April Trip

[DarenN]

BuzzBombs rule for small bottom fish!The rubber tails can get you into trouble sometimes with 4' lings..

Always done best with BBs in 3-4"(mostly 4") wide pearl or pink pearl around here.When current is running, go to the skinny ones...even occasional salmon to 10 lbs(green for silvers)!What's nice is they store well without hooks,easy to set up,easy to use..and WORK!I've had better luck with those than the Point Wilson Darts.(This is info for others that may have a chance to fish for the same..)
Sounds like you are set up okay.. How do you store your rockfish while in the kayak?..just curious..figure you must drag a floating net on a tether,right?

a 4' Ling would sure test a kayakers abilities!

i use the smaller BB's. 2" mostly, with the occasional 3". that big chinook (king) that dragged me out to sea was caught on a three inch pink pearl. i cast out and the lure was headed for the bottom when he took it.

i paddle alone most of the time so i'm quite consious of my safety. dragging a fish behind my boat on a tether is asking for trouble from seals and/or sea lions. those sea lions are huge! seals are big enough and mean enough to capsize a kayak and injure the kayaker. my MO is land the fish and kill it cleanly. then i gill-hook it under a bungie on the deck of the kayak.

Daren........

[realityguy]

I took a new friend out fishing with me one time just north of Everett to one of my favorite spots for rockfish.I started reeling one up and a ling that size glommed onto my rockfish.I finally got his head over the bow of the livingston and he had the 5lb fish in his mouth with a tiny tip of the tail sticking out one end and just his nose out the other side.I bopped him on the head with my hand.He finally unhinged his jaw,,opened his basketball-sized mouth,showing rows of teeth curved towards his gullet and gave me my fish back still attached to my buzzbomb hook as he slowly sunk back down to the bottom.My buddy was getting ready to jump out of the boat! Unfortunately lings were out of season and it was oversize for keeping anyway with a 42" limit..oh well.The look of horror on my friend's face was worth the trip!

[zelph]

My buddy was getting ready to jump out of the boat! Unfortunately lings were out of season and it was oversize for keeping anyway with a 42" limit..oh well.The look of horror on my friend's face was worth the trip!

It sure sounds scary to be in a little craft and be fishing with all those big mouths full of teeth ready to latch onto the small fish that you just caught. I would react the same way your buddy did

A guy was fishing with his buddy who happened to be a "game warden". They're out in the middle of the lake and getting ready to fish. The one guys pulls out a stick of dynamite, lights it and throws it overboard. His buddy game warden says "what in the world are you doing, that's totally illegal" The other guy lights another stick and tosses it over to his buddy and says" are you going to sit there and complain or are you going to fish?????"

The game warden decided to fish!!!!

[realityguy]

Actually..that "small rockfish" weighed 4-1/2-5lbs.. You have to see a lingcod's mouth to understand the size of the thing.I literally could have fit a basketball inside.Lings can open their jaws about 180 degrees and have a few rows of teeth back in their mouth about 3/4" to 1" that curve towards their throat..when they get that big.You definitely don't want to stick your hand in there. . The Livingston was my 13' one( I also have an 8' and 10') that has a full front bow seat and stable as hell..figured that was the best place to bring his head up over the bow.I actually saved a couple elderly people that way from an overturned aluminum fishing boat a few miles up farther and across the bay at Kayak Point...Hauled them over the front also with the two kids that were with me back by the motor.
The WA ferries used to run the 13' Livingstons as their lifeboats because of their speed and stability but over the years have gone to inflatables.

[zelph]

The Livingston was my 13' one( I also have an 8' and 10') that has a full front bow seat and stable as hell..figured that was the best place to bring his head up over the bow.I actually saved a couple elderly people that way from an overturned aluminum fishing boat a few miles up farther and across the bay at Kayak Point...Hauled them over the front also with the two kids that were with me back by the motor.
The WA ferries used to run the 13' Livingstons as their lifeboats because of their speed and stability but over the years have gone to inflatables.

Is this what your livingston looks like:

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/boa/1154274860.html

[realityguy]

