Good day at SWS

Finally went fishing again. Took the pandemic off, but now that I'm vaccinated & the forecast for wind & swell was good, well, what the heck.

Landed ~15 rockfish & 1 decent ling on a chart/white flashtail clouser. Used the same fly all day. It's still on my rod.

One observation: I think many of us who've fished SWS over the years have noticed the reduction in giant kelp - a global problem, as it turns out. Today I noticed that there was a ton of bull kelp, the one with the bulbous head & a bunch of fronds at the top. Definitely more than I recall the last time I was there in 2019. I wonder if the urchins don't like it as much?

Could be otters too. I saw some & they looked pretty healthy. Maybe they're keeping the urchins in check in this area.

Seals, otters, pelicans, rockfish, lings. And very little swell. A good day at SWS.
Bill

Thanks for the report Bill. 

Sounds like a nice and productive outing!  I'm curious to try for perch with a fly rod someday.

Given your location, try Sunset Beach on Monterey Bay. That’s where I caught my first surfperch on the fly. I mostly hit Kehoe Beach at Pt. Reyes now for that.
Bill

Curious to know your fly fishing setup for Rockfish. How do you get it down, and how deep are you usually fishing? Are you using a 8 weight?

TIA!

Finally went fishing again. Took the pandemic off, but now that I'm vaccinated & the forecast for wind & swell was good, well, what the heck.

Landed ~15 rockfish & 1 decent ling on a chart/white flashtail clouser. Used the same fly all day. It's still on my rod.

One observation: I think many of us who've fished SWS over the years have noticed the reduction in giant kelp - a global problem, as it turns out. Today I noticed that there was a ton of bull kelp, the one with the bulbous head & a bunch of fronds at the top. Definitely more than I recall the last time I was there in 2019. I wonder if the urchins don't like it as much?

Could be otters too. I saw some & they looked pretty healthy. Maybe they're keeping the urchins in check in this area.

Seals, otters, pelicans, rockfish, lings. And very little swell. A good day at SWS.
Bill

I get the fly down by using a T14 head attached to an intermediate running line. I also use a 6' piece of T14 doubled over (so it's 3' long) & tied together with nail knots. That loops on between the 28' T14 head & the leader, so it pulls the front end down faster. Flies have dumbbell eyes as well.

I use a pretty solid Scott 9 wt; it handles the extra weight pretty well. It's not a pretty cast though!

I mostly fish the kelp edges, and mostly out beyond the boiler rock. So typically 60-80' FOW. Mostly the fish bite on the way up, and often right at the last second.

I typically bring an 8 wt rigged the same but without the extra T14 piece for fishing shallower water, esp. inside the boiler rock.

Hope this helps.

Thanks pindo! Wow, thats deep!


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Thanks for sharing pindo. We have a house at TC and walk to Stillwater North. One of the great sadnesses of this last almost decade was the slow collapse, which I first noticed when the kelp disappeared.  Then the abs starved and even tons of snails perished.  Well, we were just up there for the long weekend and I saw big pockets of kelp reappearing! I crawled around on the rocks and didn't see a single urchin. My kids reported seeing more than a dozen starfish. I don't know if the kelp was giant or bull, but it was fantastic to see.