Newport Halibut Scouting 10/19

[jrodda]

Woke up 0630, 200 yards of vis outside my window. Woof...well the boat is inflated and everything's ready. Fog should burn off by 10 so just try not to die for a couple hours eh?

Was almost to the launch and realized that I forgot my FF battery at home. Really need the GPS on that thing today so went back for it. 20 minute delay but no real hurry here...



Got out of the harbor around 0800. Fog still pretty thick. Swell was super nice though. Going toward Newport from HB it was a sweet downhill run. Drove by the bait boat and got sights on it at a pace I was comfortable with so I relaxed, but kept my head on a swivel.

Got past the pipe, and started a slow troll around a small reef. Never stopped on it before but it had an impressive school of presumably bass on it today. Not that they wanted my offerings. Looking at the pic now, I could almost believe this is WSB. Heavy red undulating marks, hmmm is that blue/green a squid bed?



Started my slow troll there in 80' of water. 2 rods with 12oz 3-way rigs, LFCM 130 and a 5" swimbait. Kept them tight to the bottom and made my heading for the beach, covering a bunch of hard bottom for the couple miles in between.

Got bit on the swimbait in 70' of water, felt small. No marks on the meter for a good minute, so a stray sand bass? Or something more interesting? Came off midway up. Would have been nice to know what bites in the middle of nowhere.

Western Pride was jamming out on their morning half day as I idled forward. Ended up seeing them fishing the pipe later.

Got all the way to the beach, 25' or so, and grass became an issue. Pulled up and reset on the 60' contour of the west canyon edge. Nothing there. A bait ball here and there, couple stray marks.

Already 10:30, fog let up to almost a whole mile of visibility. Headed back to the artificial reef for one more go at that.

Was still marking the big school, still didn't want my offerings. Then one rod got stuck on the bottom. Put the boat in neutral and started clearing my LCFM rod and that was hung up for a second. Oi...then the LCFM popped free thank god, but had something on. Felt dinky. Got it up and it was a decent sized Fantail Sole! Very interesting. Around 15". Almost kept it for lunch but took mercy.



Decided to leave that reef alone, maybe save it for a different day and different game plan.

Started back, thinking I would hit a couple more spots. Started getting my teeth rattled with the incoming afternoon chop, so figured I would just head straight in and beat the worst of it in the oncoming hours. After about 30 minutes it cleared to a rare 4' at 17 second swell. Only seen it a few times, always neat to see. Glassy, but you lose sight of the horizon from every direction because of the big clean swell shape...

Decided to stop on my normal honey hole which has been hit and miss lately. Saw some stray marks but only bite was a big mackerel. Let it go and headed in. Chop picked back up, bumpy ride for the rest of the way in.

Talked to a guy at the ramp who said the police boat wouldn't let him leave the harbor because of the fog at 0900. Glad I didn't talk to that cop...

[Latimeria]

Great report Jeremy.  I went offshore with Tombo yesterday and the fog was thick.  That wind chop though was a bear, even in his 25'10" Parker.

Nice seeing another sole on board.  That screenshot of the fish are always perplexing.  I've seen that multiple times, but never caught what it was.  You need to have a squid jig available to give a few test drops every now and then.

Once again, great report to read with my morning cup of joe!

[vdisney]

Always enjoy your detailed reports Jeremy, thanks for sharing