San Juan lings

Almost forgot the fish porn.

Damn thats a nice fish man

Nice dude. I'm leaving in the morning and you are adding to my excitement. I can't wait to get a line in the water!!!!

J

Have a great trip Nanook.  Jones island is awesome.  Lots of nooks and crannies to pull some lings out of.  And I'm glad the weather is shaping up for you.  Tight lines.

I headed out to Sucia with some friends on a boat and we did relatively well.  The weather turned our perfect - calm and sunny.  Missed slack tide on the West bank and had a tough time fishing out there, though we landed one ling that was 1" too short    Fished S side of Patos, and there was lots of action but no keepers.  We then headed to the "sisters" rocks off Clark Island and it was bananas!  Got us a keeper ling (27") and several very large cabs.  One that weighed somewhere in the 12-15 lb range.  Got most fish on green or root beer split tails or berkely saltwater curly tails.  Then we had a BBQ!

I did head out on the 'yak on Sunday to Deception pass.  Very rainy, but at least calm.  I answered my own question as to whether a WDFW boat would ever come up on a kayak.  They did - as soon as I got out there.  They were *fascinated* with my rig.  Different people kept coming out and taking pictures of me like I was a zoo animal.  They said nobody was really doing well around there and I found that to be true too.  Seemed like I was fishing for fish that didn't want to eat.  I threw everything I had at them and managed 4 cabs, 3 of decent size.  But no Lings!

Nice.

D-pass was running up to 7 or 8kts wasn't it?

Good info fellas. I'm venturing into the world of soft plastics this trip to save some coin vs. the $5 buzzbomb.

What kind/size jig heads are you guys using? 2-3oz?

J

oh, and here's me wishing I could turn a nice sized rockfish into fish 'n chips

I was also thinking of heading over to flattop isl. and gull rock just N of speiden. Seems like it would be good territory, and I don't have to worry about drifting into the 300yd no fish zone around yellow while fishing around Mcconnell.

Any one have any comments about flattop?

Jones is my "secret" honey hole. it's 60/70ft. deep and craggy 100ft from my tent site.

Nice trip tall man.  BTW, that last pic looks like a big Red Irish Lord to me.  See those 3-rows of scales at the top and down the middle?  Dead giveaway.

-Allen

Yeah, the tide was huge yesterday so the deception pass current was running fast.  But I got there at slack tide and headed out to my favorite sport on the W side of Deceoption Island and hung out there for the next few hours.  I was cruising North towards the Fidalgo is. rocks and found a sweet shelf about 300 yards south of the small island across rosario beach.  Drops from 50 to 120 very quickly and is stuffed with fish.  Much easier to fish than the rocks off fidalgo.  Caught some nice cabs there and am looking forward to hitting that on a nicer day.  

I was using 3 oz jig heads.  Tried using as big as 6 so I could get down quicker but never had any luck with the heavier stuff on either day.

Great pic's guys!  I'm glad to see the weather cooperated for the most part.

Polepole - good to know!  I pulled it up and was like, "hmm...this doesn't look like a normal cabezon to me", especially due to the weird scales around the fins.  But I decided it was because of the little tentacle thingys near the eyes.  I didn't think red irish lords got that big!  Interesting.

Nice.

D-pass was running up to 7 or 8kts wasn't it?

Good info fellas. I'm venturing into the world of soft plastics this trip to save some coin vs. the $5 buzzbomb.

What kind/size jig heads are you guys using? 2-3oz?

J

I like 4 oz.  I can't feel the bottom enough with lighter jigs, particularly with any current.  And I think its the 6 inch scampi split tails that fit well with those.  I dress it up, but instead of buying the expensive shrimp legs that go with them,  I just buy cheap plastic octopus and cut the head off so its almost the same thing.  If I get tired of banging the bottom, sometimes I bang once and reel up five feet our so and leave it suspended for a few seconds.  They seem to hit it on the hang.  And remember to crimp those barbs. 

cool. That makes the trip to the store much quicker! thanks.

Jason

I like 4 oz.  I can't feel the bottom enough with lighter jigs, particularly with any current.  And I think its the 6 inch scampi split tails that fit well with those.  I dress it up, but instead of buying the expensive shrimp legs that go with them,  I just buy cheap plastic octopus and cut the head off so its almost the same thing.  If I get tired of banging the bottom, sometimes I bang once and reel up five feet our so and leave it suspended for a few seconds.  They seem to hit it on the hang.  And remember to crimp those barbs. 

Yeah, what he said.   

-Allen