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After a rather unsuccessful first trip out of Ft Armistead a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it another shot now that I know the lay of the land a little better. I wanted some fall rockfish, but more so, I wanted to prove that they were there and I wanted to see the quality.
I trolled a pair of 7" umbrella rigs across the channel to Ft. Carrol with no bites. I then switched to a spinner bait with a large trailer and worked around the fort. I found a sharp drop off with some rocky bottom features and WHACK! I had something big on the line which nearly ripped the rod out of my hand as my drag was a little tight and the braided line did not give. After pulling me around and nice fight it turned out to be a large cat in the 20lb range....not the rockfish I wanted but still a hell of a lot of fun. I worked around the fort a little more with nothing so I headed back to the same spot and before I new it, hooked another large fish...another catfish. I caught about a half dozen cats all in the 10-20lb range. I also caught some large perch on the same spinner bait.
I trolled the umbrellas along the channel north to some structure and still nothing on those. I fished under a concrete platform that was about 5' off the water with rows of concrete pilons. I cast under and slowly retrieved and I had another nice fish on the line....I was almost certain this was a nice rock, but I never got to find out. It and the current were pulling me under the platform, not tall enough to clear my rods so I had to move fast and put extra pressure on the fish before it wrapped itself in the pilons or pulled me under. My braid broke off under the extra pressure just in time for me to take a pretty hard shot against a pilon.
I ended up getting a small rockfish, but I havent seen anything good yet. I met a guy who'd caught a pair night fishing, both barely legal. It was a great day fishing and I'll be out there again in a couple of weeks to see how things change with the season. You can read about it all day long, but to really learn you've gotta go out and try.
Also, the ramp is still covered in lumber and there is still a ton of things floating around out there.
I trolled a pair of 7" umbrella rigs across the channel to Ft. Carrol with no bites. I then switched to a spinner bait with a large trailer and worked around the fort. I found a sharp drop off with some rocky bottom features and WHACK! I had something big on the line which nearly ripped the rod out of my hand as my drag was a little tight and the braided line did not give. After pulling me around and nice fight it turned out to be a large cat in the 20lb range....not the rockfish I wanted but still a hell of a lot of fun. I worked around the fort a little more with nothing so I headed back to the same spot and before I new it, hooked another large fish...another catfish. I caught about a half dozen cats all in the 10-20lb range. I also caught some large perch on the same spinner bait.
I trolled the umbrellas along the channel north to some structure and still nothing on those. I fished under a concrete platform that was about 5' off the water with rows of concrete pilons. I cast under and slowly retrieved and I had another nice fish on the line....I was almost certain this was a nice rock, but I never got to find out. It and the current were pulling me under the platform, not tall enough to clear my rods so I had to move fast and put extra pressure on the fish before it wrapped itself in the pilons or pulled me under. My braid broke off under the extra pressure just in time for me to take a pretty hard shot against a pilon.
I ended up getting a small rockfish, but I havent seen anything good yet. I met a guy who'd caught a pair night fishing, both barely legal. It was a great day fishing and I'll be out there again in a couple of weeks to see how things change with the season. You can read about it all day long, but to really learn you've gotta go out and try.
Also, the ramp is still covered in lumber and there is still a ton of things floating around out there.
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