Today was senior ditch day, so a couple buddies and I fished the 1/2 day today. Met Jizames on the boat too, who apparently had established his own ditch day as well. We started down by the armpit in search of some bigger reds and browns and a few quality fish were caught, but nothing extraordinary. Just some solid rockfish. A few short lings came over the rail and the jackpot winning 26" ling was caught here as well. It was kind of slow pickings, but from what I gathered Jason had a trick up his sleeve for the afternoon and we were just trying to get some quality in the morning. With about 2 hours left in the day we headed out to the 4 mile. Hit one spot that was slow then moved the boat and the current picked up. It really started rippin. We were in 240ft. and a couple fish were coming over the rail with 6oz of lead to get down to em. Then Jason comes out and catches a widow rockfish and he tells me that it was about 50ft. off the bottom. So, I reel a few cranks up and sure enough in the middle of nowhere I get bit right away. This school of widow rockfish moved all the way up to within 75ft. of the surface in 240ft. of water. They were thick down there too. It was about as wide open as widow rockfishing gets. Anything that got down into the zone and could fit in their mouths would catch a fish. Toward the end of the day I had 9 fish in my bag and a double hook rig on my line, so I only baited one hook, but I still came back with two widow rockfish. Pretty nuts. They were like mackerel. Jason was happy cause he says it's his favorite fish to eat. He's not a fish eater, but I guess he loves those widow rockfish. I had a quick fillet before work today, and it was pretty darn good. Surprisingly good actually. We filled limits within half an hour on this stop. Every time you got in the zone you'd just have to hang your baits there in the middle of nowhere and let your rod bounce as they ate the squid strips and then start reeling and you'd have 2 fish every time. It was a pretty good time. The fish were smallish, but widow rockfish don't get much bigger than 12, 13" I guess. They pulled alright for rockfish though, and Jason assures me that I'll get addicted to the fillets... If you can get out there, go for it. It's been pretty good fishin for the last week or so. Jason's on em right now.
-Brian