RPT Sonoma Coast 10/17

Wind and swell looked good for today (Saturday) with a 3.5@10 and 6 or less mph wind all day. Combine that temps in the 70’s and the Sonoma coast was looking really good.

There’s a hike in spot that I will hit a few times a year when the weather looks really good and that was where I headed.

On the hike in I spooked some deer and rabbits which was neat to see. When I got to the water the launch was a little sportier than I had hoped but ultimately uneventful. Same with the landing.

Water was very clear, but there were a bunch of jellies around. I got to my spot and started drifting anchovies and squid on a 3 way rig. 40lb braid to 3 way with 8oz weight and 2 snelled 5/0 hooks.

The fish were hungry. I caught an assortment of black, vermillion, canary, and chuckleheads. Also in the mix were some gophers, olives, and China’s. I was wondering where the lingcod were after about 2 hrs of fishing. While reeling up a small olive from 70 feet to about 30 feet when my rod goes major bendo and the small thing I was reeling in is suddenly much larger! Well I know a hitchhiker when I feel one and I had a good one! Luckily she had inhaled the poor small olive and the landing was no problem at all. 34” and super fat!

So I caught a 34” ling, a 21.75 verm, a fairly large yelloweye, 3 more verms in the 20” class, several 20” class chuckleheads and a whole lot of smaller sized rockfish. An absolutely great day on the water. Topped off with a whale show and a pod of a dozen dolphins buzzing by within 100 or so feet of me.

Was fishing shallow enough for easy safe releases of all fish.

Damn! That's a chunky ass verm!

Thanks for the report.

Go John go!  Always catching, gotta do a coast run, thanks for the report.

Nice!   

Looks like a fun day OTW!!!
Congrats John!

I'm envious!  What a day for ya.  Congrats!

Damn man almost 22” Verm that’s nuts! Congrats, sounds like a great trip!

Those are some fat fish! That verm is spectacular. Nice job!

That's impressive catching...

what's a chucklehead?

what's a chucklehead?

copper rockfish

what's a chucklehead?

I had to google...

copper rockfish

 Apparently they also call them white bellies and never-dies.

https://wildlife.ca.gov/fishing/ocean/fish-id/sportfish/rockfish

Chucklehead (or chuckies) are coppers. San Diego and LA fishers call them that.

I’m pretty sure I’ve caught the same ones in the same spot several times, they don’t move very much  I enjoy catching them as well as vermillion. They don’t really blow up like some other species so they actually fight all the way up.

Thnx...Hooray for chuckleheads  nice fishes

Thanks for the report! Great to read and see what's out there.