Thanks for posting the report, and thanks for joining me, Marty... It was a fun day!
I wouldn't really say I outfished Marty. The truth is that hooks on my heavy jigheads were too big for the smaller than expected fish... For 1st half hour or so I would get occasional hits but couldn't hook up, while Marty caught his first few fish. As soon as Marty gave me one of his jigheads with more reasonable size hook, I got my 1st fish. We also quickly realized that the fish liked a very slow jig right on the bottom... Snapping the jig hard like we do in the summer didn't work even when the screen was completely lit up. From then we were pretty much neck and neck the entire time... Marty would catch a small fish, I would catch a small fish. Marty would snag a boulder, I would snag a boulder. Marty would catch a decent size fish, I would catch a decent size fish. It went on like that for 3 hours or so, with a slow but steady bite. When we got to slack tide, the bite shutoff and it was time to run home in 2-3 foot seas. Good thing the wind was from the south, and also thst once we got past west river winds dropped from 15-20 down to 5-7mph and we could push down the throttle and get home before sunset.
Early on we went over a spot several times that looked like there were lots of perch on the bottom. Wish we had stopped and dropped a stingsilver on them and brought dinner home. When we went back to look for them before we headed home, of course they were gone. Wondering if anyone ever tries for perch there at the plant... Seems like a good idea since we can't keep the rockfish.
With the winter jellies around and the water so cold, we might have to make some more trips south to jig rather than trolling. On a flat day it shouldn't be more than about an hour run.
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