Stillwater Carmel 10-7

Just another day in paradise.  Rockfish attacking on most drops.  Even the olives were leaping from the water.  Randy went out to where the birds were feeding and did some casting for them.........lots of fun and a destroyed swimbait.
My goodness, as I mentioned last week, kayak angling is no longer an unusual sport.  Gone are the days when Randy and I are the only folks out there.  Probably more than a dozen folks on just this part of Carmel Bay.
We brought this handsome cabezon home for lunch........

Nice.     Cabbies have always been a favorite of mine, but I hardly ever catch them from the yak - basically only from shore.

To build up some WAF, I went to Stillwater but not with my yak.  Brought my in laws to pebble beach and had lunch at the Stillwater Bar and Grill in the PB Lodge right off 18th Green.  Saw many yaksters going in and out, mostly fishing the pinnacles northwest.  Just a gorgeous day!  I was so jealous of you guys that I saw on the water.  But, with the bill that I had to foot today, the WAF is now secure so I'm set for some major fishing one of these upcoming wkeneds.  Looked a bit breezy but deadflat calm out.  So gorgeous.  We drove down to the cove and walked around.  picked up many errant golf balls that were hiding in the white sand.

BTW: great service, make a reservation for a window seat, food was so so.  It was over priced for the quality.  Can't beat the view, location, or wow factor. 

Very nice cab, as always.  Seems like your the cab queen, specially out of Stillwater!

Why is that cabbie winking?   I hope you all appreciate that I stayed home so it wouldn't be a mob scene.  But with that report, I don't think it'll be long before I'm out there.

Abking, I have heard from DFG that Monterey/Carmel is the only area in which cabezon are genuinely impacted by shore anglers.  We aren't the only ones who like them.

This silly fish was in 53 feet of water.  I was ling hunting.  He ate a very dead tiny blue rockfish.  I usually end each trip looking for a cabbie.......this one was apparently looking for me...........

Great looking Cabbie Seabreeze. Sounds like a lot of fun out there. Will defnitely have to get back down there before the ling season closes next month!
Z

oooh nice cabbie! im jealous as i cannot fish for 2 weeks!!!

that thing looks great!

Nice fish. Nice Cabezon. I have never caught one and I'd like to. Can you specifically target them or are they, as ambush predators like Lings, in roughy similar environments as Lings and their prey?

This fella was an odd one as I was not fishing for him and he was much deeper than they are usually found around here.  They are popular from rocky shore.  And they are popular in the live fish market.  For that, they are trapped.

I target them most trips.  In Carmel Bay I find them in 25 feet or less of water.  It can be on a pinnacle or along the rocky intertidal.  I drop something attractive....generally a soft lure of some sort.  I let it sit in a likely spot for a couple of minutes.  They don't have teeth and sort of gulp the lure.  So, I wait for the relatively soft bounces and then raise the chunky cutey to the surface.  Not much in the way of a fight and they live for a very long time once brought up.

True about how long they live after catch - and they make a deep, clicking-croaking sound...  heard it?  The meat is awesome.  I catch the highest percentage cabezon's when I use abalone guts in shallow water at low tide.  And I've definitely noticed the impact of the live-fishermen on the cabs, sea trout, and other nearshore species--even up here along the "Lost Coast".   

I HAVE heard that and just figured it was some sort of digestive thing and sort of dismissed it as an aberration.  Cool!  Cabezon are way cool fish.  Nearly as beautiful as a girly greenling.

Oh, for those of you who are not familiar with cabbies, they have no scales.  And the regs allow only one in your daily catch.  And, their season is sometimes closed early and limited more than others so keep your eyes on the regs.

Nice cab, Seabreeze!
My favorite kind of fish. Well, one of.

That croaking sound is the cabby grinding those crushing plates in the back of its mouth/throat. More of a grinding sound than the catfish croak (catfish sound more like frogs). I had a big cabby stay alive for about an hour out of water, still croaking away.

Definitely catch way more cabs from shore than boat. I still haven't caught a cab from a kayak. But I catch plenty from shore. Guess they really like that intertidal zone. Heard they go nuts for octopus. And abalone guts. I usually find crabs when cleaning them. Cleaned a 6lber on the beach a couple months ago and found a whole, half-digested abalone. It was about as big as my fist and dyed blue. Had pieces of shell still attahced. It was amazing.

PK