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We've all had our calendars marked for weeks and opening day finally arrived yesterday. I did a bit of shallow water trolling and set a few records for myself.
I got word from a friend of a hot bite in the main bay yesterday morning, so when my day's schedule opened up I headed to that location to fish for the afternoon. I was on the water around 1:30pm and it took me some time to find the fish, I only got 3 or 4 tiny ones sporadically. Eventually I located the school and it was non-stop action from then on. I fished until it got dark, including through a moderate-heavy rain storm for the better part of 2 hours thanks to my new drysuit.
I set two records for myself yesterday: First, I landed the most fish in a single trip with 91 rockfish in the boat. I still can't believe there was such consistent action all day long. Sizes ranged from micro (~8") to upper 20's. Most fish fell somewhere between 18-22" and were great fun on medium spinning rods. My arms were sore from reeling in so many fish.
Second, I broke my kayak PB with a 27.25" rockfish. I don't think this is my largest ever - I caught that from a boat and I don't have exact measurements - but it is definitely my biggest from a kayak. Towards the end of the trip I had a really large fish on the line, I fought it for several minutes and them it came off the hook. When I reeled in my lure I saw that it had straightened one of my hooks out... I wonder just how big that fish was.
I hope everyone else had some success on opening day! I know I'm glad to have this fishery open again, I was getting a little tired of chasing moody snakeheads.
I didn't take many pictures because of the rain and my smartphone would not respond to my wet hands, but I took a few. Here's the big fish of the day, 27 incher:
20220501_191324.jpg
Here's a nice 23 incher. I caught at least 4 or 5 fish between 21 and 23 inches that looked like carbon copies of each other:
20220501_182317.jpg
Many times throughout the day both of my rods would go down at exactly the same time, I didn't always land both fish but it the double headers were fun:
20220501_150939.jpg
I got word from a friend of a hot bite in the main bay yesterday morning, so when my day's schedule opened up I headed to that location to fish for the afternoon. I was on the water around 1:30pm and it took me some time to find the fish, I only got 3 or 4 tiny ones sporadically. Eventually I located the school and it was non-stop action from then on. I fished until it got dark, including through a moderate-heavy rain storm for the better part of 2 hours thanks to my new drysuit.
I set two records for myself yesterday: First, I landed the most fish in a single trip with 91 rockfish in the boat. I still can't believe there was such consistent action all day long. Sizes ranged from micro (~8") to upper 20's. Most fish fell somewhere between 18-22" and were great fun on medium spinning rods. My arms were sore from reeling in so many fish.
Second, I broke my kayak PB with a 27.25" rockfish. I don't think this is my largest ever - I caught that from a boat and I don't have exact measurements - but it is definitely my biggest from a kayak. Towards the end of the trip I had a really large fish on the line, I fought it for several minutes and them it came off the hook. When I reeled in my lure I saw that it had straightened one of my hooks out... I wonder just how big that fish was.
I hope everyone else had some success on opening day! I know I'm glad to have this fishery open again, I was getting a little tired of chasing moody snakeheads.
I didn't take many pictures because of the rain and my smartphone would not respond to my wet hands, but I took a few. Here's the big fish of the day, 27 incher:
20220501_191324.jpg
Here's a nice 23 incher. I caught at least 4 or 5 fish between 21 and 23 inches that looked like carbon copies of each other:
20220501_182317.jpg
Many times throughout the day both of my rods would go down at exactly the same time, I didn't always land both fish but it the double headers were fun:
20220501_150939.jpg
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