Ft. Bragg Rockies

I had to work yesterday (normally have Fri. off) but I needed to get somefish screen parts to a specialty welder in Ft. Bragg.  Decided at the last minute to bring the yaks in case the water looked good, Jelly came along for the ride.  Delivered the flanges and we had a look at the water.  Lumpy, but now wind and sun...a rare combo in Ft. Bragg.

Moved around a few minuteslooking for fish but we eventually found some wide open action on medium blues.  Nothing special but entertaining.  I had a shrimpfly above my jig and scored many double hookups.  We released all of the blues that were releasable, kept about six that were mortally foul-hooked.  Ended up getting on decent cabbie, and a few other odd balls as well.  We tried a few baits but megas were the hot unit.

Saw Pescadore on the road and he went out after us.  We only fished for about an hour and then Jelly started getting green as his last-minute Bonine was not doing the job.  Forgot the camera, but heres a pic of the cabbie awaiting surgery.  Leah made some wicked fish tacos out of this guy...21 inches and just shy of six pounds.




Up close...

The blues were in lemming, suicide mode.  The megabait that scwafish gave me was too popular with that bunch.  I switched to a 9 inch storm swimbait (which they still bit at).  No love on the swim bait jigging, but then I started trolling it and the lings couldn't resist.  Caught 3 at around 27 -28" , kept 1.  They were all stuffed with 10" mackeral, which they barfed in my lap.  Sorry, haven't bought a new camera yet (last one went overboard).

did you use extra weight to get the swimbait down, or troll super slow, or something else entirely?

J

I smell a scam job!!!!     Nice to see that you were taking full advantage of Sonoma County Tax Dollars...  I would never sink so LOW.....  I need to dig up some work on the coast..

did you use extra weight to get the swimbait down, or troll super slow, or something else entirely?

J

I just let it down to the bottom, did the pinch pole under one leg and started paddling.  As I got a little momentum going, I'd spool out more line till the swimbait hit the bottom again.  Its hard to to feel the bottom with those things and i doubt I was on the bottom when the lings grabbed it.  It was like night night and day though when I started trolling it.  Same area fished jigging without results produced 3 lings in about 20 minutes when trolled.

The mackeral thing was weird too.  Never seen lings with mackeral in them.  Thought macs were supposed to be down south.

d

maybe trolling for lings is a reasonable way to go? I got a 29" ling in capitola trolling a plug off
a salmon release. bluekayak always seems to end up with a few and I see the salmon trollers get some.

The swimbait is not heavy enough so you have to let a lot of line out to get any depth,
then it's hard to avoid the odd kelp stringer. was it an 8oz leadhead or something?

One of the areas I have been fishing is a big area like 2 miles long. With no fishfinder, I'm not really
sure where the reefs are but experience tells me there are fish there, I don't think it's real classic
rockfish territory with tons of pinnacles. The charts have it smoothly going to depth and my tests
with a line counter seem to indicate that's the case. probably just a few boulders down there.
but enough to hold fish.

I have a huge 9" bomber plug with two huge trebles.
maybe I'll hang it off a salmon release and troll the areas I've had some ling hits in and see what happens.

I have caught mackerel (the greenback kind?) in capitola. we had a little thread on it in the fish talk section.
they get around,  .

J

J, watch your hook count on that plug...

I removed the front hook, like you do with the rogues, for the rebels.  the big plug (a giant bomber) has only 2 monster trebles.

I'm good, thanks!

J

I don't think that is a legal hook count for rockfish though, you can only have 2 shanks. I think I recall reading that in another thread...

Bill, what are you smoking today? can I get some?    two trebles == two shanks.

J

Yeah doc, I was smokin for Elk derby reg, my bad! 

save some for me next time! 

as I read the regs you can hang two 10/0 trebles off your line with a squid on each tine if you wanted,  .

yeah baby!

hmmmm.....  .   

two 10/0 trebles off your line with a squid on each tine

Hey, don't give away my secret rig for Elk.

I'm not going to be there, but I'm trying to spread as many wacky ideas as possible in order
to live vicariously through the reports and also to cause trouble. 

How did you catch that monster anyway? little rockfish pinned to jig?

I have a huge 9" bomber plug with two huge trebles.
maybe I'll hang it off a salmon release and troll the areas I've had some ling hits in and see what happens.

I have caught mackerel (the greenback kind?) in capitola. we had a little thread on it in the fish talk section.  .

J

j:  I wouldn't waste lead off a salmon release on a ling.

Here's an idea I'm about to try that a commercial guy showed me.  They troll for lings a lot, and they call it "dingle-bar-ing" for lings.  They cut off different lengths of 3/4" rebar (for different weight ranges), drill a hole on one side a put a split ring on it.  From this they tie off a gangion (long leader) and put tie off loops up it, starting at about 18" from the rebar.  They then tie off about 1' leaders to hooks which are then speared through scampi tails or whatever.  The leadered hooks are tied off to the loops on the gangion.  The set up looks like a shimp fly rig with rebar on the bottom and leaders off the main line tailing tails or swim baits behind.

They troll these things around with the rebar "dingle-baring" on the rocks.  They claim the sound of the rebar banging on the rocks either irratates or attracts the lings into striking.  The biggest advantage, though, is that the set up can be trolled without hardley ever hanging up, and if you do lose it, it's a lot less $ than losing a jig.  You (supposedly) can still feel the bottom while trolling.

I'm going to try it this weekend.  I'll post results.
d