The Curmudgeon's Return! (11/24)

[Latimeria]

Arm is still screwed.  Specialist Doctor says it's my neck.  Physical Therapy doctor saif it's my shoulder.  I'm tired of hurting, but damn it, I'm not missing out on using the boat since I finally have everything working as it should be!

Plan was to only bring the electric rig, a descending rod/reel/rig, a small line counter rig and a bay stick if it got too rough out there.  It was raining on me the entire way down but seemed to clear up down at the bay.  Ahhh to have working steering again is a blast and my shoulder is thankful about it.



I was running about 18-20 mph the entire way out.  A little bumpy, but not bad at all.  I passed a few choice kelp paddies loaded with birds.  I check with the side sonar, but no one home.  At least the water was clean out here as it looked like chocolate milk coming out the inlet!



I got to my Red Numbers and made a drop.  Screen was lit up and I was expecting wide open fishing!  I decided against the electric reel until I went into really deep water (Over 500') but was at a comfy 360' and the reel had the handle on the other side, so I was good.

Little bites and little bites.  I was using an 8oz bucktail and a whole squid bait threaded on so it wouldn't fall off so easily.
I got slammed and it was big and pulling hard. About 30 feet off the bottom and it got off.  Ugh.  I tried a few more drops for nothing.  Fish were there but not biting so I moved from spot to spot trying to find some willing to bite.

I drop the jig down to the magic 360' number and the rod literally got pulled out of my hand!  This thing bit hard and kept dogging me the entire way up!  Totally a Lingcod!  I pulled the cork off the gaff as it got closer to the surface (one of the benefits of using a line counter reel). 
To my surprise, I saw the brown but with a HUGE mouth!  I haven't caught more than 5 Boccaccio over the last decade and this thing was bigger than them combined! Totally my PB 9.1# Salmon Grouper!



After that I couldn't get any interest, so decided to head to deeper water and try my luck there.  I hit 600' and caught the usual Green Striped, Green Blotched, Green Spotted, and Mexicans.

Things started to clear up.



A few patches of heavy rain thankfully blew right by me.



Then I went to 900'.... Nothing



Then I went to 1200'..... one little nibble but nothing.

Then I hit 1400' ... Nothing.

After 2 hours of nothing, I went back in to see if the bite turned on at the Red Spot.  Well, wasn't exactly what I was thinking about.



Decided to switch to tuna belly instead of squid to just try to switch anything up.  Instantaneously, I realized I should have tried the belly earlier!  Back-to-back big reds!  The type everyone hopes for!



All of these fish fought hard and it took a bit to get them to the surface, thus they had time to decompress.  Only thing I could think of as they were mean when they got to the surface!

I then was ready to pack it in but had to drop again.  This time I was sure I had a Lingcod!  Until I got it to the surface... WTF!  AGAIN!  It wasn't as long, but had a HUGE belly!



I decided to send this one back down on the descending device, but soon as it hit the water, It shot straight down.  What turned out slow really picked up big time!

I was back at the dock by 12:30 and what a 1/2 day trip!

That was it.  My shoulder tapped out and it took a little longer to get the boat cleaned up than I expected.  In any case, I was one fine morning!  Neighbors are going to be eating good with the other 8 fish, but I'm keeping the reds for some beer batter!

[Latimeria]

Forgot to mention for the deep dropping rigs, I tied a few heavy-duty ones on 100# test and used 4 swivels to make sure there wasn't any spin.

Well, that didn't work...



Freshly poured 2# sinker now down in the depths.

[jrodda]

Forgot to mention for the deep dropping rigs, I tied a few heavy-duty ones on 100# test and used 4 swivels to make sure there wasn't any spin.

Well, that didn't work...



Freshly poured 2# sinker now down in the depths.

The spin does get pretty crazy dropping past 800' or so.

Seriously nice quality once again Tom!

[Pinoyfisher]

Wow! Real nice quality on the bottom grabbers!

[Tim524]

Nice Return of The Curmudgeon    Looks like the big Salmon Groupers wanted to play, Congrats on the PB   

Great 1/2 day adventure as you covered all your bases and scored some nice fish