Capitola 6/28/07

Launched about 7, FAC. Saw Allen coming down the wharf, met up with him on the beach and he proceeded to get a bunch of small flatties, probably waist deep water.  After he gave me a "fluke", small white plastic tail grub with bucktail ( a big Thanks!), I flailed away until Allen left, then got out in my yak (I had done about 3 Ls and Ls before then, retrieving snags (does that count as yak fishing?) as I said, very calm.  I was in about the same depth water and got a little one of my own, shook him off.
   Finally lost the Fluke and so I trolled all over up toward O'Neill's and out up to 60 ft, trying everything I had, no love.  Did see a PB boat a good sized butt in 40 ft of water off O"neill's about 1:30. Those guys had their shirts off soaking up rays and drifting frozen 'chovies. 
It was so nice, I stayed out until 2:30, quite a drift E to W, a little zephyr from the E, too.
As I rounded the kelp corner off of Privates, I got a 27" ling, big head, smallish body, but kept it b/c it was the first of the year.  Trolled around some more in the same spot and pulled up a 16" blue, big for that area.
Lots of jack smelt chasing lures up all over the area I trolled.
   No wind came up as I loaded up. 

I went down to the harbor and picked up some tackle and saw lots of yaks on the water but the wind was up out there about 3:.  Capitola gets more protection.  Nice for you to finally get a legal ling, I know you had been pulling in your share of underlings this season.

Congrats on scractching that Ling, itch Tom

great weather and a ling, maybe not perfect but definitely good!

I though the fluke was a grub with a longish plastic tail, does it also have a bucktail or feathers on it?

as to the frozen chovies, I figure if the fish are hungry they hit anything.  Had a friend once put on the most unappetizing ball of cut mackerel on a hook and lob it out.  Around him were people using live bait, perfect fly patterns, ideal baits and you guessed it, he is the one who lands the nice butt...

WTG tom!


Congrats on the little flattie and esp for the ling cod.  what did you get the ling with?

Allen

Allen: My standby: @ 4" Blue,Silver or green Walleye Runner - Cabela's $2. floating minnow looking diver with little spoon on the nose, probably the vibration of the lure working back and forth attracts the bigger ones, and it could resemble a crippled anchovy to them.  I just rig it a couple feet back from a  3-way swivel and 6" dropper with 8-16 oz weight and let it down easy while paddling, just tapping the bottom, avoiding any kelp I see but trying to stay near the structure.  I tie the sinker on with light line and bad knots, it's the thing that gets snagged, when I do, I reverse course and jig it loose. Troll 1-2K. 

I tried trolling a 1oz leadhead with a swimbait or grub as my trolling item behind
an 8oz banana sinker clipped on a slido above my mainline swivel. also had a white
shrimpfly on a dropper loop (with a real dropper loop knot!) ahead of the swimbait as a teaser.

the swimbait puts out vibrations too. same with a grub. 1oz head will rise up off the bottom
with any speed over 1 mph or so. not a good idea to stop and leave it on the bottom tho
which you can do with a floating plug.

anyway, got a double hookup on saturday. then unclipped the banana and cast for 2 more fish
in the area of the hookup. pretty pleased with that rig.

I have some 4.5" to 5.5" jointed plugs that work great, but I paid $6 for them, so trying
some other variations this year.  an apex/pro-troll plastic salmon spoon works, but they aren't cheap.

J