Santa Cruz Report for Sat 6/23

Well, I made it out the door at around 5:30 in the morning, got some coffee and gas then headed up the hill from SJ to Santa Cruz.  Stopped by the bait shop at the marina to get some bait and tips on where to go.  Bought some squid and frozen anchovies even though I planned on trying to catch fresh bait. Asked about the popular grounds to look for halibut and heard some encouraging news of 20#'s being caught not that far from the marina.  The shop owner told me of the hand launch ramp on the other side at dock F, and made my way over there.  Got all my gear loaded up started to head out about 7AM.  I then noticed a large sign saying LIVE BAIT over on the S dock (same side as the bait shop) and paddled over to see what he had.  This guy had tons and tons of fresh anchovies.  Said it was about 20 bucks for a full scoop.  I showed him my tiny bucket and asked if he would fill it for 5, and he was cool with it.  Now I was loaded to the hilt with bait and determined to catch something worth while. 

Headed out the marina and hung a right aiming twards the wharf and light house.  Put on a halibut rig with a fresh anchovie and slowly paddled along.  Lots of PB's were coming out and their wake was getting me a bit dizzy.  Had to blow my horn at one of the dudes that almost buzzed right in front of me, but he shouted an apology.  Exchanged my dead anchovie for a live one and kept at the slow troll method till I got to the wharf and saw the kelp beds approaching, so I pulled in my line. 

When I got in to some of the patches I tossed it back out again and pulled in a very tiny black and yellow.  Un-hooked him, and sent another chovie down, and caught another of the same (or THE same?)  Decided to switch to some regular jigs, tipped with squid, but didn't pull anything up.  Threw out a sabiki on my other rod, and about 15 seconds later pulled up some small smelt.  Tried throwing out a smelt on the halibut rig, but he never got gulped down.  You could catch these smelt all day long it seems, there is tons of them.  On Friday when I strolled the wharf, there was an asian couple pulling them in with large bobbers and 1/4 anchovies on a sabiki like rig.  They had a couple buckets of them. 

It seems I didn't attend to the anchovies enough, as I think I got about 6 live ones out of 30+ in the bucket.  But I decided to head back in before the wind picks up so I started back drifting a dead chovie behind me.  Stopped at the first kelp bed that I seem to have missed on the way out of the marina and toyed around there seeing some schools of bait running around, but I was tired of jigging, and this patch doesn't seem nearly as good as the ones by the light house so I moved on back to the docs.

The weather was awesome the entire time I was out there, but by around noon when I was leaving I did see some white caps forming out there.  But none of the wind that was in the forecast the night before till I was out of there.  Saw a few kayakers out there, but didn't seem to see anyone fishing, or any returns of my hail for NCKA members on the water.  Never made it out to the mile marker, since it seemed there were a ton of boats out in the distance.  It was still fun for my first outing to SC though! 

Alain-

Alain,

sounds like you did pretty good for your first time there. here's my advice:

If I had a bucket of anchovies, I would use those up first, live or dead, they will get eaten by something.

a bunch will get fed to little yellow and blacks (they actually taste good, just are small), or
gophers or china rockfish, or even stolen by kingfish,
but you should also get a few larger fish. 

next time you have anchovies and you are getting hit, just keep dropping them
down till you are out of anchovies before you switch to anything else.

I was out there that day but I went east to capitola to avoid the wind and I didn't
have my radio with me.

J

Nice job and thanks for the report. Will be in that area soon to try the Hali bite on some swimbaits. Keep it up bud hope to hookup soon. Frank

Alain, thanks for the detailed report!  Where you got bait, what you fished, and how you fished it is important advice for a newbie like me.  I hope to catch up with you on one of your outings.  I just got my fishfinder mounted to my yak today, and I'm itchin to try it out.  I've been building WAF since the HMB Derby, so I can get out in the big blue again soon.  I would have joined Insane at da wall, but I'm still trying to shake a bad cold.

AI, look forward to it!  I'm a newbie myself and love the advice on here so if I have any information I feel like I should share it!  I just re-orderd my fish finder from Cabelas after a bad experience using google checkout.  Hope to have it mounted before my next trip.  But I am just about to purchase my wife and I's first home, and will probably not get out as much as I hope for with moving and settling down.  I am excited however to have a decent place to store my yack

See you out there!