La jolla 10/27/13

[Ggiannig89]

Hit la jolla yesterday in search of rockfish. Went old school with no fish finder, no bait tank, 1 pole (othrr poles stolen), wal mart squid. So the plan was to fin some deep lobster traps and then hit the kelp. Launched at 6:45 and fished until around 2. It was pretty tough finding the structure even with thr traps but I still managed a few.

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[blitzburgh]

Way to scratch em' out!

[jruiz]

Is Walmart squid local?

[Aaron&Julie]

Out there doing it, good for you on those eats.

[FishRaiden]

Nice haul. They mustbe been shallow since their eyes are still in tact

[619-SWIM-DOG]

Nice job, I got a bunch of those flounders but didn't think to keep them. I'm guessing there good eats....

[Zfish03]

Good eats!

[Aaron&Julie]

Originally Posted by 619-SWIM-DOG

Nice job, I got a bunch of those flounders but didn't think to keep them. I'm guessing there good eats....

We haven't bothered with our sand dabs in the past either. But, on our last trip we had 2 small rockfish, and then I caught the biggest sand dab we'd seen, and decided to give it a try.

Filleted the rockfish, scaled and gutted the dab.

After picking up some scallops at the store we had ourselves a pretty decent seafood meal. All cooked together in 2 tablespoons of butter and olive oil with minced garlic, chopped onion, pepper, cilantro, and chili power. Turned out to be quite a good meal and variety. The dab held it's own against the rockfish, you just have to watch out for some of the smaller bones.

We'd keep a bunch of those dabs of decent size if that's all LJ is giving up, which can often be the case, because they're almost always down there. If we were to target them specifically, we'd go with much smaller hooks, a 4oz torpedo on the bottom with 2 hooks up above about a foot apart, and use squid strips. We'd probably get all we wanted in the areas we know them to stay around. When we've got them in the past and on this trip it was with an iron and a strip of squid searching for rockfish or lingcod holes. We've also caught them on sabikis and squid strips dropped all the way down searching for mackerel schools. Just FYI for anyone that wants to load up on another kind of good eats.
Aaron

[Ggiannig89]

yea the sand dabs are pretty good. i believe if you're specifically targeting them you can use as many hooks as you want.

[Aaron&Julie]

Originally Posted by Ggiannig89

yea the sand dabs are pretty good. i believe if you're specifically targeting them you can use as many hooks as you want.

I won't doubt you, because I haven't read the regulations. I know it's okay to use more than 2 hooks for sabikis when specifically targeting baitfish, those being mackerel, sardines, 'chovies, squid maybe even smelt, tomcod(queenfish), etc. And even though sand dabs have no limit I'm not sure that qualifies them as a baitfish, even though they are great lingcod bait.
Suppose you're fishing more than 2 hooks on the bottom for sand dabs but hooked a big halibut instead. Legally it would seem you could not stick a gaff in it, nor keep it. And I suppose that would further apply to sabikis for baitfish, when dropping down to the halibut zone. If you could keep so-called incidental catches of that nature, there would seem to be no way to enforce the 2 hook rule, and many would use more hooks when fishing for rockfish, and just claim they were fishing for sand dabs, mackerel, etc.
It will be interesting to hear if others have a better insight to this question of how many hooks for sand dab fishing. There are other species besides sand dabs that have no daily bag limit, so it will be good to know where the 2 hook rule applies.

[alanw]

If I remember right, the two hook rule only applies to when you are targeting rockfish. So unless you have a rockfish on your boat or in your possession, go crazy with as many hooks as you want.

[MrPatrick]

The answer is never, "If I remember right"!
Re read the the DFG guidelines and make sure you know all the rules.

[Aaron&Julie]

Verbatim, under section 28.65 of the 2013-2014 handbook.


GENERAL: Except as provided in this article, fin fish may be taken only on hook and line or by hand. Any number of hooks and lines may be used in all ocean waters and bays except:>>
(a) San Francisco and San Pablo bays between Golden Gate Bridge and the west ffice:smarttags" />lace w:st="on">Carquinez Bridgelace>, where only one line with not more than 3 hooks may be used.

AND under (minus the Latin names)

(c) When rockfish , lingcod, cabezon, or kelp or rock greenlings are aboard or in possession, where only one line with not more than two hooks may be used pursuant to…

Bottom line is you can use as many hooks as you want for sand dabs. But, if you get caught using more than 2 hooks and any of the above named fish are aboard (on your deck) or in possession, then it’s only 2 hooks allowed.


We wouldn't bother with more than 2 hooks for dabs ourselves because even at that you could easily catch a couple of meals worth on a trip.


We always play it on the safe side when it comes to the regulations, but we were quite surprised to see the changes to the calico, sand, and spotted bay bass size and and daily limit. We hadn't read any feedback regarding this, but then again we had been “in the wings” for quite a while. We were hoping for that increase in size and reduction in take, and glad to see it started in March of this year.


Fortunately, we've caught up on that regulation now, and we won't have it bite us in the ass.