I spent our annual trip with my father and father-in-law John this year. We had a great time, even with spotty fishing, the beer still goes down the same. Here a run down of our trip.
Arrived the afternoon of July 19th at Critter Cove. Fished on the inside at our usually honey holes...the wall, Camel Rock, San Carlos and Hoiss. Had one hit, but no hook ups. Back at the dock that night, it apparent that fishing is slow and we'll have to put in some hours to get our fish.
Fished a total of 14 hours on Sunday with nothing to show. Tried every trick in the book and even went old school trying to find something. The only action we see is an afternoon bite at high tide at Camel Rock that land maybe four fish.
Monday morning is slow again. Not many fish seen. We hit the afternoon at Camel Rock, but there is some serious combat fishing going on. We hooked up a nice fish on the inside of the cove only to have an oblivious fisherman get to close to us. The fish make a run at his boat and is hung in his gear. I'll check this one up to an inexperience driver. I saw the same guy on hooked on the rocks and fowled with another boat later on. Frustrating given we've fished 3 day and have nothing to show.
Tuesday starts out slow, but reports are showing that the fish are starting to show. We fish San Carlos, the wall and Camel Rock most of the day. Late in the evening as we're about to head back, we get a little to close into the rocks near San Carlos. Both balls are bouncing and one hangs on the rocks. At the same time the other rod trips and we think we have true mess on our hands. As I'm back the boat up and we reeling in the gear, my dad realizes the second pole is still taking line. FISH ON! We end up landing a nice 29lbs hen. Our spirits are lifted.
Wednesday starts out strong and we land a 24lber at day break. A few more fish caught around the sound but we manage nothing else for the day.
Thursday, the weather is great and seas are calm. We head out early to test the water on the outside for bottom fish and hali. We hit several spots out at Bajo and bring home a limit of bottom fish. We try one spot for halis but we're not so luck. We later find out that our coordinates were wrong and a fellow boat landed three nice chickens at different spot. Oh well...we'll get next time.
In the evening we head to Hoiss. We miss one nice fish that takes a run at the boat as we are turning around. He hangs up in our own gear and is gone. We miss another opportunity, but there wasn't much we could do. We do end up landing another nice fish that evening. We see lots of fish being caught that night, so things are on the ups.
We head to San Carlos on Friday morning before starting our trek home. Lots of bait in the water and the sky is overcast. We barely get our gear in the water and have a fish on. John grabs the rod and this fish runs. I thought maybe the drag was set light, but that not the case. This is a nice fish and he spooling line. We end up chasing him down. It's a nice 30lbs! Next pass through we land another one in the mid 20's. We pull lines up around 12:30 and start home.
All in all, not a lot of fish, but a great trip. The fish we did catch were on the average 5lbs heavier than last year. A lot of Tyees at the dock too. One fish caught on green flasher and green splatter back hootchie. The rest caught on purple haze flasher and anchovies.
The new regulation have change the dynamics on where people fish. A lot more pressure fishing on the inside. But, my gut says there are less people fishing given the cost of fuel. When we left, the secure parking lot at Gold River had lots of room as did Critter....not the norm. We'll see how thing change next year.
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