Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3822 Oct 11-25 | Page 31

SALTWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 22 You Tease, You M agic has been a part of my life for many years, and I have enjoyed performing it for much of that time. One of the fundamental principles of magic is misdirection. A working definition for misdirection would be “look over here while I am doing something way over here and hope you don’t notice.” Misdirection is a vital part of fishing as well. Just think about it; whenever you are lure fishing, you in essence are saying to the fish, “hey, look at this thing swimming in the water that is supposed to look so natural, but don’t mind the two dangling treble hooks that happen to be hanging on it!” I was reminded of this when I was on a rock fishing trip, which, by the way, is really hot right now. I was doing research on the new generation of “slow jigging rods” that is all the rage in Asia right now. I was using my favorite River2Sea Knife jig rigged traditionally with a bucktail treble hook at the rear and doing quite nicely, thank you. But then I noticed another angler, Nelson, doing much better. It wasn’t that Nelson was using a jig hotter than the River2Sea Knife jig (he was using a P-Line Laser Minnow), but he was using a teaser. It has been so long since I was a more active rock fisherman that I had forgotten about using this deadly little trick. For all of you who may not have heard about teasers, a teaser in this case is a small attractor, something like a shrimp fly or a grub, rigged above a jig, whose purpose is to act like something the jig is trying to Saltwater & Freshwater Bodega Bay • Bullards • Oroville • Collins • Berryessa Salmon • Rockfish • Lingcod • Crab • Kokanee • Trout C apt . L es F ernandes (707) 490-4067 3811 www.BodegaBayFishing.com Now Booking ROCKFISH & SALMON! HALF MOON BAY www.hulicat.com 650-726-2926 Predator Sport Fishing Small Groups • Great Rates Excellent Sturgeon, Bass and Shark Fishing! The Bay’s Best Crew! 3408 707-342-8481 • www.crocsport.com at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf CALL NOW! Come enjoy the thrill of the catch on the comfortable, sleek and fast Wacky Jacky... The Fisherman’s Boat! Let’s Go Fishin’! Captain Jacky 415-586-9800 Bay Areas #1 Salmon Chaser! 29 chase down and eat. As up to be unhooked and such, it should be much released, wasting time smaller than the jig, on the drift. I solved that yet visible enough to be problem by breaking the seen. Its distance from the point off the hook on the jig should be long enough shrimp fly. No hook = no to establish separation, wasted time unhooking yet close enough to be a undesirables. logical target. For me, that In my opinion, the reason comes down to somewhere a jig with a teaser caught between nine and twelve bigger fish than a plain jig by Steve inches. is that the jig appears to be “Hippo”Lau so distracted chasing the Going back a couple of decades ago when I was teaser that it doesn’t notice a regular on a number of bottom the big fish coming in for the kill, thus fishing boats, teasers were a lot more making it an easy target for the bigger common than they are now, Back fish. then, most guys would use a shrimp In the bigger picture, the bigger fly for the teaser and it worked. The fish is so distracted by the jig and problem was, the shrimp fly would teaser set up that it doesn’t notice the often hook a smaller less desirable magician on the other end of the line. fish and it would have to be brought And that, my friend, is misdirection. FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY BAJA Marlin Scores Spike For Cabo Anglers Full Time Charter Boat Since 2004 GET ON BOARD! Oct 11 - 25, 2019 3816 Marlin fishing turned way up beginning the week, with striped mostly up the Pacific coast and more blues towards the Sea of Cortez. We also got a report out of the East Cape at La Ribera, of an estimated 800 lbs Black Marlin caught by local fishermen. Again, this week we have had a large yellowfin of about 200 lbs caught on Pisces 25’ No Borders, which is the same boat that caught the 110 lbs yellowfin last week. These consistent large tuna This angler was trolling off the East Cape on August 31 when he landed and and marlin catches are making released this impressive blue marlin. for a great warm up to tourney Photo courtesy of VAN WORMER RESORTS, East Cape, Baja. season, starting off in exactly a month from now! And not only have we seen the large gamefish, but the striped marlin bite has heated way up. Top marlin release boat this week was Pisces 37’ Tag Team III with 16 Striped Marlin released in one day! We had a total of 165 Marlin caught this week by the fleet, with 100% of them successfully tagged and released. We are very proud to be working hard to conserve our fisheries, and taking on the responsibility of increasing chances of survival by keeping all billfish in the water upon release. We are happy to see our anglers cooperating by respecting billfish and becoming more actively involved in the tagging, re-oxygenating and release process. Dorado turned up very nicely this week too. Most of them were about 15 to 25 lbs each, with a few over that and in good numbers. We had 45 dorado caught total with quite a few released. Some nice wahoo have been caught as well, ranging from 25 to 40 lbs each, and still a few scattered roosterfish. Only about 4 boats targeted tuna this week, but they got good results. Apart from the 200 lbs, we saw boat land quality fish, for example, Pisces 32’ Bill Collector landed 3 YFT of about 40 to 60 lbs each, while releasing an approximately 300 Blue marlin in the same day. Top release boat Pisces 37’ Tag Team III caught their marlin, all striped, close to Punta Lobos, trolling ballyhoo. Anglers were Tom Schneider and William Redell from Montgomery, TX. Previously in the week, the Tag Team III released 11 striped marlin, this time closer to shore at the height of Golden Gate, again on ballyhoo. Most marlin were about 100 lbs. Anglers from Florida also caught a 10 lbs dorado on ballyhoo. This same day Pisces 31’ Rebecca fished the Punta Lobos area as well; they used a mix of fishing techniques including ballyhoo on the troll and a combination of live and dead caballito (goggle eyes). Anglers Brendan Crotty, Dustin Greenvoal, Jeff Viktorin and Lyn Goldman went 11 for 18 on striped marlin. The fish ranged from 70 to Big pargo have been on the chomp off Baja’s East Cape. This monster was landed on September 13 during a trip originating out of the Hotel Palmas De Cortez. Photo courtesy of VAN WORMER RESORTS, East Cape, Baja. 140 lbs each. Our Top Angler this week was Lukis Hines, age 9, who fished on Pisces 31’ Ruthless with crew of the La Brisa, Captain Rey Winkler and Fernando Noyola (as La Brisa is undergoing a full refit at the moment). In the course of three days, Lukis caught and released 5 Striped marlin and 1 sailfish. The group of anglers, Bret Hines, Paul and Tim Gilberry from Louisiana released 22 Striped Marlin total, with 15 more marlin bites that didn’t produce, and went 1 for 1Sailfish. Lukis tagged 20 of those marlin himself. All billfish hit on pacific side between Punta Lobos and Elias Calles mainly, and ranged in size from 80 to 120 lbs, hitting on ballyhoo and caballito bait. They also landed 3 yellowfin tuna of about 20 lbs Gary landed three big wahoo while trolling off the East Cape each on cedar plugs. this September. - Tracy Ehrenberg Photo courtesy of VAN WORMER RESORTS, East Cape, Baja.