Hit the Richmond shoreline for a couple hours after work today commencing at 3. A few familiar faces about that had been fishing since earlier but no fish. The main reason, no baitfish about in any numbers at all of any kind.
Fished some frozen, green bag bait anchovies for awhile while I tried for some type of live baitfish like smelt or shiners. No avail on that for a couple hours. Some of the recognizable faces were beginning to depart now fishless.
I tried to think of some strategies of different ways to present the chovies, in example: sliding rig with bait suspended off the bay floor a foot and under a float a la Berkeley bobber rig; still not a scratch.
Finally, late in the day, I managed to catch one shiner and one bullhead. I set the shiner out on a fixed sliding rig where the hook line is perpendicular to the mainline with two ounces of lead (Basically like the packaged rigs for Cali Hali from Blackbelt and Hayward Tackle adding 2 or 3 feet to the bottom on the weight drop).
About 15 minutes later, my GDude, 10ft salmon spinning rod with Shimano 4000 Spirex and 30# braid doubles down with line stripping off. I pick up the rod to see the line swam off to the side. I pick up some slack, adjust the drag slightly to feel a slight tug and some pressure on the line. I take an upward swing to make sure the hooks make contact with something and the rod bends in half.
A short fight and a miss on the net from someone assisting, and the 24” halibut below is motioned into the net by me (as I hand my rod to some else) for my first but of the season (that came up keeper). Remember last week on Wednesday I mentioned I lost a striper at the net with hooks that weren’t set well. Fish are out there....
Fished some frozen, green bag bait anchovies for awhile while I tried for some type of live baitfish like smelt or shiners. No avail on that for a couple hours. Some of the recognizable faces were beginning to depart now fishless.
I tried to think of some strategies of different ways to present the chovies, in example: sliding rig with bait suspended off the bay floor a foot and under a float a la Berkeley bobber rig; still not a scratch.
Finally, late in the day, I managed to catch one shiner and one bullhead. I set the shiner out on a fixed sliding rig where the hook line is perpendicular to the mainline with two ounces of lead (Basically like the packaged rigs for Cali Hali from Blackbelt and Hayward Tackle adding 2 or 3 feet to the bottom on the weight drop).
About 15 minutes later, my GDude, 10ft salmon spinning rod with Shimano 4000 Spirex and 30# braid doubles down with line stripping off. I pick up the rod to see the line swam off to the side. I pick up some slack, adjust the drag slightly to feel a slight tug and some pressure on the line. I take an upward swing to make sure the hooks make contact with something and the rod bends in half.
A short fight and a miss on the net from someone assisting, and the 24” halibut below is motioned into the net by me (as I hand my rod to some else) for my first but of the season (that came up keeper). Remember last week on Wednesday I mentioned I lost a striper at the net with hooks that weren’t set well. Fish are out there....
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