on the pier. I had wanted to fish all night on the pier since I read that people do fish the night time for bat rays or leopard shark. However, by 12am, I was too tired to fish any longer and decided to take an nap on the pier bench. It was getting colder and windier at night so I had to put on a fleece sweater and my rain jacket and rain pants as a wind-blocking layer. Keeping all the gear close to me, I felt asleep.

Aug 4 – Day 10 – Like shooting fish in a barrel

I woke up at 1am to find a flashlight pointed at my face and someone speaking to me. It was one of the security personnel doing a night check. He was actually just concerned for my wellbeing and asked if I was alright. After all was fine, he went about his business.

I woke up again at 2am to some chilling wind. I guess my body core temperature had dropped enough during my sleep that it felt cold. I had to get up and walk around a little to get the blood flowing again so I can warm up. When you live in Canada, you know how to get warm and stay warm. I walked to ferry dock and looked at the Garibaldi again. They were such a tease. You are not allowed to possess them, and even targeting them is questionable, but they are just so cool looking. While looking at the Garibaldi, I thought I saw an Opaleye swam by. It was a dark coloured fish and I thought I caught a glimpse of a white dot. I quickly rigged up a float rig connecting 3’ of 6lb fluorocarbon to the 8lb mono. There was 4’ of line from the float to the #8 hook with a small split shot pinned about 12” from the hook. I put a couple of semi-frozen peas on the hook and cast it out. The Garibaldi didn’t pay attention to the peas at all. A couple seemed to show interest but turned away when the got close. The Opaleye seemed to have left the area though. I cast around the area and finally my float shot down!

I heard Opaleye fights hard, but I was not expecting the surging dives that these fish made. In fact, they were great fun on light rods and line. It was obviously challenging to keep them from rubbing the line against shoreline rocks of the jetty. Luckily, my first experience with an Opaleye was only a 10” one. Opaleye (Girella nigricans) – new species #23.

I must have found a coral head where they congregated at night. My next cast was taken with gusto and this fish fought even harder. I almost lost it when it tried to run under a thick rope that was tied to the dock. I was shocked to see the size of this Opaleye and I didn’t know if I could even lift it up the rocks with the 6lb fluoro line!

The cooler was 13” across.

I caught one more Opaleye that was the smallest of the three at 8” in length. I must have either caught all of them or spooked the rest. The bite stopped after the third one. I watched the water some more to see a cool stingray and a lobster crawling about.

It was now 3:30am and I was getting tired again. I settled back to my pier bench and laid down flat on my back. It wasn’t too comfortable, but it would do. I sleep rolling and turning, but I did catch some shut eye. At 5am, I was rudely awoken by a squid boat that was operating just offshore of the pier. Seeing a bit of light in the sky, I woke up to start fishing again…since I couldn’t get back to sleep. There was no bite in the dark, but as the sky got brighter and brighter, I could see more and more fish come out of the kelp.

I began the day fishing with a Carolina rig using 1/4oz egg sinker. I wanted to search the mid water column to see if I can find Halfmoon or Rock Wrasse. My first drop was quickly taken by a Blacksmith. On my second drop, I was surprised to find a Garibaldi swam directly to my squid strip and took it without a second thought! This was a nice bycatch. Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) – new species #24 – was a weird fish. Some would take any kind of bait and some would ignore all baits. This one was about 10” long and fought surprisingly hard!

After a couple more Blacksmith, I saw some blue-coloured fish flirting about in the kelp. I got my squid bait close to one and the fish came in cautiously, circled the bait twice before taking a test bite. I was very quick on the draw since you could see fish behaviour very well in the crystal clear water. I hooked the fish and was in for a ride! I heard that Halfmoon were great fighter. This 13” Halfmoon (Medialuna californiensis) gave a good account of itself! New species #25.

Soon, some smaller, long bodied fish started stripping my bait. I had a feeling what these little fish may be. I took off the #8 baitholder hook and replaced it with a #16 hook. I put on a squid tentacle and cast the bait toward an opening in the kelp. The swarm of small fish quickly descended on the bait and it took no time to hook one! Yes…these were Senorita (Oxyjulis californica) – new species #26 - a wrasse species that were very keen on stripping your bait.

After catching the one Senorita, I switched to a #10 octopus hook hoping to catch a Rock Wrasse. While the Rock Wrasse did not show up, I saw a school of long, blue-backed fish swam in. These fish would not take squid, but a piece of shrimp got them biting. These were Topsmelt Silverside (Atherinops affinis) – new species #27 – or simply Topsmelt.

More and bigger Halfmoon showed up and I just had to catch a few more. They may be fun to fight, but I soon learned that the fecal matter of Halfmoon was one of the most foul smell you could ever encounter!

Fun…but yuck!

At 9am, the pier was starting to fill with people fishing. There was a group of anglers who were fishing for opaleye. They caught a couple of them including one that was about 11” long. One of the girls in the group caught a sheephead. She was struggling to unhook the fish so I helped her unhook it. When one of the guys in her group said to keep the 10” fish, I told them the fish was undersized and I’m going to release it. They said it was their fish and they don’t care, it was theirs to keep as they like. At that point, I moved closer to the edge of the pier and allowed the fish flopped out of my hand. Oops…accidental or intentional? LOL. It bugs me that people have no regard for regulations and state that outright! The guy yelled a bunch of profanity at me and I just brushed it off. Instead of sticking around, I moved about 50 feet away and kept on fishing. I guess they weren’t too happy with me from the beginning since I had been constantly catching some fish, whether it was Halfmoon, Garibaldi, Blacksmith, Jack Mackerel or Senorita; while most of them fished beside me without any action. They were fishing multiple hook dropper loop rigs with little wire arms and the line looked to be 30lb mono and the hook was about #2. But no one was about to keep an undersized fish and tell me outright they don’t care about the regulations!

Anyways, I fished my new spot for more Topsmelt and Jack Mackerel action. The Kelp Bass, which were largely absent to this point, start to invade the area. Every bait that got close to the bottom was taken by a Kelp Bass. I tried to fish the bottom for any new species of rockfish but the Kelp Bass didn’t allow me a chance to even present a bait to them.

A family with 3 younger boys and their fathers showed up beside me. They had rental rods and some #2 hooks. The fathers were trying to help the boys catch their first fish without much success. I overheard that they were using Yellowtail for bait. Really?!?! Man…that’s some luxury bait! They were not having much success since the Senorita and Blacksmith were quickly stripping the bait off the #2 hook.

