The last couple days of salmon fishing have been tough. When the tides and weather cooperate, it’s time to head for the ocean for some lingcod and black rockfish. The lingcod were particularly aggressive today with several nice keepers released after we had already caught our limit. The black bass were really nice quality as well which has been a welcome change from previous years. We also had to release 2 massive cabezon since the season for them doesn’t open until July 1st. For my first saltwater trip of the year, this one turned out to be awesome!
While sometimes the sunken jetty can get a bit sporty, today was very friendly with calm waters. There were never more than three boats at a time which made it even easier as the one running the boat! The only sea lion we saw with a fish was chowing down on a pacific lamprey. There was a even more action to watch when the white pelicans started diving on a bait ball. I’m hoping it was shad or herring and not salmon smolts!
I’ve now officially opened up bottom fishing trips for booking! Hopefully we’ll get quite few more days with these sorts of limits. That big lingcod provided some awesome action with a fight to keep it from diving towards the bottom. We didn’t have any doubles on the rockfish but their size made up for it. A couple of the big ones started peeling line! The sunken jetty usually stays pretty good until the pressure ramps up in mid June. Then I get to try out the other less fished places to pick up bottom fish. I can’t wait for my first combo trips for salmon going. That will definitely give the new fillet table a workout!