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Once again, Grilled Sardine and I were on the water from Hemingways at about 7am...sucks considering i have to wake up at 4AM to make that time.
I'll tell you one thing, I'm getting pretty bored of the Bay Bridge or most likely, non trophy rockfish...
So i'm about 20 yard from the start of the bridge and realize I forgot my damn sunglasses! After some debate, my better judgement told me to go back and get them. There was a family surf fishing from the 10' wide "beach" at Hemingways which made launching annoying...maybe since I may have caught one of their lines on my way out since my rudder was stuck... my bad. On my way back, not to bother the family again, I landed on the rocks in front of the restaurant and just stuck my paddle into the rocks to keep the yak there while I ran to my truck.
Once I got back to the bridge, GS had a dozen spot in the tank already. Nice. I rig up with some nightcrawlers since I'm tired of paying for bloods. 2 second soak and first spot is in the tank. I switched to fishbites since GS was having luck with them and any kind of fresh bait sucks on a kayak. Too bad my fishbites were from last year, hard , smelly, and dark red, so spots just didnt like them. GS hooked me up with a string of his fresh bites and after a few minutes, I had 7 in the tank. Since he had a bunch already, he hooked me up with a few of his so we would have plenty of fishing time before low tide at proposed 1030am. Off we went...
I decided to try some open water fishing, so I headed to the sewer pipe and beyond. Drifted spot, threw a couple of lures and nothing. Marked tons of bait, rocks and whatever else on the finder, but nothing wanted to play. Sun was getting hot so I decided to go hide in the shadows of the bridge.
First pylon I get to, fish on! A nice run, but I didnt set the hook at the right time so it spit the hook eventually. Tried again, same location, fish on! Skinny 18" with some sores on it so back it went.
The pylons were filling up fast with boaters... basically ever pylon had a boat on it from 30' and shallower. I decided to go deeper water for the hell of it to get away from the crowd. In 90' of water, spot goes out as the tide is ripping out, fish on! fish off! Damn. Try again, land a clean 16incher that gut hooked and unfortuantly, do not think was going to make it once released... Hate when that happens. Next was a clean, not NFL football, but K2 football, 21" landed which for whatever reason, I decided to release.
From there I continued towards the main span, live lining the pylons. Spunky spot, but no takers.
I decided to try my hand at crabbing. Gave GS my last few spots, or his, and off I went.
On my way to some shallower pylons, I saw a huge bait ball on my fish finder 20' deep in 60' of water, so thought I would throw out a spoon, that I already had rigged in case of breaking fish. Cast it out, let is sink for about 8 seconds, reel her in. Bump, Bump, Bump...Fish on! It's been a while since I have caught a blue ( or i hopes spaniard) from a lure so it was quite exciting until I swung the fish out of the water, hits the side of the boat and the hook is left swinging lonely...damn again.
I had purchased a dip net in the morning to try and catch the crabs I always see on the pylons. If the minimum crab size was 5", i would have had a bushel! Since it's 5.25" I caught ONE keeper, which after sitting in the tank for a while, I finally let go telling him I'm sorry for ruining his game, but be thankful he is alive! It wasn't even on the pylon but swimming next to the yak. Every single male crab I caught was a doubler, craddling his lady friend. Every single, single crab, was a LARGE female...too bad we can't harvest females.
We were off the water by 130pm and sitting in good old 7 day/week 495 traffic by 230pm...seriously...it's sunday!.
I think i'm going to seriously start targeting flounder, spanish macs, and other species bc small rocks arent doing it for me...
I'll tell you one thing, I'm getting pretty bored of the Bay Bridge or most likely, non trophy rockfish...
So i'm about 20 yard from the start of the bridge and realize I forgot my damn sunglasses! After some debate, my better judgement told me to go back and get them. There was a family surf fishing from the 10' wide "beach" at Hemingways which made launching annoying...maybe since I may have caught one of their lines on my way out since my rudder was stuck... my bad. On my way back, not to bother the family again, I landed on the rocks in front of the restaurant and just stuck my paddle into the rocks to keep the yak there while I ran to my truck.
Once I got back to the bridge, GS had a dozen spot in the tank already. Nice. I rig up with some nightcrawlers since I'm tired of paying for bloods. 2 second soak and first spot is in the tank. I switched to fishbites since GS was having luck with them and any kind of fresh bait sucks on a kayak. Too bad my fishbites were from last year, hard , smelly, and dark red, so spots just didnt like them. GS hooked me up with a string of his fresh bites and after a few minutes, I had 7 in the tank. Since he had a bunch already, he hooked me up with a few of his so we would have plenty of fishing time before low tide at proposed 1030am. Off we went...
I decided to try some open water fishing, so I headed to the sewer pipe and beyond. Drifted spot, threw a couple of lures and nothing. Marked tons of bait, rocks and whatever else on the finder, but nothing wanted to play. Sun was getting hot so I decided to go hide in the shadows of the bridge.
First pylon I get to, fish on! A nice run, but I didnt set the hook at the right time so it spit the hook eventually. Tried again, same location, fish on! Skinny 18" with some sores on it so back it went.
The pylons were filling up fast with boaters... basically ever pylon had a boat on it from 30' and shallower. I decided to go deeper water for the hell of it to get away from the crowd. In 90' of water, spot goes out as the tide is ripping out, fish on! fish off! Damn. Try again, land a clean 16incher that gut hooked and unfortuantly, do not think was going to make it once released... Hate when that happens. Next was a clean, not NFL football, but K2 football, 21" landed which for whatever reason, I decided to release.
From there I continued towards the main span, live lining the pylons. Spunky spot, but no takers.
I decided to try my hand at crabbing. Gave GS my last few spots, or his, and off I went.
On my way to some shallower pylons, I saw a huge bait ball on my fish finder 20' deep in 60' of water, so thought I would throw out a spoon, that I already had rigged in case of breaking fish. Cast it out, let is sink for about 8 seconds, reel her in. Bump, Bump, Bump...Fish on! It's been a while since I have caught a blue ( or i hopes spaniard) from a lure so it was quite exciting until I swung the fish out of the water, hits the side of the boat and the hook is left swinging lonely...damn again.
I had purchased a dip net in the morning to try and catch the crabs I always see on the pylons. If the minimum crab size was 5", i would have had a bushel! Since it's 5.25" I caught ONE keeper, which after sitting in the tank for a while, I finally let go telling him I'm sorry for ruining his game, but be thankful he is alive! It wasn't even on the pylon but swimming next to the yak. Every single male crab I caught was a doubler, craddling his lady friend. Every single, single crab, was a LARGE female...too bad we can't harvest females.
We were off the water by 130pm and sitting in good old 7 day/week 495 traffic by 230pm...seriously...it's sunday!.
I think i'm going to seriously start targeting flounder, spanish macs, and other species bc small rocks arent doing it for me...
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