7/26 Stillwater rockfish

Fished Stillwater Cove last Sat with naerob and e2g. The fishing was unspectacular, thus the reason for such a late report. I got on the water around 8:30 after a nice conversation with 2 couples who were launching small zodiacs. I’ve seen there plenty times before but never took the time to say hello. Hope they did better than I.

I paddled out and to the north, like usual. Found Rob and Eugene and they reported the fishing was slow. We certainly caught plenty of fish (mainly blues and gophers) but they were generally small. We moved a couple times, fishing inside the kelp, and encountered similar results. The wind died down around 11 and we made a few drifts on the outside, North of the reserve. I was hoping for a red or some olives but only found more gophers. I also tried to fish in close to some rocks, where the depth dropped to 90+ feet within 100 yards of the shoreline. Good looking ling spot. No dice.

Another reason I lagged with the report is because most of my pictures came out crappy. There was some moisture on the camera lens so the pics came out blurry. This especially sucks because I thought I had some good pics of Rob’s nice ling. I’ll post some of the pics later today.

I fish with big plastics and some iron too. Among the lures I tried:
-7” custom purple swimbait on 3oz head
-7” scampi (glow, rootbeer, and green) on 3oz head
-5” fish trap on 1.5oz head
-5oz glow bar/spoon
-4oz megabait iron in green
-1oz spro bucktail jig (the blues love this thing and it was really fun on my bass combo until the 12lb braid had issues and I had to retire the reel for the remainder of the day…..I don’t like light braid anymore)

The most productive lure was the megabait iron. But that is discounting the shrimpfly that I had rigged above the lure on 1 of my setups (brought 3 combos with me this time). Blues LOVE a squid-tipped shrimpfly. Kept one gophloater. All other fish were released.

Wind came back up as we headed in. I’m really glad it died down enough to give us a window because otherwise the swell was pretty mixed up with tight intervals. Wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. It was nice to fish with Rob and Eugene again. Thanks guys!

not much to add but that the swell was one of those dramamine type swells.  One of these days I should learn the correct terms but I think short period?  Meaning close together right?  Anyway, dont look down for too long!

Pat, I know what you mean about the camera.  I did the same thing with a Ling that Scott nailed down at LK.  I even bothered to wipe down the lens, but obviously not enough.

Pat pretty much summed it up, it wasn't great but it was fun.  I caught a lot of small blues and gophers and a couple small reds, I released all but one bigger blue and a 27 inch ling that I got on a whole anchovy on the bottom hook of a shrimpfly.
 I know what you mean about the morning swell. I couldn't look down for too long and that night laying in bed I could still feel it.

Nice fishing with you both again, I am off this Friday and might try again.

Nice to see you guys get out and actually catch something. I spent the last two trips killing anchovies for some sand sharks. We have to do a trip south of Lk when conditions get good.

These were the only pics that sort of worked. The rest are all blurry.

1- the smallest gopher ever
2- typical gopher
3- typical blue
4- Rob's nice ling. Wish this one wasn't blurry!
5- Eugene surviving huge surf

5- Eugene surviving huge surf

ya that was sketchy, but good timing paid off

the 1oz bucktail on the bass combo and the blues sound fun!

I know you all know the following, but...

if it's not on the bottom, you don't need braid as much, you could probably use 8-12lb mono or thicker 30lb braid and that thing would get down to the blues just fine.

one trick for the olives is to troll or yo-yo much more of the water column and faster.