Stillwater South Mother's Day 05/09/2010

Dropped my daughter off at her mom's for Mother's Day at 6:15 AM.  Got down to stillwater at 7:45 AM and was on the water by 8:30 AM.  There were only three other yaks out there, all fishing around the corner.  One of them arrived just before I did and the other two were a father and son.  I followed them around the corner, checked to make sure I was outside the SMR and started fishing.

I was rigged up with my usual okuma serrano reel on a mojo bass rod with 30 lb braid and a 20 lb topshot of mono.  Terminal tackle was a 1 1/2 oz sliding sinker behind a barrel swivel attached to a 12" leader with a 3/0 hook.  I began my day fishing smelt that I had purchased at the chinese market the day before.  First fish on board is a small 12" blue, second fish is a 10" kelp rockfish. 

I drop another smelt down to the bottom and feel a little tic, tic.  I set the hook and all of a sudden I feel a big fish at the end of my line.  It takes some drag and I gain ground and then it feels like the fish got tangled in kelp.  I keep pulling and gaining line slowly with occasional runs that take out my drag which is cranked down.  I get the fish close to the surface and I see not one, but two lings, one giant ling with its mouth around the head of the smaller ling.  I get my net out but the giant ling lets go before I can get its head into the net.  I manage to net the smaller ling which is still a respectable 26" fish.  When I get it into the yak, I see that it ate a small rockfish that I apparently had hooked perfectly so that the hook point came up right through the tip of its nose.

I paddle some more and catch a couple more 10"-12" blues which I release, and then I drop down another smelt and I feel a pretty hard hit.  Up comes a bright red 16" vermillion.  I then proceed to catch a 14" gopher, a 15" cab and an 18" cab all which are released.  I change to squid and get a few more blues which I release as well.  I do one more float and get another hard hit.  This fish takes drag and then ends up in the kelp.  I pull up the fish tangled in some kelp and it ends up being an 18" vermillion which ends up on my stringer.

I head back in and fish in the cove for some blues which I release and then I head into shore.  All in all a great day.  Pretty consistent action with a few pretty decent sized fish in between.  There was a bit of a sprinkle of rain in the middle of the morning but not enough to be unpleasant.  As I was pulling out at 2:30 PM, two more guys drove up looked like they were getting ready to go out. 


Reds in the water.


The final stringer.


Beautiful day on the water.

Beautiful report Bink. Great shot of the verms(my fav). The color contrast to the blue water is fantastic. looks like a great day for a solo trip Congrats. Craig

Bink,

       Nice stringer..!! and some beautiful pics too.... WTG.

Gue

Nice stringer bink! thanks for the report.

rob

Congrat on a great "catching" day and nice Verms.  Thanks for the report and pictures Michael.

I second what Craig said, the verms on the stringer, in the water, nice shot. Nice report too. Good for you.

Nice reds.
that's my goal this year.
for some reason I did not catch a single red last year.
Hats off to you

Great score Bink!
The area is still hot then.

Will try that area next weekday as I've never been there.

Thanks for the report.

Danny

Love the little fish catches a bigger fish catches a huge fish story. Too bad you didn't get the big boy in the net, but how much more fun could that be?

Thanks for the report!

Ben

nice day bink, thanks for the pics and report, love the shot of the reds, cameron

Great report Bink. Wouldn't mind catching a few vermillions myself.

Hey Bink, the father/son was me (Eugene aka e2g) and Nathan.  We had a 25 inch ling, and and some olives.  Overall fishing for us was a bit slow, but that one school of olives helped add some nice fillets for dinner.

We headed in a bit early so that Nathan could do some spearing.  He didnt shoot anything but did see some undersized lings, so was stoked.

I knew I should have gone to SWC!  Great report, and what a nice stringer you have there! 

Congrats on a great day kayakfishing Michael.

Jedmo

nice recant w/pics!  you got me juiced with that story= thanks!