7/15/2007 South San Simeon- Great Day

On the water at 6:50, launched out of leffingwell and worked my way north about 2 miles to southern San Simeon, caught a few gophers and a short Cabby on the way. Cabby was deep reddish maroon with some interesting markings so I snapped a pic. Very foggy most of the day.  did not see any other kayaks or Skiffs out there, too bad for them.  Once I hit the kelp beds it was on for Rockfish.  Only had one underling of 23", but the bite was wide open had over 25 fish for the day, mostly gophers and kelp bass, and a ton of blues, it was littorally every drop for about 20 minutes at one point, switched to light tackle and had a blast with all the blues and Kelp bass.  Also Had two very nice Reds 15" and 17" caught on a 1 oz leadhead with 3" berkely gulp shrimp, so was stoked on that.  took home an easy limit of 2 reds, 3 blues, 1 sugar bass, 3 gophers, and a nice Olive.  was as hot a rockfish bite as I've seen all season.  Wished I could have found a legal ling, but I'M definitely not complaining.  the wind was light all day, the fog cleared for about 45 minutes, and then came back and then cleared again.  Navigated north by gps, was clear for the way home.  off the water at 1:00 pm.  After reading Pj and Rustic andy's reports from tuesday, I was hoping the door would stay open for me till the weekend and to my delight it sure did.  Couple pics:  the neat markings of the short cabby, my two reds, and the fog in between clearing. 

Nice post!  Gald to hear it is still going off!

That a Kid Dogpound!!  I'll have to come down soon so we can crush a few fish together!

Johnny, Whats up Bruddah?  Glad to see you back on here, dude I want to get up there too.  Talk to you soon buddy. 

As for that weird colored Cabby, I caught one like it last month around Lovers point, Monterey. After lloking at the so-so Identification pics in the DFG book, Im pretty sure it was a California scorpionfish. They have the same body and fins as the Cabby for the most part, but a very pretty red color. First one I ever hooked. God luck, KIMO

Thanks for the Tip Kimo,  the thought that it could be a different fish than a cabby hadn't crossed my mind, now that you mentioned it I think I have probably caught a couple other Cal. scorpion fish down here.   

I've caught lots of those red cabs around the lover's pt area which used to be (sob) my backyard.  For what it's worth . .and I'm not a fish biologist . .I do think those are cabezon.  I've also seen similarly red lings and greenlings . .so I think it's just a color variation. 

Sin_Coast and I were speculating one day that it might be because of diet (ie .. crabs vs fish) . . but I really have no idea.  I wouldn't rule out scorpionfish but I think those run smaller . .anyway my money is on red colored cabezon.

Thanks for the great report and pics!

Those are gorgeous reds, so bright right out of the water!
I've caught lings that had a similar red color to that cabezon, still with the typical blue throat that lings have. Ya just gotta love the colors that fish come up with.