2015
Read about the December Shogun trip in Fish
Taco Chronicles coming out in the Spring edition.
Tight Lines and see you in 2016!
November 28 Update:
It's been almost 5 1/2 months since the auto
accident caused by a "distracted"
driver two days after my June 7th report.
It was with a heavy heart and disappointment
that I had to cancel a benefit event in Loreto,
Mexico, a kid's trip and numerous invitations
to do research data trips and fish with friends,
however my doctor's have recently been giving
me the green light to do some exploratory
fishing close to home, when conditions are
right. I will likely have some limitations
permanently but it's time to do some more
field testing in order to see what those limits
will be. So with the blessing of my doctors
I have booked a trip on the Shogun.
June 7
If yesterday could be compared to doing hand-to-hand
combat in the trenches today was more like
playing round of golf from the country club.
Pat and his wife Debra invited me along with
Mike and his dad, Larry to go salmon
fishing aboard the Peridot. At 32'
it's akin to fishing from your completely
furnished one bedroom apartment.
We found flat water and tons of bait from
Stinson Beach to the green can and Mike worked
the down riggers. We ran a spread of 3 to
5 rods all day with mostly bait. And trust
me there was so much bait it blotted out the
depth finder on many occasions. I even had
a rig ready to jig on the bow in case we parked
o a bait ball or saw black rockfish
boiling. Mike released one short and managed
to get one keeper.
We sure gave it the college try. I did get
the fish to start to bite by trying to get
in a little nap. I woke to not only a fish
hitting a line but a sandwich with chips and
fresh raspberries! Truly another great outing
with great company.
June 6
I had a rare weekend with offers to fish
back-to-back. My close friends know I'm an
animal when I get a chance to dig deep and
prove myself. This weekend would be no exception!
Up at 2:45 am on Saturday to get to Manny's
(yeah you know the word epic is coming...)
by 4 am to ride up with Manny, Joey, Gary,
Angel and ? (My bad. I forgot and I still
haven't caught up on all my missed sleep.)
We dropped Diabla in at Bodega Bay
and ran up to Sea Ranch. Beautiful scenery
wonderful ocean conditions and fish were on
the chew. Big fish too! We had a few canary
issues including a hog that we photographed
before the release. Manny spent more time
behind the wheel and the gaff than a rod but
he did get some nice ones.
There's nothing like a great father &
son picture so I got a nice pic of Manny and
Joey after they both scored decent lings.
We found rockies breaking the surface and
kicked back anything that didn't make the
cut. Once the crew limited out on rockfish
and lings we headed back, however this trip
was not completely epic just yet. Manny tossed
out the hook near Salt Point, suited up and
went over the side to bag his 3 abalone. I
think it took him 15-20 minutes lol!
Mission accomplished we put the hammer down,
pulled the boat and did the bobble-head ride
in the truck home for a long but very fun
day. Thanks Manny and crew! Another epic trip
in the books.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I had to kick
back a pig of a ling 'cause we had our limits.
Felt kinda nice actually!
May 30
Capt. Tom, Dwight, Mike and I took Tea
Sea out of Pillar Point Harbor and headed
south to San Gregorio to thump rockfish. I
whipped out some Berkley
Gulp saltwater jerk shads and got bit
by a big copper rockfish right off the bat.
Lingcod were not as interested
in us today but we caught and released a few
little guys and Dwight landed one legal one.
Mike was our all star on the rockfish while
I nailed a cabezon. Dwight
also popped up a cab.
Dwight brought up a nice black rockfish
and as I reached into it's mouth to unhook
it I saw a mackerel staring back at me! Well
that would explain the hundreds of sea lions
that kept coming by us in waves. We actually
thought we were seeing macks jumping but upon
closer inspection we found huge schools of
mega-sized blue rockfish
feeding (boiling like tuna!) on the surface.
There were also large black rockfish mixed
in. We proceeded to run & gun on the school.
I keep a few small white spoons and jigs just
for this sort of wide open top water bite
and I was soon having a blast catching them
on ultra light Shimano gear. I tried to get
some video but it was hard to put the rod
down and play with the camera. Every time
I tried I missed them!
On our way in we were treated to a humpback
whale show including synchronized breaching
and flipper slapping by a pair just below
Three Rocks.
May 27
Dean and I slipped out of Half Moon Bay today
to make the best of a crab and rockfish combo.
First we baited and set 4 pots near the yellow
buoy off Miramar beach. The other four we
ran out a few miles to set deeper. Then we
jumped around the reef releasing some canary
rockfish and bagging a few nice black
rockfish. We caught a couple of others
including a China and hit
a few juvenile lingcod before
I found one big enough to take home.
Crab were plentiful IF you count small females.
