Trinidad - soggy and stin-jee!

Hawk and I met up at 3:30 and got rigged in the rain.  The wind was a factor yet relatively light and there was a fair amount of unorganized chop outside.  We headed south to Pilot Rock where we jigged 20 minutes or so with no luck.  The rain was persistent, but I managed to get a few shots of Hawk with Trinidad Head in the background.  We headed east to nearshore reefy areas more in the protection of the cove and jigged another hour or so.  The water quality was good and the conditions weren't preventing effective fishing - it was just slow!  We had no bites.  I lost some hardware to the rocky bottom and even tried some bait...  We headed back toward the launch and hit some nice stacks on the way.  I finally got the skunk off by landing two dinker lings in a row on a 6 oz. leadhead with a blue sparkle split tail and a white fringe.  At about the same time Hawk was getting some photos and spotted some otters.  Trinidad cove is an awesome spot.  It was great to get out and I thank Hawk so much for letting me demo an Xtreme today - I liked it.  Future trips around the Head and up the coast will yield some serious rockfish and lings...

Yeah the bite wasn't on but the granduer and pee in your pants beauty of the Trinidad Cove was as always spectacular. It was nice to be on the water and fishing for the opener with a fellow NCKA  bro. For all that couldn't make it heres some pics to enjoy

Thanks for the report and pictures!  The picture of Eric from the back is great!  But, your report is not making me want to jump in my car and head north, though after these fronts pass through, it may pick up.  Are either of you going out this weekend?  If so keep us posted, because I'm still thinking of going up the 11th. 

Glad you guys got out there.  As soon as schedules and water co-incide I'll come up and join you two.

Great report guys!
And cool pics too, looks beautiful.

Watch out for them otter though..."otters, we don't need no stinkin otters!" There go the abs! LOL!

PK

PK:  I saw and got pictures of sea otters eating nice sized abs at and around Franklin Point in San Mateo county years ago.  What's funny about our otters up here is that everyone I've talked to says they're most likely river otters that are just playing around nearshore.  I first saw them many years ago on the Lost Coast and thought I'd found a remote colony of sea otters!   I always wonder, but I'm pretty sure they are in fact river otters.

Windrider:  good observation about not being ready to jump in the truck and head up here!  The conditions are so key to the prospects of success - I definitely recommend trying to time it with nice water/weather, which is improving all the time as we move toward Summer.  The ocean is jumping up to "rough and windy" for the forseeable future (at least into this weekend).  We should have a good long-range forecast for Mother's Day weekend by Monday the 7th. 

Trinidad, while often challenging to catch fish in the protected cove area, really does hold great promise for large rockfish and lings, but you need a flat enough day to go around the Head to the north a couple/three/four miles and the hours to devote to finding hotspots.  The beauty of that first launch photo above is that I took that from my truck window as I drove down off pavement onto the beach, 2 minutes from 101!  Gotta love that!  Trindad launch when you have a good tide to work with for beach access and not too many people hogging the dozen and a half spots (NO other rigs there when Hawk and I went - on opening day?  How sad!!) is probably as easy as any launch you've seen. 

I'm stoked about this season.   

Today I looked at a potential job in Shelter Cove and had my boat and salmon gear with, but did not end up going out due to multiple factors:  no other boats out, bite's still off, conditions not ideal, just yakked yesterday, needed to get some HoneyDo's done...  It was definitely do-able and the Pt. Arena buoy is back up to 51 degrees, so I was very tempted.  Patience now will pay off later, but I do hate to miss an opportunity...   

Bum deal, but it sure is pretty over there.  A buddy and I made the drive to Trinidad for last years opener, managed one dinky ling before being blown off the water.  I've never managed to make it any considerable distance on the yak around the head, but can only imagine the fish up there.  With my alaska trip in a month, all my brownie points are set aside, but i'll definitley be over in July.  Keep the reports coming...
tight lines,
Ben