Forecast looked great for it today, with sub 10kn wind all day and a 2.5ft swell @10 seconds coming from the SW, so I decided to finally make the leap and cross the channel to Anacapa today. Left a float plan with a couple people and was out of the harbor about 0730. Plan was to pick off a few rockfish on the way over, and then yo-yo for yellowtail for a couple hours before heading in around noon.
Choppy, splishy splashy ride across. I had some fog up at my house in Newbury Park but it was probably 2-3 miles of visibility at sea level, which made the landfall of Anacapa a little more exciting. Pulled up on the rockfish spot and picked off 2 reds on my first two drops. Thought that was a sign of things to come but I was barely getting pecked for the next hour, so I moved on to the entree.
On my first drift right on the tip, I saw a single large boil, but other than that I didn't see too much life. I'd start in 80-90ft of water and drift into about 50ft while yo-yoing a butterfly jig (because I've seen a disproportionate amount of NZ kingfish jigging videos, I felt more confident in that than a jax), then I'd work a little way west and drift again. Never saw any substantial marks on the sonar in the mile or so I worked.
After a little less than 2 hours, I thought I was seeing more white caps than before, so I bailed. I stopped one more time on the rockfish spot, which had turned on a little bit more. Picked off a few more eaters and a couple squarespots.
Funny thing about the squarespots. I have a pic for my life list of one hooked by the tail, and today I caught another one by the tail. Maybe they just school up densely, or maybe they're learning something from threshers.
I got an extra one or two fish just waiting for a couple freighters to clear the shipping channel, but I still had one to beat while crossing the channel. I crossed its line with probably 3/4ths of a mile to spare, but even then, that thing bearing down on you is scary s#it!
WOT all the way back across the channel, which was a nice change of pace from taking my time slamming into wind swell all the way there. Cleaned my fish outside the harbor this time. I noticed they were spitting up remnants of what appeared to be anchovies. Realized later that I missed one in the bag..
I was reading that a new species was discovered a little after 2010, the sunset rockfish, which is a (really really) close relative of the vermillion. There's little color variance between the two, and aside from testing their genealogy, the only notable difference between the two is that sunsets tend to stay deeper than 100m (328' [and 1"]) and vermillions stay shallower than that. I can't afford to throw a 23andMe at my rockfish right now, but I was fishing in 330-380' so I feel like I can count a sunset rockfish in my report today.
