Best bait for finicky Black/Blue rockfish?

I'm looking for the one that works even for that wonky 1%

Speargun shaft to the face...you know that.

#ForceFedSteel

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

You don't know how bad I wanted my dive gear and speargun to drop down into that scene! There must have been hundreds to thousands of them

I'm looking for the one that works even for that wonky 1%

Speargun shaft to the face...you know that.

#ForceFedSteel

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

You don't know how bad I wanted my dive gear and speargun to drop down into that scene! There must have been hundreds to thousands of them

 

How do you know it was a school of rockfish if you didn't catch any...Maybe they were too small or it was something else?

Surface viz was probably 20 ft give or take.  I could see them circling and chasing my jigs up from the depths.  I tried everything with what I had, flys with and without squid, casting and retrieving, and trolling for nada.  I don't usually target blacks and blues because they are usually the majority of what you catch up there. It was an odd weekend though, I caught (and released) some real nice sized yellow eyes, china cods,  but for whatever reason the big blacks just weren't biting.  There was also a ton of bait in the water, so perhaps they had gorged themselves already.



I'm def gonna try small kastmasters that I usually use for trout.  A trout rod and reel sound like a hoot, but it would be one more thing to pack.......

#8 or 6 sabiki...

How do you know it was a school of rockfish if you didn't catch any...Maybe they were too small or it was something else?

Surface viz was probably 20 ft give or take.  I could see them circling and chasing my jigs up from the depths.  I tried everything with what I had, flys with and without squid, casting and retrieving, and trolling for nada.  I don't usually target blacks and blues because they are usually the majority of what you catch up there. It was an odd weekend though, I caught (and released) some real nice sized yellow eyes, china cods,  but for whatever reason the big blacks just weren't biting.  There was also a ton of bait in the water, so perhaps they had gorged themselves already.



I'm def gonna try small kastmasters that I usually use for trout.  A trout rod and reel sound like a hoot, but it would be one more thing to pack.......

#8 or 6 sabiki...

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

-Allen

Probably find some sabikis` in Bushys` Fish lair ..he`s got everything else in there   

haha might have it, good luck finding it!

Bushy