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Liberty 2-Day Cortez Bank - 10/25-26/2008
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(... the saga continues....)
so I decided to try that for a while and see if I could at least take home something for a dinner or two. The rock fish were quite small, and just when I was about to give up, Captain Tino came over and share with me his own little secret. Really? Hmmm… I dropped down a whole squid, and within a few seconds was rewarded with a heavy tug on my line, and pulled up a big tree fish! I ran that to my sack, waving it at Tino as I went by, grabbed another squid, and resumed my spot. It was only a few seconds before another heavy tug yielded a nice big sheephead!
By the time I got back to my spot, Capt. Tino was there as well, and asked if I’d mind sharing my sheephead honey hole. No, go right ahead. But I’d no sooner hit bottom that there was a flash of excitement in the stern. One of the guys was hooked up, and it seemed to be the right kind! Tino wound up his line and ran to help. I hadn’t been paying attention, and by the time I check my line, I was stuck. I yanked on it until I broke off my weight, and pulled up a nice little mackerel. I grabbed my bait rod, hooking the mackerel on as I ran for the stern and tossed it out. By then, we had our first yellowtail for Sunday on deck. Our time was nearly up, but we all thought things were looking up.
Then I got a tug on my little mackerel. I set the hook and knew immediately I was in the rocks. Tugging at it gently, I worked it loose, and although the fish on the end was putting up a bit of a fight, it was no yellowtail, and no bonito. What I dragged up was one of the biggest sculpin I’d seen in a long time!
Kinder, gentler sculpin, with the spines removed.
The swell had grown through the morning. Capt. Tino estimated it at times to be nearly 20 feet, but at a very long interval. The Toronado came in and anchored not far from us, and between the swells they were there, and then they were gone!
You can sort of see the swell in the background here...
And suddenly there were thick schools of those macks dancing on the surface around the boat. Dave rigged up a sabiki, and started snagging some of them. Kenny grabbed a knife from the galley and unhooked them into the handwells. I grabbed a lively looking one and tossed it out, and hooked up almost immediately! Captain Tino declared it the “right kind” and Dave put down his sabiki to help run interference for me. The fish headed to the bow. Captain Greg yelled down we were scoped out pretty far on the anchor, the rope shouldn’t be a problem. Just ask they grabbed my rod to pass under the bow, the fish headed the other direction. I was gaining line, and saw a flash of color. Just a few more winds, and….
Somewhere between the point where I hooked into a nice yellow in the stern, and we gaffed it in the bow, my yellowtail turned into a big bonito. Let me say now, we were catching some big bonito, with some of them running to 15 pounds. And the bigger ones seemed to make some good runs without giving you that rattling shake that usually signals you’ve hooked a bonito.
