HMB Salmon Limits 5/29/2013 (Non-yak)

I don’t even know where to begin… well on Tuesday night my friend gave me a text and told me that he had room for one more person on his boat and asked if I wanted to salmon fishing with him. How could I say no? I was ecstatic to go since I’ve never been ocean fishing on a boat… let alone have I ever fished for salmon. Calling in sick for work was well worth it.

The plan was to meet up around his place at 3:45AM and leave at 4AM to get to Half Moon Bay by 5AM. The moment I was on board the boat was pretty effing cool. Even when we going 5mph in the harbor I was having a good time. Little did I know it was going to be just short of being as scary as a roller coaster ride when he went full blast out on the open ocean bouncing on the swells. You can feel the shock when the boat bumps and skids going 25mph on the water (trust me, if feels much faster than that.. in fact, it feels as fast as going 120mph+ on the freeway if you were driving in a car *cough* *cough* not that I’ve ever done that)

Anyways, we got out to the desired location about 15 miles offshore. No one else seemed to be around initially other than a few stick boats. We were trolling hootchies and a krocidile spoon at first. I was kind of sleepy and dozed off for a second then suddenly awoke to D. shouting “Hey were getting hit!!” He should rushes over and cranks down and pops the rod up to release the lure/dodger from the downrigger. It was decent sized 12lb salmon (coastside weight = 30lbs just kidding..not really). At this point, I was wide awake and didn’t get my eyes off the rod tips for the rest of the trip haha.

We proceeded trolling, but switched out most rods to anchovies rigged on FBRs. Bait got us the most action/fish throughout the day. At one point we had a double but one of the party boats was running straight at us when they saw that we were fighting fish so we had to speed the boat up so that we wouldn’t get hit and that resulted in losing our fish (guess they gotta put their clients on fish even if they have to be d-bags and try to run others over *shrug*). That sucked because they were big ones.

We limited out really quick, and we were done by 8AM!! 8 fish for 4 guys. In addition, we lost close to 10 fish that came off our hooks after getting them close to the boat since you have to use barbless hooks for salmon. Everyone else out there was struggling on Wednesday, but we came with a quickness and got the fish and left the like vandals. Non-stop action. Needless to say this trip was a blast!!! Just the boat ride and hanging out with friends alone made it worth it for me and catching fish was a bonus.

I have to give a shout out to my friend. Without him this wouldn’t have been possible. I’m really grateful for everything. He let me use all of his equipment including his rod and reels and lures and bait.

Rod: Lamiglas 9ft Classic Glass ¾-4oz

Reel: Tekota 500LC

Bait/Lures: Anchovies on FBRs, Krocidile spoons, Watermelon Apex, RSK, and hootchies (everything was rigged behind a dodger...leader was probably around 4ft)

Line: Not sure, but the mainline felt like 20lb mono and the leader probably was 30lb test

Actual fishing time (not including commute): Approximately 6AM-8AM

Launch site: HMB

Boat: 21 footer w/ an 200HP Evintrude engine

Here are some pics of our trip:

is that you or your friend? because who isn't a good fisherman who is half cat . nice job! that's a great eating fish!!!

Congrats on the super nice catches!  Thanks for the report and pictures TPK.

Sounds like you had a real blast!!! Not to mention caught some fish.

Thanks for the reports and pics,

Damn! That's awesome! I hope they come in close soon!

Awesome! After a great report Memorial Day from commies and  sport boats, I tried every avenues to be at the site the same day as you. Fortunately enough, got to hitchhike from a CFC fm Morgan Hill and hit 22/42 at 7:30am. Limits at 9:20, got home, showered, dressed and was able to get to work at 12:30N .

What a day! Glad you and crew had the same experience.

Really wishing the rest can experience the same.

Awesome FACE i mean fish!  WTG Bro.


Kiel