Cayucos Halibut hunt 7/17/13

Re-posted from my report on Central Coast Kayak Fishing:

On the drive to Cayucos noticed that some of the fleet was still sitting along Studio dr. while the rest were west of the pier, off of windmills.  Considered launching at the 24th street beach but stayed with the original pier launch.  We arrived at the pier and were greeted by sunny skies and calm waters.  At 700 it was already warm with just a hint of breeze.  Very nice conditions and the we both made it out without a hitch.

I made my way out towards Mouse Rock doing a little bottom trolling along the way.  At mouse I dropped the sabiki down and was swarmed by lizard fish.  I couldn't keep them off of it and I wasn't picking up any squid on the ff so I went with lizards for my bait.  I wish I could have found the squid because the lizards didn't prove to be on the menu.  I power drifted and drifted using a reverse dropper loop rig and switched between the live bait and artificial's tipped with squid.  Starting in 40 fow I made a large zig-zag pattern from the gong off the pier south a mile or so then back again.  Each time increasing my depth as I went.  After a couple of hours of working the sand I made it out to the southern edge of the fleet.  They were fishing in 50+ fow.  From what I could see they were either slow trolling or anchored and casting out doing a slow bottom retreive.  Didn't see or hear of anyone hooking up over the vhf. 

Once I reached the fleet I lightened my weight and drifted back into shallower waters still running the reverse dropper loop.  The rig worked great, first time trying it.  No tangles, easy to deploy, and easy to swap out weight to match conditions.  On the return drift something did take the rig.  I got a couple of good tugs and I managed to retrieve the rod from the rod holder and get it almost to the boat before it spit the hook before I could get a look at what it was.  It didn't seem like a hali from the way it pulled but who knows...

Arrived back at the patties west of the pier and did some rockfishing for the remainder of the morning and managed to land  the biggest brown I've ever caught.  3 lbs., 17 inches.  The thing felt like a ling and I was shocked when it ended up being a brown.  LOpaddler grabbed a fat blue and a couple of browns also, one of them close to the size of mine.  No butt's today but a great day otw none the less.  Hopefully the bite picks up as they move into shallower water.  After 2 days otw I'm sunburned, sore, and smiling from the big bags of filets stocked in the refer.  Cheers!


http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/surfbrewer1/library/Cayucos%20July%2017%202013

Lizard fish look pretty ugly. I had to look them up online.  Do you just use them for bait, or are they edible?

Yeah not very attractive, kind of slimy and a little shady.  Sounds like an old girlfriend...   I've never ate them, not much to them really.  They are thick down here right now, you can't drop a sabiki 10' without it loading up with them.  Some guys use them for bait but they don't last long and you have to handle them really gently.

Awesome report I felt like I was there.  It helps that I know the area well.  I have surfed the pier many times using mouse rock as a set indicator.  Man your making me home sick for the central coast.

Thanks for the report,
Dana

yaksurf, glad I could bring a little bit of the central coast to ya in Oregon.

That is a humongous brown rockfish!