Beautiful work! Those are sure to slay

thanks for the info.  I like to tie my own, but get lazy and just buy them sometimes also. How did you tie that fly on the rig?  I've tied smaller flys (fly fishing lakes/streams) but haven't tied any larger saltwater flies.

Shrimp flies are super easy to tie, kinda just big streamers with tinsel for flash and glow thread for the heads. I used to stay up late a’drinkin and a’smokin and tie tons of them, but now it’s mainly Gulps on bare hooks with a glow bead on the line. Less work, less hangover, and possibly more effective.

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. 

While searching for the best price on my usual chemically enhanced swimbait products, I came across the 10-inch eels and just had to give them a try. Hope to turn one into a ling. These will reinforce my aversion to sabiki rigging on the kayak if they work.

duct tape

Never launched out of Mitchell's cove; only the harbor for me in Santa Cruz. Based on Surfline showing a 9-foot swell at 9 seconds from 309 degrees (northwest) tomorrow, there may be some swell protection very close in but big rollers farther out. Swells are closer to 5 feet at Black's beach, which is right next to the harbor where those northwest swells are somewhat reduced. Fishable but likely to be a bit bouncy by the time you'd get half way out to the mile buoy.


Not an expert, but that's my $0.02. I really don't have a sense of how the forecasts play out in real life at Mitchell's cove.

Dropping a whole frozen squid on a trap rig to the bottom just might get you something decent