Work gave me a comp day this Friday due to the fact that they actually made me work for a living recently, so of course I checked the forecast. Santa Cruz looks a bit bumpier for Friday, but Capitola looks good. There have been reports of good halibut action in Cappy and I expect the rockfish and whatnot have received less pressure over the last couple of years.

Last Capitola launch was a long time ago for me and included a fishfinder-busting wipeout on the landing. That was my last beach launch. Haven't missed the sand getting on everything, but have missed the scenery and fishing spots. What could go wrong on a Friday the 13th return to the beach?

Forecast is for light winds, puny 1-foot swells, and a reasonable 3.5-footish tide height for landing that seems like it shouldn't be a problem. The combination of long-period southern swells slamming the beach and an extra high tide causing waves to bounce sideways off the cliff are what got me last time.

Thinking about showing up early to prep for a 6 am launch or to leave myself time to retreat to another harbor launch if i lose my nerve.

Planning on exiting the harbor mouth around 6. Haven't decided on hitting the nearby sandy areas and reefs vs heading over past the wharf to the reefs out there - depends on how bumpy it is.

Somebody needs to keep the sea lions company in Santa Cruz while everyone is at the MBK derby.

If work permits, I’ll be at the harbor mouth at first light Saturday. 69 on the radio and I will see you there. Company welcome and happy to go in any direction.

Even though the halibuts only hit me up on a random basis, these riggings almost always get a nice bag of rockfish/lings. The gameplan is 2 rods (only fish one at a time, of course), one with a high-low rig baited with Gulp swimming mullet (5-inch and/or 4-inch) and the other with whole squid on a trap rig. I bring a ton of pre-tied rigs and each rod gets a nice big swivel clip tied to the end of the main line for easy replacement of rigs on the water.

Since 2 rods is kinda my limit on the ‘yak and I prefer to have both rigs at the ready, this kinda keeps me away from sabiki rigging for live baits. We each make our choices.

First pic is the hi-low, which has a big barrel swivel tied on with a palomar knot and 3 dropper loops; 2 for the hooks and one for the weight at the end. Use a slightly too-long piece of mono, tie on the swivel and then evenly space out 3 dropper loops and trim off the extra. With 30-lb mono, which is a little thick to fit through some hook eyes and glow beads, you might need a length of 8 lb or 10 lb mono to thread through the loops, then through your eyes/beads, to pull the leader through. The hooks aren't actually tied on; the loop passes through the eye and then around the hook. You can use a shrimp fly for one of the hooks and substitute squid strips or whatever you've got. Pliers help for tightening knots. When this one snags, you can usually back it out since it’s the weight at the bottom that catches the rocks.

The trap rig is simple. 40 lb mono with a palomar-knotted swivel, a bead, a J hook, and a treble; all palomar knots. The trick with this is to use a slider (AKA fishfinder rig) to attach your weight to the main line above the swivel clip. Left a pic of the slider setup. Since the weight ends up above the hooks/bait  in the water, you need to make sure and crank it up from the bottom 3 or 4 times. When this one snags, it’s usually the hooks that catch, and 40 lb mono is tough to break off. Always check it and/or replace it after a snag as it’ll ruin the points of the hooks.

Both rigs work while drifting or when moving around, but the hi-low (6 oz weight) gets more consistent results on the troll for olive/blue/black rockfish. Find the bottom and then let out a bit of extra line as you get moving for trolling. Along with GPS points and visual navigation, trolling the hi-low has replaced my electronic fishfinder when it comes to locating schools of willing rockfish in the reef areas. Gulps are kept in an empty peanut butter jar, and I keep the stock supply in a cooler to prevent leakage. You do not want that juice getting all over your car or garage.

The trap rig (8 oz weight) baited with the biggest whole squid you can get is the ticket for random rockfish, jumbo vermillions and browns,  and lingcod. I like to take the frozen squid out of the freezer the afternoon before fishing and douse it with Gulp juice before setting it in the fridge to thaw overnight so I don’t get on the water with a squid brick. Slightly inferior to live baits, but it works pretty consistently. It’ll get doubles of schooling rockfish on it from time to time, one on the J hook and one on the treble. It’s satisfying for some reason when lings or big rockfish get hooked with the J hook rather than the treble.

Always keep both rods rigged ready, and any time you catch a fish on one rod, get the fish on deck and get your other line in the water before messing with dehooking, bleeding, bonking, getting hooks out of your net, etc. That way, no time on the water is wasted. Bringing lots of extra rigs and weights in case of snagging also helps cut down F-around time. I use my kid's hair ties to color code bundles of rigs in sammich bags.

Hope this is helpful. Rockfish are my and my kiddo’s favorite. She swears by browns, but I’ll take an olive or vermillion first. 

You can't get to the beach at the base of the wharf right now because of the fencing that's there for the wharf repair work. Anyone know another place to launch in Capitola?

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=220187&inline

All over the place today and thinking someone put crystal meth in my coffee

My understanding is that you can't even fish in an area covered by the nearshore rockfish closure. So that would mean you can't go for halibut out of Santa Cruz harbor as I understand it.

Where are people allowed to go for halibut this winter in the ocean with the new regs? Past 50 fathoms?