I was still constantly hooking up and felt bad the kids comment on my action. I went to the fathers and opened my tackle bag to them. I told them to put on #8 baitholder hooks and 8lb fluorocarbon leaders. I gave them a whole squid to cut some squid strips and also my Jack Mackerel. Once they have switched tackle, it wasn’t long before the boys were hooking up. First it was Blacksmith, then it was Kelp Bass. One boy even managed to land a Halfmoon! The fathers and the boys had a great time and they thanked me before they left at 12pm. The boys said they wanted to try it again the next day. That’s what I like to see!

By 12pm, I was really hungry. It was also getting really hot so I had to find some shade. I went to a taco shop at the Green Pleasure Pier for lunch. I ordered a fish taco, a carne asada taco and a plate of rice and beans. MMM…

After taking it easy for a bit, I went to fish at the end of the Green Pleasure Pier. Looking down at the piling, I could see schools of Topsmelt and Jack Mackerel. Strangely, these fish would not hit squid or shrimp! I saw a few larger Opaleye hiding just under the pier. I remember my friend Elijah mentioned the fished freelined frozen peas off the pier. I put on a small clear steelhead float, attached 4’ of 6lb fluorocarbon to the 8lb mainline, tied on a #8 octopus hook and pinched a small splitshot about 12” from the hook. This was similar to the rig I used the night before.

Maybe it was the light level and the clear water. These Opaleye were extremely wary and would not bite. I did soon discover that the Topsmelt and Jack Mackerel loved green peas! It was fast and furious action. I thought about the situation a little…then decided to downsize my hook to a #14 octopus hook after seeing the Opaleye inspect my bait and turned away. I extended the length of line to 8’ between the hook and the float. I slid the split shot up the line to sit just a couple inches below the float. Carefully threading the green pea on the hook, I tried to hide as much of the hook within the pea as possible.

 I cast the rig out and let the rig drift with the current. There was a strong current as the tide was rising. The current was washing under the pier, perfectly set to drift baits to the Opaleye. It was actually rather difficult to tempt these Opaleye since the green pea had to descend in the water column naturally and drift drag free in the current to get a bite. Luckily, I had much experience from fishing dry flies and this was just the same. A few drifts later, my float shot down sharply and I had a real bull on the line!

Fighting this fish was a challenge. Aside from keeping the fish from rubbing the line on the sharp barnacle encrusted pilings, I had to avoid other hazards such as ropes and docked boats. When I had the fish tired, I couldn’t see any way I could lift the fish up the pier. Instead, one to the boy watching me volunteered to get down to a floating dock and grab the fish for me. He did a great job and the prize was mine!

I fished for these Opaleye for an hour and went 2/4. These were all big around the same size. Two fish ran directly into the piling and cut my line before I could even stop them!

It appeared that the remaining Opaleye got smarter. As the tide slacked, the lack of current also made it difficult to present the bait properly. There were some older boys watching me fish. They seemed really interested so I asked them if they would like to catch a fish. I had caught enough Jack Mackerel and Topsmelt by then LOL.

I would put on a green pea and cast out the float rig for them, after which I would hand them the rod and taught them to watch for the bite and to set the hook. The Youngest of the three and the oldest one learned pretty quickly and caught their first fish easily. However, the older boy had trouble setting the hook. It took him a while to get his first fish. I did take a picture for them and I got their email address so I can send them the pic.

When they had to leave, I decided to check out another area. There was really just a couple of fish I have still to catch. One was the Rock Wrasee and the other was an Ocean Whitefish. The Ocean Whitefish are often found on sandy bottom so I looked around for the right area. Closer to the boat rental dock at the pier, I saw some sandy bottom with some long bodied fish grubbing on bottom. I thought these might be small Ocean Whitefish. Using a Carolina rig again, I put on a strip of squid and cast toward the area where these fish were grubbing. The fish quickly found my bait and didn’t hesitate to bite. I know that Ocean Whitefish are strong fighters, so when this 10” fish gave up a determined fight, I thought it was an Ocean Whitefish. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one…but it was a female Rock Wrasse (Halichoeres semicinctus) – new species #28!

I caught a few more female Rock Wrasse, a couple of Garibaldi, and one Kelp Bass; and soon realized that there were no Ocean Whitefish in the area. It was about 5pm and I had enough of fishing, so I took some pictures of the area from the pier.

I still had lots of time before the 8pm ferry. I grabbed a small bite again and slowly went back to the Cabrillo Mole. Before leaving, I thought I’d fish on bottom again to see if there were any rockfish in the area. I was hit on bottom and I set the hook on a California Scorpionfish. I had caught this species before and I had no intention of messing around with it. I took my hemostat, got hold of the hook shank and just shook the fish off.

The bottom activity was pretty consistent, but I couldn’t hook any of the fish. I guess most of them were small Blacksmith and Senorita. Finally, I had a good bite and found a beautiful male Rock Wrasse on the other end!

It was getting close to 7pm. My last fish of Catalina Island was a Kelp Bass. I took a picture too commemorate the great time on the island. The warm evening glow really worked to accentuate the gorgeous colour on this fish.

I took apart all my gear and washed down my cooler. I had just enough time to get in line before the line got too long. I fell asleep on the ride back since I had been up since 5am. Back in Long Beach, Anthony picked me up and we had dinner with my aunt. They listened to my fishing story at Catalina and lamented that I didn’t keep any of the Opaleye. After dinner, we went back to my aunt’s apartment and I quickly went to bed. I was so tired I didn’t even set an alarm.

Ever since my first 2 visits in 2008 and 2009, I had always wanted to take a serious fishing-focused trip in California. The biodiversity in the saltwater environments surrounding this state had a strong grip on my species-hunting mind. When plans to visit Nunavut fell flat this summer, I saw the opportunity to finally take a serious run at the species of California. This trip originally incorporated a few days of job searching and interviews. However, even those evaporated when companies are reluctant to interview someone who has not graduated. This thus left me with even more fishing time than expected.

Jul 26 – Day 1 – The start to a great journey.

My flight left YYZ at 10am. I left home early enough that I spent most of the time on the plane sleeping. By the time I woke up, we were just 10 minutes from the Grand Canyon. This was the second time I saw the Grand Canyon from the plane. I was still in awe.

A little further past the Grand Canyon, we flew over the Mohave Desert.

Just minutes from landing, we passed over the San Gabriel Mountains.

After landing, I met my aunt at the airport and we had a quick lunch before picking up my rental car. We drove to my cousin’s apartment, picked her up after work and went for dinner. I went to bed early since there was a long day ahead. I had a little trouble sleeping since the excitement of the next day’s fishing was swirling in my head.

