Spring Rockfishing

[5th Tuition]

Time to get "caught up" on my own personal facebook page; as was pointed out by a fellow CBAngler.

I've been fishing most every day (except today) on the "Patent Pending" out of Deale. We have brought back a limit to the pier on every trip. This is not meant as a brag, simply a fact that supports that fishing is definately better than last spring.
Our fish have not been huge. Most fish are from the lower 30's to the upper 30's with 36-38 being normal. Most all our fish have spawned out, however, yesterday we caught some fish with sea lice. I hope this is an indication that another group is entering from the ocean.
We have been turning south on all out trips and finding bait before setting lines. We are running 22 rods, so I am covering lots of water and different depths fairly easily. Most private boats can't run that many, so I thought you might be interested in our most productive lines. REMEMBER, this weekend is the MSSA tournament and we may need to adjust a few lines deeper with all the boat traffic.
I have a 2/4 tandem out 8 bars closest to the boards. Then a 2/8 tandem also out 8 bars. Then a single 4oz out 6 bars followed by a single 8oz 6 bars back. Then I start back with tandems 2/4 out 4 bars, and a 2/8 out 4 bars.
The baits closest to the boards have been hot.
As for umbrella's, I have a small umbrella with 2 oz chute out 200 ft and on the other side the same chute out 180. We also run big umbrella's with twin baits, but they have been less productive.
Early in the season, white was the go to color. However, both white or green have been productive lately.

As noted, the tournament may cause us to adjust the spread, but if you get out after the tournament, try some of the above suggestions. One day last week, the water was calm as glass and we could see bait flipping on the surface. The lighter baits caught five fish early in the morning.

Our spread gets tweeked throughout the day. As each fish pops a clip, that rod gets put back out at the shortest position (4 bars). Eventually, the side winds up with maybe one six bar lure and all the rest 4 bars. When this happens, wait about 40 minutes. If no fish are caught off the boards, I reset the side and often a newly set 8 or 6 bar tandem gets hit.
On real sunny days (which we haven't had too many) I don't mind the side being light, but on cloudy/windy days, I reset.

Best of luck to all this weekend, the weather looks good and lots of fish will be caught, I hope a CBAngler at least places in the tournament.
5th (Marty)

[1morecast]

Thanks for the info Marty.It dose seem to be more fish being caught this year.Do you think most of the fish are just staying south of the muddy waters?Making for more fish in those areas?Cool deal working as a mate.
Dan

[jumbo1]

Marty...thanks for the detailed report...I was sure there were more fish this spring than last..(not being sarcastic)...but on TFish...almost every troller is catching fish..or the guys that aren't are not reporting...
I was really hoping that a new slug of fish wouldn't arrive till after the "Big Money tourney" this weekend...hope all is well...
Haven't been out...waitng till the crowds clear a little...I figure another week or so and it will be time..

[Hockleyneck]

Mary,
Thanks for the report. I was out Tuesday east of CB and had caught a few nice fish and one really large girl. Singles with a wide mouth near the boards were my hot bait. We kept one fish that was 32 and released the rest without removing them from the water.

Good luck to the guys fishing this weekend.

[reds]

Originally Posted by jumbo1

Marty...thanks for the detailed report...I was sure there were more fish this spring than last..(not being sarcastic)...but on TFish...almost every troller is catching fish..or the guys that aren't are not reporting...
I was really hoping that a new slug of fish wouldn't arrive till after the "Big Money tourney" this weekend...hope all is well...
Haven't been out...waitng till the crowds clear a little...I figure another week or so and it will be time..

The difference is the cooler water this year. Last year the majority of the fish were in and out before the season started.

[jumbo1]

Yep...I was talking to a couple of guys today and we said the same thing...

[drichitt]

Thanks for the update Marty.

Regarding the water temps...that water is starting to warm up quick now. Water temps at TPL today are 5 degrees warmer than same day a year ago. Water has warmed up 5 degrees in just the last 4 days. Hit 61* today. http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy.../24/TPLM2.html

[Rivercat09]

BTW. Marty, thanks for the detailed post. I am going to have to be more proactive in goosing the spread throughout the day andshorten some of my lengths.

Don

[5th Tuition]

First day of the MSSA Tournament. We were worried that the large numbers of boats would ruin our streak. Not to worry.
We left the pier at 6 am. Radar showed lots of boats off CB. We found some bait and dropped our lures short of the fleet.
Water was pretty calm, so I put out the spread and included two of my "dipsey divers". I love these and run them whenever I can. They act as a poor mans downrigger. In choppy waters, they keep popping and won't hold properly, but today was a classic diver day.
I estimate the lure was down 25 ft and it got HAMMERED. The first guy up on the charter grabbed the rod and drag was being taken. He said "What do I do?" I said hold on and don't drop that rod tip. After a short run, we started to gain ground and netted a 42" spawned out female for our first fish of the day.
We continued south on the troll and a second fish hit a mid depth umbrella. Good two in the box before the low tide at 8:30.
We hit a dry spell and I told the customers I didn't expect much action until about 9:30. When 9:45 came around, all he11 broke lose. I couldn't keep up with putting rods back in the spread. I even had to cut a few lures off the leader and place the fish with lure intact in the box in order to get the next fish to the boat. With the tide now moving and the sun shinning, the single chutes out 4 bars were smoking.
We quickly filled the box with our six fish, and I slowly began bringing in the spread. One of the customers said, "You want us to help you bring the rods in?", and I told him "The slower I bring them in, the more chance you have to catch another fish".
Bang, a roof rod goes off and our first C/R fish gets kissed and sent back to the deep. Thump, another roof rod bends with authority. Second C/R fish swims away. I was wrapping the rods after they got hit, but the customers were loving it. Whack; another rod pops a clip and after the third C/R fish is released, the captain said "Get the rest of those rods in and lets get out of here". It was 10:30 am
Back at the pier, pictures were taken and everyone was talking about another trip (like I could reproduce this one). I got a larger than normal tip from the group (I think they really liked the C/R part of the trip and the fast action at the end).
I know several of our friends were out today and had success as well. I hope they post.
Most of our fish are falling in the 36-38 inch range, nice fish, but not what the tournament guys are looking for.
5th (Marty)

[crabby and son]

Make sure you have a Bayer aspirin on you Marty. I'm gonna start callin' you Little Charlie Hope all your days are like this one..............Gary