Alright, after dickin around with short halibut for the last few days, I finally got a chance to burn my Seahawk pass. Being labor day there were a lot of people on the boat, but surprisingly there was some talent on board as well. There were maybe 4 or 5 regulars and myself. We ran up the line this morning and stopped on some kelps on the way to naples. I caught the first calico bass of the day, a dink, but still a bass. We dinked around some other kelps on the way up the line, but nothing much came of any spots. A few bass here and there taken by a random skillful rent rodder, but other than that, not much action. We got to naples and it didn't really turn on either. Same deal, a bass here and there, but not much. So we kept on headin north. We went all the way up, past El Cap. There was a huge kelp area there so most everybody dropped their weights and let the baits swim through the kelp. It seemed if you could get the bait out into the kelp, away from the boat and down away from the birds, you'd hookup. Fishin was real good for the experienced anglers. A few 3s and 4s came in (including one solid 4 some guy caught on the ultra light trout rod and had to be netted because he was unable to bounce it...). I pulled 3 or 4 little uns (13-16") and kept a couple fish tacos. I hooked up a solid one but broke it off in kelp within eyesight of the boat (I saw it and Merit saw it, it was like a 3), I don't know what happened, I must've had a knick in the line or somethin cause I wasn't pullin that hard. After the bass slowed we headed out to DEEP water and tied on the 8 oz. torpedos/double dropper loops. That sucked. I hate that kinda fishing. The water was like 200 ft. deep I believe and with an 8 oz. torpedo, you feel every foot on the way up... There was pretty heavy current also which didn't help. Some nice reds came in though. Along with other rockfish and a couple short lings. I wasn't too into it though and couldn't manage to get anything to the surface (enough fish fell off the hook though...). So, that bass bite was nice. On some of those stops on the way there it was ridiculous. If you fished livebait you got bitten by a seal every time. If you fished squid you caught a blacksmith perch. It sucked. So I start school tomorrow and that's weak. Next Friday night the Seahawk has their first albacore trip planned. 10 pm departure for saturday fishing. Ok, let's start the betting on how long it takes me to ditch school and go fishing instead...
-Brian