Capitola 8/23

I gotta say Mol, I've fished Capitola about 5 times and with the exception of the macs and chovies I've been skunked. I was getting to the point of thinking for some weird reason I just wasn't going to be able to get other fish to bite. I was hearing the same stories from lots of other fisherman there so was ready to put Capitola on the list of places I could fish but not want to fish. I guess I should have thought more and realized it was what I was throwing at them that was the problem. The Jetty worm worked. There was another yak fisher I met yesterday who got a few good RC with a hair raiser. I'm happy to realize that it was the lure and not the place because it's such a cool spot to fish.

This newb learned a little more about fishing.. cool! Yak fishing rocks!! (I wanna use that rocker Mooch uses, so imagine it here )

I personally think that the place to fish at capitola is as deep as you can get in the kelp.

I was very pleased with the actuall openness of the kelp forest.  I'm sure there are a ton of fish in that kelp bed, it is just teeming with life.  I had a short day yesterday, but given time to work the kelp thouroughly and the will power to ignore the macs I bet I could do pretty well there.

MolBasser

Check this interesting tidbit from the DFG writeup on the grass rockfish:

As juveniles they are
pelagic, but as they mature and become adults, they will be
associated with kelp beds and reefs. This species is
considered residential, moving less than a meter from their
home range.

This means that when fishing in the capitola kelp bed you would need to move methodically through the bed dropping your bait many times throughout the bed.  Very interesting.

MolBasser

or drift live bait around the kelp--but you need to get right on top of them and that can be problematic as the bait might wrap you around it.

When the White Sea Bass show up, they apparently hide out in there also whcih makes them tough to get: not tough to hook--tough to land without a break-off. I don't know if they'd like that lure, but be ready for a surprise one day if they do 

WSB will definately eat the TJW, I can go scare up some pics, but it is a proven WSB bait.


MolBasser

Here is one shot of a WSB on TJW.

Another




MolBasser

I didn't know they got that small hehe  --just kidding. Nice fish. Wish we had more of those up here. I'd like Bonito and Yellow Tail too while we're at it.

Yeah...I know.  Somewhere there is a 30#+ WSB on a TJW I just can't find the pic right now.

I've caught bonito on TJW and Scott (Fishtricks) Johnson (creator of TJW) has a 20# yellowtail on one also.

MolBasser

Here is Fishtricks with his big yellowtail on TJW:



MolBasser

Now yer talkiin'. I want to catch one of those on my kayak . Ummm a little wasabi and soy sauce with that Hamachi   

Last year mid august I saw a school of small wsb in the capitola kelp.  they stared at my live anchovy but did not hit it.

They did not look legal size, but would be cool to hook.

reminded me of disinterested cats. same anchovy caught my first halibut, so nothing was too wrong with it,
it was missing a few scales due to a seagull.

that is a nice yellowtail, I don't know about the sweater tho...

Hi everybody!

Was there a lot of those little tunas hanging around Capitol pier yesterday or are they there and anyone could catch them?  Would it be worth the drive to take the little ones out to try fishing for them.  Man those Mac's tast so good!

Mol,  do you keep up on the Pier fishing in Santa Cruz?... Are there any big runs of the little tuna there at night.

The macs were pretty close to the pier in capitola.

My guess is that you could catch them from the pier.  I think there is a bait shop there that you could call to get the 411 on them.

I don't know about the SC pier.  I don't do much pier fishing, although I should.

I'll try to look into it for you tomorrow.

MolBasser

Alright Bro...thanx

This means that when fishing in the capitola kelp bed you would need to move methodically through the bed dropping your bait many times throughout the bed.

Yeah, so there's the technique for those Grass RF. Will be happy to drift around the kelp, bouncin the Jetty worm for a 5#er!

No kidding Marmot, gimme that YT, soy, and wasabi and I'm in heaven!!
Wouldn't mind making a trip down south before it gets too cold to really pull that off. I think they're as far north as Santa Barbara, 4.5 hours isn't too far. Anyone interested?

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=606