Lee 15 birthday celebration saltwater fishing bonanza

[giantbrookie]

I’ve had a track record of birthday celebrations fishing. This includes my visit to Tunemah and the lakes below on my 49th and the unforgettable lunker golden experience the day after my 56th (“somewhere between Little Lakes Valley and North Lake”).

Lee began his own birthday fishing tradition this past Saturday (the day after his 15th) and he has set the bar mighty high. It was the hottest streak of fishing I’ve ever seen anyone have on the coast. This continues our return to coastal fishing that began at the end of this January when we went down to the shore to Pacific Coast to fish for the first time in over 15 years. In the “old days”, though, Judy and I really never fished enough in saltwater to get serious about thinking about gear and approaches, nor did we research locations with the passion we did for our High Sierra fishing. The “revival” has been different, and Lee has fueled the fire with his enthusiasm for our new fishing environment and I’ve put in a lot more time in studying this new hobby and optimizing our rigs. Our most recent trip before the birthday trip on March 12 (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15606) was the best I’ve ever done from shore, but a month later that seems really pedestrian. Schedule conflicts and weather prevented another trip until this past Saturday and various commitments kept Judy and Dawn from going out this time.

Lee and I had independently come up with the idea of exploring the same place, a jetty on the San Mateo County coast. Lee had been alerted to this by a YouTube video of someone catching a really big eel poke poling there, whereas I had been looking for somewhat sheltered shoreline positions. Lee set out with the goal of catching his first rockfish, but was also hoping for a shot at a ling. I figured on tying into some decent rockfish. We had a late start owing to having to take care of a car appointment first, so we did not leave the East Bay until after 2 pm; we stopped by a local bait shop to get some fresh ghost shrimp (saltwater type) on the way. The westbound traffic past Skyline on 92 was pretty slow, too and we still had to park and hike out onto the jetty. I’ve never done this before but this was a lot like boulder hopping in the High Sierra. Where the wave spray got these boulders wet the footing was really treacherous, far more so than wet talus boulders in the Sierra. After nearly falling at the first wet spot, I called back to Lee to watch out. Even with my warning he took a hard fall and sprained one of his fingers. I’m really the only one in my family that doesn’t detest boulder hopping, but I must say that even I didn’t like the wet jetty boulders.

I think we were finally set up at around 330 pm or so. I set us up with our "usual" high-low set up with a 2 oz torpedo weight, 20 lb braid, 20 lb copolymer leaders, and fresh ghost shrimp as bait. Lee got his first cast off as I walked over to my own spot. As I was baiting up I heard him say almost immediately after this cast “I’m getting hits” and before I could walk to a place to cast “I’ve got one!” I put down my rod, ran over, and he pulled out a 12” cabezon. This was a nice fish but still 3” short of the minimum keeper size so we let it go.

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I then started hopping back to my spot, as Lee said “I’m getting hit again” and then something to the effect that he has a really huge fish on. It has practically knocked the rod out of his hands with its take. I looked over and his rod was really arched, so I ran back again. He said, “something’s wrong, I think the drag is too loose”. Indeed this was true. I reached over and tightened his drag as Lee continued to try to crank. It was apparent that he was snagged—the fish had dove into a hole between the rocks somewhere down there. As Lee leaned back and the rod arched, to his surprise there came more downward jerking action, but he couldn’t pry the fish loose because he didn’t react fast enough during the short time the fish was free and pulling on the line. He repeatedly tugged hoping the fish would pull free again. I took the rod and did the same with no response. He then asked me to break if off, so I wrapped the line around my shirtsleeve and pulled. The rig came free, minus the upper hook of the high-low set up. We figured that maybe he had hooked and lost a big ling.

After replacing his hook, Lee rebaited and I once again walked back to my casting spot. This time I actually got a cast off, but soon Lee called out that he had another very strong hit and fish, although nowhere near as strong and heavy as the last one. This was also got stuck, although it too did some additional tugging after going into a hole. Lee worked on it but decided to throw in the towel. He asked me to break it off again. I figured I should try a bit myself before breaking it off. After a bit of tugging I sensed a bit of a pull back and I cranked hard. I seemed to raise the fish a bit then it apparently ran into another hole and got stuck. After a bit of persuasion it tugged back once again and again I cranked on it and I seemed to be making consistent progress pumping away. Soon I saw a large shape materialize beneath the waves. I huge head came into view. “A big ling” I shouted out in excitement. Lee asked for the rod back to finish bringing the fish in. Finally the big fish was at the edge of the water. “Hoist it out” I called. “I can’t” Lee replied. “Oh come on, you gotta put those muscles of yours to work” I said. Soon after he hoisted the monster out onto the rocks. To make sure we didn’t drop it into a hole, I quickly put it on a stringer before figuring out how to get the hook out. I still thought it was a ling, so I was a bit concerned that the fish didn’t reach the minimum 22 inches for a ling cod. We pulled out the measuring tape and found it to be exactly 22 inches, which was a relief. I guess we were so caught up in thinking that only a ling could get that big that I didn’t realize this wasn’t a ling cod at all. Lee was understandably pretty excited and snapped all sorts of photos of the fish.

