7/17 SPSP Lighthouse

[Redfish12]

Fished the lighthouse from 2:30-7:45 at SPSP. It was blazing hot and I was still struggling from the night before so I knew I was probably not going to have the best day of fishing.

Paddling out I got the great idea to troll a tube through the minefield of crab pots, just to see if there were any rock or blues in the area. Snagged the last crab pot and had to go back and get it off, wasn't too bad at least.

Got to the lighthouse and started catching small spot almost immediately. Great! I put the first one on my circle hook and drop it in to drift behind me. Next drop, another little spot... this one goes in the livewell, aka a 5 gallon bucket and an aerator. Thud. No water... Great. Cut a bottle, throw water in and turn on the little bubbler. Clearly not firing on all cylinders... This continues and we throw about 10 of the right size small spot in the bucket and start to get ready to head towards the bridge. Bait check. All floaters. F. Turns out the hose had a kink in it and no air was going in... I straightened it and it seemed to be working a lot better.

At that point we'd both already lost our spot rigs and only had larger hooks left so we couldn't catch any more mini's. We decided just to hunker down and try to bottom fish the lighthouse anyway. Ended up being fun still and caught a bunch of white perch, a few larger spot, and a couple of croaker. I brought the croaker, large spot, and a few jumbo white perch home for dinner. No love live-lining around the lighthouse, had a few really short runs and then had some weird bites on spot fillets that I thought might have been flounder.

One other thing, my buddy I was with got hit with a set of rogue waves when he was nosed up to the lighthouse. They came from behind and were so tall I lost sight of him when he went into the ditch... I don't know how he stayed in! I was broadside in the wind/waves, just how my trident loves to ride and took one over the side, but was able to nose in for the second. Granted, my waves were much smaller. Pretty crazy to see though!

[Grilled]

Nice Report! Lighthouse is usually money when it comes to livelining. Ive always had luck there. The BB has been pretty hot also, last couple times i went out i did pretty good.

[richardbb85]

where exactly is light house?

[jet]

a tip for the light house, fish it when the current is running strong past it, to the point where it's a PITA to fish there and throw the spot up current.

this light house is at sandy point state park, north of the bay bridge. there are many many other light houses across the bay that are very productive.

[surfdog]

those rouge waves are startling, i always keep an eye out for them, sometimes you can hear them coming if they are cresting.

[Redfish12]

Good to know. We were there long enough that the tide started ripping in with the wind and that's about when the bottom game shut off completely. I put on a heavier weight but we were flying. I'd paddle up to the float someone put between the lh and the bridge and before I could get my bottom bail closed I felt like I was already at risk of getting slammed into the house. We did start drifting farther down and picked up a few small wp at that time though.

I think my real issue was a crappy livewell, I might just go back to the flowtroll bucket, in the very least it could be my drift sock...

[Excalibur]

Flowtroll alternatives

Hey -- I found a nice compromise between a flowtroll bucket and an on-board livewell -- bought a minnow trap from hong kong on ebay and just shut the ends w/ monofilament.

Thrown overboard, it works well as a drift sock but it also allows water to flow through completely so...you don't get the stale water of the flowtroll

Here's a link to what I bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/XL101-Crabfish-C...60066238731771

Another cool part is that when you're done using it, it just folds up like a slinky.

Mark

[tj06sti]

Hey -- I found a nice compromise between a flowtroll bucket and an on-board livewell -- bought a minnow trap from hong kong on ebay and just shut the ends w/ monofilament.

Thrown overboard, it works well as a drift sock but it also allows water to flow through completely so...you don't get the stale water of the flowtroll

Here's a link to what I bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/XL101-Crabfish-C...60066238731771

Another cool part is that when you're done using it, it just folds up like a slinky.

Mark

That there looks like a good idea. I like that it collapses!

[Redfish12]

Whoa! I actually already own that! How do you put your spot in?

[Excalibur]

Just pulled the trap alongside the boat, unzipped the zipper and threw them in.

Last time I fished, I tied 100lb mono to each end of the trap and a loop in the middle of the mono and then just hung it off my anchor trolley.

That worked ok but next time, I think I'm going to just tie the mono to one end of the trap and have it connected to my boat lengthwise...that way it won't get a bow in the middle as the water runs through it and my line is pulling on both ends.

[Redfish12]

Hmmm... It's on the boat for sure next trip, I have a flow troll too, I might bring all three and do a comparison.

Thanks for the idea!

[Excalibur]

On mine, I sealed the ends by taking some spare mono and just wove it back and forth all the way around sort of like pizza slices and then just tie it off -- that way the spot will still be there when it's time to use them.