Monterey Rockies and Dabs 5/18

Launched from MBK at 9:00 on a borrowed Tarpon 160.The sun was out, the wind was calm and the water extremely clear. Caught around thirty dabs on sabiki and squid strips.


Then I made a move to pick up some rockfish.I ended up landing two fiesty coppers, four chunky blues and a nice black on swimbaits and 4oz megabait irons.


A nice day on the water and some good eatin' in the fridge.

Hey Aaron,

Tasty catch  . Were you fishing around cannery row for the rocks? I know there's lots of dabs out right now. Great photo's. I hope to be out there soon.

Ben

any advice on depth etc for dabs?  never had much luck catching dabs.  want to go get some maybe this weekend or something.  that or a x on a approx map near MBK in monterey? 

I've never fished for dabs down south, but we catch them on the way to the Farralons.  We fish about 200' over sandy bottom.  Sabiki rigs with some sort of flesh(squid ,anchovy, etc.).  I would imagine the are deeper and shallower in areas, but sandy bottom is needed.  limited experience noted.  Tasty fellas, make great ling bait!

I was drifting just past the mile buoy (red bell buoy) in around 180-200ft.Using 4-6oz weight with the sabiki and squid rig.I fished off cannery row for the rockies in about 50-60 ft.All within easy paddling range from Monterey Bay Kayaks (MBK).

Very nice...you may have just helped me decide where to fish tomorrow! 

Hey were any of those bagged when you caught them? Nice I we hookup soon that place is Dab Haven.

Nice bunch of dabs Arron! Way to get them. Nice size on those flatters.

Aaron - how'd you like the T-160?

I liked the T160 (newer style) quite a bit and I'll probably be fishing from the T160 until I get my new boat in July.The one I've been using has the comfort seat and two flushmounts behind the seat.

Likes:With the same hull design as the Tsunami (a closed-deck touring boat),it's fast,maneuverable,tracks well, and rides down the back of swells with ease.Decent primary stability, weight and balance.Great for run-and-gun...one can cover plenty of water with this boat in a single session.

Dislikes:Not the greatest secondary stability.Turning around to get rods out of holders felt tippy and I couldn't sit sidesaddle as comfortably as I could on the Marauder and Big Game.For some stupid reason WS put the scupper holes in the seat above and behind the actual seating area.This may drain water from waves breaking completely over the deck and flooding the cockpit, but it meant that I was constantly sitting in 1-2" of water...poor design feature IMO.I also think having the drain plug below the water line at the stern is asking for trouble.Finally,I miss the old WS hatch covers.I don't trust the "Tupperware" style hatch covers as I've seen them pop off and fail (especially in the surf) on our rental boats.If I owned the boat I would add at least one strip of webbing with some clips to reinforce it.

meant that I was constantly sitting in 1-2" of water...poor design feature IMO

I'm with you on that one.

I also agree on the tupper wear hatches - I'm not a big fan of those either

Other than that, I think it's a great Salmon and Striper chaser

I agree...I think it would be great for salmon and striper.

Speaking of striper...I was down at Manresa today and saw two guys walk up with nice fish (28-32") on magnum Rapalas in the surf.Now may be the time.

I watched a guy pull out a lot of surf perch north of the harbour jetty at high tide on bait on sunday afternoon.

also saw birds working way out there in the afternoon.

I was basically done fishing for the day but I almost ran back up for my perch rod.
last year this time I saw a guy catch a nice striper while perch fishing.

I still like the idea of trolling the beaches with a rapala, but the kelp goes in real close, hard to avoid snags.

I got some white 6" grubs, figured those might make good trolling lures for this type of thing and a lot cheaper
if they get snagged. just basically troll a carolina rig setup.  might even make sense to use a worm hook and
rig them weedless.

J