I fished on the 3/4 day trip yesterday on the Stardust. We headed across the channel to the West end of Santa Cruz Island to do some shallow water rockfishing. Weather going across was a little bumpy but not too bad. When we got over there, the wind was howling just past where we were fishing, but where we were was pretty sheltered most of the day. We fished in 65 to 90 feet of water and pretty much worked over the same area all day. Jason really worked his butt off for us, keeping the boat in gear and backing into the wind to position us over the fish. Fishing like this I was able to use 16lb on my bass rod and fish plastics most of the trip which was a lot of fun. Overall fishing was a steady pick, with some good flurries as we would pass over the fish.

I fished 5" big hammers in Calico Hunter, Silver Sardine, and Clear/red flake with a 1.5oz Fishco head. The swimbaits produced about a dozen rockfish, some of which I released, 4 short lings, 1 calico released, 1 johnny bass, and one nice legal ling around 27 inches. When the wind picked up later in the day I switched to a dropper loop on 20lb. 3oz weight on the bottom and a 2/0 hook with the bigger 6 and 7 inch sardines for bait. I caught 2 more short lings and another legal ling on this setup. The legal ling came on my last drop of the day :-) Also towards the end of the day a guy in the back hooked up into something big. It came around the bow picking up lines as it went, but Chaz stuck it perfectly with the gaff and a thick 28lb island halibut hit the deck. That was pretty cool. Good times on the Stardust like always, a nice limit of rockfish a limit of lings to go with. The ride back was smooth sailing as the swell had backed off and the wind started to lay down.

Here's Josh Giorno with his 28lb halibut
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/9_7_02_josh_giorno_28lb_halibut.jpg

A limit of lings
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/9_7_02_rob_lingcod.jpg