santa cruz harbour 7/5 noon to 4.

went out late for the higher tide (that's what I told myself anyways), saw pacifico and liz out there, nice to meet you famous people! 

decided to try fishing around the harbour mouth as there seemed to be bait in that area. bit of a half-hearted effort, mainly I just wanted to see if I could reliably make bait at least.

as mako1 says, the wind has made the water cloudy again. not good. too bad as it was clear on thursday.

well, at least making bait is now easy. lots of bait. I sabiki'ed a couple shiner perch, some smelt and some anchovies in just two drops right outside the harbour and when I came in saw that the anchovies were inside the harbour mouth again.

No fish landed (unless you count the mondo jacksmelt that ate an anchovy I left near the surface), I stayed 30-40 feet deep drifting from blacks point to the harbour mouth and back (wind switched directions). Based on previous efforts, that is too shallow for rockfish, but I was hoping for halibut and there have been quite a few shallow ones caught it seems. maybe I should have fished deeper for them because of the cloudy water, but did get my baits eaten at least.  Nice to see some signs of life finally.

J

Seems like the mile buoy and west cliff have been more reliable recently. I tried drifting Blacks Point last week and also got nada.

Nice to mee you too J.  I figured it was you when I seen the pool noodle wrapped rods.

We got out late, at about 1PM or so. Bought some bait from Bocci Boy  and headed out the mouth of the harbor.   We drifted for a bit but didn't have any luck so we packed up and headed over to my friends house for a beer.  After that we went onto the wharf and stopped in at Riva for drinks and Oysters.

Fishing wasn't the greatest but being out there was pretty nice, and of course drinks and oysters always make things better.

John-

At least you gave is a half hearted try. The SC wasteland has no love for me. Crapitola looked busy today though... busy but slow.

Freddie

nice try J, maybe we all need to rethink our position.  We dont need no stinkin halibut!  Lets be like Alien and learn to eat chovies!

nice try J, maybe we all need to rethink our position.  We dont need no stinkin halibut!  Lets be like Alien and learn to eat chovies!

or both, ken (sc x factor) had tempura-ed anchovies with his 50lbs of halibuts!

I kind of forced myself out there and did not have PFA (positive fishing attitude) for the 'buts, but making bait was fun and seeing the bait get crushed and bit was encouraging. I never used a shiner perch for bait before, they are tough and look good in the water, reminds me of those pinfish in florida.