Fort Ross, Crab and Rockfish, 12/4

I made a solo run to Fort Ross this morning for a try at the crabs and rockfish.  Weather was absolutely beautiful, hard to believe it is December!  About a 3 foot swell, 12 to 14 seconds apart, variable to 5 winds and lots of sunshine.   

Got in about 8 and dropped my hoop nets baited with some leftover anchovies and sardines from a southern trip and headed out looking for reefs and rock as I have only been there twice before.  Found some nice lumpy bottom just to the North and some just to the south that were holding large schools of blues and blacks.  Kept some of the nicer blacks and decided to head back to check the hoops.  First pull had a nice 6 inch rock crab and a keeper dungie.  Went back out and metered around the buoy that marks the wreck and found some nice looking bottom ranging from 20 to 50 feet.  First drop I had an absolute monster cab follow my swimbait back to the boat, freespooling it back didn't get him, so i continued to work the area.  Ended up with one nice keeper Cab and 8 lings (too bad the season is over).    Four of the lings were keeper size and I took some picks of a few at the boat.  Rounded out what I counted on board as a limit with the requisite greenling and in between all that, multiple pulls on the hoops yielded 2 dungies and 3 nice rock crabs.  When I got out of the water, I found that I only had kept 9 rockfish, but that is okay, chalk one up for fish Karma.   

Beautiful day, vacuumed rockfish for the next few months and crab on the table for dinner, what a great Monday!

OH MAN!!!   I have NEVER seen Ross look that awesome.  You must have been so stoked on the conditions, let alone geting a nice a$$ haul like that.  good on ya

Congrats on the score - good report.  The forecast of 5 knot winds didn't come true farther north...

WOW!! I think you could have called that "Lake Ross" Its always fun to catch Lings...even if you have to release em. Looks like a fun day for the books!

Great pics, thanks for the report. Man, that's flatness.  We went out on Sunday at Navarro with similar, but not quite so good results. Hey what type of iron is that in the 3rd ling pic? (I think its a ling).

May the fish gods send more good weather days like that to us all!

Pescadore, the Iron in the third pick is a Raider, chrome with blue prism tape on it.  It is about 5 inches long and fairly light, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 oz.  Has a nice flutter and slow fall, great on calm days and fishing shallow.  I was using it in 20 to 50 feet.  I have not seen them for a while, but they still may be around, I bought 3 of them maybe 7 or 8 years ago when there was a big run of baracuda down south that I was fishing.

Take care...

Norm

what site did you use for weather

i have never seen fort ross so nice

nice haul

may try wed

Nice pics & report Norm  I've only been to Fort Ross once (with Erik K) and were blessed with similar conditions My buddy Lee got his abs while I took a couple of lings. Had a fiesta when we got home that day  Good times 

Hey Norm,

Way too cool pics and those lings are beautiful!!!  You sure know how to get lings.  It's too bad the weather turned bad when we went to Fort Ross last time.  But you were blessed this time.

I'm glad you got some dungees too!!! And you proved in the pics that there's dungees in Fort Ross.  Not too many people believe that FR hold some dungees.  I got some there too last year.

Take care.  Let's talk about going up north to get 10-limit of dungees.  Maybe 4-lb black rockfish are back in the shallows this time of the year.

-Ron

The weather site I use is http://www.cencoos.org/

I look forward to going back there soon, I get the feeling that I have only scratched the surface there.  I would have done some more scouting, but had to get out at noon to get back home.

Let's plan a trip Ron, would like to get in one more combo trip before December is over, I wonder how the crabbing might be at Caspar cove, lots of sand in front of the cove.  What do you think??  Anyone else interested?

Late

Norm

What do you think??  Anyone else interested?

I'm in!

That's a great catch!  Thanks for the weather site - I'll be checking it out. I think I'll put more bling on my irons, too.

Hey Norm, how far out did you paddle before dropping the pots? in the main cove, before or after the bouy?  I don't have a fishfinder on my yak.
Thanks!

Hey Damdan,

I was straight out from the lauch just past the rocks on the south side, pretty much in the middle of the cove.  It was only about 40 feet where i had my hoops.  I know dungies are normally deeper, but i only had about 60 feet of rope on my hoops as they are set up for lobsters.  I metered lots of sand out further and the bottom gently slopes down to around 90 to 100 feet about a half mile off shore.  I woudl like to try out there in the 80 to 100 foot range, perhaps even better results would be found.

Norm

Thanks Norm, I dove the cove before and did see bib boulders amongst the sand in 25 -35 ft.
Ill drop my traps further uot next time I'm there.
Cheers!