We rolled the pots over twice for 10 dungeness
and 3 stone crab. I think
our final count on the fish was also 13. We
had fun as usual and the weather was nice
most of the day.
May 17
Friends don't let friends go home without
lingcod! It was a rough job but somebody had
to get it done lol.
Tulio and I fished with Captain Tom Cala
on Tea Sea out of Half Moon today.
I had my two Shimano outfits which made each
fight epic. (I pair up Trevala rods with Talica
reels.) It was a tough bite when it came to
rockfish but I managed to put the wood to
the lingcod. I used the same
lure I let Tom (Huli Cat) use on Friday. I
nailed 6 before I reefed it. The last 3 came
on 2 different color swimbaits and an octopus
lure. I also managed one bolina
on the octopus.
And while we're talking about octopus...
The biggest fish today (probably 13 pounds)
hacked up a 1 pound octopus. I got a shout
out from some fellow FSF members on the grounds.
I hope they rocked the lings too!
I brought home 3 green lings for the annual
family Memorial Day BBQ. Can't wait for their
reactions when they see pastel green fish
fillets.
Thanks Tom. I love being on your crew list!
(Even if my hands are swollen and my back
is sore.)
May 15
I'm glad Tom Mattusch on the Huli
Cat opted to postpone some paperwork and
go out and have a little fun. I set him up
with one of my Shimano rods and some lures
I had that I knew worked well on lings.
We also tried out the a new octopus lure.
The water was pretty flat however just when
we'd get a breeze it'd quit, we we weren't
getting the drifts we wanted. The slack-water
type conditions made us have to work a bit
to get them biting but we sure had nice quality
rockfish when they did! I
don't think I caught the same species twice
and we both had a limit of rockfish. Tom tried
to pass off a hook up on a big ling to me.
I said,"hell no!" It was fun to
watch him work that fish. I did gaff it for
him. (Perfectly through the mouth and out
one eye.)
I filleted fish while Tom ran down his crab
string. We each took 6 crab
home as a bonus.
I had some family up for dinner last night
and we enjoyed fresh crab and lingcod.
Thanks again Tom!
April 25
The 29th Annual Monterey Bay Disabled Veteran's
Salmon Derby concluded today. For details
here's the link to the Monterey
Bay Veterans.
I decked for Steve North aboard his vessel
Mistress. We had Jeanie and her husband with
us and we fished out in front of Santa Cruz
near the Soquel Hole. The weather was "sporty"
according to Steve and we didn't have a lot
of time to try and make it happen for Jeanie.
She still had a wonderful time out there
and said her fish is just "getting bigger"
so hopefully we land a nice one for her next
time!
April 17
Tom, Mark, Joe and I took the slightly smaller
version of Tea Sea's Albemarles out of Moss
Landing and headed north. As far as landmarks
go we were off of Manresa Beach. Most of the
other boats we saw today were a little north
of us.
Captain Tom received a call from Paul on
the Sunrus II who relayed that they were catching
fish. Unfortunately they didn't have a net.
We had a spare so we loaned them one.
It was beautiful on the water! The recent
winds had helped out the upwellings and dropped
the temperature a bit and the water color
was perfect for salmon. Mark
put the first one in the box (10 #) and then
I stuck my first (14 #) on bait; UV FBR behind
a sling blade. Joe had a long distance release
and then I stuck a nice one (18-20 #) to finish
our day as the wind started up again just
after noon.
The average depth we trolled over was 110'
to 120' and I got bit at 70'-80' OTW (on the
wire - downrigger). The rest of our crew was
around 50'-80'.
I got stupid and sent a pic to a co-worker
and wound up getting asked to come in to work
for 3 hours after I got home. LAST TIME I
PULL A BONEHEAD MOVE LIKE THAT. LOL!
Thankfully friends came over to help cut
the fish around dinnertime.
April 9
Contrary to popular belief, I did not give
up fishing for Lent this year. I just couldn't
get my friends intrigued enough to go out
for sand dabs and I was too busy to even attend
the annual surf perch tournament... Anyway
it's been way to long since I was on the salt
pond but I got out today with Captain Tom,
Brian, Jim and Fred for some salmon.
Fred had two on in the morning, however one
found freedom before I could net it. I managed
two fish to bring our tally to three for the
day.
Everyone went home with some fish and the
guys let me keep a whole one to my surprise.
Jeff's got a tail fillet cooking on a cedar
plank for dinner. Gotta run!
January 2
Time to ring in another year! The ocean laid
down enough to run the crab gear on Tea
Sea. Captain Tom had Dean, Dwight, Joe
and I as crew today for 3/4 limits of dungeness
crab.
Link
to my 2017 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2016 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2014 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2013 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2012 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2011 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2010 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2009 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2008 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2007 Fishing Diary
