Elephant Rock Pier 9/19

#1
Conditions: Fished 1pm to 6pm, high tide was at 2pm.

Gear: Had one rod out hoping to catch a leopard shark (I've only actually ever caught small ones in the bay) and used primarily squid and thawed sardines. Had another rod with a Sabiki that I later switched to a hi-lo rigged w/ size 4 hooks and smalll squid. Current was heavy in the deeper waters and needed 8oz to hold bottom. I couldn't cast it very far with the rods that I had.

Fish: TONS of brown rockfish throughout the area. I couldn't keep them off the line with the hi-lo squid. Most were really small, with single the biggest one measured at 9". Doubled up on a dwarf perch and a rockfish at one point. The larger rod unfortunately never got any hits. I used squid and some magic thread, whole sardines, cut sardines, anchovies, etc. but all got gobbled up by the bait stealers. A couple red rock crabs got on my line as well and were promptly thrown back. I left when I ran out of squid (I'd only brought a small amount, unfortunately).

Other: Mostly shared the pier between myself and another family. They were actually using mostly freshwater gear; got a couple of very small black perch somehow on fly-like lures as well as a jacksmelt. As I left, another family came to crab. Mostly small ones that they threw back, but a good number into the hoop net in a 15 minute set.

Also, the yellow jackets were incredibly annoying. I got stung right on my finger about 30 minutes in and it was incredibly painful and swelling to numbness! Thankfully the rock fish action soon made up for it.

EDIT - another thing was that Fish and Game actually stopped by. The warden said she hadn't been by the pier in a while, but only asked how long I'd been there and how long I'd planned on staying.
 
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