Farallon Islands, non-yak, 7-10-08

I had the excellent fortune of taking a trip out to the Farallon Islands yesterday... sure beat suffering through the heat wave on land!

The trip was on the Hulicat out of Pilar Point, with the capable Captain Tom Mattusch.  The trip was co-sponsored by Coastside Fishing CLub and P-Line, and P-Line provided a great goodie bag for every fisherman that included diamond bars and Farallon Feathers (like a shrimp fly rig) that really worked well.

I've been out to the Islands a few times over the years, but even for the fishing vets that have spent way more time on the water than me, they remarked that we experienced a very rare Farallon day of NO wind, very low swell, and a frickin heat wave... it must have been 70+ degrees out there!  If anyone was going to trying yak-fishing at the islands, yesterday would have been the day to do it (unless you've read The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey; http://us.macmillan.com/thedevilsteeth)

The boat limited out, plus about a dozen lings... biggest fish was an 11 pound ling and second biggest was a 10 pound vermillion that was just huge.  I caught a several big blues and blacks, a bunch of other assorted rockfish, and a dinker-ling that was about 26-27 inches... made great fish tacos last night!

Once I was close to my limit I switched from using one of my two Trevala-Avet SX combos to my freshwater striper rod... a 6'6" Fenwick 10-20 MH rod w/Shimano Cardiff reel... that setup went super-bendo on a double hook-up big vermilion and and black. 

Also saw about 50-75 whales in small pods of 3-5 whales all throughout the day.

Anyway, here's some pics that show the FAC conditions...

Backcountry









My dinker-ling

Great report!  How deep were you fishing?

Thanks for the pics, I've never been out to the farallon islands. If nothing else I at least know what it looks like out there.

What an awesome place! Thanks for the pics. Seeing the pics reminded me of the The Devil's Teeth!

I think the deepest bottom we were fishing was about 115 feet of water, average was about 100 feet, and the shallowest was about 60... but I was hooking fish anywhere from the bottom to right under the boat.

Very special day you had there Backcountry. Great photos!

What, no shark pics?

Trust me, I was keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes open... I would love to have seen a swim by.  From reading The Devil's Teeth, there's always a few apex predators around keeping the peace... but they don't start stacking up and predating in numbers until October'ish, and then that lasts for about 3 months.

How much to rent one of those cottages for a weekend? We could launch out of the front yard!

The ONLY thing I don't like about fishin the Farrallons is the 2 1/2 hour ride each way. Once there, the fishing is fantastic.

Last time out, a humpback breached less than 50 feet in front of us. First time I went out, you could of course use 5 shrimp fly rigs, and 3-4 combos were common. The second time I went out I just threw big iron and caught limits of much larger fish.

Its just the 5 hours you lose getting there and back...

Rich

Its just the 5 hours you lose getting there and back...

Au contraire...

I spent the 2.5 hours on the way out making new friends and tying my own leaders...

...and I spent the 2.5 hours on the way in drinking beer with my new friends, with a great view to boot.

Beer makes everything better!

   Backcountry

wow, a calm day at the farralons, that is great. i have only experienced one day like that out there.  usually it is a gut wrenching roller coaster!

SWEET DAY!! a calm ocean, like we had, is the ONLY WAY i'll ever get out past the G.G.!
 
Thanks for getting me there BC!...it was a great trip!   

Great pics of the islands, thanks!  I can almost smell the bird crap.

I liked that book a lot, but the nuclear waste thing freaked me out.