Stillwater 7/1

Rockfish, Lingcod and Kayak fishers eveywhere.  I met up with Pete and his friends about 5:20, I won't name names since I don't want to forget anyone.  Plus I am sure many will want to add their own thread.  I was in the water by 5:45 and hooked up with a nice 16" Vermillion on my first drop using a castmaster with bucktail and shrimp fly above.  Then started to get lots of small blues and decided to change to heavier tackle.  I tried a 6" swim bait on a lead head below the shrimp fly and caught and released several small rockfish.  Eventually the tail was gone from the swim bait so I removed it and the shrimp fly and started using a SPRO swimming jig.  Landed a nice Blue about 14" and then after my kelp anchor broke, drifted back toward Pete et. al.  On the way I hooked a nice 27" Lincod, my first  ever and biggest fish ever .  Woo Hoo!  I was jazzed.  It barfed up a nice big octopus that I saved until I lost the jig on the bottom a few casts later.  Started fishing in a nice bait ball along with Pete and friend plus several Pelicans and other birds and hooked up with several thought to be lings that let go befor reaching the surface.  As the octopus got smaller and smaller, I rehooked so that the tip was exposed and nailed my second 26+ inch ling on hte next drop.  It was about 8:00 and I decided to fish on for a while longer.  JIm, Kim and thier friends showed up and I helped Kim land her first looked to be about 30" ling.  I rehooked the last stub of the octopus and headed in about 9:30.  Took a few drops and landed one more Blue about 13 inches.

As I headed in an amazing armada of kayak fishers came into view.  There must have been 30+ boats out.  Most everyone I spoke to had at least one fish.  A few very inside were not as enthusiastic.

The launch and landing was cake.  It got a little colder after the second ling when the fog came in low and wind and waves picked up a bit.  I arrived at home about 10:30.

Awsome day



   

Good job. It sounds a lot of actions and fun. Is it in Carmel Stillwater?

Nice report!  Locks like this might have been the spot to try this weekend.

Eye - this report was from Carmel Stillwater.  Sackyak is from Seaside (near Monterey); no way he could make it home by 1030am from Stillwater Cove/Sonoma.

Well, I'll just add my 2 cents to this great day.  Still shooting film so no pics with this report but it was just a great day.  This is Stillwater Carmel and yes there was a good group there today.  Got there a little after 5 with Kim, Dave and enthusiastic newbie FlipT.  Flip and I paddled out to a spot that was good for vermillions last year, dropped some anchovy looking fish traps in about 90'.  Bam!!  Flips first cast netted a beautiful vermillion, not too sure about the size or weight but definitely a WOW fish.  So, we brought in a few more and I did manage an Mmmm vermillion, which is not quite as big as a WOW.  Brought home some decent blues that will be so delicious.

Had a real great time watching Flip catch fish on every drop on a 3oz Dymara DmaxII (ebay) for about 45 minutes while I tried to remain cool.  Not easy.

Etienne's ling was a beauty, make that a WOW.  He and Kim both got limits o' ling.  Dave scored heavily in the WOW vermillion category and I think there was ling cod action there too.

This was pretty much the one that got away day for me but I do have plenty of nice filets on approach for the barby.  Landed a few underlings, lost a cab right next to me.  Landed a real nice ling hitchiking but he managed to shake his way back to freedom before I could get my s*+t together.  All in all, it was just another fine day at Stillwater.  I think we were fishing deeper thanks to the 180' limit and catching bigger fish, 90' - 130' seemed real productive.

Please all note that there is a new harbor master this year, Brent.  The guys there last year were very laid back and I think we might have made him a little nervous with our numbers today but we did all we possibly could to assure him that we intended to leave the place a little nicer than we found it.  Some folks still ignore the area for public access parking and a kind word to remind them is in order.  And if you don't know, please ask.  I'd hate to wear out the welcome we've always received there.


Pete

 

I agree with everthing said thus far.  Anna, John and I had a banner day.  Our total was 5 keeper lings (2 released), 2 vermillions, 1 22 inch bocaccio, and a smorgasboard of rocks that filled up a 60 quart cooler.  I have family in town and tomorrow is the big fish fry....

Also fishing with us was Mike in the pedal drive Hobie w/ a nice stabilization sytem....He did well, catching a couple of nice vermillions and lots of other assorted rockfish.

I have never seen so many kayaks in that area....of course, I have never seen 6 powerboats at each pinnacle either......

Anyone heard how Fuzzy Tom, Pat and Randy did?

Jim

Stillwater sucks, don't try it.
Me: Limit of nice olives, rosy, copper, vermillion and blues- most med. sized. Several underlings and two probable keepers that got off just at the boat.   Son Alex: 6 good sized rocks, incl a big olive: old salts at the fish cleaning table in SC Harbor were telling us it was a yellowtail, then that yellowtail and olive were the same fish , then were pretty quiet when we whipped  out the fish chart.  He also got a very large blue.
The wind was coming off shore as we got in about 1, very smooth at the beach, bumpy further out.  Diamond jig with chartruese green bucktail and red and yellow shrimp fly got hammered for about an hour straight (the fly was nothing but a piece of yarn at the end , andthey were still hitting it)about 10 am -so why did I get up at 4?
     At one time, I saw blues jumping out of the water, another, pelicans dive bombing anchovies all around us, just plain ignoring us.   

What a great opening day!

It was nice to see all the friendly faces - some we knew and some for the first time. 

I scored a short ling and lost a keeper when he spit my lure before I got him within reach of my net.  C&R'd a limit + of various rockfish and managed to hang onto a nice 21" Cabbie.  All in all, just another day in Paradise.   

Yep.  Me too........except on the lings.  At least 5 varieties of rockfish (all but one broken one released) on my brand new, custom made rockfish rod......see Randy's post in Gearing Up.  The precious part of this is that this was probably the only place we could have spent the day rockfishing today because conditons were just not all that sweet.......grey/windy/swell to 6 feet?  But, tucked along the northern edge of Carmel Bay made for a happy fishery for a dozen folks in (mostly) plastic boats.  Dave maintains the elegant SIK style.

Here is Randy's toad of a cabezon.  My goodness, what a terrific way to open the season.

Will re-glue my puck today........ .......and we'll hit somewhere tomorrow. 

great report, nice pictures!