Slow day of Fishing on a FAST Boat!!! - WAVE WALKER Charters

[PlatinumHooks]

NOTE: Jon and Danny Jackson took the only photos. Danny is sending me the pictures and I'll have Jon email me the pix so I can post them.....pix should be up by tomorrow!

11/18/06


Myself, Jon, Jeff Jost(Albackore Tackle Systems); Kevin Jamieson(Booyaa fishing wear); Danny Jackson(FOX Sports Network); & Sarkis Alajajyan(AVET reels) took off for a day of fishing on WAVE WALKER Charters (Santa Barbara, CA) yesterday.... Ronnie Kov' couldn't make it

We left the dock right around 8:20am and headed to the mouth of the Santa Barbara Marina to see if we couldn't pick up any of the WSB's they've been pulling out of the shallow water, in the mouth of the harbor. On the way we stopped at the bait barge to bait up. Bait was really small; pinhead Anchovie and even some of the 'Dine's we got were med to small. Most of the bait was pretty lively!! ... though still very small. But hey, I had a conversation with the Captain a couple days before ,and he told me the bait was going to be "If-ee", and he was right on the money.

Bait in tank, headed up about 50 - 100 yards to the mouth of the harbor; rigged up, baited up and begain our day. The day was already getting hot at 'quarter to 9' in the morning; just a beautiful day.

We weren't really getting into a hot bite in the Marina, though Jon and couple of the others did manage to pick up a few fish. I think Jon picked up a really short WSB. The majority of the fish were small but it was a decent warm up. We fished there for about 45 minutres and then Capt. David Bacon decided to head out about 6 miles to a wreck that he knew about which had a reputation for proucing some big Lingcod. This was the fastest 6 mile ride I'd ever taken. The Wave Walker is a fast boat, without arguement! Holds dual Yamaha 250's and it hauls butt!

So we arrive and I decide to rig up with a giant Boneyard Baits "Mega Grub". We were fishing at about 250feet so I thought I'd fish the glow in the dark color. I told myself I was going to put these things through a thorough field test, as I told Jim(BigFish4You) that I'd give them a really good testing. These baits fish very well, great action on them! Most grubs, you have to really get 'em moving before they really begin to find the right action. These baits seem to begin to 'flutter' with the slightest movement, really great for jigging subtley. I ended up fishing the whole moring with them, and part of the early afternoon, and got nothing on them.

I want to say that I learned something about deep water jigging for Lings. Captain said that they can be very finicky and if there is not a wide open bite, then you probably won't get too many Lings on any type of jigging lure. If the bite is wide open, you should be able to get 'em "left and right" on large grubs and deep jigging Irons. I don't attribute the "not catching fish" while on the deep water jig to Boneyard Baits, but rather just the fact of what the Captain relayed to me. I would recommend these baits to anyone. They have really great action and are very well made. I bet they work well in the shallows (40-100ft) for big Rockfish and Lingcod; even Halibut when the bite is right.

Well, fishing the wreck wasn't a loss (just for me on the mega grubs). Jon caught some Rockfish in the channel, Kevin Jamieson was pullin' 'em up left and right, but where were the Lings??? Well, I changed colors of the Boneyard Baits, to the bright Chartreuse color, and gave that a shot for nada. While we're sittin there, all of a sudden Danny Jackson begins to reel up his rig, and it's taking him forever...... He keeps quite to not make a big fuss, yet all the while he's hauling up what was to be the best fish of the day...finally up it came, gaff over the rail and plop on the deck!! an 18-20lb Lingcod! This thing was not only huge, but I think it wanted to kill us all!

gotta remember, Danny is a big boy... he's about 6'5". That's a big Ling!

We ended up going a little further out and fished the channel for a little bit. Right around 2pm we headed back into shore to so some inshore fishing for some Kelp Bass and other stuff. I finally decided to put away the Boneyard Baits and grab my other rig. When we got there I rigged up, and dropped.......blam!, finally a fish! reeled it up, small Calico. Baited up, dropped again...blam! another one, and then another. Biggest one was probably about 2-2.5 lbs, beautiful looking fish. Sarkis began catching all these pretty big Jacksmelt; fun on an AVET SX 2speed! I finally landed a short WSB, about 22 inches, and then Jeff landed one later that was a little bigger than mine; probably about 24 inches.

Well, everyone caught fish, and even though it was a slow day in the Santa Barbara Channel, the experience to fish with the world renowned Captain David Bacon and some of my good friends was worth every minute!

I want to stress that the WAVE WALKER is a 100% top notch 6 pak operation and the captain is phenomenal. What a great personality, and a wealth of fishing information and knowledge. Captain David Bacon is "thee man". On the choice days, he and his boat make a perfect combination. He works very hard and never stopped conversing with us and sharing his knowledge. He's very encouraging and I would recommend him to anyone here, at any time of the year. Not to mention, for fishing with a world renowned captain; his charter prices are so fair, it's ridiculous. You can get him for a half day, 3/4 day, or Full day. The most you'll ever pay (for the Full day) is $700! Split that between 6 people and it's only $117.00 a piece! That's a steal.

The deckhand; Mona is super! This chick worked her butt off!! She knew what she was doing and was very attentive to all of us. We never had to ask her to help; she was always there.

Hats off to the Capt. David Bacon, deckhand Mona and Wave Walker Charters in Santa Barbara, CA !!!!!!

[Local Rookie]

Thanks for the report and looking forward to the pictures.

[cashe]

Sounds like a good day on the water for all.

[Beresford13861]

damm i wana get on that boat!!!

[PlatinumHooks]

One big picture added. A few more to come. We didn't take alot of pix at all.

A couple more pix added

[imsoazn2dai]

thanks for the report. man thats a nice ling.

[gettingtail]

'Did ya send those smelt down for the lings? \r\n \r\nNice shirt you are wearing. I saw those at the fred hall show last year.'

[PlatinumHooks]

Originally Posted by gettingtail

'Did ya send those smelt down for the lings? \r\n \r\nNice shirt you are wearing. I saw those at the fred hall show last year.'

No. The Smelt were caught inshore, in about 18 - 20 feet of water. We were no where near Ling territory. Wow; How can you tell what type of shirt I'm wearing?

[halijedi]

Was that caught on the Gulp! LOL. Nice going Danny. Look forward to fishing with you again.

[psterling76]

Nice work and nice report. Your reports are always informative, and unlike myself, you guys always have awesome pics.

[PlatinumHooks]

Originally Posted by psterling76

Nice work and nice report. Your reports are always informative, and unlike myself, you guys always have awesome pics.

Thanks.

[spooky007]

Good stuff Tony. Looking forward to going out with you guys and the Capt. Read about him in the Mags.

Al

[BeachBear]

The cappy writes some GOOD articles, always very solid technique and helpful. I'd like to write for a company more day , no check just schwag. Man, I love schwag. Tony, you're dressed P I M P as always. That boat was loaded with industry top shots, way cool.

[Homeslice]

Great report Tony. Those are some juicy lings. I'll definetly try out that charter next time around.

[BryanVTheWorld]

Awesome Pics ! Tony your one cool dude. Hey let me know the next Trip you go on, I'll try to drag the Girls to Pose for Pics.