Carmel Bay 7/29

At least 7 kayakers were on the northside of Carmel Bay today.  Spread from the first rocks out to the pinnacles.  Conditions have been tough so far this season but today there was no wind and the 3-6 foot swell was totally doable.  The pinnacles area was full of blue rockfish leaping 2 feet into the air (really!), biting like the silly fish that they are.  Randy and I found high quality olives.  Our best was 18 1/2 inches which provided a great dinner with fried rice including fresh from the garden snowpeas and a sparkling wine called Prosecco.  We also ended the day with a nice 16 1/2 inch vermillion.

The attempts at trolling for lings produced nothing...............

sounds like a fun day!.........I do like a good Prosecco

Showed up solo early this morning and was treated to the company of Pat and Randy. Great day for fishing.  The winds finally subsided and permitted venturing out to the Pinnacles where the ocean was alive.  Fish jumping everywhere, water like glass, big rolling swells.  I had been beginning to wonder if Stillwater would be productive this year.  While today did not yield the larger fish, there was great action wit the blues and olives, underlings here and there.  Kept a few larger blues, a vermillion and my first kelp greenling that will be tonight's dinner.  Most success was with a 3oz green Dymara (Dart) with a single Gamakatsu stinger hook on the nose.

Or maybe all this was just because I was wearing my Dodgers hat...

I found this link on Coastside (thanks Mike Giraudo) to a marine forecast I had never seen before.  While the more regional forecast for Pigeon Point to Point Piedras Blancas forecast 15 knot winds, this forecast allows more localized informationand indicated no real wind around Point Pinos until noon.  On the basis of it and wanting to see if it worked, I headed for Stillwater.  Not sure of the wind speed or exact time of day, but the morning was calm (3 knot winds were predicted) and a SW wind picked up aroung noontime (8 knot SW winds were predicted).  So, it's one for one with me and I'll be trying it again.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/firewx/fwpfm/fwpfm.php?wfo=mtr

Pete

fantastic weather link!

seabreeze, what'd you troll?  get hung up at all?

Too much information for me on that weather link.  I just head out.  It's good to live 20 minutes from the launch..........

John, I didn't pick up any rebar to try that.  Instead, I did more conventional......dodger behind 4 oz banana weight and either a large green/silver swimbait or a large rapala.  I trolled outside the kelp so other than a bit of light grass snag, never got hung up while doing that.  I tried paddling backwards so that I could watch it drift back down.  I was doing this in 70-100 feet of water with little structure under so it was probably not a good place for lings.  The only thing to grab this set up was a solid, 16inch olive.  My goodness but the quality of these fish is outstanding.

I did in fact get hung up in kelp more than once while drifting conventional diamond jigs and such, all with single hooks, even though it seemed that I wasn't moving all that much.

Nice red Pat! Im planning on hitting it next Saturday. Im going to redo the hatch seals on my Marauder as they are leaking a bit which is highly irritating. I broke my Loomis rod last weekend, what a freaking bummer It busted in half as I was trying to get my jig unstuck from the bottom. I was really surprised that I broke it like that.  Im expecting a new one any day now. FYI I didnt know this untill a freind of mine told me, that if you break a Loomis rod, you can call them and for 50 bucks they will send you a brand new rod. Then you take your old one and send it back in the tube your new one came in, postage is prepaid on a sticker they send you. Pretty good deal, being as my rod was 240 bucks and this is the 2nd time I busted it. The first time I broke the tip off putting it on the inside of my truck  Anyway I hope the weather is nice next weekend. This year the fishing sure seems really slow, tho I have caught a Ling Cod every time I've been out in my new Marauder with the exception of last weekend.

Bummer indeed, Kim.  Cool on the replacement though.

You are getting the lings on scampis?  I am 0/toomany tries this season for ling. 

Have fun on Saturday. 

seabreeze, I'm guessing 4oz and a dodger would not get to the bottom very easily. sometimes those olives are
mid-column fish, so maybe you were up off the bottom?  it's pretty much liike trolling for salmon as far
as getting down to the fish.

I am using 8 oz cannonball or torpedo in 30 feet, up to 1.5lb in deeper on a three way rig with no dodger.

if you use a three-way or release, try a really long dropper, like 4 feet and a long leader, 6 feet to the plug.

what color/size plug? I like the 4.5" to 5.5" jointed rebels in blue/silver or black/silver (dead ringer for anchovy).
the jointed plugs have more action at slow speeds. the magnum rapalas have less action,
they are more durable but have to be trolled faster. 

how about whole squid in an FBR? that would be good! maybe too fast for those kingfish to steal.

good luck on the ling hunt.

YEah, when the Olive hit I knew that I was paddling too fast for it to stay on the bottom.  But, heh, it was fun...........

The 12 oz weight that I brought with me to try out just seemed too heavy to fool with on such a nice day.

Thanks for the good cheer john.......

I hit Carmel bay from Monastary on Sunday morning.  No wind, large swell but small break on the beach.  Launched form the south side behind the rocks.  The Blues and Olives were very agressive and jumpng out of the water at times.  I caught and released 20+ fish including one probably legal ling that was snagged in the belly and a beautiful red Cabazon that was undersized.  I kept five fish including one 17-inch Olive that turned out to be totally infested with worms  .  The worms were dark redish in color 1-2 inches mostly coiled up in the flesh.  There msut have been 30 or more.  The filets look like swiss cheese.  The smaller Blues Olives and one Boccacio I kept were pest free.  How did the Olives look that you guys caught?  I suspect that the larger ones may be more prone to infestation.

A little extra protein couldn't hurt......

MolBasser

I hit Carmel bay from Monastary on Sunday morning.  No wind, large swell but small break on the beach.  Launched form the south side behind the rocks.  The Blues and Olives were very agressive and jumpng out of the water at times.  I caught and released 20+ fish including one probably legal ling that was snagged in the belly and a beautiful red Cabazon that was undersized.  I kept five fish including one 17-inch Olive that turned out to be totally infested with worms  .  The worms were dark redish in color 1-2 inches mostly coiled up in the flesh.  There msut have been 30 or more.  The filets look like swiss cheese.  The smaller Blues Olives and one Boccacio I kept were pest free.  How did the Olives look that you guys caught?  I suspect that the larger ones may be more prone to infestation.

 monastery has been one of the places where all fish have lots of worms. seems all the fish there havea bunch of worms. i wonder why that is? ince i went to fillet a fish and it was all wormy.

my friend said to gut it as soon as you catch it as the ytravel from the stomach area to the flecsh when they are dying.

that dont make much sense though.

maybe someone knows?

Pat has a surprise for us...

The two large olives that Randy kept were worm free.  We don't do wormy fish either........(emoticon not inserted in the interest of the comfort of the readers of this board)

That is yet another reason we like the northern edge of Carmel Bay....the fish seem clean and healthy.

I am not surew about the north vs. south theory but I have been fishing near Pt. Lobos for several years and this is the first really wormy fish I have caught.  I am curious about the travel from the stomach to the flesh theory though because there was poential evidence of that.  There were many, what looked like bloody holes about the same diameter as the worms in the flesh that could have resulted from such activity?  Does anyone know?  It was at least a few hours before I made it home and cleaned that fish.  What would you recommend with regard to gutting them ASAP on the water in a Kayak?  Just dump the guts and blood in the water and watch out for the landlord and hope all of your fingers are still there when done?