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I then went back to my rod reeled in and found my bait stripped off, so I rebaited and went back to recast. Lee had been getting some nibbles on his 4th cast but no fish yet, but as soon as I had my cast in the water he hooked up again. This time I saw him pull a nice fish out of the water shouting that he had caught his first rockfish. I ran over and found it not to be a rockfish but a very nice kelp greenling of 14”.

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I went back to my rod, found my bait stripped again, rebaited and cast. This time I had several casts with little nibbles and no hits before Lee shouted that he had yet another fish on. Soon I saw him pull a big slabby fish out of the water and say “it’s a really big surf perch”. Indeed it was. It was a 14” striped surf perch, the biggest striped SP I’d seen.

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At the time we thought Lee had set another family best of 4 species in one session (ie we thought it was cabezon, ling, greenling, striped surf perch, but…). After that fish things cooled off, but it was a run of shoreline fishing the likes of which I’d never seen. We continued to fish until about 630 pm or so, but no other fish hit unless you count the tiny 4” cabezon that I caught and released on my last cast. Lee was in hysterics when I reeled that one in. I didn’t even know I had a fish on and said “Oh no” when I say this tiny thing hanging from my hook.

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After reaching home, Lee skillfully filleted the fish and it was only when we had the big one laid out on the cutting board that I realized it was in fact a cabezon and an exceptionally nice one at that. Lee set family fish size records for three different species in one fishing session: cabezon (22”), kelp greenling (14”), and striped surf perch (14”). A hard act to follow, to be sure.

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I am writing this after returning from another trip to this place (Friday Apr. 21). Did history repeat itself.? Did I undo my micro cabbie skunk? As they say at the end of chapters of some of my favorite classical Chinese novels “To find out, read the next chapter.”

[rlown]

Very nice day at the beach!!

[oldranger]

Super cool!

[rlown]

For fun, next time Lee filets out his fish, take a movie of it and post it.

[Jimr]

Sigh, maybe I should take up ocean fishing again. So. Cal. is so fished out that the only real option is an expensive 3/4 day boat to Catalina or deep water Rock Codding around Santa Barbara Island. Very cool that Lee really hooked up for his birthday fishing trip. I've only caught one or two Cabezon, but I've caught many of it's cousin, the Sculpin (Scorpion fish), or what we call, rattlesnakes. One time I was diving off San Clemente Is. and saw a 12" rattlesnake in a hole. I didn't have a pole spear, so I pulled out my knife and slapped the thing against the wall of the hole he was in, then grabbed him by the lip and dropped him in my goodie bag. It's always a bit of a worry carrying around a Sculpin in a goodie bag. There's a good chance that if you're not careful, you'll be impaled. And rattlesnakes have poisonous harpoons.

[Troutdog 59]

First of all. Very nice report John. Good to see you guys having some fun. Rock fish are tasty indeed!!!

Jimr wrote "Sigh, maybe I should take up ocean fishing again. So. Cal. is so fished out that the only real option is an expensive 3/4 day boat to Catalina or deep water Rock Codding around Santa Barbara Island."

Not so Jimr. Lots of good surf fishing from the So Cal shoreline. Big calico (Kelp) bass, halibut, white sea bass, corbina, surf perch etc. One just has to give it a go.

[TahoeJeff]

Rocking the saltwater! Good to see you posting on PFIC.

[Jimr]

Not so Jimr. Lots of good surf fishing from the So Cal shoreline. Big calico (Kelp) bass, halibut, white sea bass, corbina, surf perch etc. One just has to give it a go.

Yeah, I used to do a lot of corbina and surf perch with a trout rod. That was fun, but I avoid eating local sand dwellers. I used to fish and spearfish for halibut, but not from the surf. A buddy of mine was an accomplished white sea bass spear fisherman around Palos Verdes kelpbeds. A freediver. He drowned in the late 90's at San Clemente Is. They found him in 70' of water and a large yellowtail with a speargun attached in around 90'.

I have an 8wt flyrod geared for surf fishing, but only worked it for one season. Season being before the summer crowd begins. Grunion! now that's something I haven't done in a long time. I should take Lisa on a Grunion run, or a snipe hunt, whichever it turns out to be.

[rlown]

Grunion are tasty, if you know how to smoke them. I've had snipe.. Tastes like dove.

Sorry about your freediving friend.

[Jimr]

:-)
Obviously, we are hunting for different snipe. Our version consists of a few unwitting participants. They team up in pairs. One has a burlap sack and the other a stick. One is to beat the bushes around the neighboring hillside while the other holds the bag open on the other side of the bush waiting to catch the snipe when it is flushed out of it's bush. Others watch the show while waiting for the Grunion to start their run. When the hunters catch onto the joke and, if the Grunion don't run that night, it becomes questionable to the victims whether Grunion exist.