WSB fishing in Capitola? Tips for bait rigging etc...

hey folks, can you give me some advice for rigging bait for WSB? i have never fished for them with a pole and have thought  that drifting an anchovy on the surface might do the trick. is there a special way to rig and fish for them? i know that the ones i have seen have been on or just under the surface in kelpy areas. folks at capitola boat and bait claim they are around the kelp beds but who knows.

thought i would try it next weekend just for the hell of it. 

thanks!

john

I heard squid is also a WSB favorite....

30 lb main line, dropper loop with a 3-4 oz torpedo on the bottom.  As Joel said, whole dead squid, chovies, sardine or smaller mackeral should work also.   

Did the people at the rental place say they were in?  I think they usually move in when the squid are spawning but the window is short and #'s are never big enough to make me wanna go after them.   

thanks for the tips guys! the boat place didnt say they were in now but i had heard that they see them on occasion. i promised a friend to take him fishing on one of those boats this saturday and that is the only reason i will be going. looks like rain though and that may postpone the trip!

john

I keep hearing about a "resident" population there.  Anyone know the details on this?  Not that I've ever caught a WSB ...

-Allen

I keep hearing about a "resident" population there

yeah - the guys at Fisherman's Warehouse always talk about 'em when they have their striper seminars. They say the WSB are there - it's just hard to get 'em to bite. A few locals say they can see 'em from their boats and sometimes catch 'em by tossing a big whole squid without any weight on it (fly-lined).

C'mon Joel, "locals," say alot of things.....re: how to catch fish from, "their," spot.......I wouldn't listen to a damn thing they say about that subject unless I knew they were reliable and not jerkin me around   

I wouldn't doubt there are fish hanging around all year, I just don't think the numbers would justify targeting them specifically. 

Art - they 're telling the truth - I made them swear 

I believe they are in there. I've read reports in the past about boaters spotting them on the surface - right along the kelpbeds in Capitola.

yeah, they say that they see them finning on the surface in the kelp. i have not seen any there but hear of surfers seeing them. saw a photo of a fly angler catching on on a boat and it looked fun. i'll post reports if there are any and if we get out there!

john

I saw a school of undersize (20" or so?) WSB eyeing my gull-pecked anchovy when I brought him up for one last check.

10 minutes later I had a 13lb halibut on the line.  .

this is about 200 meters out from the end of capitola pier, maybe 1:30 direction.

I think it was mid august last year.

Brendan caught a huge WSB in santa cruz off his kayak a number of years ago. was it 48lbs? I think so.

Targetting them might be even harder than targetting halibut in april, but maybe with live bait at dawn in big sur
you could get a hookup, maybe not land it cause I guess they dive for the kelp.

I just reviewed roger's 30lb 40" WSB caught on apex off lindamar last year July 7th. that's a tough story to beat!

john f. chen, try searching on WSB and you'll find the photo on this site!

J

I just reviewed rogers 30lb 40" WSB caught on apex off lindamar last year July 7th. that's a tough story to beat!

The locals still talk about it to this day. I'm really surprised it did not make the local newspaper

A few of the guys from this board -who have fished Linda Mar did have some mysterious hook-ups (including myself) a couple of years ago. I witnessed John/jdyak hook into something BIG. He played the fish for nearly half an hour until it broke him off. We never got see it. I was trolling for salmon that same year and I was broken off twice. And then Colm and I had hooked up with something big last year - never got to see it either 

I'm thinking now that it could have been a WSB.....


Here's the link to the WSB caught by Roger at Linda Mar.....
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=1082.0