7/20 Crescent City Report

Last weekend I went up to the PBOA tornament in Crescent City.  the report is a little long, and I was so concentrated on fishing I forgot to take any pictures of the fish.
 
Got OTW a little after 6:30am was a little sketch about going out before light, and paddled out around the jetty to around the lighthouse. Finally figured out that my radio volume was all the way down…  So on my second attempt at finding my Partner Saw, he picked up and replied immediately, nice reminder to get your radio working before!

Saw’s got a black rockfish or two, and a barely legal Cabezon so far, and we need to make 3 species to get on the board, and make any points.  We’ve found a couple of pinnacle rocks under the surface, ( me with no ff, was just hoping and praying to get a drift over it ) no hookups, and we were running out of ideas. We decide ( Saw makes a suggestion and I say let's go! ) to head in a little shallower near the lighthouse, so in less than 20 feet of water and already at almost 10am I’m making my first drift through some patchy kelp I get a slam on my slug, it’s a 12” or so black rockfish, well at least I’m not skunked, and I’ve got some fish for the fryup later.

Only productive bite out of two, so I just peddle back up to the rock I started at and floated through the weeds one more time.  And Boom! I get some drag on the ol’ Penn.  after a little bit of a run, I’m thinking small ling, but comes up a 16” cabezon, still, not helping that third species.

Screw it! Let's go back to the rock.  My partner is looking to find a different spot since the kelp is becoming a problem, but I like beating my head against walls, and so far it’s worked so I got to try again, right? At least for another couple minutes, it’s like 10:30am at this point, maybe 11 but I just knew there had to be another fish around this evil kelp that just took my partner’s Branson Slug and Jig.

So, I slap on the tried and true 4oz Shad Jig Head, and a 6.5” Senorita Big Hammer below a less handmade shrimp fly. Tipped with a little anchovy.

Another black rockfish.

Back down, with a new anchovy.  I felt a little squishy bite, and I figured it was another little black reel in a little and feel a little weight, set the hook and a good bit of drag, bent rod, drag peel, yes! Okay, this will be like every other ling you’ve caught, 2 pulls, then net him. This ling cod made his second pull, but he made it straight up. Reeling like a mad man, I see a brown and green bullet spiraling upward towards me, jump completely out of the water, pull off a few more tight circles under the water, up out of the water again no time for a net, I handline the 26” acrobat while he was coming back up to make his great escape rushing the surface for a third time, straight between my legs and on the fish grips. He absolutely demolished the Big Hammer, only an inch of it remained on the hook, that was just barely lodged in his nose, with the line all wrapped up around his jaw after the two crazy jumps.  I Yelled to Saw, to get this crazy fish on his stringer asap.  We got our third species!

After changing spots still armed with an anchovy tipped shrimp fly, and a 4oz Jig with a Senorita floating above the rocks in 12fow, I get another hit, another ling that I failed to net, and seeing a very good hookset in the mouth on the top of the nose of the shrimp fly of all things, I handline the 27.5” brown ling in before I lost it with another failed net job.

Saw grabs a 20.5” Cab for 160 points, and I find another black rockfish, but like a 15 or 16 inch one. One of my biggest rockfish to date, and for sure a personal best black.

In the end we didn’t place, but I was super lucky and thankful to have a great partner like Mike/Saw.

He didn’t just help me out the guy who was supposed to help bring in points for his/our team.  He helped out someone who’s mirage drive broke on the water, and lent him his spare so he could be out there fishing better, offered a rod to another friend/competitor and that’s the main thing I am going to take away from this tournament experience, besides the camaraderie and community of kayak anglers, taking the time to be a little bit more prepared and have backups, not just for me, but someone else could save their entire day of fishing, and turn it around from a stressful day, to a laughing, hooping and hollering type of day that we all want OTW. 

Great report. Thanks for sharing.