Jul 27 – Day 2 – Bottom species hunting on the Gentlemen

I woke up today at 4:00am to arrive at Oxnard before 5:30am. With a bit of luck, I was notified a coupon to the ¾ day fishing boat, the Gentlemen, out of Channel Island Sportfishing. Having seen many reports on scsurffing.com, the Channel Islands were a series of islands to the west of Oxnard that have phenomenal bottom fishing for rockfish species and lingcod. Unfortunately, the fishing had slowed to a crawl just before my trip. Instead of fishing the Channel Islands, my captain decided to fish along the California coast. I was wondering how this would affect the variety of fish to be caught.

We had a full boat today since everyone was taking advantage of the coupon.

We took a 1-hour boat ride south along the coast. Finally we slowed as the captain searched the 180’ depth for rocky bottom structures that could hold fish. After a few minutes of snaking along this area, the captain drove a circle around a spot and finally asked the deckhands to drop anchor.

During the ride, I had rigged up my 7’ UglyStik Tiger rod, Saltist BG 40 reel holding 300 yards of 65lb Sufix 832 braid with a 50’ top shot of 40lb Big Game mono. I tied a 150lb swivel to the end of the 40lb mono, then tied on a dropper loop rig of 30lb mono. We were fishing fairly deep water, so I used a 10oz torpedo sinker to make sure the line was kept as vertical as possible. If the lines are drifting at an angle, this would result in endless tangles with your fishing neighbours on either side of you, or even worst the fishing people on the other side of the boat.

Although we had live anchovies on the boat, we started fishing using squid. On the first drop, I detected some small bites and set the hook. Something small was struggling on the other end which I found to be a Calico Rockfish (Sebastes dalli)! This was my first new species on this trip!

The next drop, there was another little tap. I reeled up a Pacific Sanddab, a species I had already caught on the previous trips to California. Catching these Sanddabs indicated we were on a sandy bottom.

Nothing was really going on at this spot. The captain asked everyone to reel up so we could try another area.

At the second spot, my dropper loop rig was hit on the first drop! This fish fought a little more and up came a Vermillion Rockfish (Sebastes miniatus) – new species #2!

A couple of missed hits later, I set the hook on another fish. This fish looked a bit like a Vermillion Rockfish, but the white lateral line suggested it was a Canary Rockfish. However, you’ll see later that a Canary Rockfish has a dark patch on the spiny dorsal that is missing in this fish. I really don’t know how to call this fish. I’ll catch a confirmed Canary Rockfish at a later date, so I wasn’t too hasty on calling this a new species caught just yet.

After we drifted off the spot, we readjusted anchor. The current was either really strong this day or we were just fishing on a relatively flat and sandy bottom. Whatever the case, the anchor was often slipping. A few drops later, I finally had a hit and yielded yet another new rockfish species. This was a Greenblotched Rockfish (Sebastes rosenblatti) – new species #3! This fish was especially difficult to ID. While many people on the forums suggest it was a Rosy Rockfish, I stood by my observation that there were green wavy markings on the back. A few of my pictures were examined by Dr. Milton Love and his associates (Thanks to Roy for forwarding them to Dr. Love!) Their consensus was juvenile Greenblotched Rockfish, especially these words by Dr. Love "because the green on the back seems to form vermiculations rather than distinct spots." In this particular picture (and really only in the picture), you could attempt to count the pectoral ray of this fish. There were 17 pectoral ray, which identifies it as a Greenblotched Rockfish (typically 17) and distinguish it from a Pink Rockfish (typically 18 ). Anyways, a little bit of an ID challenge for the fish nerds.

Fishing was pretty fast and furious on this stop once we drifted over a rocky spot. The next stop was another new rockfish species! This one was a Copper Rockfis. (Sebastes caurinis) – new species #4.

I caught a few more small Calico Rockfish and one more Vermillion Rockfish. The fishing then slowed to a stop and the captain decided to make a longer steam south of Point Mugu. We were looking to fish shallower near the kelp beds to see if there was anyone home.

The current had now picked up a little more. I had novice anglers on the left and right of me. It was difficult to get a good drop down without having one of them tangle up multiple lines! During one drop, I hooked a fish and was reeling up to find 4 other lines tangled with mine! Luckily, I did catch a new species to make the trouble a little more bearable. This was a Kelp Rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens) – new species #5. It is different from the Brown Rockfish by the lighter olive green/brown colouring and darker mottling.

When the tangled lines were finally sorted out, I was hit and a stronger fighting fish was on the line. These Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus) fought much more than other rockfish species I’ve encountered. They were a little more fun to reel in – new species #6

Another drop yielded a surprising catch. This species is usually rare south of Santa Barbara. I don’t know what it was doing such south of its range. I was happy to have chanced into it since I had little expectation of catching one on this trip. This was a Rainbow Seaperch (Hypsurus caryi) – new species #7 and an absolutely beautiful little creature!

At long last, the ¾ day came to an end. The slow fishing made the day dragged on and it felt much longer than the 6 hours we had on the water. I ended the day with a half limit of 2 Vermillion, 1 Copper, 1 Gopher and 1 Rosy Rockfish. That was a decent count considering most people only had 1 or 2 keeper fish in their sacks.

I asked the deckhand to gut and gill my catch and my aunt, cousin and I had steamed rockfish that night. The Gopher Rockfish tasted the best out of all of them, with the Vermillion coming a close second. I was early to bed again since I had a long driving day ahead. 

Jul 28 - Day 3 – Mountain goats on the jetty

My day started at 5am. Today, I had a long day of driving from Los Angeles to Half Moon Bay. The GPS was my best friend on this trip. I had resisted relying on a GPS for a very, very long time. I always believe it is much better to navigate by maps. However, I finally gave in on this trip since there were just too many routes to plan. My drive would take about 6 hours of continuous driving to reach Half Moon Bay. I decided to take a couple of strategic stops along the way. I started off on Highway 5 driving west through the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest. The landscape was quite interesting but there were nowhere to stop and take pictures on the steep and windy road. After we drop out of the mountains though, I made a washroom stop and snapped a picture back toward the mountains.

From Bakersfield to Coalinga, the landscape was mostly flat and the road was straight. There were many crop fields and cattle farms along the way. It was not uncommon to see trucks and trucks filled with fresh tomatoes this time of year. Passing through one of the few large cattle farms was rather unsightly and stinky since over tens of thousands of cattle out on the open land made quite a mess.

About 4 hours into the drive, the GPS lead me to Highway 152. This was the Pacheco Pass Highway. It was a very scenic route that I was very happy to have driven through. This picture did not do the area justice since much of the beauty was encountered on the many uphill and downhill sections of the drive with its many turns and twists.

Somewhere along the way, I found a little road to pull out and snapped another picture of this rocky outcrop.

