MBK 7/14

Sent out with Ben and Mel to the Cannery Row kelp beds.

Pre-dawn I cast the MBK beach for flatties.  Only one hit, but I SAW one take off in about 6" of water, and observed one jump out of the water chasing bait.  that place could produce like Capitola...... but I don't know about keepers.

On an afterthought, I took my spinning rod with me on the yak for the day.

Trolled a hairaiser for a few big hits justa as we arived at Cannery Row.  I thought they were calico's but closer examination suggests Olive rockfish.....????  they have some mean teeth on them!

Here's pix of me, Ben, and prowler with fish.  olives up to 20"....hard fighting fish on my light spinning rod.  Very very fun!

Allen

Those are nice stringers Allen and Ben!  I love me some olives... Those are yummy.  Interesting that you got those on hairraisers...  How deep were you trolling and what weight did you use?  Was it a sliding sinker setup?

Nice try casting for halis.  Is it just me or is there a bumper crop of juvies this year?

Looks like great weather there.  Up at BH, the weather didn't cooperate so much.

I gotta fish down there this year, for sure.  I am thinkiing August.

Allen, that must have been fun to get that 20"-er on the spinning (perch?) tackle.

this year I was bump trolling a 2-hook broken back rebel in santa cruz, the weight snagged a bit,
I yanked on it, the weight broke off and the lure started to float toward the surface (now I am
using 80lb line up to a short breakaway section of 15lb for my dropper weights as abrasion
on the dropper line causes premature loss of weights).

anyways...

as the lure floats to the surface, a good size olive hit it. 
pretty sure that is my only olive (of size) and it fought well,
filletted easily and tasted good.
I also wondered if it was a calico not having caught a big olive
before.

I would like to catch more big olives as you should be able to go really light
on the tackle, like 6 to 10lb line as they are often caught midwater,
but not sure how to duplicate that one...

J

When i fished Monterey/Carmel on the Velocity earlier this season,it was ALL olives.  i think there are more of them down there.  the thing that gets me is their TEETH.  Like 2 or 3 rowws of distinct little chompers.  that, and a dorsal pattern made me think they were calicos.

After being dead a while, they didn't look so "clico-ey" anymore. more linke giant stramlined blues with orange/brown around the face and chest area.

Big fighters, my reel was screaming.  I even used the net for these fish with the light line.

Fun.

trolling topwater 1/2 oz mister twister white, stopping every once and a while to let the lure sink.

BAM!

(oh, BTW me and Ben are holding the same stringer in the pix. I have to come clean befoe someone busts us.....sorry Ben.  let's just say we ALL had dinner for four tonight)

Allen

That one in the boat looks like another Bocacio.  Keep us planning for the tourney.....good job, Allen.

(let's just say we ALL had dinner for four tonight)

And mighty tasty at that . Had a great time today on my first kayak fishing trip. Thanks again Allen. 

Ben

Nice catch guys.I fished MBK on Thurs for about the same results minus the big olive and with larger blues and a decent copper.Fellow MBK guide Spencer and I caught and  released at least twenty mixed rf (mostly small blues).Rf on light tackle are super fun.

I'm thinking about targeting halibut north of MBK and the spearos have been bringing in some nice flatties in shallow off of Pajaro out of Moss.I'm thinking a big flattie will take the cake at the MBK derby.Speaking of which...I just found out that MBK employees can't win prizes at the derby  . I might fish it anyway for bragging rights.

Awww, sorry Aaron.  You could always quit your job on spec..........

Pat, thanks for the fish ID, it's been so long since I've seen a bocaccio I forgot about those fish.  I've only ever caught them out deep deep.  I recall you got one shallow recently?  I admiot I was puzzled, they came up fresh with a patterning on their back and I was calling them calicos, then olives when the calico ID didn't work for me anymore.

I'm calling those three fish bocaccios now.  they get lots bigger than that.  Tasted good, too!

Allen,
Those 3 fish that are pictured in the middle are calicos, not boccacio.  Boccacio have much bigger mouths and the coloring just isn't right.  A boccacios' mouth would be "upturned" too with the lower jaw being turned upward.  Calicos definitely don't look as great after they've been dead for awhile.  I grew up down in SoCal fishing all the islands and those are definitely the real thing. Nice looking catch.

Just for everyone info.  You can only have one Bocaccio in your limit.  North of 40 deg. 10'  N. lat (Near Cape Mendocino) you have have 2.

Ken kickfish

calico, cool! boy there is no substitute for catching a bunch of fish to recognize the next one!

I could never tell a blue from a black until I caught a bunch, now it's obvious to me.

people that catch silvers and kings a lot can tell them apart too.

interesting how that works.

but trying to identify a fish from pics if you've never caught one is hard!

I wonder if that fish I got in santa cruz was one too. who knows I didn't take a pic,
I assumed it was an olive.  need to see photos of dead olives and dead calicos side by side to
understand the difference I think.

I was just wondering about the one.  The others are definately not "B" fish.  Sorry to have caused a fluff......

Well, I was there and when they were first caught they had the markings of a Calico. Bocaccio's mouth is different than what these were. In May of this year Aaron caught a nice Calico that I happen to see when he brought it in. Looks just like the fish Allen caught yesterday fishing in the same area as Aaron. Here is the thread he posted.  By the way, tasted like Kelp Bass

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=8399.msg73867#msg73867

Ben

wow, back where I started from.

Wierd how the patterning disappear  after a whilemoutta the water.

Ok, Calicos I will call them.

thanks bluefin!!

Allen

soon we will need portable DNA ID equipment to figure out whats whats...