La Jolla rockfishing (2019-11-24)

[BenCantrell]

Yesterday I hit up La Jolla again and ended up doing really well on rockfish.  The surf wasn't too bad for launching, but I didn't realize the high tide was going to be so high! The water was actually pushing up onto the street at the launch.  It was chilly too.



I met up with a guy Esteban who wanted to give deep water rockfishing a try. We were the only two people who launched at sunrise.  I had a waypoint marked about 4 miles from shore where it looked like there would be good structure. Along the way we stopped for a break and caught some whitefish.



It was really cool to see the bottom change from flat and featureless to what looked like a small seamount when we reached the waypoint.  It pays to do your homework!  I dropped a 4 oz megabait tipped with squid to the bottom and almost immediately hooked up with my first starry rockfish of the year.  Esteban got a starry on his first drop as well.



My primary target was a squarespot rockfish for my lifelist, so I switched to dropper loops with smaller sized hooks. Starries were by far the most common catch of the day, but there was plenty of variety mixed in.

Flag


Blue


Rosy


Scorpionfish


Sheepy


Esteban wanted to fish the kelp closer to shore, so he took off while I stuck it out at my spot.  It was between 200 and 250 ft deep, which is where I've always seen other people catch squarespots, so I knew they must be down there. And sure enough, one eventually turned up.  Species #648 on my list. 



After that a school of mackerel moved in and wouldn't leave my bait alone, so I put away the dropper loops.

Halfbanded


Mackerel, aka the twister of lines


I wanted one more good fish to cap off the day, so I dropped the megabait again.  I thought I had drifted off the structure, so I reeled up a couple cranks and stuck the rod in one of the rear rod holders.  I pulled out my phone to check when the kayak lurched sideways!  Fish on!  It was a big vermilion, worthy of using the net on.  It measured about 4.5 lbs on my fish gripper.



That was a good high point to end the day on, so I paddled back to the beach with a good haul of taco meat.



I'm not concerned with spot burn as it's pretty easy to see where I was dropping on this screenshot.



miles: 11.10
hours: 7:27

The depth limit for rockfish recently increased from 360 ft to 450 ft, so I think on my next trip I'd like to try the bottom 400+ ft down in La Jolla Canyon.  It'll actually be a much shorter paddle from the launch compared to what I've been doing.  Who knows, maybe there's some weird stuff down there.

[skrilla]

Love the mileage stats. That spot always seems to be a 2 mile paddle out and a 20 mile paddle in.

[vdisney]

Species #648???  Chu da man Ben

[Latimeria]

I know that rockpile very well.

Nice critters Ben!  That's a long paddle!

[jrodda]

Out of the billion times I've rockfished, I've never caught a flag. My dad has pulled them right next to me a dozen times. Idk what it is. Nice variety and congrats on 648.

And please stop posting your mileage, my arms are sore for 3 days after I read your reports.

[Pinoyfisher]

You're gonna have some manly a$$ shoulders in no time!