Late report Santa Cruz Olives

Was able to get out for mys second trip of the season last weekend (May 6). Had a couple lings from the week before in the freezer so I left the conventional gear at home and just brought the 8 wt.

The goal was to get my first keeper ling on the fly rod, but my meter died on the way out and I wasn't confident or patient enough to count a 40 count to reach the deep fish that I couldn't see.
So instead went to the general area and followed a couple of cormorants around. Ended up catching about a dozen schoolie olives between 14" to bit over 17". Ended up keeping 4 for dinner.
Used a pretty standard rig, 20 ft T-17 shooting head to intermediate shooting line with size 1 or 2/0 Clousers. Had the best results this time on a pretty quick retrieve after a 10-15 count down, with several of the fish following and taking right at the surface near the boat.  Loads of fun.

Fished the west side reefs in 50-70 ft from 9 - 11 am. (Slow late start). Beautiful flat calm until the wind came up fast at 11.

Still looking for that first keeper fly rod ling though.


m

That's a nice catch--very impressed!

Awesome! Love to get out with you sometime.
 How do you manage your running line on your yak? Basket, trey?
J. Ice

The running line is a pain no matter what I've tried. Have used my beach stripping basket, which gets in the way of my knees. Just on the deck between my legs, and a small towel over my legs. Not sure which is better. Usually I can keep the head plus about 30 ft of line somewhat under control but there is lots of room for improvement.
I was thinking of trying to make some sort of soft shallow basket that would still drape over thighs, maybe with short vertical pegs to keep line from tangling.
m