Once in Gilroy, I made a longer lunch stop. My journey then headed north on Highway 101, onto Route 85 and finally Highway 280. At long last, I turned off the highway onto San Mateo Road west toward Half Moon Bay. It was very interest that toward the coast, the cloud cover built and fog enveloped the road as we climbed. There was a lot of traffic for some reason. I later found out that just across the peak, the weather had cleared and it was a beautiful beach day for NorCal. I didn’t know this when we started our descent down the other side of the mountain.

I finally arrived at Half Moon Bay at 2pm. I was a little early and two of my friends had not arrive yet, so I took a few pictures of the area.

At about 3pm, Adam finally arrived. I had a chat with Adam to discuss our game plan. I had left the gear at the car since I was uncertain what I would need. So while I went back to the car to grab my rod and reel, Adam attacked a jetty in the area that we would be fishing on.

The jetty was just under 4000 feet long. It was a long and slow journey across the large boulders. We were planning to fish near the end of the jetty so the long hike was good for my heart LOL. The rocks for most parts were dry and it was easy skipping from one boulder to the next. I did have a scary moment when I lost grip on one stride and almost fell forward. When I arrived, Adam was already well into fishing. Since I didn’t have any suitable lures, he gave me a 6” Big Hammer swimbait and a 1oz darter jig head. We would cast these as far as possible and retrieve it back toward the jetty with a steady retrieve. It was important to crawl these lures up the angled façade or the jetty rock since lingcod and rockfish often hid amongst the rocks.

We fished these for a while without any attention from the fish. Soon, Teng also arrived and we decided to switch up our presentation. Teng rigged me with with a dropshot rig using a length of pencil lead, a weedless hook and a white jerk shad. Both Teng and I fished this dropshot while Adam switched to a 3/4oz darter head and a 4” Berkley Gulp! Shrimp. With the dropshot rig, we would slowly and methodically work the bottom crawling it back toward the jetty then dropping it between crevices.

It was not too long after the switch that Adam hooked into a small Lingcod. Adam said this was his confidence bait. A while later, he found a school of Black Rockfish and caught a couple. Teng had a few hits on the dropshot while I had nary a hit. At about 6pm, Adam had to call it an evening. He gave me a few of the Gulp! Shrimp and wished me all the best. I really did need some luck!

Teng and I fished closer and closer to the end of the jetty. As Adam instructed, I casted the lure out and slowly popped the jig back to the jetty. On one cast, my lure stopped dead on the drop and I set the hook. We were fishing pretty buttoned down drag since we wanted to pull fish out of the rocks quickly, especially the Lingcod. My fish was hooked far out from the jetty and I had a feeling what it could be. It was indeed a Black Rockfish (Sebastes melanops) – new species #8.

It felt pretty good to shake the skunk!

A little while later, I found the school again and caught another Black Rockfish. I was really hoping for a Lingcod but the fish would not reveal themselves. Just before dark, Teng finally shook the skunk with a Brown Rockfish using the dropshot rig.

By the time we got off the jetty, it was already 9pm. Teng and I visited a restaurant for fishing food that he must have every time he fished here…Popeye’s! Teng treated me to a great Popeye’s dinner and left me with a number of lures and soft plastics to try the next day. Thanks to Adam and Teng for showing me how to fish the jetty! We parted ways after dinner and I made my way to my motel in Redwood City. It was a little more rundown than I had expected, but I was only really staying there for two nights. At least I had a decent bed to sleep on. I was in bed by 12am since I would challenge the another jetty early next morning.

July 29 – Day 4 – Single day triple header

At 5am, the alarm sounded off. I rolled out of bed, looked out the window to see darkness still, and went back to bed. At 6am, I finally got out of bed and headed to the nearest McDonald’s. It is possible to have a half decent breakfast at McD’s!

It was cloudy at Redwood City where I stayed. As I drove toward Half Moon Bay, it was downright foggy! Traffic was much lighter this morning than the afternoon before and I could take it easy navigating through the twists and turns. At last, I arrived at Half Moon Bay Sportfishing where I purchased a few more 3/4oz jigheads, a bag of Gulp! Shrimp, and a 1lb of frozen squid. I hoped that it was all I’ll need for the day of fishing.

The morning was cool and moist. Everywhere was drab except for these yellow flowers.

Along the way to a jetty in the area, I passed by this interesting rock maze.

I was a little apprehensive about hiking the jetty that day. Firstly, all the rocks were wet from the misty rain. Secondly, I had a backpack with probably 25lbs of gear that could easily shift weight and cause me to lose balance. Thirdly, I was hiking out on my own with only a few people walking their dogs at the beach. As if it wasn’t bad enough, the swells and wind was up on the ocean side of the jetty. This hike could turn out really bad!

I was determined to find my lingcod. That desire seemed to suppress the caution and drove myself to take risk. Truth be told, I re-evaluate my decision to hike out multiple times along the way, often stopping and turning back to see the slow progress I was making. When I reached halfway out, I finally told myself that I had gone too far to turn back now.

It was just maybe 5 minutes after the halfway point that I stepped on a rock with some wet, slippery bird droppings that made me fall. Luckily, I had stuck to the harbour side of the jetty where the rocks seemed less jumbled. My heavy backpack was actually a blessing in this case as I was pulled by gravity backwards instead of forward. The backpack also cushioned my fall against the rock and protected my spine. I did, however, scraped up my right arm pretty nicely. I was trying hard to protect my rods against the rocks that my arm smashed against the rocks.

After falling, my progress slowed even further. At the middle of the jetty, the rocks were terribly covered by bird droppings and it was extremely difficult to navigate. My hands had no choice but to land on wet droppings to brace against falls. Man, did it ever stink out there!

At long last, I made it to a spot that Teng had suggested. The waves were crashing much too high, and the rocks much too slippery, for me to fish the ocean side where the lingcod could be found in the deep water. Instead, I fished on the harbour side where the water was at least calm. I found a spot where I could wedge myself against two rocks in case my footing slips. If I did fall, I would just drop deeper into the crevice instead of into the water.

The areas next to the jetty had a healthy growth of kelp. It created habitat for fish, but also presented a challenge to my fishing. I made a few casts straight out of the jetty and jigged the lure back. After a while without any action, I questioned whether it was better to cast parallel to the jetty and work the lures back. Most of the rockfish and lingcod are found hiding to ambush within the cracks between boulders. Since I can’t really move and cover water, this was really my only choice.

