SD Bay - Shelter Island Launch - 7/26/13

[Hobie-Pedaller]

Friday - July 26, 2013

i launched into SD Bay from Shelter Island beach around 10:30 am and landed back at the beach around 8:00 pm.
9.5 hrs on the water.

mostly cloudy all day. few sprinkles. 5-10 mph wind, occasionally spurts up to 15 mph. my sonar puck is located inside hull, so it does not give accurate water temps.

the bite was good from launch time until mid afternoon, then slowed appreciably all remainder of day. and the bites occurring, were ALL short bites all day, by all species hooked. just a lot of nibbling on the tails of baits, and fish biting tails off many grubs & gulp shrimp.

i swung on and missed at least 2-3 times as many fish/bites, as i hooked up on the day.
and the one's hooked, always had hook barely in the edge of lip/mouth.

the only good thing about the short bites, it allowed me to hook a nice halibut in the corner of mouth, with over half of jig still outside those nasty teeth, preventing that Hali from chomping my line in half, like Hali's so often do with jig baits.

the best fish of the day included:
an approx 35" Halibut, and a 16" Spotted Bay Bass.


My Total Fish Summary:

(46) Total Fish..... i managed to catch 4 different species on this day.

(21) Spotted Bay Bass
(5) Barred Sand Bass
(1) Halibut
(19) Lizard Fish

as far as the Bass went....

only about one-fourth the Spotties were legal, and none of the Sandies were legal.
best Spots: 1 fish at 16", and a few more around 13" to 14".

PS - over half of the Lizard trash i caught, were over 12". and one was around 16".
i don't think i have ever before, caught this many total Lizards, or this many big Lizards, in any of my many previous year's outings in SDB.

[ALL fish released.]


My Baits:

Frenzy Minnow crankbait (firetiger color) was trolled ALL OVER, every time i pedaled to change locations.
but produced nada on this day, which is very rare for me on the Frenzy in SDB.

all fish were caught on 3/8 oz or 1/2 oz jig-heads, used with drift and bounce-bottom approach.

jigs were loaded with either 5" curly tail grubs (chartreuse, black, white, motor oil) or 3" Gulp shrimp (New Penny, Nuclear Chicken).
and i sometimes used cut-squid trailers, on the plastic grubs.

the motor oil colored grub (w/ green glitter specs), was definitely the best bait BY FAR on this day.
it outproduced the Gulp shrimp, by a far margin. although the other color grubs, produced even less than the Gulp.


Pictures:

here's the 16" toad Spottie, which bit on the motor oil grub:




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and here's the lone Halibut, and best fish of the day:

(note that he has the same motor oil colored grub in the corner of his mouth,
that was also producing majority of other fish all day long.)




i caught this 'Butt on Bass gear with 8 lb line, in about 40 ft of water, a bit out from the Bali Hai restaurant. took a while to get it up from bottom & to the yak. thought it was possibly a bat ray during reel in. was very HAPPY to eventually find out it was NOT a ray.

i hooked up with this plank around noontime, and knew i was going to stay out on water until dark. so i did not want to keep fish on kayak for 8+ hours w/o ice, and i almost never keep Bay fish anyways. so i decided to let the toothy critter go back to the bottom to grow some more.

i reeled it up near edge of yak, used my paddle to measure it at approx 35", and took a few photos, before using my long nose pliers to remove the hook, and away he happily went.


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tight lines to all !!!
.

[dwntwnall4u]

Wow! Now thats a great report. Thank you. Sounds like a great day.

[ZepBonham]

Isn't a legal spotty 15" now? So you might have only had 5% legal not 25. I could be reading your numbers wrong.

[makobob]

AWESOME release, congrats.

[Cadillyak]

Originally Posted by ZepBonham

Isn't a legal spotty 15" now? So you might have only had 5% legal not 25. I could be reading your numbers wrong.

Legal spotties are 14".


Kelp Bass, Barred Sand Bass, Spotted Sand Bass

The fishery for kelp bass , barred sand bass, and spotted sand bass (Paralabrax species) remains open year-round. The daily bag and possession limit is five fish in any combination of species. The minimum size limit is 14 inches total length or 10 inches alternate length.

[Hobie-Pedaller]

Originally Posted by Cadillyak

.....Kelp Bass, Barred Sand Bass, Spotted Sand Bass

The fishery for kelp bass , barred sand bass, and spotted sand bass (Paralabrax species) remains open year-round.

The daily bag and possession limit is five fish in any combination of species. The minimum size limit is 14 inches total length or 10 inches alternate length.

THANK YOU for posting the new laws here.


all that above is the SAME as past, EXCEPT the size increased from 12" to 14".

i have fished Bays for 10 yrs in yak, and nearly 10 yrs before that, on rental skiffs, and the law was ALWAYS 12" for all Bass species, since i started fishing Bays.


i was completely ignorant of new change, but i NEVER keep bass, so luckily i was never violating any laws.

i C&R all bass, for two reasons....

a. i feel Bass are being fished out everywhere, and i want to continue catching sizeable numbers whenever i go out.

b. i don't even think Bass are that good to eat, COMPARED TO....
Hali's, YT, WSB, Sheep, Lings, Reds, ALL Rockfish, etc.

these above are the fish that i keep & eat.

Bass should bite my lines at will... because they will ALWAYS be released.
.

[todd one]

Nice Hali! 35 inches? why didn't you keep it. Those are so good. That's the only fish in the bay that I keep.

[roby]

Great report...I haven't fished bass in the bay for a long time. Big thumbs up on the releases.

[Hobie-Pedaller]

Originally Posted by ZepBonham

....So you might have only had 5% legal not 25....

yep, my bad.

then it was either 5% or 10% legal.
(one was 16" and one more was likely 14+)

THANKS FOR BRINGING THIS UP.
i had no idea the LEGAL size limit increased from 12" to 14" for bass.

i did know that around 5 yrs ago, the SaltWater BASS TOURNEYS started requiring 14" min length, to count in trny.
but back when that change first came around for trnys, the LEGAL limit was still 12".

BUT I AM PERSONALLY VERY GLAD THE LEGAL LIMIT IS NOW CHANGED TO 14" !!!

i want people to release ALL Bass possible.
so more Bass will be around in future, for us ALL to catch.
.

[ZepBonham]

Ah, 14", sorry. i'm still trying to get all my facts straight with saltwater regs.
nice report.
I'm hitting tidelands and golf course point for large numbers, but no size.

[Hobie-Pedaller]

Originally Posted by ZepBonham

....I'm hitting tidelands and golf course point for large numbers, but no size.

that area around golf course is densely populated with Spots, but ALL are dinks.
it's mostly very shallow in that entire flat there, South of bridge & close to Coronado Island shore.

get out in the deeper channel areas, both N or S of the bridge.
that's where the bigger Bass are in Tidelands area.
.