Santa Cruz, CA (Non-Yak)

Sometimes you just need to improvise and yesterday was one of those days.  We had a 6 pack chartered to hit tuna, but the wind gods did not cooperate, so the call was made to go rockfishing.  The wind was still plenty fierce and we found ourselves fishing in 15-20 knot winds.  It made for a fast drift and lots of snags.

I was fishing with Allen Bushnell, Bill from NCKA, and my friend Tom.  We worked our way up to Ano Nuevo.  Ano is an area where elephant seals congregate and indeed we could smell them long before we pulled up on the spot.  First drop and AllenB reels in a ling which he released.  We were teasing him about releasing the first fish of the day, and a nice one at that.  We settled into a steady pick of mostly smaller fish with the occasional keeper vermilion rockfish (reds) and ling.  I started out on the slow side and was experimenting a bit with various jigs and irons.  I finally turned to live bait (anchovies) and fishing picked up for me, no lings, but a couple of nice reds. After a while I had ling on my mind again.  Having lost all of our 8 ounce jigheads earlier, I decided to improvise.  I had some larger hexbars with big trebles on them.  I had lost 2 earlier in the day within minute of deploying them.  Bill had been fishing some of his hand poured rootbeer worms with good success on smaller lings so he suggested I try it.  So what did I do?  I took the treble off a 10-12 ounce hexbar and attached a 10/0 hook to the top of the jig.  I then threaded a rootbeer worm on the hook.  When Captain Gerry saw that he said, "What the hell is that enormous contraption? What are you going to do, drop it on their heads and knock them out?".  I responded with a "you'll see".  Then I sarcastically backed it up with "I'll probably lose it within 2 minutes".  As soon as I hit bottom, my rod loaded up.   Everyone laughed at me for snagging up so soon.  Then my rod bounced and I just smiled.  Up comes a 16# ling!!!  I dropped back down and immediately hooked up again.  10# ling in the box!!!  I love it when a plan comes together.  First pick is of the 16# ling and I'm holding the contraption in my other hand.  Second pic is of a couple of the reds we kept.

It's a bit sad as this will probably be the last time I fish Ano Nuevo.  It will be closed shortly due to the CA Marine Protection Act.   

-Allen

Nice ling!

I've found the single hook on top of a jig helps cut down on snags, too.

That close to shore, how come you weren't kayaking?

Way to pull off the hail mary "I think I can" lings. Sometimes funny how the regular go to lures can be all wrong some days. Then some wacky rig like yours hammers 'em. Bummer about Año for sure...

Z

some wacky rig like yours hammers 'em

Wacky huh?  I like to think I knew what I was doing!!! 

Honestly, there are rigs similar to this that catch a lot of big fish.  The mudraker style of jigs are exactly this ... some kind of bar or iron, rigged top hook, with a shirt over the hooks.  In this case I applied the same principal, but used a curly tail worm instead.   You get the best of both worlds with the erratic flashy action of an iron, and the tantalizing movement of a rubber.

Sometime you just have to go big ... or go home!

-Allen

Nice fish..

Brings back alot of memories....Lived in Santa Cruz, for 21 years. Rented skiffs from Capitola pier to ling fish. Mostly fished off the pier and cement ship at seacliff beach and the rocks along the coast.

Used to be a great place be...Now, It's a great place to be from.