I placed a few of casts to work along the jetty. On one cast, I felt my jig being picked up and set the hook on a fish determined to run back to its hole. I had my drag locked down and simply pull back with my rod. Using a short pumping technique, I managed to get to fish to shore quickly. At first, I thought the fish was a lingcod at deep colour. However, it soon revealed itself to be either a Olive Rockfish or a Yellowtail Rockfish. I had no way of getting down to water level, so lifting the fish straight up was my only option. Once at hand, I counted the 9 soft anal fin rays to find it was an Olive Rockfish (Sebastes serranoides) – new species #9. I was happy that the long, difficult hike was reward by at least a new species!

A few casts later along the same area parallel to the jetty, I hooked another rockfish. This one was a Brown Rockfish that unfortunately flopped off the hook into a crevice. It was way too deep for me to reach. I tried for 10 minutes trying to snag it with a large hook so I could get it back into the water, but all the attempts failed. Eventually, with a stroke of luck, the fish somehow flopped into another crevice that opened to the water below. I heard a splash and hoped that I will eventually find open water again.

As the tide dropped the current slowed and the bite seemed to die off. It was getting toward 12pm and I needed to get off the jetty. By now, the fog had lifted and a little bit of sunlight actually peaked through. The rocks were drying quickly and I was making relatively quick progress back toward shore. Halfway back to shore, I saw a man poke poling. I had squid with me and I was planning to poke pole on one jetty. Seeing his activity, I went down to chat with him to see if he had any success. He had a Kelp Rockfish in the bucket and he said he caught a couple of smaller rockfish.

I set up my 7’ musky rod with 30lb mono and a #8 hook. I pinched a splitshot on the line about 6” from the hook. Using a 2” strip of squid, I dropped this bait down to the larger holes between boulders. The length of line was only 12” from the rod tip to the hook. While poke poling, you would point the rod straight down toward the hole and dangle the baited line in the water to wash in the surge.

At the beginning, I was not having any success. I saw the man caught a Monkeyface Prickleback. I walked over again to compare his rig with mine and asked if I was doing anything wrong. Apparently, the fish are found in much smaller holes than I had thought possible. He was checking holes that were about the diameter of a soda can! Sometimes he would even drop his bait into even small cracks.

I started to look for small holes. After what felt like 10 or so empty holes, I finally had a small bite at last! I missed the hookset and the bait was torn off the hook. With a new baited line, the current washed the bait seductively in the surge but the fish seemed to have ventured off.

About another dozen holes later, I felt a tap and pulled up quickly. I saw a small fish came to the surface but fell off the hook the moment it was in the air! Darn! I tried with a fresh piece of squid but this fish swam off too.

About another half dozen holes later, I found another small tap on the line. This time, I let the bait sit there to be swallowed before setting the hook. At long last, I finally landed a small fish. At first, I thought it was a small Cabezon. After a little suggestion by a friend, I found that it was a Woolly Sculpin (Clinocottus analis) – new species #10.

I was really hoping to find a Monkeyface Prickleback. Poke poling the rock crevices was the best method to find them. I was running out of time as I had to leave Half Moon Bay by 3pm. It was already 2pm and I still had half the jetty to hike. As I worked my way hole by hole slowly back toward shore, I caught another Woolly Sculpin about the same size. With about 15 minutes left before my 2:30pm deadline, I finally found a fish inside a hole that bit a little different. The bites felt more determined and aggressive. I lost my squid on the first bite and on the second bite. With a third baited hook, I let the fish grab the bait a little more before setting the hook. I thought I had set the hook well and felt the fish on the line, but the fish again stripped my hook bare. I didn’t know if the fish would bite again, but I dipped the squid into the hole and left a lot of slack in the line. I was about to soak the bait for at least 30 seconds before setting the hook. However, as the bait sat there for 15 seconds, I could see the line tightening as the fish swam back to the hole. I immediately pulled back and I could feel a lot of resistance against the line. The fish was most determined to back into its hole. I had an idea what this fish might be, and my guess was correct! This was a Monkeyface Prickleback (Cebidichthys violaceus) – new species #11. Most people find them ugly…I find them pretty neat actually.

Most of its reddish colour wasn’t captured in the photograph, but they had a nice rusty red on the margins of the fins.

With the target species captured, and time seriously dwindling, I had to end the session.

I got back to the car at 3:30pm. I had about an hour drive ahead of me toward Rohnert Park where I would meet with Eric at his house. The one hour drive turned into a 2 hour nightmare as rush hour traffic clogged city streets and the Golden Gate bridge which I had to cross. I felt terribly bad that I had arrived so late at Eric’s house, but he assured me that it was okay, and the fish would be waiting.

From Eric’s house, he drove about an hour to reach Tomales Bay. I don’t really know where exactly it was that we fished…but I don’t share location information on the public forum anyways. Wherever this spot was, it was as predictable as clockwork.

Eric showed me his simple rig for Bat Rays. It consisted a dropper loop that had a hook loop about 3-4 feet from the sinker. To the hook loop Eric attached about 8” of wire leader and a #6 circle hook. Since the current was a bit strong, we put on a 5oz bank sinker to ensure our rig would stay on bottom.

We put a whole squid on the hook. Eric had some Spider Thread that we wrapped around the squid to secure the bait a little better on the hook. Eric said we really didn’t need to cast far as the tide was incoming. I placed my bait about 60 yards out and then wedged the stainless steel butt of my custom 12’ surf rod against a rocky spot that was Eric’s favourite rod holding spot. I had this 12’, 3-piece rod customized with reflective tape, a bell holder and a stainless steel rod by a friend in Hawaii to use as a dunking rod. I had never caught a fish on it. Most of the time this rod was used to fish an octopus leg or a live reef fish for bonefish or trevally in Hawaii. It had yet to be bit and yet to be tested.

It was maybe 5 minutes after my bait was soaking that my Shimano Baitrunner 4000 started a steady scream. I had noticed that a large mass of eel grass had bumped into my line a minute ago and I thought the mass might be dragging my line. However, it was very quickly realized that the line was actually moving away from the mass of grass. This was a fish!

I grabbed the rod and cranked on the handle to engage the reel. At that moment, the rod doubled over and we had a tough fish on our hands! The first run was nothing short of spectacular and I thought the fish would never stop until it reached the other side of the bay. About 150 yards of line dumped off my spool before the fish cuts back and I could regain some line. The fish then swam to our left on another long run. With each run, the distance decreased. However, when the fish stopped running, it felt like I was reeling in a large sea anchor! At long last, I saw the tips of the wings of this fish. From afar, it didn’t look too big, but Eric was certainly excited about this size of this fish. I had guessed the fish to be in the 30” class. Eric usually net his fish and nudge it toward shore. This fish barely fitted into the net and we barely pushed it up on shore.

What a wonderful specimen for my first ever Bat Ray (Myliobatis californica) – new species #12! This fish had a 43” wing span and an estimated weight of 40-50lbs. I lifted it just high enough for a picture.

