Monterey dabs and cod report 2/17

Me and a buddy went out of breakwater today and had a blast! Great weather, 5 ft swell, light wind and sunny. Went out to around 200 feet and hooked up on around 30 dabs total, 6 rockfish including a large 3lb+ vermillion, and like 10 good sized ocean whitefish. Too bad the season isnt open yet. Anyway, just wanted to give a report in case anyone is heading out.

Thanks for the report!

been wondering about the dabs to be honest, any good sized ones?

Only a couple good sized ones. Most were pretty small. Everything was caught on a sibiki with squid tips

Keep the Whitefish?

No. They have the same season as rockfish....I would love to make some tacos out of them though

Oooooh March 31st April! I thought it was going to be May. Sweeeeet.

I would Love to hit this spot with you come the season if you're thinking of heading that way.

I want more excuses to go visit Monterey

Sounds good. Monterey is probably the main place I'll be going. Im pretty new to ocean kayak fishing and so far monterey has been great. And it's close to where I live

I was at the aquarium with family from out of town...standing there looking at the beautiful conditions...glad someone got to take advantage!

Unless I'm missing something, if more than half the fish you caught were out of season and therefore prohibited from "take", you should have moved locations or done something very different.

Take doesn't just mean killing and keeping the fish, it means to "hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill fish... or attempting to do so."

And did the rockfish get properly descended?

They caught 6 rockfish and 10 whitefish, so its closer to 33% and im sure they were moving.. its pretty common to have by-catch of whitefish and croakers while dab fishing... I literally caught a king salmon last time i went dab fishing in MB. Don't hassle them over the natural outcome of fishing. they were hunting, pursuing, and attempting to capture dabs.

Using a Sabiki Obviously not going for anything not allowed more than 2 hooks, Not hunting for, Not Perusing, Not attempting to capture or kill. 

and... for all we know they did move..with a 3 sentence report, there may be a couple of details missing.


That said Paul 123engineering did a large purchase of fish descender for distribution to NCKA members, and may have more?  Would be a good idea for possible bycatch.

Never caught a whitefish, but closed now too right (same as RCG)? So 30 dabs and 16 prohibited fish? So >50% prohibited "take"?

Not hassling, just having a conversation that maybe someone new here hadn't thought about. Take isn't about what you are trying to do, it's about what you are doing. (And being ready to deal with it, like descending a vermillion.)

46 Total Fish / 16 out of season = 34%

Sorry, if I seemed combative, I was just reminded of being yelled at for not having a PFD from random kayakers on the beach while making the first of 3 trips to the truck to drop stuff off before grabbing it to go out, and it seemed like not very constructive criticism with very little input on what a noobie could do to change what they were doing to better impact their fishing and the resources around us.

Sorry about the math. Take whatever you want.

We were moving around ALOT to try to prevent bycatch and just due to drifting in the current. I was actually surprised we were hooking rockfish in what looked like very sandy bottomed areas. Unfortunately I do not have a descender but actually made one today and ordered one as well.

But aside from that, conditions were great and we caught plenty of fish. Not much more I could ask for.

And I appreciate feedback/guidance. Sometimes its unavoidable and having the right tools to limit impacts is important so I regret not having a descender.

Glad you caught...how you cook em’ dabs?...