26 Sept 11, 2020 VOL.39 • ISS. 19
Years ago, on one of my many
adventures into the south bay, I
sallied forth, armed with a #6 weight
fly outfit, a simple two piece tapered
leader, and a handful of flies of my
own design. These flies, which I called
“Half-a-bugger”, were basically white
wooley buggers with six strands of
living rubber for a tail.
They earned their “Half-a-bugger”
moniker thanks to the fact that I tied
them on the back half of a Mustad #6 -
5X long hook. The idea of leaving the
space
behind the eye of the hook bare was
so that I could tie it on via a snell
knot.
My target species for these adventures
was the jack smelt. Now, I am
no big fan of fly fishing although in
my life I have racked up at least 60
different species on flies, but when
you are young, in search of a little
piscatorial fun on a limited budget
and time frame, jack smelt, when you
run into them, are eager biters, great
SALTWATER
Shore Fishing with Glide Baits
speedy fighters, and have the added
quality of being that if you lose one,
you are not apt to be cussing the loss.
On one fateful day, while fishing
off my secret location, a school of
jack smelt showed up. Adding to the
excitement was their reaction when
I tossed out a handful of dry cat
food. That seemed to get them into a
feeding frenzy.
Casting my Half-a-bugger into the
midst of the school, I was hit as soon
as my line tightened up and the fly
made a slight twitch. Fish on! I let
the fish swim around a bit until it tired
before bringing it in. Lesson learned:
if you are going to catch and release
jack smelt, fight them a bit until they
are tired before bringing them in.
They are strong and slippery and hard
to hold onto.
Well, that was a lesson I learned
after catching this fish, because as
I attempted to unhook it and toss
it back, it slipped out of my hands
several times, falling to rocks in the
riprap. When I finally was able to pick
it up and toss it back, one can only
imagine that it wasn’t swimming quite
right.
Dazed and a slightly beat up, it kind
of meandered about in the water.
As fate would have it, not only was
that fish dazed and beat up, after
swimming some ten to fifteen feet,
something big with stripes came from
nowhere and decided it was dinner.
Back then, there were no lures on
the market that duplicated that lazy,
wandering action exhibited by that
beat up jack smelt. That story is
different now, thanks to our black
bass fishing cousins. A whole new
category of fish catching lures have
entered the market, pioneered in part
by our friends at River2Sea with their
introduction of their S-Waver series of
lures.
The number one color for these
glide baits (of which there are now
numerous manufacturers) is rainbow
trout, no doubt because of the many
FISH SNIFFER
COUNTRY
by Steve
“Hippo”Lau
lakes with
oversized
bass that are
stocked with
trout on a
regular basis.
After a long
ride in a dark
tanker truck
until shot out
into a strange
lake in bright
daylight, the
newly transplanted
trout will exhibit that lazy,
wandering action that just begs lunker
bass to gobble them up.
Lucky for us salty types, River2Sea
wisely produces the S-Waver in a
variety of colors, and the crystal
minnow, abalone shad, hitch, and
terminator finishes in the 168mm size
all have the right size and extra shiny
sides that do a great job of mimicking
jack smelt.
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SALTWATER REPORTS:
CONTINUED FROM PG 24
BODEGA BAY cont.
calm,” he stated.
“The albacore water is getting close, and I will
start scheduling my 22-hour albacore trips soon,”
said Powers.
- Dave Hurley
FISHERMAN’S WHARF
Salmon, Rockfish and Halibut
Boated
SAN FRANCISCO – The Bass Tub been
targeting a variety of fish, including salmon,
rockfish, lingcod and halibut, depending on the
day.
The Bass Tub reported in with 13 salmon
for 14 people on Saturday, August 29. The
fishermen caught the kings while trolling with
anchovies off the Marin County Coast.
On the previous day, Captain Aaron Anfinson
took ten anglers out to the Farallon Islands,
where they boated limits of rockfish, three
lingcod and 10 halibut.
- Dan Bacher
HALF MOON BAY
Epic Rockfish and Lingcod Fishing
off the San Mateo County Coast
EL GRANADA – Rockfishing is the best angling
option out of Half Moon Bay with the Queen of
Hearts putting in 100 rockfish and 18 lingcod on
their latest bottomfish trip along the San Mateo
Country Coast.
“Epic rockfishing continues,” the Queen of
Hearts reported. “ We had limits of quality
rockfish once again, plus limits of lingcod as
well.”
On August 28, the anglers aboard the Queen of
Hearts experienced solid salmon fishing also.
“We found the BIG salmon today. Joe caught
a 20 and 26 pounder, giving him a whopping
46 pound limit. We ended the day with 8 jumbo
salmon for our 10 anglers and had another
couple hooked that won their battle,”
according to the Queen of Hearts.
Tom Mattush, captain of the Hulicat,
reported great rockfishing aboard the Tom
Ivers and friends charter. Big fish honors
go to Omar Sandoval, who caught a 10 lb.
lingcod. The 10 anglers landed limits of
rockfish..
Captain Dennis Baxter of the New
2912
Captain Pete ran north to the channel buoys on his last
trip, but he said, “There were a few salmon taken at
the edge of the bay off of Buoy 1 and 2 the day before
and this was the first batch of salmon in a while. The
season inside of the harbor has officially begun as a
nice big fish was landed by the solo angler beading
near the restrooms, and the shoreline fishing will grow
exponentially with this news.”
“The squid boats are thinning out as only one truck
was loaded on Thursday, but halibut fishing remains
Rockfish have been the focus for central coast bottomfish
enthusiasts, but there have been plenty of bonus lings
around too.
Photo courtesy of HULI CAT SPORTFISHING, Half Moon Bay.
SALMON •- ROCKFISH •- ALBACORE
831-633-2564
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