santa cruz 2007/07/08

I got out there around 7:30 (?) and met the legendary polepole,
plus saw scallen and client.

later saw vwtech (tim).

I think we all drifted bait (live and dead, herring and anchovies) in 40-60 hoping
for halibut. I switched out my 4oz torpedo for an 8oz banana and did
some bump trolling too.

Dead herring on 40lb leader with 2 small live bait hooks (size 4 maybe?)
and a small spinner attractor got me a half limit of
schoolie browns and blues, mostly from around 45 feet, and all on the same
leader.

did have one big takedown while bump trolling in 45 feet but I got all worked
up and pulled my hooks free,  .  The small hooks were a bit of an
experiment (to reduce snaggage and also help mr. 'but to suck it down)
I think they worked out better than I thought except for the
missed hookeup. only one fish was hooked deep. the rest were lip
hooked. since my bait was dead, I threaded on a tiny clevis and spinner blade
ahead of the first hook. don't know if it helped or hurt for halibut, but
the rockfish didn't mind it.

water is still kind of dirty and messed up looking.  I'm sure people are catching
halibut, but it's probably one fish for every 10 boats or something right now.

supposed to be not windy from tuesday through the weekend, but I think there is
a small south swell forcast through the same period. So if the south swell is a
small one or doesn't show as forecast maybe next weekend will
be good fishing for halibut like it was a week back, hard to say.

J

Thanks John for the report.

Nice to meet you John.

You know ... running smile blades or spin-n-glows ahead various traditional baits and lures is becoming a bit popular up in the NW.  You got guys running these in front of hootchies for salmon.  Or a smile blade and corkie combo for for steelhead drifting.    Various combos are also popular for lake trolls.  So I think your spinner herring combo has some merit.  Heck, why don't you bust out a spinner blade and make it even more weedless?

So I drifted the flats in the 45-55 foot range.  A few schoolie rockfish, but no halibut.  The highlight of my day was having a pup thresher do a tail walk not 40 feet in front of my yak.  This was directly in front of the harbor in about 45 feet of water.

-Allen

The highlight of my day was having a pup thresher do a tail walk not 40 feet in front of my yak.  This was directly in front of the harbor in about 45 feet of water.

-Allen

Awesome!!

Z

Wow J that sounds like a great time to me

TL