by Fisherman » Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:31 am
Paul, some of the best fishing I ever did was light tackle fishing off Santa Cruz, Ca. We went fishing in 16 foot skiffs off the pier, in about 60 to ninety feet of water. It was shallow enough to return fish, and having four 1 to 2 pound fish on your line at a time was a kick!
Ocean fishing could start like that, fishing an area and specific locations in a given area rather than the "whole" of the sea. Reefs and wrecks, spikes and canyons were hot spots for jigging and trolling for rockfish of many kinds, halibut, salmon and lingcod.
Sometimes it was simple as find the gulls feeding, toss in a line, catch a small fish, re-rig and toss in the smaller fish to catch a bigger fish, especially lingcod. A variety of jigs and spoons could turn up some good light tackle action in active feeding times as well.
Then there were the times like having to move off a hotspot 'cause sharks bigger than the boat were taking your fish, leaving you just the head.