Mendo coast 9-14

Met Norm and Dave and a couple of Dave's friends at 9am and paddled out past the kelp and got into fish right away. We fished for about 2 1/2- 3 hours. I ended up with 4 vermillion, a big blue and some smaller gophers. There were a few legal lings caught and probably 20 big vermillion between the group. The water was so calm it felt like a lake, the sun was behind the clouds and the temperature was perfect. The smaller rockfish were everywhere. Thanks for meeting up with me guys. With fishing like that I will be back soon.

I brought home some abs also. 

Norm had the camera so He will probably post photos soon.

Sounds like fun.  1st ab dive? 

 

It was a good day.  Norm again killed it: A limit of BIG reds (one to 9lbs) and a limit of lings.  The rest of us did real well also, but Merv and i were the only ones that went ling-less.  My buddy (another Dave) got a limit of lings and 6-7 big reds, and John got a bunch of reds and a decent ling on his little noodle rod.

It's amazing to me the difference good technique makes.  Norm and I were often fishing side by side, using the exact same swimbaits, but Norm significantly outfished me - again!

I'm either going have to figure out what he's doing or poke holes in his boat.  I figure some sneaky action with a soldering iron on the bottom of his boat will handicap him a little.

Dave

That was my first time ab diving and the conditions weren't very good (dirty water and tide too high). I was with an experienced diver though.

I thought rockfish closed September 2 from Point Arena North?

That is what it says on the DFG page.  I believe it is still open to shore based anglers and diving.

We were in southern Mendo, which is still legal.

What a great day on the water.  DaveW, Dave2, John, Amphibian and I on a great day both conditions wise and the bite was on!!  I love it when the both the bottom conditions and weather allow for a truly effective use of big swimbaits.  Sunday was one of those days and the best day I have ever had in a kayak for sheer size and volume of reds.  Great company, lots a hard pulling fish, good weather and a nice cold Pacifico at the end of the day made Sunday pretty close to a perfect kayaking day for me......

It worked well for my freezer as well, as pickings in there were slim with only one pack of vacuumed fish left and the season always in flux.  We eat fish quite a bit, so the limit of reds and lings will have us in great fish for at least a few months.  On top of the fish we took, there was abundant catch and release on other species, including quite a few short lings, one only about 12 inches that tried to eat a 7 inch swimbait.......amazing appetites those fish have!

And yes, we were below the Point and well within fair territory......for this week anyway.....

Norm