half moon bay to pescadero, california 9/9/08

[alantani]

a man's gotta know his limits.
too many reels to fix, too little time. hell with it, i'm going fishing. i launched out of half moon bay with my neighbor, jeff, and a fellow grady owner, frank. crewmember #4 flaked, and his name shall not be mentioned.
all systems running hot, straight and normal......



we hotfooted it out to my supersecret spot, soon to be followed by the queen of hearts and the riptide. so much for solitude.


i rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jeff comes in second.

frank was a close third.

the ice chest floweth over! three limits of rock fish and 3 nice lings, all taken on a variety of gear.

i conned jeff into having his wife make dinner for us this evening. they are both from mainland china. having dinner at their home is like walking into a 5 star chinese restaurant. i brought the shochu, and you are lucky to be getting an intelligible report this evening.

[seapup]

Half Moon Bay is next to Mavericks big wave spot! Did you see it break whilst on your way out fishing?

[nigelr]

Thanks for the excellent report and pics alantani.
Great to see how people fish in other places.
Cheers.

[Angla]

Thanks for sharing those pictures. What was the big ugly fish with the huge mouth Looks like a good day was had as we do over here too.

Chris

[tiges]

Half Moon Bay is next to Mavericks big wave spot! Did you see it break whilst on your way out fishing?

Sure is Benny, Mav's is straight out off the harbour. Spent a few mths there back in '98. Surfed all up and down the coast in that area. Pescadero is actually a good beachbreak. Didn't do any fishing there, but always had my eyes peeled for those of the Great White variety with big teeth.

Cool report alantani, thanks for that.

[hookinin]

Thanks for the report its great to see some different fish to those we catch over here. Looks like things must be pretty cold by the amount of gear you guys are wearing.
Cheers Gaven

[alantani]

northern california is often cold out on the water anytime of year. it's rare that we're out in t-shirts. the water temperature is 50-55 degrees F. great white's frequent the area. i could bait them into jumping clear out of the water by dragging a fur covered surf board, but that could land me in prison for a year or two. it's a federal offense. we headed south of the harbor. mavericks is slightly northwest a few miles. in all the years i've fished here, i've never seen the big waves. most of the time, the mavericks area is flat calm. only when the time is right will we get those 60 foot waves. alan

[gillogs]

good report great to see something from the other side of the planet,not a bad looking bit of tucker either,what's the meat dish look's awesome.cheers gillog's

[TimiBoy]

only when the time is right will we get those 60 foot waves. alan

Or possibly when the time is... wrong?

Mate, what is the fold down toy displaying for you, and what is the unit? It looks fascinating. May have to get me one of those... You need a heading sensor with the Furuno, that way your radar overlays the nav screen - rather speccy, I love it.

Was that big ugly critter a rockfish? Wierd looking thing, give me Snapper any day!

Cheers and thanks,

Tim

[alantani]

i already have a flux gate compass installed. i know many that will overlay the plotter over the radar, but i prefer to run them side by side. there are quite a few radar "targets" that will come and go. i prefer an uncluttered view of the radar screen alone to avoid missing a soft target in the clutter.

the drop down DVD player is actually hooked up to a FLIR infrared night vision camera. most years we get albacore tuna holding 40-50 miles offshore. to be on station at 5am, we are leaving the harbor at 3am and in total darkness. we would normally motor out a 10 kts until first light, then bump it up to 25 kts. now i can crank it up to 25 knts as soon as i clear the jaws of the harbor, saving an hour or more on the run out to the tuna grounds. it's great stuff!

the big ones are lingcod. very tasty.......

[TimiBoy]

Ooooh, sweet! FLIR? Sounds fun! I might have to have a think about application here. What is the camera's range?

You're right about targets that come and go - usually I think they must be whales, but I've had one or two pop up in non whale country and moving fast, too big to be birds. Maybe a Roc?

Cheers,

Tim

[alantani]

What is the camera's range?

1 mile.

on a tuna run last year, i was coming up on a boat in pitch darkness. he was running 15 knots, i was doing 25 because i could see in the dark. when he hit the 1 mile ring on the radar, i could see his all around light on the flir. blew right past him. he must have thought i was nuts, running that fast in total darkness. alan

[grahams]

Great post Alantani,

I caught a few Ling Cod in BC (Canada) this year. In Aussie terms, they are a cross between a flathead and a coral trout, taste pretty good, actually remind me a lot of Blue Cod from NZ.
Are the others Rock Fish? The ones I caught were almost identical to our small reef cod.

Biggest problem I had fishing in Canada was stopping the beer from freezing that I left lying on the deck.

[seapup]

northern california is often cold out on the water anytime of year. it's rare that we're out in t-shirts. the water temperature is 50-55 degrees F. great white's frequent the area. i could bait them into jumping clear out of the water by dragging a fur covered surf board, but that could land me in prison for a year or two. it's a federal offense. we headed south of the harbor. mavericks is slightly northwest a few miles. in all the years i've fished here, i've never seen the big waves. most of the time, the mavericks area is flat calm. only when the time is right will we get those 60 foot waves. alan

Thanks for the reply Alan. It would be a nice site watching 60ft Mavs break whilst sitting next to it in The Grady White! Grady Whites look like great offshore boats. How does she go on fuel?
Cheers,
Benny.

[mattooty]

Lovely looking fish, they look like they'd go hard!
What are the steel clips attached to their mouths?