Half Moon Bay Report

I went fishing friday and Saturday July 13 and 14 in HMB. Friday was supposed to be Glenn, Walter, Marco, and me fishing on Glenns' 24' Skipjack.but we found his shift linkage was frozen, so the plan was to take out Walter in his 17' Arima with Walter, Marco, and myself. At 4:30am, Walter's back was bothering him, so he stayed home. It was just Marco and me going to try to get some salmon. We headed north and found the fleet at Pacifica. Marco was on fire, but they were shakers. He lost a keeper due to my rod tangled with gear out and I couldn't get the net fast enough. I ended up with 2 21" keepers that we shared. We used Krippled anchovies to get them.

We also saw Robert Bryan who recognized us as he trolled by us.

Saturday's plan was to take Walter rockcod fishing. Brian would join Marco, Walter, and myself in the quest. In the morning we mulled the idea to go to Santa Cruz or HMB. Santa Crux had the chance of getting Halibut or White Sea Bass according to Bayside Marine. The concensus was HMB because "there are no fish in Santa Cruz." The weather started out better than the previous day which was stellar. It did get a little windier about noon. We started out at the Ritz Hotel and hit a few areas and got some nice action. Brian caught the big Ling of the day. Walter was getting bit on the shrimp fly. Marco started on fire again catching China, Big Black, Olives, Blues, and a couple Cabezon, one big one that got away due to my bad gaffing job. SORRY! With the wind picking up we moved to the Red can and saw the fleet salmon fishing in front of the harbor. We saw boats from Emeryville there like the Golden Eye 2000. We stuck with the plan to fish for Lings and went to the outer reef. Marco and I were switching between swim baits and barbless megabaits depending on what we saw on the fishfinder. We used barbless hooks just in case a Salmon bites it. While vertical jigging, I felt a snag with a one pump. I was able to lift it, then I could feel a couple of head shakes. It was slowly coming up and Brian was ready with the gaff. It didn't know it was hooked as it came to the boat and Brian gaffed it where Justin recommended where to gaff a Halibut...right in the stomach. It was stunned as we got it in the boat then it went crazy. It shook so hard that the lure unwound from the split ring and hook. It turned out to be a little under 22 pounds. It was a good thing we didn't go to Santa Cruz...