This fish kicked my butt! My rod performed great, but the longer length and the parabolic nature meant I often had to squad down and “boost ‘em” to gain any leverage on the fish. It might work as an ulua rod…but this was certain a little too parabolic for bat rays.

I sent out my rig again with a fresh squid. I had the next series of casts plagued by sea grass masses that were now washing toward shore on the incoming tide. When I finally had a good soak, I missed a good hit that pulled out some line then dropped the bait.

I decided to put down the rod and took a scenic shot.

Eric finally hooked up on his 9’ UglyStik and handed the rod over to me. He said I should tug on every bay ray we hooked LOL.

This fish ended up being a cute little baby that was subdubed very quickly. It was maybe 18” across. Cute and not a lot of work. I like it.

Eric’s next cast must have soaked for just a few minutes before it was picked up again. However, he missed this hit. I got another hit next that was missed again.

About another 10 minutes later, Eric’s bait got picked up and he reared back to really hammer to hook home. The fish started charging out to deep water as Eric handed the rod to me. With the shorter rod, I had better leverage. Maybe this fish didn’t have the same stamina, or maybe it really was the leverage of the shorter rod, but this fish also came in with much more ease than my first fish. It still put up a long, determined fight but we landed the fish relatively quickly. As the tide was flooding the little bit of the rocky beach we had, we hoisted the fish up the steep slope to unhook the fish. This was a 41” Bat Ray that was thicker in body.

I decided to rub its melon. They are such cool fish!

After landing 3 bat rays, I had enough. Eric was right – these fish will kick your butt and three was about all you can handle. At 8pm, merely just one hour after we started fishing, we called it a night. Eric took me to a great little restaurant and I treated him to dinner.  It was really a very small thank you for such a great fishing session.

That night, I got back to the motel at about 12am. I was completely exhausted. I had planned to fish the next morning, but my body was refusing to comply. I decided to go to sleep and decided the next morning.

July 30 – Day 5 – Day at UC Berkeley

Well, unless you really want to hear all about touring UC Berkeley, I’ll just do a short little recap. My body didn’t allow me to do any morning fishing session. Plus, I would have to rush to Berkeley by 12pm to meet my friend. I didn’t like to rush.

I met my friend Melissa at a microscopy course last October at Woods Hole. She manages a microscopy core at their vision center and we met up for lunch and a tour of Berkeley and her microscopes. The little lunch café was rather busy, so we decided to take out our lunch and ate at Indian Rock instead. Indian Rock is a large rocky outcrop just a little drive from Berkeley. It offered a nice view…but my camera didn’t want to cooperate with any good pictures. It was just a bit hazy to really get any good pics.

After lunch, Melissa took me around Berkeley.

I saw some of the microscopes she manages. She was building a 2-photon from scratch, with the light path mounted on a stand made of metal rods instead of a typical microscope stand…and the entire light path was actually on a motorized track to scan across the sample rather than using a motorized stage. It was pretty interesting to say the least. No pictures taken since some of the things she was working on were proprietary.

I was just great to see a friend again. Our 3 short hours together ended too soon.

After visiting Berkeley, I drove around to take some token pictures…

Bay Bridge from Treasure Island

Fisherman’s Wharf

Steep streets

Golden Gate Bridge

The afternoon before, I was driving along Highway 1 admiring the scenery. I was on a rush to get to Eric’s house and didn’t have time to stop. I decided to drive back to Half Moon Bay along Highway 1 to take some pictures. I liked this one the best. That is a guy surf fishing. I didn’t see him hook up…and thus I kept the gear in the car LOL.

By the time I returned to Half Moon Bay, the sun was already setting. This was my last evening at Half Moon Bay and I really wanted to put in an effort to catch a grass rockfish. I hiked out on the South Jetty again and got about halfway before I lost light. My headlamp was not too bright, so for safety sake, I decided to stop hiking out and fished in the middle of the jetty. I tried the Gulp! Shrimp on jighead for a while, but soon lost the lure to the hungry rocks below. It was hard judging where the rocks would start in the dark. I decided to just soak some squid strips by the rocks on a dropshot rig to see if anything was around. I didn’t get any hits close to the rocks. I did get a decent bite out further and it was a White Croaker.

That was all she wrote that night. By 10pm, I decided to hike out and grab some McD’s dinner. It was still a little early to go to bed, so I hung out at McD’s until closing to catch up using their WiFi.

I scheduled a trip on the Queen of Hearts out of Half Moon Bay Sportfishing for the next day. Since they were leaving fairly early, I had planned to sleep in their car at the parking lot so I didn’t have to bother with packing and driving the next morning. At the parking lot, I rigged up a couple of rods and tied up a couple of dropper loop rigs. With everything ready, I turned off the light and settled into the backseat of the car. Seriously, it wasn’t that day. I’m a small guy…lots of room LOL.

Hey mates!

I haven't been around the forum for a while...not much to post here as a Canadian living in Toronto, you know. But I've recently taken a trip to California and written a series of travel logs and fishing report. I would like to share them here if there are some interest.

Let me know if you would like to see them here.

Thanks again for all the help during my visit to Perth. Hope to visit again someday.

Ken

Went for a run off two rocks on wednesday, Had a couple of dives about 15- 20ks out. The swell was pumping on the way out never seen it like that before it was like crossing a bar... Good to get wet got a couple of dhuies this was the bigger of the two and saw a shit load of whales out there.

Just wondering if anyones been around lancelin past week or so, wanting to know of the beach conditions weed etc...

cheers jim

Went out to rotto on sunday and produced heaps off undersize dhuis and loads off nice size skippy. gotta be careful off the whales out there too.

Went out to rotto again on wednesday and had a killer day on the water. Bought home 2 pinkies, 2 king george whiting and 1 breaksea cod (blackass).

got about 8 undersize dhuis, big skippy's, nice amberjack and a few small pinkies. a few sharks out there though so take loads off tackle coz you will be bitten off.

Hey guys, im heading up to Jurien this weekend just to get away and relax a bit.

Was wondering if there was any good fishing going on there off of the beach at the moment? i have heard at this time of year there can be quite a bit of weed?

oh i have a 4wd aswell so not limited to the road!

Cheers guys

after having no luck at the dam for trout went to a diffrent spot to try for redfin ,is my first ok size redfin so im happy 

Ended up with a few fish last night.was slow to start with and tried 4 spots before finding them.

Just looking around for a good spot to fish tailor..

went to north mole yesterday morning and mate got two medium sized ones but was a long day.

going out this afternoon and was thinking the two rocks outside wall out at the tip and wanted to know what sort of light they have there and if anyone has recently heard anything about this spot?

cheers.

