Hey guys,
Not Every Trip Is Epic
Rode Pierpoint Landing’s ¾-day local moo-moo
Victory yesterday … Wednesday. Mike Blue is her skipper and ran the boat while Jason decked and Ron manned the galley. Fished locally and pretty close in at Horseshoe Kelp. Only 15 or so of us were on that big ol’ boat!
Note !! The Victory departs daily and will run even with very light loads ….. barring bad weather.
Target Fish: Lingcod, Sheephead, SWRF Short Report- Wednesday 11/29:
Today: Around 15 anglers caught 1 Lingcod, good numbers of Sheephead, a few Whitefish, Rockfish, and Sculpin. Rockfish included: Treefish, Starrys, and Reds (Vermillions). We also caught and released a few short Lingcod, Sculpin, and a Shark.
(Please widen your view to fit monitor if word-wrap looks off) Wednesday 11/29 Jackpot: Weigh In ............. Winner! 
Ling Wins
Good job on the ling James. One of the last lings!! Congrats!! November 1st is the first day of the Lingcod season closure. Those looking for the jackpot on the local SWRF scene had better set their sights on Sheephead …. Unless …….. the boats go deeper and then my guess is the JP will be won by a big Bocaccio (Salmon Grouper).
More fishy photos in the gallery Long Report: Out the Door Dock Side 
Past the Birdies! 
Up and At ‘Em
Left the dock at the Winter schedule’s 7am. Got the usual safety speech. Having dines in the tanks from the good day before (30+ Sheephead) we were to head straight out and everyone was pretty busy getting their stuff ready! Out the LA light/breakwater, it was another 30 minutes to the area where we made our first stop.
The Days Fishing Worked! 
Searched Hard
Mike again worked his tail off hitting numerous spots, metering fish, dropping the hook, and occasionally either fine-tuning with a little rope slack or re-anchoring. Frustrating when the meter lights up yet fishys have a case of lock-jaw.
Although weather and catching conditions don’t necessarily match, today’s difficult conditions put a hurt on the number of fish over the rail.
Whatcha gonna do with ever-strengthening current, influx of cold water, cooling weather ……. and lastly …… not the right-time, right-place the boat got yesterday!
Moo-moo Pasture First Stop! 
Out of Sight!
The moo-moos that were able to get out to pasture were pretty much scattered and out of our sight. Fished really hard as how quick the weather would worsen was an unknown.
PB’ers Corner Nice Rig! 
Rock & Roll Baby!!
Later in the day, even we were feeling the 4 foot ‘STEEP’ swells but …. Oh mannnnnn ! the private boater out there anchored was riding hard! That thing was listing so far I don’t think there was anything left loose in the cockpit except maybe the captain’s screws. Little jokie there! Just watching them ……. Arrrrrghhhhh 30 degrees easy!!
The Fishing: The Usual View!! 
3 Rounds!! Round 1
The first part of our day consisted of hitting a number of spots that produced few fish. Sheephead seemed willing to bite but it was still stratchy! Most were using the tried and true dropper loop with 6 to 10ozs of lead….. depending on where we were fishing on the boat. Fished mostly spots that had structure.
Conditions: 2 foot swells. Strong current. Cold wind about 10 knots then warming to cool.
Round 2
Fished a little further out and east hoping to find better weather and water conditions. We fished hard and had a slow pick on a nice variety of quality fish.
Conditions: The wave and swell height as well as the wind started to pick up along with the strength of the current.
Round 3
We moved for the last time to an area that had produced recently and picked up some of our better fish and the jackpot! Our anglers fished hard but the worsening weather won out and Mike had to call it an early day back to the barn.
As far as myself, and more than a few others were concerned, Mike didn’t have to give us ½ fare passes for the early return. We fished most of the trip, had had a very good shot at catching, we were able to fish hard, it had been reasonable to make the trip in the first place, and most everybody had fish and or a good time! We just took it as ‘that’s fishin’.
Given the above, I don’t think many skippers would have considered making that display of generosity.
Conditions: Got more windy and cold as we returned.!!
Gallery The Fish – Lings, Goats, and Others Beauty! 
Variety and Quality!
Fished lots of different areas and caught a lot of different fish. It’s always cool to be fishing and not quite not know what’s coming up next.
