Hunt, Gather, Cook

TIDE  |  Moon : : 6.5 high @ 11:48am and a -0.4 low at 7:14pm
Moon Phase : :  Full Moon on the wane | Sea Temp : : 61° F

"There is a state of dulcet calm that I only find when reading, writing, hunting or fishing. It is that blessedly sparse mental landscape where everything falls away and I become singularly focused on being exactly where I am to the best of my abilities" ~Miles Nolte

I fished the bay twice this week so I navigated out to the kelp beds for a change of scenery. Perfect conditions on the water today, warm, sunny and sheet glass water. My first stop was to get some smelt and mackerel so I can lobster later this week. I brought my Sabiki Rod out to the kelp and got a few dozen bait fish. Then I hit a few deep water structures with the Vertical Jigs and got a few rock fish. I vented one successfully and it swam down ok but the other one kept turning over so I kept it for fish tacos. Then I came in through the slalom course of lobster buoys around the point. That was the hardest thing I did all day.

4 Spotted Bass | 2 Rock Fish {Sabiki: Smelt and Mackerel for lobstering}
 http://honest-food.net/  
http://www.attackleshack.com/
http://www.warbaits.com/armory-heads.html 

HUNT

Williamson Abyss Speed Jig: Blue-4oz.

Edge Fishing Red Fish Flurry:  
3" Minnow

War Baits Slayer Heads: Orange-3/8oz

COOK

Dos Fish Tacos: Rock Fish Style

Sauteed Rock Fish in garlic butter over a bed of spinach, red onion, topped with fresh tomato on a flour tortilla with a drizzle of ranch dressing on top 

Lobster Season in full Swing

Sabiki: Smelt and Mackerel

All the fish I keep during lobster season I save their heads and any areas from the carcass that have some residual meat left on it. I zip-lock bag them and put them in the freezer

A View from Above

TIDE  |  Moon : : 7.5 high @ 9:33am and a -1.3 low at 4:28pm
Moon Phase : :  Full Moon was on Wednesday the 26th | Sea Temp : : 64° F


"There have been certain times in life, and this is one of them, when I can actually feel myself circling the endless eddy of the sucker hole, where all I can do is wait until I can kick back out into the current.  It's the simple things—spotted bay bass on the artificial" Cameron Scott

With and extreme high tide early this morning the fish were hunkered down just waiting for the tide to switch. I told James from 11 o'clock on will be our window. We decided to hit the fuel dock and grab a beer. I discovered a new eel grass flat the other day and we fished that next. James got slammed by three big bass in this spot right around 11:30. Our second spot also produced another 5-6 big spotted bass. They were feeding heavy from 11am to 12:45. We had a nice window of action, James killed it today with the Bleeding Olive Herring with 3/8oz red lead head. 

9 Spotted Bass | 5 of them went legal all nice size bass  {catch photo and release today}

The Night Creature Hunter

TIDE  |  Moon : : 5.9 high @ 10:46am and a 0.5 low at 5:59pm
Moon Phase : :  Full Moon on the wane

Beer, Bass, Barnacles & Bugs

I have been reading articles and wanting to go night bass fishing for awhile now. I picked up some all black creature baits and black widow Warbaits that Afran recommended to me from Performance tackle. I brought a few lobster hoop nets and dropped them at sunset and while they were soaking we went and hit some bass spots close by our nets. We fished the pilings along a big pier/dock and got a bunch of calico bass. I had one bigger bass wrap me into the pilings and had to fight to get him out. My leader line got shredded from rubbing against the barnacles. All black swimbaits and creature baits worked great. Thanks Afran

Our lobster spot was not super productive but the lobsters we got were big keepers. We ended up with 3 keepers and a handful of stone crabs. James even managed to hook his mesh hat, the damn hook barb was a nightmare to get out. We had super fun night.

3 Spotted Bass, 5 Calico Bass, 3 Lobster and handful of Stone Rock Crabs
{Check out Warbaits Slayer Swim Jigs & Heads along with NetBaits Creature Paca Chunk)

http://www.warbaits.com/
http://www.netbait.com/home/

Cutting Block 001

................................................................................................................................

> Mini-Squid Sabiki Rig works the best for Mackerel

 ................................................................................................................................

> Smaller Sabiki Hooks work best for Smelt and Sardines

Fishing the Letters

TIDE  |  Moon : : 6.1 high @ 9:08am and a 0.3 low at 3:37pm
Moon Phase : :  Full Moon

We were supposed to go lobstering tonight but the weather has not been cooperating the last week or so. Rain and bigger ocean swells has kept me inshore. Heavy dense fog has been rolling in the last few nights into the early am.

Fog burned off around noon today so we just hit some bass spots in the bay for a few hours. When we first got out it was so windy that we had to tie off to structure and later anchor, drift was too fast. Slower day but nice out on the water. We still got a handful of bass and James got a nice 20 inch Corvina. .

2 Spotted Bass, 3 Calico Bass  and 1 Orange Mouth Corvina

field notes 002

Traveling Swallowing Dramamine

Thursday September 29th, 2011

TIDE  |  Moon : : 1.0 low @ 4:25am and a 7.0 high at 10:41am
Moon Phase : :  New Moon

Fished the outside kelp earlier in the morning. It was slow so we moved inside and fished some shallow water bass spots. Right around 10am when the tide switched the bass started hitting good.  All the bass we got were nice sizes and fought hard on our light tackle.

We got 7 or 8 bass all Catch | Photo | Rel e  a   s    e