 Hey all, this certainly isn't one for the brag bag but thought I'd share as some may find it interesting.

Went out with my bro for an afternoon kayak up the canning river, from the old riverton bridge headed SE. Decided to bring the light rods along for a bit of a flick as we went, see if we could entice a strike out of any bream that may be hiding out in the snags up that way. Just for a bit of fun to break up the paddling. No such luck with the bream, but just on dusk as we were headed back, this juvie mulloway decided he'd have a go at the soft plastic i was dangling. Even at this size, good fun on a light setup. Lil fella was of course sent back to get much bigger, and he took off at a very healthy speed.

Got us wondering if they're common this far up river, anyone else caught as bycatch while breaming up that way?

(also wondered if they were the reason we saw so many smaller fish breaching the surface all afternoon?)

Guys

Caught this off Two Rocks on Saturday. To me it is definatley a Red Throat Emperor but a mate was tell me it is a Small Chinaman. If it is a Red Throat does anyone catch many of these in the Metro Area I thought it was pretty unusual for it to be so low. I caught a lot at the Abrolhos and Port Gregory but never down here. Of course this one went back. We also got 1 Dhuie, 2 x Blackarse, 2 x King George Whitiing one going 650mm. I was a pretty slow day did anyone else find it slow on Saturday.

Regards

Glenn

Had to head up to Karratha for a day for work and couldnt head up there without trying to get out for a fish. Gave a mate of mine a call and it was on... all we needed was good weather!

The ride! was a tough day in this.

30ft Westcat, only 5 weeks old. Twin 300 Verardo's. only one word could discribe this thing....insane!

Weather held up!

Didnt get too many photos of fish because i thought I'd see how filleting my finger with a swebo would go....so didnt / couldnt take too many pics.

Day ended up with Reds, Rankins, Saddle tails, sharks, Mack's... Good day. True to the word, big bait big fish, snelled 10's won hands down in the fish tally department.

Fished 47-50 metres

1st drop out deep.

Next

Couple of the fish

Hoping to get up there again shortly for a monte's trip the boys are planning!

After a reasonable night out last Saturday chasing the pinks with my mate Dean (Dirt), I gave him a call to organise another pinkie session for last night. Leaving Woodies ramp at around 3.00pm with a 20 knot + ssw breeze we decided we’d hit the same ground we fished on the last trip. After the calm conditions last Saturday, making it difficult to keep position on anchor, the strong breeze and current we had this time was holding the boat in perfect position and the slick from the burly trail was pretty impressive. With a rod out each, now it was just a matter of kicking back with a coldie and waiting. As it usually happens leading into the change of light the little ones started to feed with a few under size pinkies keeping us amused, suddenly my rod was hit by something that had a little more weight to it and after a short fight a nice 55cm pinkie was measured and released. It was just starting to get dark now and Dean gets a touch on his outfit, then bang this fish is peeling line of his reel like there’s no tomorrow on his light gear. Once again we were thinking ray? Shark? This fish worked Dean from one side of the boat to the anther with some amazing runs finally in the light from my headlamp there’s a flash of colour and the cry comes out “holy shit” it’s another horse of a pinkie. This fish measure 88cm. That’s three pinks over 80cm Dean’s pulled off this spot now on different occasions. He’s a big fish magnet!... lol.

 After some high fives and a few photos it was back to concentrating on the fishing, and shortly after, my rod buckles over and I can feel the distinctive head shake only a pinkie gives. After a short fight another 57cm snapper comes on board, as my bag was looking a little sad so this one I decided to put on ice.

We are now in total darkness and it’s around 7.45pm and we’re still getting the undersize fish hitting our baits, little buggers. Suddenly there’s a touch on my rod. I lift it out of the holder, in anticipation. I feel some weight and it almost felt like a big squid pulling on my bait...I strike....Oh boy this ain’t no squid. Away it went, but again giving me the feeling that “shit is this a bloody ray”? But after a few decent runs I felt a couple of nice thumps through the rod that had me saying to Dean, I think I might have a horse pinkie!  Once again as flash of colour comes at the rear of the boat and it’s a beautiful big snapper that is nicely netted by dean and my PB Pink Snapper is lying on the deck of the boat. It blew out the Re-Pete fish ruler at 92cm. Totally stoked!....Big high fives and a hug and time for some pics.

A little while later and I was on again with another fish that was giving some really good head shakes and taking some line of the reel. After another good fight, another beautifully coloured pink snapper is netted by Dean. This fish measures 82cm. What a fantastic pink snapper session with a good mate. Not good about the footy score though.

 Hope you enjoyed the thread on our Pink Addiction!

Cheers

Paul

 Just got back from buffalo and ended up with a flathead and two tailor, best I`ve done out there yet.

Got there about 3:30, and after setting up had a 35cm flattie within 10 minutes of my first cast, but was very quiet untilnthe sun was very low on the horizon, getting lots of little nibbles, but nothing getting on my hooks, no matter what size i was using. About 6 when the sun was just above the water line, i got the first tailor, around 40cm. The second within 10 minutes of the first. Went really quiet again and didn't have another bite again. Decided to pack up and left about 8.

A couple of guys next to me were in for the night, had their wood and a fire going (Almost worded them up for using green wood, the smoke was thick!), they got there just after me and didn't get a thing before i left. I was to the right of the 'channel' directly in front of the ramp, and they were to the left. It always seems to be one side does good and the other gets nadda.

Also had a guy who decided to go for a drive up the beach with no recovey gear and had never been off road before. He was stuck for a good two hours, and hadn't even let his tyres down before he came and asked me if i had a tow rope. He was very lucky he didn't roll it, given the angle he was on, but one of the guys he was with got a lift home and went and got his 4x4 and they eventually got out.

 So that was my afternoon, great time!

The fishing has been reasonable over the past few weeks considering it is usually quiet at this time of year. The winter murky water has started to clear over the last week with visibility being 3\4 the way to the bottom out at the end. Chopper tailor are starting to turn up in good numbers after dark all along the second half of the jetty with sizes getting into the mid 30's. Small pieces of squid and soft plastics have been working quite well for the tailor at the moment since they are feeding in close to the lights and pylons. Herring are down in numbers as per usual this time of year however a good feed can still be caught right on sunset using small metal lures such as twistys or gillies baitfish. Large skippy can be found at the end in good numbers during the morning but have been going off the bite in the afternoon. Squid numbers are very good at the moment with most fisho's landing a good feed with 2 or 3 hours effort. The squid can be found all along the jetty after the bend with the best numbers coming from half way out. There is plenty of mulies hanging around under the jetty for use as bait for squid, just throw a bit of burly in the water and jig a small metal to catch them. Mulloway season has come to an end with no catches to be reported.
 

