Van Damme, 10/11

Hey everyone,

Haven't been able to post for a while, too much work and have been doing some quail hunting with my son lately.  Anyway, went to Van Damme up near the town of Mendocino this past Wednesday.  The weather was perfect with a 2 foot swell and no wind.  This was the nicest I have ever seen up there. 

I went solo and fished the edges of some reefs straight out from the launch in 50 to 110 feet of water.  Excellent ling action, as is usually the case this time of year during the spawn.  Caught and released 6 keeper size (24 to 26 inch) lings and kept two nice ones.  One was a little over 12 lbs and the other around 9.  Caught one nice red about 5 pounds on my first drop with a large hair jig and mogambo grub combo.  Nice mix of other rockfish to round out the limit.  There are large schools of quality blues around all the high spots and a caught a few pushing 3 lbs.  This would be a good time to take the kids up there and target these agressive and plentiful blues. 

The lings were caught one on a 7 inch swimbait and one hitch-hiker on a half pound black that ate a megabait.  (looked crazy, the whole black was in his (her) mouth with just the jig hanging out).  It almost looked like the ling was hooked unitl I boated it and the black fell out with both hooks on the jig firmly planted in the black.

Beautiful place and light pressure this time of year.  Enjoy...... 

Very Nice!
yeah the weather up there is perfect. My wife and I were camping at albion river fri-tues for ab diving and it was one of the best trips in years.
                                           Morgan

Great fish, great time of the year.  Vic, I and the kids are planning a trip up there Oct 21st - we normally camp at Casper Beach and launch right there.  It is a easy paddle to the reef for the kids.  Hope the weather holds.

Nice fish - great report.   

Hope the weather holds up for all of you, maybe I'll see you up there if i can get out.  I like fishing Caspar as well, I like the reef just outside the south of caspar cove, nice lingy area.....

Norm

I went solo and fished the edges of some reefs straight out from the launch in 50 to 110 feet of water.

The place was out and between rocks on the left and the right? I went left once and never went out straight.

The area I was fishing was straight out from the beach.  there is a boiler rock that I have never seen exposed, but normally boils from the swell, to the right(north) of the large exposed reef.  This area has a lot of visible kelp on it right now.  It is very difficult to fish when the swell gets any size to it becasue there is a washing machine effect created by the exposed reef and this area being adjacent to it, lots of slap back from the perdominant swell.  The area outside and south of the main exposed reef is fishable almost anytime, but i have always gotten the larger fish in the areas straigt out and just to the North, on the outside.  That is the best thing about Van Damme, there is always something fishable, even when the swell is up.  I have caught keeper lings and assorted rockfish inside the main exposed reef between there and the larger island (rock) near the south end of the beach and that area is pretty well fishable most times.  If you meter around the kelp edges near the boiler straght out, you will find a nice edge heading up along the south side of the boiler's kelp line and on the outside of the boilers kelp line a nice slope down from the boiler that is fishable from 30 to about 110 feet where it hits the sand.  If you paddle up north past the outside of the boiler area, the normal downhill current takes you accross that rocky area toward the bell buoy, which is very fishy until you hit sand out toward the bouy.  I'll post ahead of time next time i plan to go up there and would be happy to share the spots with anyone who want to give it a try.

Take care....