SWS 10/13/08 2 lings

Clear and cold, got in water about 8, water 49 deg calm and not much swell.  By 10, I'd trolled up 3 lings, one short, the others 28", 29".   I was out away from the kelp in @ 100 fow near Pesc. Pt.    As I was hooking up and boating the second keeper, an aggressive big sea lion was rolling around within 10 feet, I was slapping the water with my paddle and reeling in at the same time, determined not to cut the line, and second guessing that.   I got it in the boat and paddled hard away from his spot, and he didn't follow.
  The offshore wind started to come up about this time, so I headed in against it. The wind was filling in, but with not much fetch, water was calm.  Picture perfect day.  Tomorrow could be just as nice a fall day.
  Here's the 2  buck lure I was trolling behind a 10 oz wt on a 3-way(Geez, what an address!):

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0031080119456a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_bc&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&sort=bc&Nr=IS_BARGAIN_CAVE%3Atrue&Ntk=Products_liberal&_D%3AhasJS=+&Go.y=3&Nty=1&hasJS=true&Ntt=floating+minnow&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&Go.x=19&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1

I bought the long ones. It has better hooks than the Cabella's Walleye Runner - I had to replace those hooks because they'd bend with on a ling or flattie.  I didn't see any more of those for sale. 

Maybe I'll change my handle to Two Buck Trollin' Tom.

Thanks for the intel 2 Buck, but you may get sued by 2 buck chuck!

The seals there seem to be getting more and more agressive.

Nice job, Tom. That trolling rig is killer for lings. I need to give it a shot next time.
Thanks for the report!

Way to go on the lings.  I gotta try it that way.  I was out there last Wed with Zisco, trolled for a short time.  No lings but I did pull up a 20 inch olive that put up a good fight. 

Great report and congrats on the linglove, Tom.  I like the bassy-lookin' diver plug.  Something like that on a sinker release would be pretty cool!  Wide open action on a ling or fiesty rockfish - Wow!  I've not even considered such sport, and it seems like a cool thing to pursue.  Thanks for the eye-opener.   

Way to go Tom!!!!

Yeah, I've been edging up to using a downrigger, sinker release, or diver.  With a ling, I can't tell the weight is there, but I can with even the larger rockies.  It'd be a gas to see if a ling would do a leap, I bet they would.   Here's the problem: I'm bouncing the bottom so I don't want to lose a sinker every time I bounce or get the little ticks on the seaweed or hookup with a smallish blue or olive - too much $, and too many weights to carry.
Sometimes I'm working in windy & bouncing conditions, and I don't know if it's safe to get a downrigger line (heavier spectra in place of wire?) snagged in those conditions, but maybe you folks with experience with downriggers know whether practice would reduce the risk.  It's borderline chaos already on the yak with one line with a hookup; in wind and chop, screwups could cascade to real danger.  I've used divers for salmon in obstruction -free water and they might work here, but again, I don't want to lose those on the bottom, unless I can devise a cheap and easy to make homemade one.  Maybe use a small weight on a dropper to locate the bottom, and also a  smaller diver?    Something to think about over the winter.

Tom, Great catch.  I have a couple of questions for you.

1. SWS what area are you talking about?

2. Do you use a 3 way swivel when you troll? and if so how much weight do you use.  I'm thinking of fishing in the morning around the Santa Cruz area for a couple of hours. 

Stillwater Cove, South (behind the Beach Club on Pebble Beach, off 17 mile Drive).  There is a Stillwater Cove I've haven't been to, well maybe I have, but it wasn't with fishing in mind, many years ago, in Marin County.

Yes, I use a 3-way swivel, tie a dropper of about a foot for the 10 oz (8 will do) weight, then about a 2 foot(up to 3 feet) leader to the lure, so the lure is trailing the ball about foot or a foot and a half.  I think it actually helps for the lure to be close to the ball - the fish I want is thinking he's chasing a fish chasing another fish - nasty world down there.   
 Santa Cruz is a good place to try it out, because there is plenty of sandy bottom after you get out to 40 FOW from the harbor.  That'll let you practice knowing when you're just off the bottom with a touch only every few minutes.  Then you can move out near the buoy or the lighthouse off the kelp where I believe it is a limestone bottom with the layers lying horizontal, in other words, rocky, but not craggy.  Those and off the Capitola kelp beds along East Cliff Drive are your best bet, but there is a reason I drive 40 miles to SWS, and it isn't just for the scenery.
   You can look at my posts by clicking on my name. I wrote more about my wacko technique just after 9/20.   

Great catch Tom. I was already a believer on your troling methods. That was probably a Ling you had on last time we were there too. After this coming swell passes im hoping to get out there next week. Kimo

Tom -

A couple of questions...

Don't the trebble hooks get hung up on kelp?

How long are the leaders - to lure and to weight?

Very innovative!!!

Scott

  If I get real close to the kelp, say 20 ft,I get snagged - a lot of that kelp is trailing out from its holdfast, but underwater.  But the fish, or maybe just the really hungry ones, seem swim out away from the kelp a lot.  Whatever weed it is that is growing in the deeper rocky areas doesn't seem to grow much off the bottom.  And it's kinda hard to get the rig to tap bottom, and then hopefully it's just the ball that does.   
   This is pretty simple stuff.  And I only did it in the beginning because I didn't know anything about salt water fishing and had bought and carried around a Rapala and was bored silly sitting in one spot and figured I wouldn't miss the lure if it got snagged. It helped that I also didn't know that you "couldn't troll for rockies". Ignorance is bliss, sometimes.
 Connect the lure and swivel with 2-3 ft of line. Tie on another about 18" of line to the swivel. Hold the swivel up and let the lure dangle. Tie the weight on so it dangles about a foot above the lure.  Moving in the water, the weight line trails back about 45 deg, and the lure is pulling pretty much straight back and seems to be pursuing the weight from behind and above.   I trolled for 3 hours when I caught those lings and though I got snagged about a dozen times I brought the rig home.  On some of those snags, I just kept moving and gave the pole a pull and it unstuck, on others I had to stop and back up and jackhammer the rig free.  If you get it free and it's back behind you, you better get paddling quick or it'll get snagged again.

Tom, thank you for the tips.  I trolled around Santa Cruz the other day without any luck... It was a nice day in the bay...hope to see you out in the water and watch the master at work.....P.S how's the new yak working out?????

                                                               HOSER

I gave it to my daughter-in-law, who's pretty busy studying right now, but once she gets on the water, look out!

tom, just hang the weight off a salmon release if you want to enjoy the fight with a rocky.

yep, you lose the weight and they aren't cheap, but you could give yourself a budget and go with a threeway after you've lost your quota.

John