Fishing deep in the kelp

All,

I had a very fun and informative trip to San Diego last weekend and learned a trick that I am dying to try up north.

I curious if anyone else (I know a few) fishes deep in the thickest mats of kelp.

Down south (see my report in the fishing reports) we would drive the boat right into the thickest mats of kelp and pitched oversized jig and pigs (my friends "Trix Jetty Worm" creation) into little holes in the mat and also dropping the jigs to the bottom through the canopy.

We were mostly catching calico bass and johnney bass, which don't live this far north, but we also caugh lings and a giant sheepshead.

I want to give this a try up here.  Any suggestions on some cool kelp beds to fish near Santa Cruz?

MolBasser

What kind of depths are you talking about?  In my few trips out so far I have not noticed much kelp out deep.  And the kelp I do see seems kinda thin.

In San Diego the kelp we fished was anywhere from 80 (max depth the kelp will grow) all the way down to 30 feet.

We caught fish at all depths, but seemed to have the best luck in 60 feet, but that was for calicos.

A little birdie whispered in my ear that this technique could be effective up here too.  I just need to get my act together and go out and do it.

Today is kayak tune up day, and then I am ready to rock and roll.

My wife is out of town for all of next week, so I will be able to fish quite a bit. (hint).

This is what I mean by thick:



MolBasser

Natural bridges usually has some decent kelp beds as does daventport.  You could always try the lighthouse around seal rock too but that place gets hammered pretty good so I'm not sure how good the fishing will be.  Even though our kelp isn't as thick I'm pretty sure this technique will work up here.

The kelp has been thin this year.  And most of it is <30 feet deep.  However, there are fish to be found in there.  Black, blues, and olives will suspend in the kelp.  IMO, more cabs are found up shallow in the kelp than anywhere else.  Grass, gopher, kelp bass, etc. are all found in the kelp.

-Allen

My first time rockfishing was on a skiff out of santa cruz.  They said not to dive in the kelp, but after a while of catching nothing in the open, we plowed right into it and caught a bunch of B&Ys and grassies.  

Kelps grows on rocks, rockfish live in rocks, so where there's kelp, there's rockfish.  In shallow, protected areas, you won't find many rockfish very far from the kelp since it grows on all the rocks.

Right on.

Who wants to check out the west side next week?

I will provide a couple of the killer jigs for you to try.

MolBasser

My first time rockfishing was on a skiff out of santa cruz.  They said not to dive in the kelp, but after a while of catching nothing in the open, we plowed right into it and caught a bunch of B&Ys and grassies.  

We did that too.......they came out in the little skiff and chewed us out

We did it on the other side of the seal rock so they couldn't see us.  

How about drop-shotting the kelp?  Has anyone else tried this?  I played around with it during the Elk tourny using a 6" slugos on a drop shot rig with a couple onces of weight.  It seems to work well for suspending the lure deep, off the bottom, and in or near the kelp beds.  The large blacks up there seemed to love it (but what didn't they love?).  Anyway, I wasn't getting any lings on it so I quickly switched over to more tradiontal ling lures.  Given the popularity of the system with bass fishermen, I'm curious to give the technique a bit more refinement for catching rockfish.

Brian

I've hit the kelp at Capitola and had some small to med size fish wrap and break 20lb test.  Landed most, but nothing spectacular there for me.

I've hit the thick kelp off sonoma, but only landed small to med sized fish and undersized lings.  Once again nothing to write home about.  Up there, I've had better success a bit deeper in 70-90ft range.

What worries me most is what if I were to hook a really big fish in the thick kelp.  Would I be able to land it or would it get wrapped up?

Stuart

How about drop-shotting the kelp?  Has anyone else tried this?...  

Brian

Shrimp fly rig = Original drop shot technique

Drop shot works very well in the SoCal kelp.  I know.

It should work up here too.

It is always a worry about wrapping up in the kelp.  My friend landed a 17# beast of a sheepshead in the thick stuff.  20# line and muscle worked it out.

I use spectra in kelp.  It helps because you can sort of saw with it.


MolBasser

Yeah, I'm familiar with shrimp flies, they are indeed the original drop shot rigs and work quite well.  In fact, they almost work too well on the smaller fish.  I guess my thought is that the approach might be updated using larger weedless plastics to get down into the kelp a bit more and to the larger fish.

Given the discussion on the differences in kelp between northern and southern California, it sounds like such an approach might be more useful down south for kelp bass.

Brian

HI Bsteves,

I don't think you clubed your fish hard enough it's still moving.. Thats to cool!!!