WARNING: This is long and rambly with only one picture. Feel free to skip around.
I was able to get some time this Saturday to go fishing. I originally wanted to go check out the Seacliff and Capitola piers, but decided to go to Monterey since traffic was gonna be terrible either way.
After an hour of driving, I arrived at Wharf no.2 at 1:44pm. There was a modest crowd, all using sabiki and mostly concentrated at the end for the school of anchovies circling the Wharf. As I was setting up my own sabiki, a young Asian woman spotted a salmon cruising over the anchovies. Sure enough, there he was, the fish of many my dreams, casually cruising at a slow, steady past me and the sabiki crowd.
I temporarily abandoned my thoughts of anchovies, and set up my Pacifica rigs I had brought. "Just in case" had just turn to "NO WAY!!!" I pinned the first bait I snagged, a lively herring, and sent the rig down it's merry way. I kept jigging up anchovies, and noticed the salmon bobber jiggle to the side, a sign of panicking bait. And then...nothing. I waited for 20 more minutes and decided to check and was meet with a bare hook.
I threaded on a decent sized live anchovy, mooching style and used my lighter, deeper trolly rig I had made at home. I sent it down and 30min later almost had a heart attack as the bobber plunged a whole foot under water. I tried reeling in since the hook is supposed to do the work, but just only got back a mangled anchovy.
Throwing out another anchovy, the bobber almost immediately started straight for the pilings under my feet! I reeled again, feeling the weight of the fish, but sadly the circle hook missed again 😡. After that, no more bites on the trolly rig. But man, that was fun.
I kept filling my bait bucket, and gave my last spare size 3 sabiki to a young Mexican boy next to me who wasn't having any luck. Since he and his family were fishing just for fun, they threw any anchovies they caught into my bucket. I kept fishing for another hour, and traded another fisherman my sabiki rig for his mackerel sized one.
I made it to the Coast Guard pier at 4:58pm and did my usual hole hopping technique. I got a smaller ~16-18in monkeyface eel and a few small rockfish and cabezon.
The bite here wasn't too good, since the tide was lower and I couldn't see the "boils" of water flowing between the rocks. Still, the eel was enough for me, and I left at 7:37pm since the Coast Guard came to close up shop.
Total catch:
1 monkeyface eel (kept)
2 rockfish (released)
27 anchovies (kept)
5 jacksmelt (kept)
2 cabezon (released)
1 king salmon? (missed)
I was able to get some time this Saturday to go fishing. I originally wanted to go check out the Seacliff and Capitola piers, but decided to go to Monterey since traffic was gonna be terrible either way.
After an hour of driving, I arrived at Wharf no.2 at 1:44pm. There was a modest crowd, all using sabiki and mostly concentrated at the end for the school of anchovies circling the Wharf. As I was setting up my own sabiki, a young Asian woman spotted a salmon cruising over the anchovies. Sure enough, there he was, the fish of many my dreams, casually cruising at a slow, steady past me and the sabiki crowd.
I temporarily abandoned my thoughts of anchovies, and set up my Pacifica rigs I had brought. "Just in case" had just turn to "NO WAY!!!" I pinned the first bait I snagged, a lively herring, and sent the rig down it's merry way. I kept jigging up anchovies, and noticed the salmon bobber jiggle to the side, a sign of panicking bait. And then...nothing. I waited for 20 more minutes and decided to check and was meet with a bare hook.
I threaded on a decent sized live anchovy, mooching style and used my lighter, deeper trolly rig I had made at home. I sent it down and 30min later almost had a heart attack as the bobber plunged a whole foot under water. I tried reeling in since the hook is supposed to do the work, but just only got back a mangled anchovy.
Throwing out another anchovy, the bobber almost immediately started straight for the pilings under my feet! I reeled again, feeling the weight of the fish, but sadly the circle hook missed again 😡. After that, no more bites on the trolly rig. But man, that was fun.
I kept filling my bait bucket, and gave my last spare size 3 sabiki to a young Mexican boy next to me who wasn't having any luck. Since he and his family were fishing just for fun, they threw any anchovies they caught into my bucket. I kept fishing for another hour, and traded another fisherman my sabiki rig for his mackerel sized one.
I made it to the Coast Guard pier at 4:58pm and did my usual hole hopping technique. I got a smaller ~16-18in monkeyface eel and a few small rockfish and cabezon.
The bite here wasn't too good, since the tide was lower and I couldn't see the "boils" of water flowing between the rocks. Still, the eel was enough for me, and I left at 7:37pm since the Coast Guard came to close up shop.
Total catch:
1 monkeyface eel (kept)
2 rockfish (released)
27 anchovies (kept)
5 jacksmelt (kept)
2 cabezon (released)
1 king salmon? (missed)
