I got to Fort Bragg two days ago helping out good friends of mine who live there and lost a family member lately. My wife and I are house sitting taking care of their 3 dogs and 11 chickens.
After getting settled, I hit the jetty. It was a great minus tide of -1.4’ at 9:30am. Overcast but no rain and no winds. I got there around 9am and fished till 11am. Jetty was pretty open. At the end of its short length, there were a couple of anglers targeting something large casting out and that was it., pretty much empty. I started with poke polling with my 12 foot crappy pole, 5” 30lb test leader and size 1 live bait hook with o ring. I picked up frozen prawns at the tackle shop. Market squid would be a better choice but I did not want to wait to thaw it.
When I got there, two gents were surveying the jetty discussing about all spots that were getting damaged/broken. They were discussing to fix but I could not hear how.
With my spikes on my boots, I carefully went down on the slippery rocks and start to search for fishy holes. The first hit was a short cabezon followed by a short greenling. I actually had never caught a greenling so it is my first!
After poking different holes, I found my first monkey face prickleback. I found a nest hole pretty shallow but horizontally long. Caught two in there. After that, I moved in to an area that was looking good, I got this enormous one: what appear to be 3 foot long and 10lb. I left my net away and next thing was it snapped my too-weak leader as I was pondering how I could bring it up to land, managing the slippery rocks without injury. It happily went back to its nest becoming one of those who got away. Still I ended up with a nice haul.
Losing my hook, I took it as a message to finish it up as tides are starting to come in. I climed up on rocks carefully back to safety. I made a hi lo rig then to try for sea perches. I always be able to find these striped perch there and did find a good spot where I managed a succession of a dozen or so striped perch including two 14 inchers.
The eels and a perch made a nice dinner for us tonight. Tomorrow, I plan to go out to test my luck on some deep sea work. Rumor says that some pacific halibuts and sablefish are found in the area…..
After getting settled, I hit the jetty. It was a great minus tide of -1.4’ at 9:30am. Overcast but no rain and no winds. I got there around 9am and fished till 11am. Jetty was pretty open. At the end of its short length, there were a couple of anglers targeting something large casting out and that was it., pretty much empty. I started with poke polling with my 12 foot crappy pole, 5” 30lb test leader and size 1 live bait hook with o ring. I picked up frozen prawns at the tackle shop. Market squid would be a better choice but I did not want to wait to thaw it.
When I got there, two gents were surveying the jetty discussing about all spots that were getting damaged/broken. They were discussing to fix but I could not hear how.
With my spikes on my boots, I carefully went down on the slippery rocks and start to search for fishy holes. The first hit was a short cabezon followed by a short greenling. I actually had never caught a greenling so it is my first!
After poking different holes, I found my first monkey face prickleback. I found a nest hole pretty shallow but horizontally long. Caught two in there. After that, I moved in to an area that was looking good, I got this enormous one: what appear to be 3 foot long and 10lb. I left my net away and next thing was it snapped my too-weak leader as I was pondering how I could bring it up to land, managing the slippery rocks without injury. It happily went back to its nest becoming one of those who got away. Still I ended up with a nice haul.
Losing my hook, I took it as a message to finish it up as tides are starting to come in. I climed up on rocks carefully back to safety. I made a hi lo rig then to try for sea perches. I always be able to find these striped perch there and did find a good spot where I managed a succession of a dozen or so striped perch including two 14 inchers.
The eels and a perch made a nice dinner for us tonight. Tomorrow, I plan to go out to test my luck on some deep sea work. Rumor says that some pacific halibuts and sablefish are found in the area…..
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