Salt Point Independence Day

     Otobepelagic and I met fishunter at Gerstle cove extra early to find a decent lump and doable wind.  The fog was thick early on which made keeping an eye on comrades a bit challenging, the drift was on the fast side with an incoming tide, wind, and swell all moving in the same general direction.  With the fast drift I opted for the 8oz leadhead with a big split-tail. I picked up a new shimano trevala and I really like the action and feel, and it being so light makes for a happy shoulder at the end of the day, even with the big leadhead. 
     
     The bite was hot early and I managed to pick up two nice reds right off the bat.  The blacks were so thick it was tough to get to the bottom, they would pepper the big jig all the way down!  No ling love for me, just a couple short big grabs that soon came unbuttoned.  Caught a few gophers, chinas, more blacks, and an olive or two  (all released) while moving from pinnacle to pinnacle looking for lings and reds. The bite slowed about when the tide slacked but I managed to pick up one more nice red to add the crimson game clip out in 115 FOW. Fish Tacos!

     Always fun fishing with dad and especially nice to get out with a celebrity like fishunter...

-Patrick

     

     

Sounds like a good day out there

Solid day Patrick. Looked a little chilly out there though. I hope that the water warms up a bit before Elk.

Freddie

looking like an AOTY father and son competition.  nice

          Always fun fishing with dad and especially nice to get out with a celebrity like fishunter...

-Patrick
 

Celebrity?....do behave youngman.  You two are the Celebs'!
It was another good day out on the blue for us....we seem to hitting it when the conditions are prime.

My night started @2:15am frinite/satmorn...on the road to the Point at 3:oo.
I arrived to the park in foggy darkness@5:30, took a drive down to the, what I thought was the launch, but found no one?....called the boys on the radio but no answer.Drove back up to the gate and waited for the headlights.
I awoke to full light and now it's 6:15!DOH!...i fell asleep for 45min. and it felt sooOO GOOD!....called the boys in a panic, drove back down to the launch and saw Allen&Patrick paddling out the mouth..."WTF?! How did you get past me?", I cried over the radio. Allen replied...it was foggy and we must have passed you up.He told me I was headed in the right direction to launch, unloaded my stuff and met them out on the water.
I started off with small offering in the 50ft. range looking for them Vermillions, but none found, only lots of everything else. I did manage my "first-ever" double hook-job of quality blacks, back-to-back!, then quickly moved away from that spot.
....more to follow

pic1~ being left behind at the launch

pic2~ catching up to the fellas

pic3~ Allen on the hunt, with a finger of linger-fog.

I planned to stick with "dead stickin" some small baits all day, but after they got hammered by blues, I went back to BigJiggin and got a fat-18"YellowEye(not what I/we want) but makes a good picture.
I continued to hit the big drops and sticky-structure, insearch of Lingzilla.
Finally got a good hit, that felt right, landed this 25"er, finally!..I've had about three Ling-farmings this season and it felt good to know I can actually land one without poking a hole in it.
Like Patrick mentioned, we hit a no action period for a while, but for the most part of the "on the water time" 7am-2pm...it was good action!

pic1~ 25" lil-ling

pic2~ Allen hitting the shallow Cabbie hangouts

pic3~ some of the sights along the waters edge

Allen and Patrick both had found Vermillon Land at one point or another. I still had hopes of yakin a bigger one than the one I did hook.

pic1~  squared out in a rock?

pic2~ ol'man tree

pic3~ the 1-2 punch TagTeam coming back into the cove 

 It was my first trip to Salt Point and well worth the 2.5hr drive.
...not to mention the *****STAR Treatment&Tour of the place by the coolest Father&Son TagTeam I know.
Thanks for showing me the spots fellas!.....I'MstillJUSTaBOY!

pic1~ attaining the days goal

pic2~Super-HappyCoastalCaliforniaCows!

      Pretty hard to follow that Adam, but here's my version of how it went. I think we were already on the beach before FishHunter took his little siesta, but if we had seen him sleeping in his vehicle we would have went with the ol' "let sleeping dogs lay" rule........hehe.
      The weather, fishing, and catching were great up until about 2:00 and things slowed down a bit. Still can't believe how eight hours can fly by so quickly..............funny it doesn't go by that fast at work?  Throughout the day many different fish were landed including a 27" ling and a hefty vermilion which was kept for "camp meat". Just about quiting time we were fishing just south of the point when Patrick says he just passed over a great looking pinnacle a few yards back .......I took that as a sign for me to check it out and off I went. I dropped the lead head down and less than a minute it was Whamo...big fish on! As the fish neared the surface I could see it was a real nice ling that was hooked solidly. Not wanting to gaff the fish if it didn't meet certain criteria I reached down  grabbed the lead head with one hand and handcuffed  the tail with the other. I slid the fish up onto the waiting yardstick and it was match......just at 36 inches. I clipped the fish onto my game clip and was about to put both fish in the cooler when all hell breaks loose........clip pulls past the little fricking notch in the latch.......bye bye ling. Patrick saw me land it and asked how big it was.......All I could mutter was it doesn't matter ..........it's gone. There's always next time!
       At one point in the morning a boat with seven teens/adults and one youngster cruised up and were fishing near us. Patrick, Adam and I all agreed the boat was totally overloaded and at one point I started to paddle over and "get involved". As I approached the dinghy (that's what it looked like with all those people in it) the boat motored away before I could get their attention.
       And Yet Another Beautiful Day With Family and Friends...............

Patrick, better watch your (AOTY) back. I'm only 1101.25 points behind you.

Howard