santa cruz/capitola 2007/06/23

might be the last time fishing from this vacation house. boy, that
was fun. not exactly red hot fishing, but no skunks and no driving.
I'll take it,  .

paddled out today around 9 a.m. went out towards the mile bouy,
but shied away from the crowd of boats out there, and bounce trolled
a orange and gold rebel east for nothing.
starting to think the orange and gold rebel is just
not so good compared to the blue and silver. or maybe there are just
no fish there?

went into the kelp off pleasure point for one good hookup lost
(unbuttoned while backing up away from kelp),
and one taco filler (yellow and black). used a 4" fishtrap on a 3/4oz head.

then went out towards the capitola bouy and found a big school of
bait fish. chased it around and got a blue rockfish in the process
and then found out the bait fish were smelt that are too big to use as bait.

but I got some good fun and excitement seeing that big school, boiling at times.

put a smelt on anyways and headed back to the kelp. used a single 9/0 hook
through the nose, but something ripped it off.

caught a good copper on a 1.5 oz crippled herring, craigh convinced me I
should try some small iron in the shallows.

I am very much in love with my kunz rod. such a comfortable fishing tool!
will give a review later in the summer, would like to get one or two big fish
on that guy first.

headed home to rinse off and have margaritas and fish tacos.

greg, sorry I missed your call, phone battery dead.

okay, next month it's time to fish the northcoast (of the penninsula) hopefully...

J

thanks for the report, was thinking of going this morning but didn't so was feeling pretty bad the whole day, now i don't feel too bad anymore hearing that there was too much pressur from the PBs

james

I don't think it is possible to have smelt that are too big for bait! 

okay, next month it's time to fish the northcoast

 (of the penninsula)

Had me going there for a minute! 

...and take some pictures while you're up there!   

Abking, I'm going to get up your way one of these times...

with a camera!

James you missed it, you should have fished...  .

Bill, maybe that is true, but these smelt were 12+", I had to
low grade to get a 7"er. they tore the heck out of my sabiki.

J

I wouldn't hesitate to put on a 12 incher for butts.  (ummm ... that sentence reads kinda kinky!).

-Allen

okay, maybe next time I will be more prepared to use the smelt as live bait.

I didn't have a suitable stinger rig.

Plus, I'm almost too impatient to drift fish bait. especially a large bait.

I read you can clip the tails on the smelt to slow them down a bit.

J

Stingers are overrated IMO.  Just put the reel in freespool and let the butt chew for a while.  They're not going to let go.

Why slow them down by clipping the tail?  You want all the action you can get to attract Mr Butt.

Sorry, I can't do much for your impatience.   

-Allen

I'm a lot more patient if I have fish on the stringer already or even better,
some fish in the freezer,  .

sometime this summer I'll do a little drifting out there with some bait.