Monterey Bay - July 16, 2011

Ready to rock...

After some discussion, dad made the drive from Reno to San Francisco, eager for a day of kayak fishing on Monterey Bay. My last day out in Monterey was a barn-burner, with close to 40 fish in just under 6 hours, including a giant Ling of just over ten pounds, so I was excited to put dad on some good fish. We arrived in Monterey at 9am to foggy skies and glassy calm water. Pushing in off the beach, we set out to the kelp beds along Cannery Row and the aquarium. Through the moored sailboats, across the harbor channel, and around the breakwall we went.

I was excited to try out my new 6wt - a St Croix Legend Elite paired to a Ross Evolution LT3 spooled with Rio Outbound Short T-6 (6-7ips) and backed with hi-vis Suffix 832 braided line. I had managed a black rockfish on my 8wt with an intermediate line my last time out but it proved a poor choice for targeting rockfish in 50fow - not only did the line just not get anywhere close to the strike zone, but the 8wt overpowered the average-sized black rockfish. I also had my trusty Stella 3000FE / Loomis Escape (M power) rigged as well. I set dad up with a similar rig, a Stella 3000FD on a medium power TFO travel rod, and a Stradic CI4 3000 on a medium-heavy BPS rod. The medium power rods held small bass jigs while the medium-heavy rig had a small spoon.

It was apparent from the start that the action this day was somewhat sub-par - took me about 45 minutes to bring the day's first fish to hand, a small Olive Rockfish of maybe 1.5 pounds on the Stella. After another Olive, dad soon hooked into a fish with his trademark "got one!" After a brief fight, he pulls up another Olive Rockfish, his first Monterey Bay fish!

Dad's first - a nice Olive Rockfish

We switch spots a few times, but never really find a hot bite. Along the kelp edges, I pulled out the 6wt, tied on a chartreuse and white stay hungry streamer (essentially a clouser with craft fur) and started banging out casts. The Outbound Short was much easier to cast from the kayak with the shorter (30') head, and the sink rate was a vast improvement over the intermediate line (duh). It was still an exercise in patience to cast, dump out some extra line, and allow the fly to sink for a minute or so, but better than last time. A couple of casts in and I was rewarded with a solid hookup from a good fish. I got the fish on the reel quickly, and the fight was on - this fish pulled pretty hard on the 6wt, doubling the rod over and pulling the tip into the water, taking a bit of drag as it did. After a bit of this tug of war, I brought a really nice Olive to the boat - probably close to 4 pounds, and a great first fish on the St Croix/Ross combo.

Beautiful Olive on the new 6wt - great fight!

I was pretty stoked with the 6wt - definitely the perfect weight for Monterey Rockfish. Sure, a serious Lingcod would present a real problem, but for the vast majority of the rockies that you'll run into in that bay, the 6wt is perfect. The St Croix, by the way, is a joy to cast, and at $450, looks like a heck of a great value next to my much more expensive NRXs. Ended the day with 3 rockfish - all Olives - on the 6wt.

Cute Olive on the 6wt.

For his part, Dad hooked into a decent variety of rockfish - the aforementioned Olive, as well as a handful of Gophers and Browns. Near the end of our fishing day, I was again casting around at the edge of the kelp beds when I hear another "got one!" I turn around and watch as my dad is pulling on a satisfyingly bent rod. Pull and crank, pull and crank - as the fish nears the surface, I see his rod double over and hear the drag zing out as the fish made a mad dash for the bottom - the trademark move of a big Ling. Even I got pretty excited now as I untied my boat and made my way slowly over to dad, who had a large grin on his face as he was fighting this fish. Ling's only really give you that one big run, and dad was able to pump and reel the fish up and out of the depths. Sure enough, out of the murk appeared the dinosaur-esque visage of a big, healthy Lingcod. As he brought it on board with the help of a lip-gripper, we both noticed that this particular one was a relatively rare blue Ling, with an amazing blue-green tint to the lower half of its body. The fish measured out at 27 inches, and I'd guess about 5 or 6 pounds.

Not bad for your first time on Monterey Bay!

The blue Lingcod.

All in all a solid day, despite below average numbers, and topped off by a really nice Ling. Pretty sure dad'll be back, and we'll hope for better numbers the next time. It was a beautiful day on the bay, though, with sunny skies and unusually calm winds.