Got there around 6:15AM. Our plan was for me to get out to the end of the Jetty quicker and save some spots while my girl took her time walking the rocks. I got to the end around 6:30AM and started fishing the south side of the jetty (outlet for the harbor). This is calmer water and seems more bass and halibut friendly than the north side which is rougher more like the open Ocean where there seems to be more mackerel and Bonito. I was fishing a cast-a-bubble style bobber with a weedless jig head and a white plastic fluke. I got hit twice pretty hard on this rig but lost the first first and didn't hook the second and lost my plastic. While I was fishing the south side guys fishing the north pulled in about 5 bonito in 30 minutes. I got the SOS from my girl saying that she wasn't willing to try to get to the end so I gathered up our stuff and met her where she was about halfway down the jetty from shore.
We fished the north side this time. I was fishing a 15g jigpara while she was fishing a bobber rig with two small sabiki hooks and a 1 ounce torpedo sinker. She was using green peas initially and then salted shrimp. As she drew her rig towards the rocks and the kelp beds just off the jetty she would immediately get bite. Her hook rate was surprisingly low given that she was using smaller hooks (size 6 Hayabusa sabiki hooks). In about 4 hours of fishing the 15g jigpara I hooked two bonito, only one of which I landed. The other jumped just I was going to raise him out of the water and dehooked himself. I caught my personal best mackerel and a small calico bass. Not a ton of action but it was spaced out enough and varied enough that it kept me motivated. Plus I've been trying to catch my first bonito from shore so hooking two and landing one was a big deal!
My girl caught a small halfmoon, a slightly bigger pile perch, and a jack smelt. Our biggest challenge was trying to find a spot on the rocks to deal with the fish. We are used to dispatching and bleeding the fish immediately after catching them and finding a place to do that in the middle of the jetty was difficult. We actually lost that big mackerel because it shook and found a gap in the rocks to get back to the ocean. The end is much easier because they filled the gaps in the end with concrete to create a flatter surface. I fished the last hour with a high-low rig with some size 8 circle hooks trying to hook the fish that had been stealing my girls bait all day. I landed a mystery pink perch which I have a picture of but could not identify.
A guy who came back from the end reported that he had caught 30 bonito that morning on a feather rig. He said the bonito were biting at the surface so that's why he caught so many on his feather rig and I hooked only a couple hopping my jig at a lower distance.
Thanks to everyone who gave us advice and thanks to DiegoGarciaWahoos who gave me that 15g jigpara and taught me how to fish it on a earlier meetup at the HB Pier!
I'm excited about going back. I feel like the south side has potential that I left untapped. I'd be curious to see how fishing a swim bait on that side would work.
We fished the north side this time. I was fishing a 15g jigpara while she was fishing a bobber rig with two small sabiki hooks and a 1 ounce torpedo sinker. She was using green peas initially and then salted shrimp. As she drew her rig towards the rocks and the kelp beds just off the jetty she would immediately get bite. Her hook rate was surprisingly low given that she was using smaller hooks (size 6 Hayabusa sabiki hooks). In about 4 hours of fishing the 15g jigpara I hooked two bonito, only one of which I landed. The other jumped just I was going to raise him out of the water and dehooked himself. I caught my personal best mackerel and a small calico bass. Not a ton of action but it was spaced out enough and varied enough that it kept me motivated. Plus I've been trying to catch my first bonito from shore so hooking two and landing one was a big deal!
My girl caught a small halfmoon, a slightly bigger pile perch, and a jack smelt. Our biggest challenge was trying to find a spot on the rocks to deal with the fish. We are used to dispatching and bleeding the fish immediately after catching them and finding a place to do that in the middle of the jetty was difficult. We actually lost that big mackerel because it shook and found a gap in the rocks to get back to the ocean. The end is much easier because they filled the gaps in the end with concrete to create a flatter surface. I fished the last hour with a high-low rig with some size 8 circle hooks trying to hook the fish that had been stealing my girls bait all day. I landed a mystery pink perch which I have a picture of but could not identify.
A guy who came back from the end reported that he had caught 30 bonito that morning on a feather rig. He said the bonito were biting at the surface so that's why he caught so many on his feather rig and I hooked only a couple hopping my jig at a lower distance.
Thanks to everyone who gave us advice and thanks to DiegoGarciaWahoos who gave me that 15g jigpara and taught me how to fish it on a earlier meetup at the HB Pier!
I'm excited about going back. I feel like the south side has potential that I left untapped. I'd be curious to see how fishing a swim bait on that side would work.