Side note : I have been throwing lures at the tailor over the past few weeks, I have been giving Blues Code a go and found they work very well, almost too well, I lost one to a very large Sambo this last monday.

has anyone fished the busso jetty lately if so much around

Hi Guys,

any news on the sambo action lately? They should be starting to fire up.

Kind regards,

Unfortunately I am without a boat at the moment as I'm having my trailer regalvanised. I was stoked to get a phone call late last week from my good mate Paul (DeCrais) to invite me out on his boat on Saturday night to chase pinkies. It was a beautiful day out with extremely low winds and glassed off water, great conditions for boating but not normally that productive for Snapper. We headed out to one of Pauls favourite spots in the sound and set out the anchor. Things were a little quite except for some snook that must of been about 800mm long, good fun on the light gear. Things didn't improve over the next couple of hours so we decided to move to another spot of ours out between the islands. It was that calm that the anchor rope was slack and the boat position was constantly moving around with the small gusts of winds. It was impossible to keep the baits in position, so with dark looming we decided to move back into the sound again. Paul continued to struggle to keep the boat on the mark and repositioned the boat several more times. With no real luck and it being around 8.30 we were nearly ready to give up and Paul said we will move one more time (and I'm so glad he did)  bang they started to fire with numerous undersize snapper coming over the side. All of a sudden my rod buckled over and was losing line like it wasn't going to stop, both Paul and I originally thought it must have been a Ray, but after some blistering runs we managed to turn whatever it was and slowly gaining line, it wasn't until we surfaced in the light of the boat at the transom that we realised that it was a horse snapper, with a quick net shot from Paul and a few snaps it was quickly on ice.  We quickly increased the burly trail and got our baits back in the water.  Not long after this Pauls rod buckled over landing another nice snapper.  Several more smaller snapper came on board over the next hour or so until the boat started to swing around again, making it difficult to fish. We eventually called it a night at about 11.00pm, and as trying as it was it ended up being a great night.  I would like to thank Paul for the invite and hopefully we get to head out again soon. 

 I have been looking at trying night fishing for pink snapper, I have seen quiet a few posts of people doing it and catching a few. My local boat ramp is woodman point and I wanted to know if anyone could give me any pointers, direction where to go, bait ect. I have never fished for pink snapper so I need to know a few bits and pieces so I'm not flying blind!

Cheers guys

With Spring weather staying true to its reputation, we have had a taste of all four seasons over the last fortnight. When the conditions have been right, they have been outstanding, and unfortunately, the same goes with the bad weather. Both landbased and boat anglers have succeeded when out and about, with a host of species being targeted and landed. From the shore, Herring, skippy and whiting have all been around in good numbers, with beaches between Dunsborough and Bunker bay proving worthy.

 On the west coast, adfter the herring slow down after dark, tailor to 75cm have been landed, with one session for a Dunsborough Outdoor Sportz Employee landing 4 fish over 55cm with largest at 69cm and a whisker under 2.5kg. The following night saw another angler lose approx 170m of 50LB on a Saragosa 10 000, what we can only determine as being a shark. There were no head shakes, and the more drag that went on, the more line would peel. Great to see, from dry land that is.

Out in the boats, Pinkys, Dhuies, and the usual Sambos, YTK and Amberjack have all been around. The dhuies have been in depths from 30-90metres, with jigs and plastics still proving too tempting for them. One angler had a ball on light gear landing 25 sambos ranging from 15-35kg. They were apparently so thick, a set of pliers was dropped overboard by accident, and as they sunk , got smashed by a pair of hungry sambos. Pinkies are still in the bay, with the 4 and 8 mile still producing great quality fish.

As the weather continues to warm, we all look forward to those days with perfect conditions. Whether it be fishing from the beach with the kids, or deep dropping in 300m, stay keen, stay safe, and happy fishing. For all advice on your tackle and diving needs, feel free to drop us a line or find us on facebook or on our website.

Until next time, good luck and happy fishing!

 Hi all, I will be heading up north with the 4x4 to Denham and Kalbarri next Monday for a week of fishing. Its our first time fishing that far north. Just wondering what type of stuff we will be able to catch and where some good spots would be? 

Also what type of rigs would be best suited to those conditions?

Thanks 

 Hi guys,

Heading down to Mandurah for the long weekend.... Never fished down there so just wondering whats around and were are the best spots?

Cheers

2 rainbows out of the 4 i got this morning,the water was like glass with trout hiting the surface every where

Hi all,

Sitting at work thought I would post a few photos from a trip to Exmouth last month.

Had a mate from Melbourne come over to Perth so we headed up to Exmouth for a quick fish, he told me the biggest fish he had caught was a very small flat head so I thought to myself I will fix that. (hopefully)

Organized a charter for a day and what a day 3 sailfish and a little marlin. The 3 of us had a great day catching fish watching the whales and a few drinks.

Any way back to work

Cheers

Brad  

Dragged myself out of bed at 6 and walked down from where we're staying to a very fishy looking spot on the beach/reef.

First cast landed my biggest tailor for the session. I was stoked because I seriously wasn't expecting anything!!! Proceeded to be a hook up a cast, landed & released a couple, dropped plenty! Blues code did the damage until I lost it. Hooked up on a popper, which was an amazing sight!! But dropped what may have been a pb.

My aim this season (as per another thread) was to lure a 35cm+ tailor... Mission accomplished! :-D Biggest went 49 and kept two for dinner tonight. Back again tomorrow morning... So stoked with my first ever successful land based lure session!

...now to find a spot this fishy back in metro Perth...

Havent had much time to write reports. Works been full on with first fire of both units in the next 10 days. Been getting the odd day off here or there. Hitting up the tongaro/Wanganui systems the most. Over the last 6 weeks I've done alot of solo fishing, which has dramatically improved my technique, fly choice etc etc....Slowly getting over fishing the same systems, but only 3 weeks till the back country open island wide. Thats when the fun will start trying to chase my trophy..

Got a new camera for all you camera lovers got a tripod and everything so pretty rapped.....

Got a 6 days of adventure/Fishing using helicopter and quad bikes through some extremely remote and pristine areas before i leave in the last week of november for a months break.

The last two brown photos is the biggest brown ive caught by myself to date...(not being with my guide) and it was a long 30 min tussle which resulted being so deep into the river water was running down my waders to stop it burying me in boulders.....followed by a clap of these other two fishos on the otherside of the river when i eventually netted....fishing larger systems by yourself is a struggle.....

Enjoy the photos and have a good one....FIRE UP EAGLES

tight lines.