Wide Open Winter

[chris138]

La Jolla never stays slow for long. As far as season openers go, 2016 has left little for want. You can show up on any given day and have a shot at the slam. Judging by the amount of boats fishing weekdays in the cove, sitting on the hook in a tight bunch, you might be mistaken into thinking we were back in 2010 with a full on squid frenzy. Its not quite a full speed slurp-fest just yet, but I think few have any doubt that things are going quite well.

The big story of the last two winters has been the tuna crab. Pleuroncodes planipes have been feeding and aggregating on the ledges and rockpiles relentlessly. Although we haven't had the massive stranding events like early 2015, the tonnage is still there. They are everywhere. Up in the kelp, out deep, top to bottom crab bonanza. Many folks will hastily attribute their abundance to the recent warm water events, but the fact is that the tuna crab are considered to be resident in our socal waters and have been found consistently in the CalCOFI data of cold water years as well.

I'm sure people have noticed, the YT are often plugged with the crab. In my opinion, the sashimi of the crab-fed YT has a much different taste than the finbait diet. Its has a visible orange oil to it, and is just so buttery. Although the crab are plentiful, they have low nutritional value for how difficult they are to digest. When presented with a juicy greasy greenback the forkies just cannot resist. That's why for targeting yellows, I've been just sticking to GB over the frozen squid. 40# reverse dropper and 10oz torpedo bounced or suspended on crab clouds, deep structure and fish marks. I like to fish a suspended rev dropper with a lever drag at about 40% drag actuation with the clicker off. When they hit, it's just a steady increase to 100% drag which will get the perfect corner hook set with my 4/0 ringed circle gamakatsu.

Use of the sonar is so critical for efficiently targeting the deep fish. Otherwise you can spend a lot of hours drifting in unproductive areas. Much of the time you never see the YT school on the meter. But the bait will react when the fish swim through, and get all broken up or wall off completely. These are usually the first indications that you are about to get lit up. Even though I have the narrow screen of the Lowrance 4x HDI, i still always roll around with dual frequency. The arches of the big fish will show up much better on low frequency, because it has a wider cone and better depth penetration. The high frequency is important for seeing better resolution of small objects, like crabs, krill and soft bodied invertebrates.

This is a compilation of several days fishing this January. Haven't connected with a cbass yet, but I'm definitely not complaining. My best so far this year was a 31# Halibut on 01-03-16, caught on spanish. Didn't get any video of the fight unfortunately, but that was my biggest flaty from the kayak.

[Murray]

Wow, This has to be one of the coolest and most informative reports I have seen. Thanks for the effort. Gives me a big kick in the pants to get out there and get after it with my new fish finder. Thanks again.

[bolocop]

Thanks, good info. Agree with the greenies. They seem more plentiful now compared to late last year.


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[taggermike]

Day-am. Great job. And that's how to pull on a fish. Bump up to 40 n kill em before the fish finds a lobster trap line or a sea lion finds the fish. Mike

[surfisher]

Said it well! Thanks for the info. I've been seeing an equal amount of hookups on the fresh dead and bait... I love the reverse dropper as well! Gives the fish so much more freedom to swim around vs the regular dropper loop.

I really dig the video too, straight to the point with every fish! Yewww.

[Iceman]

Good info Chris! I am in the "like red crab" group nice compilation vid. January 2016 was good enough to have bigger fish in the first month verses all 2015 submitted in 2 of the 3 WCW categories! Let's keep it rolling!

[Dirty Curti]

Great video, fantastic report! Many are afraid to share this much info so it is much appreciated. A great write up!

[BIG JOAQUIN]

Thanks for sharing some of the sonar shots. Way to start off 2016.

[dos ballenas]

CalCOFI? What the hell is that?

Red crabs spend a lot of time on the sea floor..... and as Chris said they can be found here year round.... I find red crab in yellowtail stomachs all year round every year... some year more than others....

Below is a small exert from an older paper:

The Benthic and Pelagic Habitats of the Red Crab, Pleuroncodes planipes
CARL M. B OYDl

It appears that P. planipes lives to some
extent on the bottom in its first two years of
life and is also found as a planktonic animal
at this stage. The relative amount of time spent
in these two environments is unknown, but
data from plankton collections indicate that
there is some diurnal exchange between them,
with crabs occurring in the surface water at night
and settling to greater depths and perhaps to
the bottom during the daytime hours (when a
suitable bottom is available) . After their second year of life the crabs assume a strictly
benthic existence and become segregated fr om
younger animals by assuming a deeper environment.

[katchfish]

Nice release

[kayakfisherman]

Outstanding Chris!! Super report, I learned a lot. Thanks!!

[2-Stix]

great info and write up...thank you.

[slobound]

Great video and write up.


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[spyakker]

Awesome report.
I just picked up the elite 4 and was wondering if you run dual frequency does it matter to run downscan image as well?

[Geno Machino]

Sweet video!!!

Great sound track.

Saw you out there last week, w/o a shirt on - early morning session. Couldn't tell if you were insane or an animal...guess your a little of both

Geno

[chris138]

Originally Posted by spyakker

Awesome report.
I just picked up the elite 4 and was wondering if you run dual frequency does it matter to run downscan image as well?

I have the HDI model, not the DSI. But I believe it still has the ultra high frequency. My understanding is that down scan doesn't perform well in deep water, and especially not in cluttered deep water. I don't ever use DSI, but i don't have the chirp model. That being said I have seen some bitchin returns from my friends chirp with the DS overlay. I think it overlays 455 kHz over 200 kHz and gives a better HF image of bait and small objects. After playing with it and dropping your sibiki a hundred or so times, you should be able to easily distinguish between bait and kelp, or even spanish vs greenies.

[acorad]

Post of the year so far. Be interested to see if anyone can do better in 2016.

I need to get down to LJ!

Andy

[blitzburgh]

Very cool!

[Murray]

Originally Posted by chris138

I have the HDI model, not the DSI. But I believe it still has the ultra high frequency. My understanding is that down scan doesn't perform well in deep water, and especially not in cluttered deep water. I don't ever use DSI, but i don't have the chirp model. That being said I have seen some bitchin returns from my friends chirp with the DS overlay. I think it overlays 455 kHz over 200 kHz and gives a better HF image of bait and small objects. After playing with it and dropping your sibiki a hundred or so times, you should be able to easily distinguish between bait and kelp, or even spanish vs greenies.

I prefer to use a dual screen vs overlay. Dual screen will show conventional sonar and down scan image at the same time.

[ratdog]

Congrats on the nice yellows, thank you for sharing usable information, much appreciated.