Newport 11/23 sculpin central

[JFurst]

Fished the canyon and pipe yesterday late morning to the mid afternoon. Couldn’t find anything at pipe (feel a bit lost looking in that area to be honest). So we spent most of our time drifting the canyon in between the piers 250-130 ft deep with the current pushing us inshore to shallower water. Wide open on Sand dabs in every depth and would get a really good hit on the sculpin between 140-180 ft on every drift. Ended the day with 4 legal sculps (20+ shorts), more sand dabs released than I could count, a few Mac attacks, and one short sand bass. Really like to eat sculpin so was pretty pleased.
I plan to go back to pipe and see if I can make something happen in that area, I’ve heard good things I think I just need to put some time in. Also thinking of going a bit further into the canyon next time for a shot at reds and hopefully more rockfish. Super fun day overall and beautiful conditions. Tight lines boys.

 

[Tom123]

Sculpin Sashimi. Yum.

Ratio on legals/shorts seems about right.

 

[Tin Pangas]

didn't they put a size restriction on Sculpin?

 

[JFurst]

didn't they put a size restriction on Sculpin?

10 inches, all the shorts were released.

 

[Lubina]

10” limit 5

 

[watersdeep]

Ummmmmm sand dabs!!!!

 

[pacificscout]

Fun report.
Glad you made it work.

 

[gettingbentwithbo]

Love me some sculpin!

 

[Oldtimer2]

Fished the canyon and pipe yesterday late morning to the mid afternoon. Couldn’t find anything at pipe (feel a bit lost looking in that area to be honest). So we spent most of our time drifting the canyon in between the piers 250-130 ft deep with the current pushing us inshore to shallower water. Wide open on Sand dabs in every depth and would get a really good hit on the sculpin between 140-180 ft on every drift. Ended the day with 4 legal sculps (20+ shorts), more sand dabs released than I could count, a few Mac attacks, and one short sand bass.

JFurst, nice report. Congrats on your good luck. Skulpin is good eaing.
Two questions:

1] What were you using at the pipe? Sardines? Swim baits? What?

2] You DID keep some sand dabs, didn't you? They are a semipain to clean, but they sure as heck taste great. (You say you released them all.)

 

[JFurst]

JFurst, nice report. Congrats on your good luck. Skulpin is good eaing.
Two questions:

1] What were you using at the pipe? Sardines? Swim baits? What?

2] You DID keep some sand dabs, didn't you? They are a semipain to clean, but they sure as heck taste great. (You say you released them all.)

1) Tried a few things at pipe - dropper loop with squid, fly lined some small mackeral (bait dock is closed so no live sardines, and tossed some lead heads with 3-4 inch plastics on them. Had a few marks in the shallow area near old pipe but no takers.

2) I did keep two of the bigger sand dabs, going to cook them up tonight with the sculpin. Basically just cut their heads/fins off and took out the guts - not sure how else to clean those boney bastards!

 

[Reefmo]

1) Tried a few things at pipe - dropper loop with squid, fly lined some small mackeral (bait dock is closed so no live sardines, and tossed some lead heads with 3-4 inch plastics on them. Had a few marks in the shallow area near old pipe but no takers.

2) I did keep two of the bigger sand dabs, going to cook them up tonight with the sculpin. Basically just cut their heads/fins off and took out the guts - not sure how else to clean those boney bastards!

I clean em like a bluegill... head, guts, scale em. Cook them like bluegill too... deep fried with cornmeal.

 

[Hey-19]

Then do you eat them bones and all?

 

[ShadowX]

Nice. It seems like there is a lot less sculpins caught this year than last year.

 

[PoolMan]

The bones just lift off the meat.

 

[reelbadlarry]

Nice. It seems like there is a lot less sculpins caught this year than last year.

They are going the sandbass route....no bass target sculpin...no sculpin target sand dabs...no dabs...target mackeral….we are almost there...

 

[gettingbentwithbo]

1) Tried a few things at pipe - dropper loop with squid, fly lined some small mackeral (bait dock is closed so no live sardines, and tossed some lead heads with 3-4 inch plastics on them. Had a few marks in the shallow area near old pipe but no takers.

2) I did keep two of the bigger sand dabs, going to cook them up tonight with the sculpin. Basically just cut their heads/fins off and took out the guts - not sure how else to clean those boney bastards!

If you are specifically targeting sculpin run a double dropper loop with 2 red or white curly tailed grubs with lead heads and put a strip of squid on them. Drop to the bottom and wait for a bite! They WILL bite.

 

[acefuture]

The pipe is kind of odd to figure out the first couple times but once you get it, it makes sense. This time of year you can easily find it by the traps set up along the drop off. Keep an eye on your FF and parallel the beach. As soon as you see it drop off (most of it is 15 - 20ft drop) Then turn either out to sea, or into the beach. It runs perpendicular to the beach and slowly turns south as it goes out. Fish the drop, you will see fish congregated along the drop off in various spots on your sonar. Swim baits, chunked baits, live bait, squid, all bass gear has worked

 

[bazzturd]

JFurst, nice report. Congrats on your good luck. Skulpin is good eaing.
Two questions:

1] What were you using at the pipe? Sardines? Swim baits? What?

2] You DID keep some sand dabs, didn't you? They are a semipain to clean, but they sure as heck taste great. (You say you released them all.)

Dabs are easy to clean. Use scissors to cut the fins off, head and gut line. Eat them like ribs and never get a bone. Minced garlic mixed with corn meal, bread them and pan fry.

 

[JFurst]

If you are specifically targeting sculpin run a double dropper loop with 2 red or white curly tailed grubs with lead heads and put a strip of squid on them. Drop to the bottom and wait for a bite! They WILL bite.

I will have to try the lead head grubs. We were fishing double dropper loop with squid strips on size 1 hooks and they were hammering it, just had to be in 140-180ft of water which we would drift over pretty quickly with the current pushing us inshore - lots of setting back up running back out to deeper water and drifting back in. I bet the canyon would be a blast on a day with good uphill or downhill current.

The pipe is kind of odd to figure out the first couple times but once you get it, it makes sense. This time of year you can easily find it by the traps set up along the drop off. Keep an eye on your FF and parallel the beach. As soon as you see it drop off (most of it is 15 - 20ft drop) Then turn either out to sea, or into the beach. It runs perpendicular to the beach and slowly turns south as it goes out. Fish the drop, you will see fish congregated along the drop off in various spots on your sonar. Swim baits, chunked baits, live bait, squid, all bass gear has worked

Thanks for the tips. I did at first setup near the traps and that was the only spot I could mark fish. I can see the pipe on my Simrad chart plotter, but when I was looking around I would run up and down the pipe (perpendicular to the beach) rather than parallel. We were being pushed inshore and slightly uphill so felt like I kind of ended up in no-mans-land.

 

[gettingbentwithbo]

I will have to try the lead head grubs. We were fishing double dropper loop with squid strips on size 1 hooks and they were hammering it, just had to be in 140-180ft of water which we would drift over pretty quickly with the current pushing us inshore - lots of setting back up running back out to deeper water and drifting back in. I bet the canyon would be a blast on a day with good uphill or downhill current.

Looks like it's time to get one of those GPS trolling motors to keep you on the spot.

 

[Steveo77]

Looks like a relaxing day on the water.
If your fishing for the sculpin and want to keep the dabs off your hook, just use the lead heads with plastic- no squid. The dabs will stay off your hook and the sculpins will be on it.
Did I say a red lead head and a root beer grub? Yeah, that seems to work for me if I target the sculpin