At the end of my PV run, my outboard didn't want to start up or even turn over after running/idling the whole 7 hour trip.
Thankfully, when I got back to my house, my boater neighbor happened to be in his front yard, so I told him about my adventure then mentioned my potential motor woes. He said he could do a little diagnostic and tune up the carburetor right then, so I dollied it across the street, filled a bucket with water, and he got it going better than before. Phew!
So just to make sure that I wouldn't find out in the middle of the Sant Barbara Channel that he and I collectively screwed up my outboard, I needed a little shakedown trip somewhere relatively safe. Oxnard looked to be windier than I should be bothering with, so instead I took the first day of my weekend yesterday to do a shakedown at Lake Piru, which I'd never been to before. I packed up my car in a light rain, got over there in an hour, and spent a few hours on the lake chucking a 1/4oz KM, and a spook, as I was seeing bass boils intermittently. I got one tap on the KM and that was that. Real nice little lake, though. I was hoping for crappie but it must be a few weeks too early still. Best part was my motor sounded great and started up just fine.
On to the main event, my rockfish opener. I watched a number of buoys from Redondo to Santa Barbara, and watched reports for what new deep areas were going to be hype and what would be a potential jackpot. Ended up choosing Santa Barbara Harbor to launch.
Arrived at 0745. Setup took a little long, I got the boat in the water at about 0830. Started off with the outboard stalling and burning some oil...turning over though. A few minutes of futzing and easing off the choke and I was golden.
Lake Pacific outside the harbor, boat cruising at it's WOT max of 15mph. Once I got about 4 miles out, some gentle 3-4ft rollers with a huge period made an appearance, still able to skim right along.
Just short of an hour ride and I get to my spot 12.5 miles out. Drop down to 425ft with 16oz and my line is sideways pretty quick, so I went to managing my position via reversing every minute or so, which worked like a charm.
My fish finder wasn't picking up much at that depth, just some light scattered marks from the bottom to 50ft up, but it wasn't something I'd base any decisions on. Just trusted the fact that there was a reef so there should be fish around. First drop, hit the bottom, feel light hits, some heaviness. Feel almost like I'm fishing mono, not sure if my braid sucks that much or I'm rusty or it's just dinks down there. Finally give up and reel up, does feel heavy...got one. Foot long greenspot.
Noticed I was drifting west, and I set up on the reef assuming I'd drift east, so I took a few minutes to slide east. From there I got bit and bendo as soon as I hit bottom every drop. Get the fish in the boat, unhook; freespool my rig back in the water and throw it in the rod holder while I
iki the fish, cut the collar, throw it in the kill bag; grab the rod, reverse the boat til I'm on top of my bait, at which point I make contact with the bottom; instantly hook up, and do it again. Had my limit in no time. All greenspots too. I don't think I've ever gotten a limit of rockfish off of one species, so I was pretty baffled by today.
Just as I pulled up my last fish to limit out, a boater swings by and chats me up. Compliments my rig, we chill for a minute, then he hands me his business card (a little unusual place for that but hey) and we split.
I still had some sanddabs to hunt lings with, so I reset my drift and dropped my dab down. Waited a minute and then I was bendo, but didn't feel big...pulled it up and it was another greenspot, and it bit the bare hook above my dab....thanks a lot pal! Now I gotta poke you all over, rig my descender...a pound weight couldn't get him down to start so I had to poked him in 2-3 more spots to finally get him down.
Dropped again, waited...started getting nibbled, grabbed, dropped....bendo. Again not huge...pull it up and a greenspot had torn the dab to bits and inhaled the head. Alright, I thought I could weed out the rockfish, but I guess not. Headed out of there to avoid any more potential trouble.
Motored back toward the mainland and decided to make a stop around the Summerland shoreline to see what the kelp looked like. Wasn't as thick as I remembered, so decided with my rockfish setup rigged with a pound weight that I'd half-assedly bounce ball some squid while I worked my way back toward the harbor. Laid back between the tubes of my boat while hanging onto the rod. Tried for about 45 minutes until I got a little too comfy and started feeling sleepy, so I packed it up and motored back to the ramp around 2pm with no halibut but a whole sack of greenspots.
This trip more offshore was a benchmark I was working toward, and it worked out well. Steadily learning and unlocking the possibilities of what I can do.
~30 miles, about $6 in gas.
