I'll spill my guts from the Silva Derby (and sorry John, I didn't choose to be acting photographer/reporter for this one) but here's what I picked up from the weekend, aside from a 10 lb fish, and a couple smaller Q's....
Heard of good fishing coming from shallow at Thrasher 200' or less Saturday morning. Entrance seemed to be the most consistent of all reported areas. Silva bay to Grande was productive (thats where we hung out mostly) with not a ton of steady action, but some legal fish, and a we personally had about 4 or 5 screamers that I never got a look at.
Spoons, was the ticket for our fish, other friends out there nabbed them on hoochies (though I swam a very fishy needlefish hoochie for a long time with not a single result) Bait was working for another boat in our group but again, it was action, but not steady.
Deeper water was producing fish as well, 500+ feet. It seemed fish went deeper on the sunday, we managed one down around the 200 mark with a few other misses as well 180-220. Water was very clear along grande for the weekend, but it was very silty out around thrasher and the deep stuff.
The derby produced good fish, with about 25 fish over 20 lbs by the sounds of it. Approx 150 boats, with 189 fished weighed in, with an estimated 300 rods in the water. There was a thick fleet at thrasher all weekend, with boats spotting along grande to entrance in smaller numbers. On Sunday I counted 85 boats within visual range of our position at one time.
Currents were moving pretty good and it made it somewhat challenging on tighter turns and giving space in the larger groups of boats. The radio was dead quiet for the most part. Silver Blue and a few others seemed to be the only ones talking, as everyone else was quite tight on info.
I saw quite a few Lings come to the cleaning and weigh station, nice fish all over 10 lbs from what I saw, but those who caught were putting in long days targeting rock fish. There was a committed group of boats angling the bottom for a good chunk of the derby.
There was a few halibut that hit the dock as well! Info was non-existent on where they came from but someone managed one trolling off of some place in some depth of water lol.
The water and skies were awesome. It did chop up a bit in the afternoon but with the SE we were able to find calm water all day off Grande area.
It is my understanding a 32 lb won it. There was rumor of a 38 but one never showed up. The folks who got the 32 said they heard of a 38 as well, as the gas jockey put it, so who knows. I did hear chatter of people losing lots of good fish, but most chatter went as follows:
"You, know the spot we were in last time?"
"Is your cell phone on?"
"Ya we got a good one!" "Same depth as earlier?" "Yup, on that special lure"
soooo any info was vague that popped up for the most part. Kept me laughing I guess.
I Didn't stay for the ceremony, apparently my fish won an early hidden weight, but with weather calling for it to whip up (which it didn't really) and a lot of work to do back at the dock, I opted to call it a day. I did pass through the Marina and it was packed. And heard it was a great showing, so much so that burgers ran out! Apparently it was the biggest showing to date.
That's all I got. Cheers.
Spatterback Silverhorde spoon was our best. the screamers all came from my go to depth between 113 and 133, but so did many o' shaker. We fished 12 hours on Sat and 5 hours sunday.