Paradise 6/10/06 (no if's and's or butt's)

Well, as windy as it was in the bay area today, I was able to get a solid morning of fishing in at Paradise. 

I launched at around 7:00 AM at the Tiburon Yacht club... found a dock that had the door propped open so I just carted my yak down to the docks and launched from there.  Picked up 6 live shiners and a pack of herring popsicles at Loch Lomond on the way down. 

I knew the wind was going to pick up, so put my trolling rig in and trolled a herring and flasher all the way down to Paradise Park Pier... that took until about 9:00 or so.  No hookups... water was still dirty.

Then I pulled out the live bait rig and dropped a shiner and drifted back the other way. 

Repeated the process several times until noon.  Probably put in 5 miles.   Had one really solid takedown at about 10:00 on the trolling rig but it didn't stick.  Saw one other boat land two halibut and the other three boats in the area didn't seem to have any luck.

Lots and lots of bait and other larger marks in the area.  Definitely looked fishy.

Wind really got nasty around noon so I high-tailed it back to the Yacht club an called it a day.  Too bad, the water had just gotten nice and clear at around noon.  Need to find another day with a mild tide with the high-tide in the AM.

Heck... nice to be on the water anyway.  The bait tube worked excellently with the shiners.  Definitely the way to go.

Also, my trolling rig worked really well and was very manageable.  Consisted of a light wire spreader (about the smallest you can find) immediately followed by flasher and 3' leader to the herring, then a 12" dropper for the weight.  With 20# spectra line I was able to troll 25 foot depths with an 8 oz banana sinker for the weight, and trolling nominally 1 to 1.5 mph. 

Erik

linecounter or the trusty shimanos?

flasher and not a dodger, eh? how big a flasher? I thought blue said a flasher required higher speeds so I have ignored them
so far.

Used the trusty Shimano TR100 with the Alan Tani drag upgrade...

Here are the two flashers / dodgers that I tried today. 

The triangular one is legitimately a flasher, it rotates with very little drag and seems to operate fine at slower speeds.  Will probably be the one I try for salmon with.  That's the one I actually had the hookup on.  I believe it's a Big Al's flasher or Big A flasher... something like that? 

The other one is more of a dodger, but has lots of flash as well with the holographic tape.  It definitely imparts an interesting action on the bait, but no takers today.  Both were equally as easy to pull and had about the same amount of drag.

I like the spreader... it really keeps things from tangling up even when you are not moving.  I didn't foul the gear a single time today.

Oh... and I just looked at my GPS... looks like I put on just a shade less than 7 miles today.  Yikes. 

Erik