07/19 - LJK

[Afran]

Ron and I fished North LJK from 7A-3P. It was amazing weather of course, but we had zero current all day and little to no wind to help us move through the matt. Water seemed a little murked, maybe 12 ft vis and kinda chill but not cold. Bite was a little slow but we did have a full wildlife adventure.

Ron pulled a 7lbs calico early in the am (on the spring scale and she was long). He also had a 150lbs BSB track his jig back to the boat and then boil at the bow. I saw the thing surface, fins and tail, it was huge to say the least. A battle that would not have been won. We found a puddling 18lb yellowtail in an open area between stringers. We threw some baits at it. It did show interested, but we weren't tricky enough. Lots of rockfish, crabs, cailcos and a 23.75 ling cod, he was close....











Super fun day with a good friend. All fish caught on the War Jig with eevolve plastics as trailers and a cocktail of Hot Sauce and UniButter. Most Calicos were in 58-60ft of water with the other creatures in 70ft.

killer posts
nice big fat calico

[Spyder]

Quality forest critters. Those checkes are nice ones. Fun day.

[blackcloud9]

Looks like great light tackle fun Afran - thanks for posting!

[joyjiggin']

I didn't know that Calicos could get that big! Great close-up shots, esp. the Lings' mouth! Thanks for the tips.

[bumblebeetuna]

beeeg toad, nice calico!

[Freespool]

Hey Afran,
I'm the dude that was bugging you back at the launch for the report. Glad to see the actual photos. That calico is a Hoss! Nice work.

[Freespool]

I'm curious about people's opinions on handling an underling or other toothy fish you plan to release. If you look at the photo of the ling's mouth opened up, you'll notice a finger pressing one of the gills into the mouth bones hard enough to spread some of the gill material. I know lings are very resilient fish but I also know that gills are very sensitive. I wonder what effect this may have on CnR mortality. I hope none and this is not meant as a knock on you Afran at all. I don't really know what else you could possibly do to avoid that given the nasty teeth and sharp operculum/gill plate other than have a BogaGrip on hand or hold the mouth with pliers. I'm just wondering what people know or think about the effect. We don't always have tools at the ready when landing fish we plan to release and some fish are obviously harder to handle than others.

[Afran]

Originally Posted by Freespool

...some fish are obviously harder to handle than others.

Boga Grip is perfect.





Larry, I was at the Rock on Sat, taking in the sun with the locals. Great place to launch on a mellow day. Looking forward to seeing you on or in the water.

[paddydigital]

WHAT A GREAT DAY ON THE WATER CONGRATS AGAIN THE TOAD CALICO! HERES MY PIC

[fishinkid2010]

Those are some nice Calicos, especially the hawg in the first picture!

[Whizz Bang]

Afran,
How do you know a puddling yellow is 18lbs? What about the BSB? I am new to this sport (from a yak) with the majority of my VERY limited knowledge coming from a handful of overnights and 1/2 day cattle trips. You have taken some amazing photos, sorry for asking the idiot newbie questions, just trying to learn. Thank you for your patience.

-WB

[Afran]

Originally Posted by Whizz Bang

Afran,
How do you know a puddling yellow is 18lbs? What about the BSB? I am new to this sport (from a yak) with the majority of my VERY limited knowledge coming from a handful of overnights and 1/2 day cattle trips. You have taken some amazing photos, sorry for asking the idiot newbie questions, just trying to learn. Thank you for your patience.

-WB

Thanks for the interest and hopefully this will help.

Puddling 18lbs Yellowtail
We were shooting the shit, Ron was fishing, I was talking. I saw a yellow fin cruising 6 ft from us. I stood up on my yak and clearly spotted a yellowtail. It was doing circles in an open area of the kelp forest. "Puddling yellow" usually is a description for a yellowtail, just playing on the surface, maybe eating small shrimp or sunning, just slowly rolling around.

As I stood on the yak, I had Ron softly cast over the matt and drag his jig into the open area. The yellow turned and followed it into the next section of heavy cover. The yellow came out of the cover again and returned to "Puddling". I had Ron cast further up the line and bring the jig back slowly through the open area. Again the yellow followed the jig to the matt and seemed to watch it as Ron brought it over the kelp cover. We got another cast on it, but it slowly took off.

I believe that the "Slug" bait would have been the best presentation for this situation, but we did not have one tied up.

I've caught plenty of yellowtail on the yak and on the boat. To my eye, it didn't look 15lbs and didn't look 20lbs, so I gave it a weight of 18lbs. (But I didn't ask, I thought it would be rude. She seemed the sensitive type )


BSB - Black Sea Bass
It was huge. Imagine a fish surfacing next to your yak, (with the length) yak bow to your skins. Ron was retrieving his jig, watching it come out of the murky depths. He watched the huge dark fish with spots come in from the right side, chasing it upward. As he brought the jig out of the water, the huge fish breached the surface, back and tail full out, doing a 180. I told him to drop the jig back down, but he said "NO!", he didn't want anything to do with the fish.

We were in 58ft of water, middle of the kelp, he was using 12lb line with a Curado 200 bass reel. It would have been a battle lost. I gave the fish the weight of 150lbs because I just caught a "60lbs" a few weeks back. Logical estimations made by experience of fight and landing fish in that size range. (shoot, Ron's BSB could have been 80 or 100 or 120, it was just very large).

[Whizz Bang]

Thank you for the quick reply, beautiful pictures. WTG.