Simpson Reef Report 8-13

I took a friend out at Sunset on Wednesday. It was his first trip in west coast salt from his Outback. Conditions were great. 3ft swells at 17 seconds made for a great day to take a newbie out. We trolled for a while in the morning for salmon but couldn't find any bait or fish on the FF. We decided to switch gears and head for the reef and do some bottom fishing. We were on fish immediately, schools of top water blacks were all around us. It made for some exciting fishing. I was thinking that this guy is already having an epic first experience. After the top water bite died off we went after some lings and cabbies. Shawn wrestled with a couple underlings before he hooked into something super heavy. After some awesome tug of war, he had an almost 28" Cabezon in his boat. Lucky bastard!
An offshore storm system sent some sketchy chop our way toward the end of the day. We headed back before it got too gnarly. It was really nice to get out on the water and I was really stoked that we got into some quality fish. I caught a black that went 21"...I didn't take any pictures though. I was more excited about Shawn's Cabezon.

Here are a couple videos from the trip.
http://youtu.be/MzGFzsH3RjQ?list=UUgpoS9urUISlrs7Vkzw_AHw



Check out the end of this video. Shawn and I both hook up at nearly the same time. Double bendo all the way!
http://youtu.be/uOjnOlYmCS0?list=UUgpoS9urUISlrs7Vkzw_AHw

Sweet! Great job on the fish!

Are you guys catching any other rockfish besides Black down there?

Are you guys catching any other rockfish besides Black down there?

Looks like a nice big blue ling he's holding in the picture, at least one.

I catch Coppers on occasion. I know there's vermilion and Chinas out there, too.

Thanks for leaving the huge ling alone that I plan on catching THIS Saturday.  I hope to have some fun along the reef there too...

Alan

Thanks for leaving the huge ling alone that I plan on catching THIS Saturday.  I hope to have some fun along the reef there too...

Alan

I'm glad that Shawn caught that cabezon. Now, I don't have to worry about someone coming in with that beast