Hey guys,
Took my gal up to Ventura Sportfishing and jumped on the Island Spirit for the opener. Full load of 30 mixed passengers. Capt Cody was driving and sorry but I forgot the names of the 3 deckands and cook ( "Fin" was one name I remembered)
Anyway capt said wind was blowing the night before so instead if heading over to the islands, We made a right and headed up the coast to some deep water spots. Said we would be fishing about 400-550 feet deep to start.
I had brought 3 rigs.
1) Dropper Loop -Calstar 800M with Penn Fathom 25N filled with 50lb braid to 20' of 40lb mono. (low gear swap).
2) Slow Pitch-Black Hole Cape Cod Special 662HMF with Shimano 16NA filled with 40lb braid to 10' of 50lb flouro.
3) Slow Pitch-Temple Reef Innovate 80 MH with Accurate Vailant 500N filled with 30lb braid to 10' of 50lb flouro
Conditions were cold and breezy with associated chop for the ride up. Some mild swell in the water and beautiful clear skies.
We started fishing and I had my gal start out with the dropper loop with 16oz of wt. I was committed to jigging all day. First drop and all lines scoped way out before hitting bottom. Wind and current were pushing us at around 3mph. Nothing bit on that drop and I quickly switched out the wt on my girls rig to 20 oz and switched my jig from form a teardrop shape to a longer/narrow shape (250g). We re-set and things worked out much better as fish started coming aboard slowly.
My setup changes worked much better and my gal and I were able to get down faster than most other folks using lighter weights. Even with 20oz, the dropper loops were scooping out quite a bit. With a short cast upwind, I was able to hit bottom while still vertical but soon scoped out with the wind/current. Little adjustment to that and it was game on.
We spent the day doing multiple drifts along the stretch of coast with the rest of the day fleet. Typical rockfishing with some drops more productive than others but good fishing. Species seen caught were Reds, Bosco, Bank Perch, Johnny Bass, Canary, Green Spotted, Flag, Starry, Grouper, Chile Peppers, and Lingcod. Heard that a Cowcod was caught and depth released but I didn't see it.
I did pull up a fish with a red crab in its throat.
Pinned it on my girls dropper loop and she picked up a nice Chile on it.
Conditions got better and better through out the day with less wind and current and though we didn't have wide open bites, It made for a great day of fishing especially since I was jigging all day and my gal jigged 50% of the time. Limits all around the boat and a nice ride home.
The new capt cook,and crew did a great job with a lot of communication. And customer service was great. I have to give it to Cody. He was a hawk up in the wheel house. Any time a fish came up or a tangle happened, he was calling it out on the PA and the crew was on it Pronto. Made for a great day of fishing instead of the nightmare of tangles it could have been. The crew even made sure everybody stayed on one side of the boat during the morning drifts.
Haven't been on the Island Spirit in a few years but glad to say that Tucker and Cody are running a nice operation !
Took my gal up to Ventura Sportfishing and jumped on the Island Spirit for the opener. Full load of 30 mixed passengers. Capt Cody was driving and sorry but I forgot the names of the 3 deckands and cook ( "Fin" was one name I remembered)
Anyway capt said wind was blowing the night before so instead if heading over to the islands, We made a right and headed up the coast to some deep water spots. Said we would be fishing about 400-550 feet deep to start.
I had brought 3 rigs.
1) Dropper Loop -Calstar 800M with Penn Fathom 25N filled with 50lb braid to 20' of 40lb mono. (low gear swap).
2) Slow Pitch-Black Hole Cape Cod Special 662HMF with Shimano 16NA filled with 40lb braid to 10' of 50lb flouro.
3) Slow Pitch-Temple Reef Innovate 80 MH with Accurate Vailant 500N filled with 30lb braid to 10' of 50lb flouro
Conditions were cold and breezy with associated chop for the ride up. Some mild swell in the water and beautiful clear skies.
We started fishing and I had my gal start out with the dropper loop with 16oz of wt. I was committed to jigging all day. First drop and all lines scoped way out before hitting bottom. Wind and current were pushing us at around 3mph. Nothing bit on that drop and I quickly switched out the wt on my girls rig to 20 oz and switched my jig from form a teardrop shape to a longer/narrow shape (250g). We re-set and things worked out much better as fish started coming aboard slowly.
My setup changes worked much better and my gal and I were able to get down faster than most other folks using lighter weights. Even with 20oz, the dropper loops were scooping out quite a bit. With a short cast upwind, I was able to hit bottom while still vertical but soon scoped out with the wind/current. Little adjustment to that and it was game on.
We spent the day doing multiple drifts along the stretch of coast with the rest of the day fleet. Typical rockfishing with some drops more productive than others but good fishing. Species seen caught were Reds, Bosco, Bank Perch, Johnny Bass, Canary, Green Spotted, Flag, Starry, Grouper, Chile Peppers, and Lingcod. Heard that a Cowcod was caught and depth released but I didn't see it.
Conditions got better and better through out the day with less wind and current and though we didn't have wide open bites, It made for a great day of fishing especially since I was jigging all day and my gal jigged 50% of the time. Limits all around the boat and a nice ride home.
The new capt cook,and crew did a great job with a lot of communication. And customer service was great. I have to give it to Cody. He was a hawk up in the wheel house. Any time a fish came up or a tangle happened, he was calling it out on the PA and the crew was on it Pronto. Made for a great day of fishing instead of the nightmare of tangles it could have been. The crew even made sure everybody stayed on one side of the boat during the morning drifts.
Haven't been on the Island Spirit in a few years but glad to say that Tucker and Cody are running a nice operation !
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