Van Damme, 7/7, Rockfish

Hello All,

I am fairly new to the site and this is my first report.  I have been kayak fishing for many years and have greatly enjoyed the site and everyone reports, comments and suggestions.  I live in Windsor and fish anywhere, so i look forward to seeing and meeting some of you out on the water.

My wife (Sandy) and I went up to Van Damme for a mid morning Rockfish trip, even though I saw that the swell came up a bit from yesterday and the wind could be an issue.  My wife followed me out past the main reef and it was pretty ugly with a close, mixed swell up to about 7 feet.  She turned around to head into the shallow water inside the reef and i headed back out. 

The current was ripping downhill in the same direction as the wind, so the drifts were pretty fast.  Too fast for plastics effectively in anything deeper than 50 feet.  I did 4 long drifts outside the main reef of about 1/2 mile each, dragging my drift sock, throwing big plastics on the high spots and dropping a jig on the deeper spots in between that went from 70 to 130 feet.  Two keeper size lings, with 4 unders, and a nice mixed bag of rockfish including a decent 4lb vermilion and a big fat 3lb China.  Could have kept easly limits, but left most of the shallow fish that were not hurt swim away.  The drift from the outside of the main reef near the buoy down south at least a mile or so is all rock of depths from 40 to 130 feet or so, which makes it nice for long drifts.

The wind came up to about 15 to 20 by 1100 or so, making things a lot more wet, so I headed in.  All in all, a pretty decent day and beautiful with no fog and clear water. No big lings today, but they are there.  My personal best at that place is about 18 pounds.

Nice that you can drift over the rocks.  I haven't found a spot down here where I dare do that.......lose lures in kelp if I try.........   I'll keep looking for spots as it sounds like a great technique.

nice report! great fish you have there!

thanks for sharing!

Welcome aboard Norm! Great report!

Great report and nice lings.  Nice that your wife fishes too.

Jason

Hi, Norm - I was at Van Damn Cove in July -2. The condition is similar to yours. I admire your courage of going outside rocks. I should have stayed outside rocks and practiced drifting, since fishing is clearly better outside.  . I guess you paddled out to the left and went out to buoy. Is it correct?

Nice post. It looks like you had a good day in spite of the unpleasant conditions. Wish I was there with you, but I hit Mendo instead.

Cheers!

Nice report... too bad it's July. I wouldn't mind doing a little ab/rock fish combo. I guess I'll have to wait until August though. Welcome aboard...

Freddie

I have had the same problem as you in the past Seabreeze, a few things that have helped to prevent the loss of multiple lures are: casting up drift a bit rather than dropping straight down so that when it hits bottom, you are jigging vertically.  Then pick it up before you get too much line scoped out and re-cast.  The other thing has been removing the rear trebble on the jigs and go to the "butterfly" type set up (see pic)

Eyeatbay, I did go out toward the buoy, but started each drift between the exposed reef and the buoy and then drifted south.  I usually start close to the outside kelp line on the reef in 40 to 60 feet and see where the drift takes me from there.  Once you get south of the buoy, the mixed slop usually subsides as from the buoy north, you get a lot of slap back from the multiple reefs and high spots, turning things into a bit of a cauldron.

I'll definitaly be doing some ab/rockfish combos at Van Damme in August Freddie, i have some nice ab spots on the protected side of the outer reef that are usually very good and usually clear, see you there....

Any action at Mendo Mahi?  I was there Thursday and got a mixed bag of large and smallmouth as the strippers were not up and cooperating.  I did see a guy in a bassboat hook and land a few virticle jigging a spoon by the dam and I hooked one over there on a hair raiser after meetering a bait ball with stripper marks under it, but he got away......

ya, i have been thinking about trying that set up! i a bar jig from japan i have been hearing about thank has the the same kind of look   nice report!

Mendo has been treating me poorly lately. People are still landing striper, but they're not up as much as they were last month.

I used to ab dive just North of Van Damme. There is a road next to Rachel's Inn (North of Van Damme) that leads to a private residential street with a gate. I used to have permission to access a private beach via an aluminum ladder/stair deal. The little cove was filled with 8 to 9 inch ab's. I'd like to slide over there on my yak and take a look. It's been about 7 years since I've been there.

CHEERS!

that is the setup i use minus the swivel. it gets stuck once in a while but usually comes loose by itself. i have yet to lose one like this and i have been using this one lure for 2 seasons now.

I like the set up.
What kind of line is that you are using to attach the hooks? What do you coat it with?
Are your hookups equal to those you would get with the jig as it comes from the store??

I like the set up.
What kind of line is that you are using to attach the hooks? What do you coat it with?
Are your hookups equal to those you would get with the jig as it comes from the store??

I think those are Gamakatsu stinker hooks.
http://www.gamakatsu.com/new_products/new_assist510.htm

Owner makes some too.
http://www.hottackle.com/product_info.php?products_id=4936

SWEET!!!
I will try to score some today!!!
Thanks.