Home
I fished Cabrillo a few times with my son this Summer. A little over a month ago my son and I launched using the usual assortment of smaller swimbaits and lighter line that we do. Right after us a kayaker launched using 6" ish curltail swimbaits in pearl. First he popped a 24", then about a half hour later he nailed a 30" + Halibut. I got one legal and a sculpin but not THAT kind of love. The next time, two weeks ago, we upped the bait size and the line diameter. I pulled a 21" and another sculpin (which holed my tube on a jump), my son got a pancake hali and in a quiet moment I hear "Oh damn!". I look over and my son is full bendo, 10lb test (everything else was 15lb flouro) on an ABU Vigilante. Full bendo as in bent all the way through the butt. I had time to kick over and raft up with him to help coach. This was going to be the halibut of his lifetime. Unfortunately, with this fairly light setup, he couldn't put a lot of pressure on the fish. After about 15 more minutes, riiiight when I was anticipating getting color on this beast, he threw the hook.
Lessons learned, holes patched, here's what happened this last Saturday:
My son wimped out because of the morning temps of late so I convinced Jon Vanneman of Stress Free Rods to come along in his stead. This would be his first tubing trip. I carefully went over all of my lines with a digital set of calipers and came to the conclusion that the sweet spot for getting bit with a chance of seeing the fish was .2mm, 10lb mono. I patched the two pinholes in the tip of the bladder and found that a patch from last season was leaking, so I repatched that (or so I thought, foreboding music). One of the biggest issues that we had to deal with this Summer was the eel grass. Anything with lead in it was a pain in the neck, you had to work around to find open water to try to work the edge of the grass beds. A lot of the fish are in/on the beds. So after some thought I decided that the hot ticket would be a fluke type bait. I have one of those in my repertoire, a 5" FishBone Stinger. I stopped pouring them a few years ago because the tail is so thin they're very problematic to pour, I've been planning a redesign with a shallower belly and wider tail. I dug out the defunct mold and poured a few sets. Red Lucas (orange belly, light rootbeer back with red and green flake), Mint n Chip (green with black flake) and Pearl White (I mix red, violet, blue, green and gold hilite powders equally for mine). Then I went and bought a big package of 5/0 worm hooks.....thought about it and added a packet of splitshot, just in case the lures were falling too slow.
We get there, get the tubes set up and I hear a telltale hisssssss.......I decide that I'll just fish close in, head to shore every so often to air up. This was my last trip of the season, I was determined to give it a shot. So I get Jon in the water just fine, and for the first time in 25ish years of tubing, I flip as I launch. This is not turning out to be my day. Finally get situated, get out on the water, start fishing. I picked up a nice sandie, then a roughly 17" Hali, then Jon picks up a 19" hali (his first ever). During one of my stops to air up I spoke to a shore fisherman who said "oh ya, full moon last night, they're not gonna be feeding". sigh.
While several things went wrong, Jon had a good first tubing trip, he's now furiously tube shopping, he caught his first halibut and as a rod builder, he now sees what I've been asking for in custom tubing rods. The Stingers definitely worked and the grass was much less of an issue, the 10lb line theory definitely worked. After landing, we rolled over to the boat ramp (I launch at the stairs) so Jon could swap out of his wetsuit. While there I talked to a couple of skiffers who made me feel much better. One skunked and the other got three baby calicos. So there's a glass half full for you.
A gentleman's bet with Jeff CPR Bernier regarding Most and Biggest fish would be a draw, his three to my two, but I carried more weight. I have an email notification set up for when classic accessories gets the bladders back in stock, I have a Colorado pontoon boat ready for next time and my (again) patched bladder is drying in my office. Maybe, maybe I can sneak in a friday after thanksgiving trip.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Lessons learned, holes patched, here's what happened this last Saturday:
My son wimped out because of the morning temps of late so I convinced Jon Vanneman of Stress Free Rods to come along in his stead. This would be his first tubing trip. I carefully went over all of my lines with a digital set of calipers and came to the conclusion that the sweet spot for getting bit with a chance of seeing the fish was .2mm, 10lb mono. I patched the two pinholes in the tip of the bladder and found that a patch from last season was leaking, so I repatched that (or so I thought, foreboding music). One of the biggest issues that we had to deal with this Summer was the eel grass. Anything with lead in it was a pain in the neck, you had to work around to find open water to try to work the edge of the grass beds. A lot of the fish are in/on the beds. So after some thought I decided that the hot ticket would be a fluke type bait. I have one of those in my repertoire, a 5" FishBone Stinger. I stopped pouring them a few years ago because the tail is so thin they're very problematic to pour, I've been planning a redesign with a shallower belly and wider tail. I dug out the defunct mold and poured a few sets. Red Lucas (orange belly, light rootbeer back with red and green flake), Mint n Chip (green with black flake) and Pearl White (I mix red, violet, blue, green and gold hilite powders equally for mine). Then I went and bought a big package of 5/0 worm hooks.....thought about it and added a packet of splitshot, just in case the lures were falling too slow.
We get there, get the tubes set up and I hear a telltale hisssssss.......I decide that I'll just fish close in, head to shore every so often to air up. This was my last trip of the season, I was determined to give it a shot. So I get Jon in the water just fine, and for the first time in 25ish years of tubing, I flip as I launch. This is not turning out to be my day. Finally get situated, get out on the water, start fishing. I picked up a nice sandie, then a roughly 17" Hali, then Jon picks up a 19" hali (his first ever). During one of my stops to air up I spoke to a shore fisherman who said "oh ya, full moon last night, they're not gonna be feeding". sigh.
While several things went wrong, Jon had a good first tubing trip, he's now furiously tube shopping, he caught his first halibut and as a rod builder, he now sees what I've been asking for in custom tubing rods. The Stingers definitely worked and the grass was much less of an issue, the 10lb line theory definitely worked. After landing, we rolled over to the boat ramp (I launch at the stairs) so Jon could swap out of his wetsuit. While there I talked to a couple of skiffers who made me feel much better. One skunked and the other got three baby calicos. So there's a glass half full for you.
A gentleman's bet with Jeff CPR Bernier regarding Most and Biggest fish would be a draw, his three to my two, but I carried more weight. I have an email notification set up for when classic accessories gets the bladders back in stock, I have a Colorado pontoon boat ready for next time and my (again) patched bladder is drying in my office. Maybe, maybe I can sneak in a friday after thanksgiving trip.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Last edited by Fishbones805 on Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:45 pm; edited 2 times in total
