Two nights of hooping and a sabiki rig that couldnt catch bait

[BT]

The Short Version

Headed out on the big bay Tuesday night with only a couple of hours to spare. Since I didnt have a lot of time, I stayed close to the launch and tried a couple of potential spots that I had wondered about. I got no love at all Tuesday, not even a short. It was cold and windy so I didnt mind having to pack it up early and head home.

Thursday night I met up with Regor, Romspacenut, and we ran into Deamon at the launch as he was heading out. We paddled/peddaled out to our spot and as soon as we pull up, we see two boats and they both had four divers in them. So we go and put out our nets and wait. As soon as it gets dark the divers jump in the water and are all over the place. They werent in our nets, but with all of the commotion with them in the same area, we didnt expect much bug wise. After a couple of hours they left and it seemed the bugs were moving. I wound up with one keeper (barely...barely legal), and I was the only one with a bug for the night. I now know if there are divers in the area....it is probably a good idea to move. We were off the water around 11 with just the one bug and Regor kept a few rock crabs.

The Long Drawn Out Version

The interesting part of the night was the bycatch in the nets and what I was pulling on with my sabiki rig.

I usually bring my sabiki out with me, especially to this spot because there are always macks around...except last night. I couldnt find a mac anywhere, but there were huge donkey sized smelt all over the place. They were fun, and I released all but two because they got wrapped up in the sabiki line and it took me a while to untangle them. I will use them in my bait cages in the future.

So then I hit a spot that usually holds bait, but I get snagged on the bottom...at least I thought. I start pulling up, and I am thinking I am pulling up a heavy kelp string, until I see a shadow which my first guess was a huge ray of sorts. Then I see it...a nice sized hali...on my sabiki. As soon as I realize what it was, it popped off the sabiki. I have never caught a legal halibut before (or any off the right kind fish for that matter) off of a kayak before, and this one looked way more than legal. Neat to see, and I will revisit that area with the right equipment.

I also caught a nice sized octopus on my sabiki. I have caught them before in the nets, but never on a line. A friend always told me that if I catch one on a line that he loves octopus, so I kept it for him. I gave it to him this morning and he was stoked and said that he has never caught one that big before. It was strong as hell, and a complete cluster getting it un-f'ed from my sabiki. I had to gaff it, then unhook and untangle it, then get it into my bait bucket (thank GOD i dont have a yak with a bait tank between the legs!). A couple of minutes later after I got everything back to normal, I go to the bait tank to kill the octopus and it is stuck on the inside of the lid. Had to pull it off the lid, and my buddy told me that I needed to cut it's neck to kill it (he told me they used to bite the neck and it would die, but I wasnt going to do that!).

The sabiki was catching perch left and right as well, and the hoops also pulled up a couple of short rock crab, spider crab, and small clearish with red speckled shrimp (anyone know what kind they are?).

I think the coolest part of the night was as I was paddling past a piece of kelp I had my red head lamp on, and I see a set of red eyes looking back at me...but tiny red eyes. I paddle over real close, and it looks like it is a baby bug. I tap the kelp, and sure enough a tiny bug, no more than a couple inches long gets knocked off and swims back on the kelp. Pretty cool.