Surf & tide pool critters (6-28-2016)

[BenCantrell]

Tom invited Ruoxi and I to come out and join him and Steve last night.  I left my gear at home so I wouldn't get distracted by smaller fish, and Tom and Steve each had one long rod out.  I think Steve had the first nibble, but Tom had the first fish actually on.



After initially saying it was a shark, he quickly changed his mind based on how it was fighting.



It was a big bat ray.  I think Tom said 100+ lbs.  I'll let him fill in the details.



Quick release after the photo.



Apparently Steve caught and released a leopard shark while Tom was fighting the ray.  We have no photo evidence though, so we'll never know if he's telling the truth!  Steve seemed to get a few more bites than Tom, but none of them were the big sharks they were looking for.  This kelp bass was pretty big though!



Both guys had sharks on a few times during the night, but each time they came unbuttoned in the surf.  Here's Tom right after he lost tension on his line.



Steve continued working on his species tally for the night with this moray.  I thought it was awesome, Steve and Tom wanted nothing to do with it.



As the night was getting late, the guys became laser focused on bringing a shark in.  Here's Steve with his unbelievably terrifying game face.



The last fish of the night was this foul hooked brown smoothhound.  It's head was about the same size as the mackerel head being used as bait!



I also wandered off at one point and discovered a tidepool with several species of fish.  I'm really stoked about the find, because I can come back and target them with microfishing gear to hopefully add three or four species to my lifelist.  I have no shame in going after super tiny fish.



Tom says this one is a zebra perch, which is a fish not often caught by anglers.



Here's a small sculpin or blenny.  There were half a dozen of them in the pool, and each had different patterns.  They might all be the same species though.



I remembered that my camera is waterproof, so I stuck it under water to get better photos.  Here's a pair of pale colored opaleye.



And here are some more darkly colored opaleye and a big sculpin with white hairs.  They were all packed together under an overhanging shelf.



The one fish that I didn't get a good photo of was a blenny or sculpin, completely jet black, and he was doing little mating dances until I scared him with the camera light.  I think that's his head in the left part of the photo.



This last photo doesn't have any fish, but I really like it because of how colorful everything is.  It made me feel like a kid again seeing all this stuff!

[Pinoyfisher]

Digging the tide pooling! They're always fun to explore. That area is loaded with tide pools too with the reefs so close to shore. What's next for you here Ben?

[sasquatch]

Nice to see you guys. Sorry for ditching out but it was late and I didn't want to make the hike.
the tide pools are something I haven't paid attention to since I was a kid. Cool to see them through your eyes.

[Latimeria]

Thanks for posting Ben.  I was ready to write up a report, but super glad to see you did it.  Steve and I both lost a screamer that was very sharky, but we'll never know.  I'd like to think that possible leopard I was bringing in that suddenly stopped dead in it's track and got really heavy before unbuttoning was a 9' Sevengill grabbing the leo as a snack and ripping it off my hook.... lol, that or the damn wave just threw him off.  In any case, it felt great to just get out and not think about finances for a few hours anyway.

[BenCantrell]

What's next for you here Ben?

Still need to squirrel away some bait for the deep drop trip on the 9th, so I'll have to visit the pier again.  Not a fan of the crowds though, so I'm also going to get a 10-day non-resident license so I can start exploring more.  Would love to catch a few surf critters that won't break my 17 lb line.  Leopard shark, smoothhound, and moray would be really awesome.  Mission Bay on foot would be fun, and I'm definitely going back to those tidepools to do some microfishing.

Nice to see you guys. Sorry for ditching out but it was late and I didn't want to make the hike.

Don't worry I don't blame you!  I was out a ways on those rocks, and the footing was pretty dicey.  It was good seeing you too.  Bummer that you and Tom didn't get any big sharks, but the night was far from a skunk.  It was really cool seeing the variety.

[spideyjg]

Looks like a tidepool can be a bait tank. 

Jim

[Pinoyfisher]

Looks like a tidepool can be a bait tank. 

Jim

Or a place to make bait!

[HalibutJoel99]

Sweet Report! Nice catching guys! That Eel picture is awesome! Never seen one up close though. Thanks for the cool tide pool pics too. 

[Latimeria]

That Eel picture is awesome! Never seen one up close though.   

You'd be stoked on your first eel and then hope you never catch one again.  I can't stand those things.  lol

[BenCantrell]

You'd be stoked on your first eel and then hope you never catch one again.  I can't stand those things.  lol

Tom refused to even make eye contact with it.