2012 California Road Trip (Day 3)

The GPS was my best friend on this trip. I had resisted relying on a GPS for a very, very long time. I always believe it is much better to navigate by maps. However, I finally gave in on this trip since there were just too many routes to plan.

Today, I had a long day of driving from Los Angeles to Half Moon Bay, approximately 6 hours of continuous driving. I decided to take a couple of strategic stops along the way. I started off on Highway 5 driving west through the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest. The landscape was quite interesting but there were nowhere to stop and take pictures on the steep and windy road. After we drop out of the mountains though, I made a washroom stop and snapped a picture back toward the mountains.

From Bakersfield to Coalinga, the landscape was mostly flat and the road was straight. There were many crop fields and cattle farms along the way. It was not uncommon to see trucks and trucks filled with fresh tomatoes this time of year. Passing through one of the few large cattle farms was rather unsightly and stinky since over tens of thousands of cattle out on the open land made quite a mess.

About 4 hours into the drive, the GPS lead me to Highway 152. This was the Pacheco Pass Highway. It was a very scenic route that I was very happy to have driven through. This picture did not do the area justice since much of the beauty was encountered on the many uphill and downhill sections of the drive with its many turns and twists.

Somewhere along the way, I found a little road to pull out and snapped a couple of pictures.

Once in Gilroy, I made a longer lunch stop. My journey then headed north on Highway 101, onto Route 85 and finally Highway 280. At long last, I turned off the highway onto San Mateo Road west toward Half Moon Bay. It was very interest that toward the coast, the cloud cover built and fog enveloped the road as we climbed. There was a lot of traffic for some reason. I later found out that just across the peak, the weather had cleared and it was a beautiful beach day for NorCal. I didn’t know this when we started our descent down the other side of the mountain.

I finally arrived at Half Moon Bay at 2pm. I was a little early and two of my friends had not arrive yet, so I took a few pictures of the area.

At about 3pm, Adam finally arrived. I had a chat with Adam to discuss our game plan. I had left the gear at the car since I was uncertain what I would need. So while I went back to the car to grab my rod and reel, Adam attacked a jetty in the area that we would be fishing on.

The jetty was just under 4000 feet long. It was a long and slow journey across the large boulders. We were planning to fish near the end of the jetty so the long hike was good for my heart LOL. The rocks for most parts were dry and it was easy skipping from one boulder to the next. I did have a scary moment when I lost grip on one stride and almost fell forward. When I arrived, Adam was already well into fishing. Since I didn’t have any suitable lures, he gave me a 6” Big Hammer swimbait and a 1oz darter jig head. We would cast these as far as possible and retrieve it back toward the jetty with a steady retrieve. It was important to crawl these lures up the angled façade or the jetty rock since lingcod and rockfish often hid amongst the rocks.

We fished these for a while without any attention from the fish. Soon, Teng also arrived and we decided to switch up our presentation. Teng rigged me with with a dropshot rig using a length of pencil lead, a weedless hook and a white jerk shad. Both Teng and I fished this dropshot while Adam switched to a 3/4oz darter head and a 4” Berkley Gulp! Shrimp. With the dropshot rig, we would slowly and methodically work the bottom crawling it back toward the jetty then dropping it between crevices.

It was not too long after the switch that Adam hooked into a small Lingcod. Adam said this was his confidence bait. A while later, he found a school of Black Rockfish and caught a couple. Teng had a few hits on the dropshot while I had nary a hit. At about 6pm, Adam had to call it an evening. He gave me a few of the Gulp! Shrimp and wished me all the best. I really did need some luck!

Teng and I fished closer and closer to the end of the jetty. As Adam instructed, I casted the lure out and slowly popped the jig back to the jetty. On one cast, my lure stopped dead on the drop and I set the hook. We were fishing pretty buttoned down drag since we wanted to pull fish out of the rocks quickly, especially the Lingcod. My fish was hooked far out from the jetty and I had a feeling what it could be. It was indeed a Black Rockfish!

