August 27th, 2006
Farallons Adventure
Launched at 6:15 Saturday morning at Berkeley Marina with friend Mark Basinski. Headed out the Gate with a goal of doing some Rock Fishing at the Farallon Islands some 24 miles away. Ocean was reasonably flat and we made our way out to the Islands at 16-17 mph (landlubber miles). On the way back we made 24 mph.
Got to the Islands and I got Mark rigged up with rod, reel and shrimp fly rig. Told him to tip the flies with squid and drop down til he hit bottom then reel up a foot and just lift and drop the rod tip. Well his first drop went only 5 or 10 feet before it was mauled by two Blue Rock Fish. And so it went... we couldn't get our rigs down to the bottom and quickly limited out. I caught one undersized Ling Cod at about 22-23", and the few times I was able to get to the bottom caught a Vermillion and a couple of Olives that had to go back since I was limited out on RockFish.
Easy limits of Blues and one lone Vermillion Rockfish.
Stopped by the Sanddab place and caught half a dozen of the little guys. Like the Rock Fish, was too easy to catch them.
Fishing for Sanddabs.
Boat behaved very well all day and had perhaps a quart or two of water in the bilge. Next time I go out I hope to have some scupper condoms installed. The goal is zero water in the bilge.
Headed home.
Trip was 89 miles and burned a little over 20 gallons of gas for a 4.41 mpg (landlubber miles)
I love this boat.
A mess of rockfish fillets.
Sanddabs.
Tiny, tastey little fellers.
Heaven has Sanddabs on the menu.
View of the Golden Gate on way back to Berkeley.
View of San Francisco on way back to Berkeley.
More to come...