landlords backyard 2008/08/24

At BH (the landlord's FRONTyard), it looked good and cafe craig was there and unloading all alone, but I wanted to try a leeeetle further south since I had seen a recent report or two on bayside and coastside that said it wasn't totally dead there.  hopefully craig's sardine popsicles or diamond jigs caught him another halibut at BH. definitely a good day for it with the low swell.

I was prepared to not catch much at my alternate location, I just wanted to see how dead or alive it was for myself.

so I continued south to the other side of DA ISLAND  where the new MLPA ends. the southern boundary is a latitude line, so its pretty easy to fish the boundary of it if you have a GPS.

it was high fog, plenty visibility at both spots. light wind from the west that slowly strengthened. overall, pretty good fishing weather.

swell was fairly low, I had an easy launch a bit north of the typical launch/landing. landing required some care since I decided to shoot through a slot on the north side of the reef, but it was a clean landing. I did have all my stuff stowed tho. just in case.

after I was out for a bit three powerboats joined me. I guess they did not get the memo that this was MY SPOT!!!!  . I guess the MLPA will concentrate the fishing in the non MLPA zones,  .

definitely not totally dead, some good signs, but not on fire either.  good signs: 2 giant bait balls went by, like 35 foot deep bait balls (in 70 feet of water) with 100's of birds on each. they were going north, into the MLPA, but they should come out by BH eventually,  .

I figured that was a good omen for my 2oz black lead head with a black and purple 5" swimbait that I had on one rod. the other rod was rigged with 2 2" pink and white hoochies with tinsel inserts and a 4oz torpedo in case it really is a shrimpfly kind of year up here.

I did catch some schoolie blacks, and they were plugged with mini-shrimp. and yep, I caught them on the shrimpfly! (crazy, eh?) Eventually somebody pulls my shrimpfly rig down into some hole and I have to break off.  but I had 4 blacks and about the same number of gophers before I lose it. kept two blacks since I have not even seen one of those this year so far.

I start fishing with the swimbait that has been repaired a couple times with a soldering iron. and that baby is still rigged straight! (I really do think the straight rigged ones catch more fish). probably pretty good lure choice for the overcast conditions and sure enough I catch a gopher or two and then a ling. I do have a glow hoochie over a black fly as a teaser, but the ling takes the swimbait. it shakes the hook while I am trying to eyeball it for size. Not big, but not a total teenager, probably 23-25 inches. solid fight and he does not destroy the swimbait. not a blue ling, but one of those very calico colored ones, lots of light and dark.

most of the gophers take the teaser, but one or two take the swimbait. I had some squid on there sometimes, but not always. I don't think it was needed.

I move on, and catch a few gophers and then another ling. this one is chunky, but just north of 24 and a red ling. I let one go there last year that was about 23". killer fight then, and this time is no different (maybe it was the same fish, it hit exactly the same way: swimbait on a fast retrieve), but I have to say that lingcod in any color is just about my favorite eating fish, so I keep it.

Well, I spent a lot of time looking around and paddling through the baitballs (did catch one black under the bait ball).  I did not find schools of blues or big vermillions rampaging into the kelp like last year around this time. but I did find schoolie blacks, see tons of bait, and hook two lings.

I also spoke with one of the Powerboaters and watched him land a good ling, like 28" or so. he was using a fishtrap tipped with squid. the new MLPA was bumming him out.

anyways, bayside said it was good from 90-120 feet, and I never had to go deeper than 70 feet and caught most of my fish in the mid 50's.  when I drove south to big sur, I never fished shallower than 70 feet, so overall, I thought the fishing was decent today, totally worth the go-out.

oh yeah.... I did use my Freedom 7 Shark Shield. I stuck it on the top of my rudder and it kind of trailed behind me all day. Now I have to find that recharger... 

J out, yo, 

Good day.   

I have a build in shark shield because I am a babe magnent and thats all those thing really are is a big ass magnent... I figure that the fact that im a babe magnent the shak wont dare give me a hard time...

Solid day. Nice to know there are a few fish north of here. I have not seen a legal ling since May. Nice to know your family will still have fish tacos. We may have to the the 4mile down some time soon.

Nice report John, good fishing too.  Thanks for stopping to chat today. Davenport was the right call, it seems.   Next time this morning happens, I am going to drag my boat back upstairs and take your advice.  After reading your post I realize I also need to work on my fishing skills, so that would be a two-fer.

The schoolies liked my shrimp fly too, kept a couple blacks.   Red/green was the color I got to work today, and yes it was a fishtrap shad tipped with squid.  No ling though (or halis...)

I think Adam will post the BH data point, in his usual photo-rrific fashion, i hope.  Thanks for the report!

thanks for the report John.....very detalic and inspiring.
You said it was reported to be better...and it was!

John,
Please tell me im not the only one to get shocked bt my SharkShield , especially when trying to switch it off. My excuse is that by getting shocked, i gain more confidence in the device, and im stickin to it!

John,
Please tell me im not the only one to get shocked bt my SharkShield , especially when trying to switch it off. My excuse is that by getting shocked, i gain more confidence in the device, and im stickin to it!

I was kind of hoping I would be shocked, so that I would know it was working. my LED was green and flashing, and a small sealion did a backflip nearby me, so maybe the sealion tested it for me? I turned it off and on once I was out of the water which makes the shocking unlikely?

I ran into one issue with running it off the stern. I momentarily tangled my line in it when shifting my line from one side of the yak to the other. otherwise, it seems like a great place for it on the yak.

I thought that the green LED was supposed to be solid, at least for the first 4 to 5 hrs, then blinking, then an audible alarm about 10min before it shuts down due to lack of power, but i should read that "detailed owners manual (not)" again. I found that standing in wet sand with the electrode in the sand is the BEST way to get shocked while turning it off I do think im pretty sensitive to electrical current..

maybe it was solid green, I forget, I need to read that mimeograph again myself. wish there was a charge meter on the thing as they say to keep it "half charged", then "top up" the night before a go out.

John