Saltwater fishing...

Looks like our long stand of nice flat ocean conditions might be coming to a close for a few days..Wind and swell is expected starting Monday. I did get out this morning for a few hours around Seaside,Ca. Seaside is just south of Monterey. My intention was to fly fish and look for White Sea Bass but again, I blanked on the ghosts and the wind just wasn't going to let me fish flies around the kelp so I went off shore a ways and fish the 60-80' mark.

Swell and wind sure made me feel alive in a 14 foot skiff! I also had an encounter with a Grey whale calf that hung out below the boat for about 10 min. You can sort of see the whitish glare in the center of the water photo. He/she was about 18 foot long and was really curious. I actually had eye contact with that creature when it surfaced to blow which is a pretty cool deal. Mom kept her distance and waited. I tried but couldn't get a good shot of either one with the wind and swell. It's not a good idea to take your eyes off of incoming swell for any length of time in a small boat but I stopped fishing and watched the youngster for as long as I could.

Fishing was so so. There are literally millions of jelly fish invading Monterey Bay in the upper water column right now. Although I have never heard of it actually happening to someone, I always worry about them clogging my outboard so I kept moving trying to find jelly free water. First two reefs I fished seemed bare of fish but I ended up finding a little deeper area with hard bottom and there were some beautiful FAT reds and few keeper Lingcod there. I had good fishing in this one area for about an hour and then ran back to the barn. I didn't keep any but those Vermillions are one of my favorite for the table!

Random fishing...

Had a free afternoon yesterday so I spent a few hours chasing carp and finished off looking for a rainbow. Carp were on the flats but difficult to get at with a stiff head on wind. I was able to stick one and blew a couple of shots in two hours..I wouldn't mind spending more time at this lake. I have the west side of the reservior to my self and the fish aren't to shy at all. Size of Carp I spotted was OK but it has potential. After Carping I ended up at local piece of water for a few hours after and it was tough. Hundreds of Canada's with young everwhere on the walk in. Most behaved except for one hen that I had to keep an eye on. I got a feeling she might rush me so I went wide. She had that look.

Like I said, fishing was slow here and I ended up with one 7in Bow and few strangers that look to be Roach or Rudd. Not to sure but defintily the same family of fishes. This is the only place I have ever run into them. I have seen a dead one here that was atleast 3lbs. I caught half a dozen that were all the same size this trip. They like nymphs, and in this case a SJ worm. I might have to do a little research and ID them. Anyway, see ya.

Sun baked

Went inland to find scorching heat and hot water..We launched at day break and threw topwaters for the first couple of hours..Onn decent fish and couple of misses is all I could muster. Some areas was a soup of bait fish. Almost to much. Once the sun was over head I went looking for big Red Ears. They were scarce today. I found a few but the size wasn't what this lake can kick out..Lots of green sunnies around. Pretty little guys. By noon it was in the high 90s and when I pulled the boat out it was 108 in the parking lot. Felt good to get back on this side of the hill where it was only 90!

Back on the bay

With the weather we are having and flat seas it's important to take advantage of the local slatwater fishing right now. I launched at Monterey, Ca and fished from Pebble Beach to the south back to Monterey.. Fishing was good, weather was awesome and the tourists were buzzing around like bees..Fun day. Lots of Blues,Bolinas,Kelp, and Gopher Rock fish today. Market squid were thick and I was able to harvest a couple of dozen for some of the best Calamri tonight!!! They were all 7-9in and perfect size. I also caught lots of baby lings too which is nice to see.

The blue Rock fish were eating small bait fish patterns pretty good and I also used small swinbaits around the kelp beds. With all the squid in town I had high hopes for a White Sea Bass and spent a couple of hours trying but I didn't score one, again. U.S. 53 USCG ship dropped the hook about a half mile off the breakwater so that area was shut off from fishing and may have been why there was so much traffic in town.

I seen a fleet working at the Cayon break and the radio banter suggested there were a few guys catching Salmon. I might poke oput there next time and see if I can get in on that.


USCG 53


Gopher Rock Fish


Kelp Rock Fish




Bolinas Rock Fish


Calamari!


Pacific Grove, Ca




Blue Rock Fish

Monterey Bay

Conditions looked great so good friend and I decided we would fish the Santa Cruz, Ca area of the bay. It's very rare, but once in a great while I forget something. Ha. Today I forgot my camera bag. We were heading away from the docks and it hit me with a sinking feeling. At that point I knew we would capture some great specimans and have no way to share it. We headed up the coast to a place called Natrual Bridges state beach..Our plan was to start there and fish our way back. Right off the bat we were catching Black, Blue, Black & Yellow and Gopher rock fish. The drift was fast and really wasn't conducive to fly fishing so we stayed with light spinning and casting tackle with 6in swimbiats.

We ended the day with about 30 or so fish including some really nice blacks and beautiful Vermillion rock fish. As the day started winding down we set up a drift on a reef I like and I naled a 15lb California Halibut. After some thought I decided I wanted to harvest the fish. We kept at it looking for another and the Ling Cod started snapping swimbaits at a pretty good pace. Most were 18-22 inches and we were ok with it and having fun when I got slammed on the end of a long cast toward a kelp bed point. The fish felt heavy and had me down in the rocks and grass for a short time before she came up and went around the boat a couple of times. I slid a very nice Ling in the net. My personal best for sure. They get much much larger in Alaska, Canada and even here in California, but this is a respectable Califonria Ling Cod. Which, isn't a "Cod" at all but actually a member of the Sculpin family.Sorry, photos are not great quality! My appologies.

Greenling

aka the "Sea Trout" Funny, no matter where in the world there is a fish known as a sea trout..This is ours.

I love fishing for them. They have to be one of if not the most beautiful fish we have on the west coast. Especially the females but the males pretty cool as well. These fish fish live in the east pacific from the Aleutian Islands to Southern California and like to hang out in kelp beds and inshore hard bottom areas. To me they are a real treat to just look at. They arent particularly hard fighters but they hold there own on light tackle. They eat artificials well and are just freakin cool! I caught these two in Monterey Bay on the same reef..The darker fish is a male and the bright fish is female. It seems like you will go forever with out catching them and run into numbers of them all at once at some point. Some people eat em but I just cant do it.