The biggest black bass kayak tournament in California was held on Clear lake this past weekend. 210 kayak anglers competed for a variety of prizes. It was a great event. I was blessed to come home with the win. Here’s a link to the report. The bite is only going to get better there but all I want to do is chase rockfish/lings (next month) and halibut 

https://www.westernbass.com/forum/patrick-wilson-wins-the-record-breaking-event-the-native-limit-big-bass-event-clear-lake-t146413.html

Looks like a great trip so far……

11/21/2022
The Fortune just called in with LIMITS of Bluefin Tuna for day 1 and 2 on their 3 day trip for 11 anglers

Hi Alex. I did a three day trip on the Islander the end of September. We left Thursday morning at 11am and had 3 day bluefin boat limits (144) by Saturday morning. The bluefin were on the northwest corner of Catalina island then.

This was my 5th trip of 2.5+ days and by far the best numbers wise. I ended up catching 13 bluefin (15-97lbs), one yellowfin (37lbs), and two yellowtail. The night knife jig bite was best (11 of my bluefin were at night with several missed bites/fish pulling off too).

For the night bite I had two rail rods rigged up. Both with 130lb braid and 250lb leader. One was a 400gram rip roller and the other was a 560gram knife jig. I got bit equally on both. Color doesn’t seem to matter.

My daytime rod had 65lb braid to 40lb fluorocarbon leader (1/0 ringed circle hook-bait was sardines). I got two bluefin (15lber & 40lber), a 37lb yellowfin, and two yellowtail on bait during the day. I threw a colt sniper during the day too with zero love.

The best advice I would give is mark your line every 100 feet. Mine is marked down to 400 feet. Having your bait in the strike zone is by far the most important (the captain will call out the depths the fish are at) thing imho. Also, pay close attention to any deviation when your jig is falling. Any pause I’d immediately put my reel in gear asap and start cranking as fast as I could. These bluefin will eat that jig and spit it back out in a couple seconds. They pretty much hook themselves as long as you keep tension on the line and don’t give them any slack.

Another recommendation I’d give you is pack some type of hydration products (pedialyte sport or other hydration additive). My first trip I got horrible cramps in my legs after fishing hard all day/night and my muscles not being used to the rocking of the boat.

Make fish processing reservations asap if you haven’t done so already. I’ve used 5 star and been pretty satisfied. I’d rather pay someone else to do it after getting back to the dock exhausted from fishing hard but that’s just me.

Good luck on your first trip. You will have a blast. I look forward to hearing about your trip when you return. If you have any other questions please let me know.

Please read the rules here (https://socoemergency.org/order-of-the-health-officer-shelter-in-place/) regarding what you can and cannot do in Sonoma County. It’s probably the same in most other counties.

Without knowing more I’m going to believe fish blood was spilled within the exceptions listed. Thanks for the report and fish porn!! Great job!!

Yes, I made it out but had little to show for my efforts. Beautiful day starting out. I had recent reports that the salmon bite was off but I saw several boats running out and couldn't resist the temptation. An hour paddle past the second red buoy I was trolling. Continued paddling out southwest about another half mile to mile. I then turned north trolling just beyond the commercial crab pot buoys. There were four stick boats about a mile to 2 miles farther out. I Paddled just beyond being even with the lighthouse then trolled towards the shore. The wind picked up by time I got to my ling spot and most of the boats were running in. I made four passes catching one 24 inch ling before deciding to call it a day. Should've rockfished the entire time but I had a great fishing day. Just not a great catching day    no one at the cleaning station had salmon so I don't feel that bad. Lots of big blacks being cleaned though.

Heading out at 5:30 AM to Chase chrome then stop on the way in for lings. Company welcome.

You definitely want tide movement. Doesn't matter which way it's going IMHO. I'm basically freshwater bass fishing bouncing the bait just above the rocks. A lot of bites are on the fall. I'm also working the entire 1/3 (end) of the jetty.

Another good technique, one I've not done in several years there, is to jig up some live shiners. You used to be able to get some around the launch ramp/dock but you could only do it when the boat lot was empty. I'm sure you could take a 5 gallon bucket and sabiki rig over to the Tides or Lucas wharf and get a dozen pretty quick. You would then increase you chance of a Hali too.