10.31.11 - Sea Jay - Shallow Water Rockfishing

Left my house around 1AM and got to the landing at about 2:30. There were already a few anglers setting up on the Sea Jay so I grabbed my gear and rigged up as well.

While I was rigging up my last setup, Captain John comes on board and fires up the engines.


Home for today.

Soon after I finished rigging, I ducked into a bunk and woke up as John made some announcements on our first stop.


We had a good amount of fog/overcast going so it was a little chilly this morning.


The other anglers were all fishing dropper loops while I opted for the slider. Which sort of paid off, I was the first to get picked up on the spot. However, the fish turned out to be a bat ray.


Angler Steve hooks up a little while later and he's got a BIG FISH. Which also turned out to be a ray.


Another bendo! Another ray. . . .

The Yellows didn't want to play with us this morning. . . Captain John made a couple of moves around the area but quickly packed up and headed out for better fishing grounds.


Parting shot

During our 30 minute move, everyone broke out their breakfasts or snacks and chowed out.


I finished my sandwich just as we got closer to the island.


Sun finally found an opening to shine through.

We anchored up on about a half dozen shallow reefs or rock piles and picked away at the fish for most of the morning. Current was pretty slack earlier in the morning but as the morning went on, the current started ripping harder and harder.


Even with the crappy current, we were able to pull out some quality fish.


Nice Cabby


Some bull kelp got caught around our anchor line, but it was easily cut free. John decided to keep a larger portion of the kelp.


We decided to make a little kelp o lantern out of it.




John had enough of the current so he motored us down the island to a couple of other spots. We stopped up on another three or four spots but fishing was pretty slow. We would pull up and put about 5 or 6 fish in the sacks then the spot would shut off.

I had about a half dozen medium sized rockfish/sheeps in the bag but nothing to get excited over. I had initially thought we were going to be fishing deep, so I had my 40# mono 3 foot topshot all setup to go with a shrimp fly and jig. But that setup didn't really see any action till John motored over a deeper spot with some awesome markings.

Excited about the news, I tossed my 20# setup back in the racks and grabbed my actual rockfishing setup. As soon as the anchor dropped, I casted out. As soon as I touched bottom, I felt a really nice set of tugs, set the hook on each thump, and started grinding away. Before we could even pull tight to the anchor, I was already cranking up doubles. John said he wasn't sure if we should drop down because of the way the boat was position, but said screw it when he saw double chucks come over the rail.

This was a chuck hole for sure. I nailed about 7 more chucks at this spot, a few of which were doubles. The largest chuck that I ended up boating might have pushed three pounds. Kind of small but we were only fishing in about 110 feet of water.

As the boat swung back and forth on anchor, we would "lose" the structure. But as soon as we swung over it again, we'd have three of four hook ups.


I pulled out a nicer scully at this spot. Oh ya that's right, I had forgotten to mention that I dressed up as a farmer to go fishing this Halloween. I've already got next year's costume planned out as well. I'd love to see a boat filled with a bunch of costumed anglers.

After about 20 minutes, this spot shut off so John made about a five minute move over a sligher deeper spot. This would be our last stop of the day, I fished hard till the bitter end but I couldn't seem to find any structure for the last 5 mins of the trip.


Quick shot of my mixed bag.


Nice Sheep and ling!


Nice job out there Greg.


Ling Farmer. . .


Sheephead Farmer. . .


John's relief deckhand couldn't help today so he stole one of the guys from the office to pull anchor for him. Aside from that, John was running around the boat like a mad man gaffing and bagging fish for everyone. John did a great job filleting our catches as well. It's been a very very very long time since I've seen a boat that will cut out pinbones out of a fillet for the anglers.

Thanks Captain John and Deckhand David. It was really fun fishing with you guys.

Till Next Time, Tight Lines!
-Odium