I have not fished saltwater since my buddy sold his boat 2 years ago. I had some vacation days to burn at work so I found an open spot on a party boat. Went on the Sea Wolf out of Emeryville, 22 heads on board motored us out to the Farallon islands @ 5am. Perfect day, slightly overcast, almost no wind, water was flat calm and fishing was HOT!
First thing we dropped sabiki rigs and caught sand dabs (Ling cod bait). Then started working some spots around the islands and starting catching immediately. Every drop pulled a rockfish fish so I switched to light tackle and flipped on a 3 oz jig. I was getting bit on the way down, on the bottom, off the bottom pretty much everything I did stuck a fish and hit my rockfish limit in short order. Mostly olives, blacks and blues and my first China rockfish. Tied on a big swimbait in hopes of sticking a Ling but caught a monster Bocaccio instead.
Started dragging sand dabs and within minutes stuck a 10.5 lb Ling, which turned out to be the Jackpot fish for the day and netted me a cool $180 - which paid for the trip!
First thing we dropped sabiki rigs and caught sand dabs (Ling cod bait). Then started working some spots around the islands and starting catching immediately. Every drop pulled a rockfish fish so I switched to light tackle and flipped on a 3 oz jig. I was getting bit on the way down, on the bottom, off the bottom pretty much everything I did stuck a fish and hit my rockfish limit in short order. Mostly olives, blacks and blues and my first China rockfish. Tied on a big swimbait in hopes of sticking a Ling but caught a monster Bocaccio instead.
Started dragging sand dabs and within minutes stuck a 10.5 lb Ling, which turned out to be the Jackpot fish for the day and netted me a cool $180 - which paid for the trip!