Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3818 August 16-30 | Page 8

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HOW TO...
August 16-30, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 18
Rockfish Pointers
presents
Your Guide To Rounding Up Rockfish!
U
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This angler reeled up a pair
of very nice rockfish on a
shrimp fly rig. Shrimp flies are
the basic rig for anglers looking
to score a quick limit of rockfish.
You can fish the flies “naked” or
tip them with squid strips or Gulp!
soft baits to make them even
more deadly.
^
Big fish littering the deck
and big smiles all around.
That’s what you can expect if
your take a bottom fishing trip
along the California coast. Not
only do rockfish put up a good
fight, they also provide excellent
table fare!
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This chunky
vermilion pounced
all over a soft plastic
swimbait rigged
on a 1 ounce jig
head. Baits like
these are deadly for
both rockfish and
lingcod, provided the
conditions are calm
enough for you to hit
the bottom with a light
weight.
<
Braided line in the 50 to 65-pound
class is an essential component
of rockfish and lingcod fishing success.
Indeed, the low stretch properties, small
diameter, strength and sensitivity that
braided lines offer have revolutionized
bottomfish fishing in recent years and
anglers are more effective than they’ve
ever been.
nlike in days gone by, today
we target our rockfish with light
nimble gear that sacrifices nothing in
terms of strength. When modern anglers
switched over to lighter gear and shallow
water fishing, we quickly
learned that rockfish are
ready strikers and hard
fighters.
Whenever you head out
for rockfish, you should
have a pair of rods. One rod
should be relatively light in
saltwater terms. I’m thinking
of something along the lines
of a flipping stick if you are
a black bass guy or a rod
you’d use when bait fishing
or trolling for Delta stripers.
Basically, I’m describing a
graphite medium fast to fast
action stick ranging from
7 to 8 feet long that can handle weights
ranging from 2 to 6 ounces. This rod
should be matched with a level wind bait-
casting reel capable of holding 200 yards
of 50 to 65-pound braided line.
Your second rod or your “heavy rod”
should be capable of handling weights
ranging from 8 to 16 ounces. It should be
matched with a conventional reel spooled
with 50 to 65-pound braid. In a perfect
world, you won’t be using this rod too
much, but when the drift is fast and you
need to use beefy weights you’ll be glad
to have it. We’ll talk more about weight
selection in a bit, but first let’s go over the
benefits of using braid.
Braided line is expensive on the front
side and a lot of guys ask me if it is really
necessary. Well it is absolutely necessary
and since it lasts far longer than mono
you’ll actually be saving money by
spooling up with braid.
If there is one thing in terms of tackle
that has really changed the face of bottom
fishing it’s braid. Braid has almost zero
stretch and has an impressive strength to
diameter ratio when compared to mono.
The fact that braid is thin allows you to
use less weight than you would have to use
to do the same job with mono.
The low stretch properties of braid make
it extremely sensitive. This sensitivity
gives you outstanding feel for
the bottom and this translates to
better control and less lost gear.
Rockfish hang out in snaggy
craggy territory and if you drag
your gear along the bottom
you’ll get hung up quickly. The
sensitivity of braid allows you to
feel the bottom instantly, avoid
dragging and thus avoid snags.
Rods and reels and braided
line may be the corner stones
of rockfish gear, but it’s the end
tackle that’s fun to talk about and
play with. If you fish out of Bay
Area ports or other ports that
boast live anchovies or sardines,
hooking rockfish is often as simple as
dropping down a three-way live bait leader
with a lively baitfish pinned on the hook,
but there are a lot of other ways to go if
you don’t have live bait or even if you do.
The longtime favorite rig for tempting
rockfish is the shrimp fly rig. These days
we favor rigs that sport a pair of flies.
The leaders are about 36 inches long and
come pre-rigged out of 30 or 40-pound
mono. They have a swivel on the top end,
a snap swivel on the bottom and two flies
rigged on droppers are evenly spaced in the
middle of the leader. To set up for shrimp
fly fishing, simply tie your main line to the
upper swivel, attach an appropriately heavy
weight to the bottom snap, pin two strips
of squid on the flies and drop the rig over
the side. Shrimp flies come in a variety of
colors. All white and yellow/orange tend to
work the best most of the time.
I tie a variation of the shrimp fly rig that
is very effective at times. I tie my rig with
the same materials and dimensions of a
shrimp fly rig, but instead of sporting flies
I construct it with a pair of 4/0 octopus
FISH SNIFFER
HOW – TO
by Cal Kellogg
CONTINUED ON PG 10