Black Rockfish (Sebastes melanops) – new species #8.

It was nice to shake the skunk off with a new species.

A little while later, I found the school again and caught another Black Rockfish. I was really hoping for a Lingcod but the fish would not reveal themselves. Just before dark, Teng finally shook the skunk with a Brown Rockfish using the dropshot rig.

By the time we got off the jetty, it was already 9pm. Teng and I visited a restaurant for fishing food that he must have every time he fished here…Popeye’s Chicken! Teng treated me to a great Popeye’s dinner and left me with a number of lures and soft plastics to try the next day. Thanks to Adam and Teng for showing me how to fish the jetty! We parted ways after dinner and I made my way to my motel in Redwood City. It was a little more rundown than I had expected, but I was only really staying there for two nights. At least I had a decent bed to sleep on. I was in bed by 12am since I would challenge the another jetty early next morning.

2012 California Road Trip (Day 2)

I woke up today at 4:00am to arrive at Oxnard before 5:30am. With a bit of luck, I was notified a coupon to the 3/4-day fishing boat, the Gentlemen, out of Channel Island Sportfishing. I've seen many reports on scsurffing.com regarding the Channel Islands, a series of islands to the west of Oxnard, that have phenomenal bottom fishing for rockfish species and lingcod. Unfortunately, the fishing had slowed to a crawl just before my trip. Instead of fishing the Channel Islands, my captain decided to fish along the California coast. I was wondering how this would affect the variety of fish to be caught.

We had a full boat today since everyone was taking advantage of the coupon.

We took a 1-hour boat ride south along the coast. We slowed as the captain searched the 180’ depth for rocky bottom structures that could hold fish. After a few minutes of snaking along this area, the captain drove a circle around a spot and finally asked the deckhands to drop anchor.

During the ride, I had rigged up my 7’ UglyStik Tiger rod, Saltist BG 40 reel holding 300 yards of 65lb Sufix 832 braid with a 50’ top shot of 40lb Big Game mono. I tied a 150lb swivel to the end of the 40lb mono, then tied on a dropper loop rig of 30lb mono. We were fishing fairly deep water, so I used a 10oz torpedo sinker to make sure the line was kept as vertical as possible. If the lines are drifting at an angle, this would result in endless tangles with your fishing neighbours on either side of you, or even worst the fishing people on the other side of the boat.

Although we had live anchovies on the boat, we started fishing using squid. On the first drop, I detected some small bites and set the hook. Something small was struggling on the other end which I found to be a Calico Rockfish

Calico Rockfish (Sebastes dalli) - new species #1

The next drop, there was another little tap. I reeled up a Pacific Sanddab, a species I had already caught on the previous trips to California. Catching these Sanddabs indicated we were on a sandy bottom.

Nothing was really going on at this spot. I caught a few more Calico Rockfish and Pacific Sanddab. The captain asked everyone to reel up so we could try another area.

At the second spot, my dropper loop rig was hit on the first drop! This fish fought a little more.

Vermillion Rockfish (Sebastes miniatus) – new species #2

A couple of missed hits later, I set the hook on another fish. This fish looked a bit like a Vermillion Rockfish, but the white lateral line suggested it was a Canary Rockfish. A Canary Rockfish usually has a dark patch on the spiny dorsal that is missing in this fish. I really don’t know how to call this fish. I would catch a confirmed Canary Rockfish at a later date, so I wasn’t too hasty on calling this a new species caught just yet. Since I wasn't sure of the identity of this rockfish, and the fact that Canary Rockfish is a protected species, I released it promptly.

