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On the water by 5am, full of confidence. I knew where to find the fish, what bait to use, and how to work it. So I paddled straight out to the 'hot zone'. Three hours and a few miles of pedaling later - with just four little rockfish for my efforts - I was ready to call it quits. I'd covered everything from 6 - 12ft depth, Holland point to past Herrington, up to maybe a half mile out.
Thankfully I did bring my UL setup, and eventually found the perch to be quite obliging on a 1" white jig in 5-6ft, about 200ft out from the docks on Holland Point. A dozen or two perch later, with a couple of 10" fish in the mix, I started working my way back towards the launch, staying maybe 100ft from the docks (I rarely get that close to them). And then the oddest thing happened...
The closer I got to the launch - just 3-4ft of water - I started picking up 12-14" rockfish on my UL jig. Fantastic fun, but not something I expected. And as i pedaled on, more and more fish were splashing/jumping around. So I threw out my spro/paddletail jig and it had barely touched the water before a rockfish was on it. And then the action was non-stop again! They were truly frenzied. For fun, I tried to see if I could reel in faster than they could swim, but that only made the hits stronger. One fish jumped a good 4ft out of the water after I hooked it! I also picked up a couple of big perch too - chunky 12"-ers! (See photo)
Lesson learned: I've never caught rockfish in any numbers in that shallow area past 7am, so had completely written it off in my mind. I never imagined they would shift shallower, but there it is. So my report last week about the fish being in 6-8ft far from the docks is now completely wrong - they're in 3-4ft, close to the docks! Until they move again...
Thankfully I did bring my UL setup, and eventually found the perch to be quite obliging on a 1" white jig in 5-6ft, about 200ft out from the docks on Holland Point. A dozen or two perch later, with a couple of 10" fish in the mix, I started working my way back towards the launch, staying maybe 100ft from the docks (I rarely get that close to them). And then the oddest thing happened...
The closer I got to the launch - just 3-4ft of water - I started picking up 12-14" rockfish on my UL jig. Fantastic fun, but not something I expected. And as i pedaled on, more and more fish were splashing/jumping around. So I threw out my spro/paddletail jig and it had barely touched the water before a rockfish was on it. And then the action was non-stop again! They were truly frenzied. For fun, I tried to see if I could reel in faster than they could swim, but that only made the hits stronger. One fish jumped a good 4ft out of the water after I hooked it! I also picked up a couple of big perch too - chunky 12"-ers! (See photo)
Lesson learned: I've never caught rockfish in any numbers in that shallow area past 7am, so had completely written it off in my mind. I never imagined they would shift shallower, but there it is. So my report last week about the fish being in 6-8ft far from the docks is now completely wrong - they're in 3-4ft, close to the docks! Until they move again...
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