Yes..but I added a fiberglassed mahogany steering console across the middle with two penn dowriggers,a loran(old school),and a Bottomline 360 bottom scanner(shoots 5 directions,3 at once..left right,forward,straight down,and back angles)..room for a couple fishermen,cooler,beer, and fish..Like I said,I also have an 8' one and a 10' one.There are one of the most stable boats out there for fishing out of if you can live with the hump in the middle.Two guys can stand on one side without any problems of any tip,turns flat without leaning.I do use a long shaft35hp motor..but have to hang a carpet down in front of the engine shaft or they will throw water into the back of the boat in front of the motor mount at higher speeds(notice his ad does say short shaft motor)because of the tunnel.At higher speeds,you are practically riding on nothing under the boat,just the back couple feet of the hulls..
Sorensens made a similar boat,but heavier..Livingstons did come in a 15' which is really nice,especially the warrior model.I met a guy that had a 70hp on his 15' that said he could get 50mph out of it..but I didn't need the extra speed.
I did a lot of lone fishing out at a place called Possession Point off the southern tip of Whidbey Island..caught a lot of salmon up to 25 pounds or so.For one guy,the boat is simple to launch and handle,even at rough boat launches.I launched out of Mukilteo Point which is probably the roughest one in the state if the tide is wrong.
Only once did I ever have a scary moment of the boat almost straight up in the air and blowing over backwards off that point going into the wind and coming off a large oncoming wave..but it came back down right side up! I usually stood up and drove while heading back in against the wind..because Puget Sound can get awful rough and nasty with white caps during tide changes and oncoming winds...

[zelph]

Yes..but I added a fiberglassed mahogany steering console across the middle with two penn dowriggers,a loran(old school),and a Bottomline 360 bottom scanner(shoots 5 directions,3 at once..left right,forward,straight down,and back angles)..room for a couple fishermen,cooler,beer, and fish..Like I said,I also have an 8' one and a 10' one.There are one of the most stable boats out there for fishing out of if you can live with the hump in the middle.Two guys can stand on one side without any problems of any tip,turns flat without leaning.I do use a long shaft35hp motor..but have to hang a carpet down in front of the engine shaft or they will throw water into the back of the boat in front of the motor mount at higher speeds(notice his ad does say short shaft motor)because of the tunnel.At higher speeds,you are practically riding on nothing under the boat,just the back couple feet of the hulls..
Sorensens made a similar boat,but heavier..Livingstons did come in a 15' which is really nice,especially the warrior model.I met a guy that had a 70hp on his 15' that said he could get 50mph out of it..but I didn't need the extra speed.
I did a lot of lone fishing out at a place called Possession Point off the southern tip of Whidbey Island..caught a lot of salmon up to 25 pounds or so.For one guy,the boat is simple to launch and handle,even at rough boat launches.I launched out of Mukilteo Point which is probably the roughest one in the state if the tide is wrong.
Only once did I ever have a scary moment of the boat almost straight up in the air and blowing over backwards off that point going into the wind and coming off a large oncoming wave..but it came back down right side up! I usually stood up and drove while heading back in against the wind..because Puget Sound can get awful rough and nasty with white caps during tide changes and oncoming winds...

Fishing the ocean is really interesting. Really got to know your stuff, you seem to have it down pretty good. Salmon up to 25 lbs can fill a freezer pretty quick Do you ever troll in shallow water or is mostly deep with the downriggers? I've done a lot of jigging over the side of the boat for lake trout in Canadian waters. Caught trout up to 20 pounds. Lots of Northern Pike in the low 20's and small mouth bass in the 10 pound range. Walleys in the 15 pound range. Great fishing in Manitoba and Ontario. Whooo! I got to get out and do some fishing this weekend.

Sounds like your electronics can do a good job of putting you onto some fish. Never leave home without them Can't catch fish if they aren't there. Got to be able to know where they are.

[realityguy]

Possession Bar is pretty tricky to fish because it sticks out a mile or more from land..underwater about 60-70 feet deep.The trick is to know the edges of the bar and fish the dropoff point around those edges depending on the running of the tide.You can mooch or jig out there but the currents can be a real pain to keep your gear down where you want it.With silvers,it's not as much as a problem because they can be at all levels,even right under the surface.With the larger kings,most of the time you need to stay close to the bottom,and fish along those cliffs and dropoffs.
There are places out there that if you turn your back for 15-20 seconds you can run everything aground into underwater cliffs..so much for your gear!Certain underwater "coves" of the bar hold more fish than others and can only be approached by using downriggers and electronics.There are some places that I can only cruise along the cliffs in my fast turning 13' Livingston whereas the neighbor's 17' boat we couldn't make the turns without scrambling to raise gear before loosing it with water depths jumping from 150' to 50' in 25 yards.
Sometimes the current is "screaming" out there and a 10lb ball is only 1/3rd of the depth it really shows on the downrigger, why the multiview window is nice on the depthfinder with forward,straight down and back "cones of view"...gives you a much better idea of what is coming up and where the ball really is.It's nice to see fish in front and have the time to drop the ball/lure 20-25' feet on their nose before it gets to them. ..Done that a lot with success...

[zelph]

Yes!!!! sounds like fun. Nice to have the cone feature. Virtual reality fishing. I use a Lowrance paper graph at times. It's nice to have a hard copy to look at when the day is over and want to look at a lakes contour and fish schools.