After we drifted off the spot, we readjusted anchor. The current was either really strong this day or we were just fishing on a relatively flat and sandy bottom. Whatever the case, the anchor was often slipping. A few drops later, I finally had a hit and yielded yet another new rockfish species. This was a Greenblotched Rockfish. This fish was especially difficult to identify. While many people on the forums suggest it was a Rosy Rockfish, I stood by my observation that there were green wavy markings on the back. A few of my pictures were examined by Dr. Milton Love and his associates (Thanks to Roy for forwarding them to Dr. Love!) Their consensus was juvenile Greenblotched Rockfish, especially these words by Dr. Love "...because the green on the back seems to form vermiculations rather than distinct spots." In this particular picture (and really only in the picture), you could attempt to count the pectoral ray of this fish. There were 17 pectoral ray, which identifies it as a Greenblotched Rockfish (typically 17) and distinguish it from a Pink Rockfish (typically 18). Anyways, a little bit of an ID challenge for the fish nerds.

Greenblotched Rockfish (Sebastes rosenblatti) – new species #3

Fishing was pretty fast and furious on this stop once we drifted over the rocky spot. The next stop was another new rockfish species.

Copper Rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) – new species #4

I caught a few more small Calico Rockfish and one more Vermillion Rockfish. The fishing then slowed to a stop and the captain decided to make a longer steam south of Point Mugu to fish the shallower kelp beds.

The current had now picked up a little more. I had novice anglers on the left and right of me. It was difficult to get a good drop down without having one of them tangle up multiple lines! During one drop, I hooked a fish and was reeling up to find 4 other lines tangled with mine! Luckily, I did catch a new species to make the trouble a little more bearable. The Kelp Rockfish is different from the Brown Rockfish by the lighter olive green/brown colouring and darker mottling.

Kelp Rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens) – new species #5

When the tangled lines were finally sorted out, I was hit and a stronger fighting fish was on the line. These Gopher Rockfish fought much more than other rockfish species I’ve encountered. They were a little more fun to reel in.

Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus) – new species #6

Another drop yielded a surprising catch. This species is usually rare south of Santa Barbara and this fish was well beyond its southern range. I was happy to have chanced into it since I had little expectation of catching one on this trip. This was an absolutely beautiful little creature!

Rainbow Seaperch (Hypsurus caryi) – new species #7

At long last, the trip came to an end. The slow fishing made the day dragged on and it felt much longer than the 6 hours we had on the water. My catch of the day was a half limit of 2 Vermillion, 1 Copper, 1 Gopher and 1 Greenblotched Rockfish. That was a decent count considering most people only had 1 or 2 keeper fish in their sacks. I usually do not keep many fish on my trips, but since I'm staying with my aunt and she likes to eat fish, it was nice to bring something home. I asked the deckhand to gut and gill my catch and we had steamed rockfish that night. The Gopher Rockfish tasted the best out of all of them, with the Vermillion coming a close second. I was early to bed again since I had a long driving day ahead.

2012 California Road Trip (Day 1)

Even since my first 2 visits in 2008 and 2009, I had always wanted to take a serious fishing-focused trip in California. The biodiversity in the saltwater environments surrounding this state had a strong grip on my species-hunting mind. When plans to visit Nunavut fell flat this summer, I saw the opportunity to finally take a serious run at the species of California. This trip originally incorporated a few days of job searching and interviews. However, even those evaporated when companies are reluctant to interview someone who has not graduated. This thus left me with even more fishing time than expected.

My flight left YYZ at 10am. I left home early enough that I spent most of the time on the plane sleeping. By the time I woke up, we were just 10 minutes from the Grand Canyon. This was the second time I saw the Grand Canyon from the plane. I was still in awe.

A little further past the Grand Canyon, we flew over the Mohave Desert.

Just minutes from landing, we passed over the San Gabriel Mountains.

After landing, I met my aunt at the airport and we had a quick lunch before picking up my rental car. We drove to my cousin’s apartment, picked her up after work and went for dinner. I went to bed early since there was a long day ahead. I had a little trouble sleeping since the excitement of the next day’s fishing was swirling in my head.