polepole:
So I've been stuck down in San Jose for work, but that doesn't mean I haven't been fishing. Hit up a tournament on San Francisco Bay as part of the Bay Area Paddlefest. Headed out about 1.5 miles to the edge of the channel where it drops from 20-50 feet. Anchored up in ~40 feet of water and dropped a hi/lo rig to the bottom. Baited up with squid on the bottom and herring or smelt on the top hook. The target was sharks as this tournament was for longest fish. Had a steady pick of sharks including leopard, sand, and 7 gills ... l landing maybe 18 fish. Unfortunately they were mostly small with the largest fish a leopard going maybe 30-32". Most of the fish came on the squid, but the larger leopards came on the herring.
With 5 minutes left to go in the tournament I had a hard takedown which went on a long run. I had to disconnect from the anchor and proceeded to go on a nice sleigh ride. Over the radio I hear Danglin hooked up on a thresher. A minute later I hear he lands a derby winning fish which would go 60". Theshers are rare in the bay so this was a real treat. In the meantime, I'm still on my fish. Unfortunately, I knew in my heart I had a big bat ray on, but I still had a glimmer of hope that perhaps I hooked a sturgeon. After a couple long runs, this fish settled on the the bottom and I could not budge it. I was fishing 30# line so I thumbed the reel and gave a lot of pressure. I still couldn't budge it. I got lucky and the fish went on another run up toward the surface. I finally got it to the top and up popped about a 45# bat ray. Good fight, but rays were not allowed in the tournament, no matter as they don't have the length. Danglin won the tournament with the grand prize being a kayak fishing trip for 2 to Rancho Leonero in Baja. Congrats Danglin!!! Second place went to a 50"+ leopard. Third was a 3 way tie with 3 leopards going 49.25".
What a fun tournament with a lot of action on the fish!!! First time shark fishing for shark in the bay for me. I had a steady chum slick made up of tuna bellies and mackeral going all day. You should have seen the large schools of smelt hanging out in the shadow of my yak. I sabikied up a few of the larger ones for bait. Every now and then a school of macks would breeze through sending a shower of smelt all over the surface. In hind site, I should have baited up with a live mack and slow trolled them for thresher. Oh well.
I didn't have a chance to test drive small yaks as I planned as by the time I got back to the beach I was beat and the weather came up. I'll have to put that off to another day.
-Allen
ZeeHawk:
I was out there with Pole2 and what a great tourney eh? You got the sleigh forever!! You went a good 30 yards and it spun you about 3 times. I got a bat ray as well that day and man are those suckers fun!!! What kind of sharks are in the sound? Maybe it would be a cool idea to have a shark tourney out there too? If it's anything like we had over the weekend it would be a lot of fun!! Thanks Pole2 for the bait and tips ;).
PS. PM or call me and lets talk about getting the logo together.
Z
polepole:
Yep, they don't call those bat rays "mud marlin" for nothing. Great bulldog fight they put up. The puget sounds holds a ton of dogfish which are considered pests. There are also some populations of 6 gill sharks in the Sound which grow quite big (hundreds of pounds), but they are rarely targetted or caught. They are a protected species with a zero take policy. I'm not sure that a shark tournament would work too well. A flouder/sole fishing day would be fun as there are a ton of them in the Sound as well. Great fun on light tackle.
Zeelander, PM me your phone number. I had it on my cell phone when you called, but you didn't leave it in a message for me and your number has since rolled off my call list.
-Allen
floatin cowboys:
I just read an article on flounder fishing, although it was for the east coast, it was really intresting. they had pic's of some 8# to 10# flounders with some getting into the 30# range. Not sure what kind would be in the sound, lots of staryeye I would imagine. FC
Pisco Sicko:
Those East Coast heavy weights are summer flounder, and they do get fairly hefty, though rarely over 10#, as I recall.
Starry Flounder are what I've caught most often, in the Sound. Some of them are down right ugly, with obvious parasites.
Here's the state's list of flatfish, other than halibut. http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/bottomfish/flatfish.htm