The photos below are just a sample of the fish and things of interest, at least to me, on this week’s trip.
Note: If you see a friend in the pictures, let them know they can copy the photo off the report and print it on their computer. Anglers and Their Fish Ling ..........................Rich's .................#2 ......................Jeanne's! 
More Fish! Art’s Tree ............. Whitefish ............... .Joseph's ................. Nice Fish! 
Little Guy ...........................Flying Fish ................. .......Swivel! 
Let Them Know!
If you know the guys here let them know their boats here and they are welcome to take the photo for printing if the quality is sufficient.
Plastics!! Big Baits 
Plastics …. More Experimentation …. More Pain
Fished plastics 99.5% of the day. Caught one fish. I fished exclusively on the very bottom with bigger 5 ½ inch baits and got a bunch of short-bites for my efforts.
I used the usual bullethead, unpainted leadheads ranging from 1 to 3ozs. Again, as I believe that fishing the leadhead without encumbering Carolina or Texas rigging, is more effective and less likely to get hung, I traded expedience in getting to the bottom for a single leadhead/plastic rig. Applied Calico Cocktail Jel and Smelly Jelly attractant from the get-go.
Fishing the shallower depths (90 feet or so), I used 1 to 3oz leadheads with the swimbait and otherwise plastics..The current was ripping but I managed to stay on the bottom. My target species were coming over the rail, but alas, as has been the case the last few weeks, I was not rewarded.
I used orange tentacle thingys and red/dark brown swimbaits, and the usual dark green with silver and black glitter JerkIts.
Tweeking Plastics #12 Adding Weight .................................................. Assembly! 
Adding Weight to A Bullethead Leadhead!
On the shelves presently, Lead Masters has seen fit to put out a whole series of heavier leadheads ……. I hadn’t previously noticed. Kinda knocked the air out of this project.
This is a project to do.if a) you’ve got lot’s of time to goof off or b) you’d like to make some leadheads with long shanks heavier, and c) you’d like to find a use for your over-abundance of sliding egg sinkers.
Choosing the Right Leadhead!
The bullethead style of leadhead is the best for this project due to their similarity in shape and diameter to sliding-egg sinkers.
Getting the Lead Out:
Having acquired an adequate supply of both long-shanked (and hopefully long collared) bullethead shaped leadheads, your next step is to find a matching diameter sliding-egg sinker.
Making the Components:
Leadhead:
Step 1- If the bait stay on the collar is positioned so that it is in the way of the mounting of the modified egg sinker, it should be removed.
Sinker:
Step 1- Check the collar diameter to see how large the egg sinker’s through-hole must be increased. (Drilled hole should be just slightly smaller than the collar diameter)
Step 2- Drill the hole
Step 3- Cut the sinker in half cross-ways. A hacksaw is perfect for this job.
Step 4- Cut the half of a sinker lengthwise to the center-hole.
Step 5- Widen the slit in the sinker enough to allow you to put the sinker on the hook’s bare shank.
Step 6- Slide the sinker onto the collar. Enlarge the hole in the sinker if needed. Otherwise, prepare for assembly.
Assembly/Methods:
Method 1- Crimp the sinker onto the leadhead collar with a pair of vice-grips.
Method 2- Apply a SuperGlue type adhesive.
Method 3- Apply heat with a hand torch to meld the sinker to the leadhead or leadhead collar.
Testing:
There is really no testing in using the leadhead but you may want to try the different methods described to test durability of the assembly method. Estimated project time: 30 minutes.
Wednesday’s Out There Lunar! 
Tides! 
Conditions Fishing Grounds: The air-temperature ranged from the 40’s to barely warm around 2pm when we headed home. Fished under clear skies. Water clarity varied from spot to spot with nicer water outside a bit. Water temps were a steady 62 degrees throughout the day!! Had some chop during the morning that continued to get nastier. Whitecaps appeared before noon. Swells were around 2 feet at 10 seconds early.then growing to over 3 feet at 6~7 second intervals before we decided to hang it up and burn rubber for the barn. Wind was blowing around 5 knots getting to 15 at the end. Down-hill (West) swell. Current fairly ripped during the whole day with just one spot that gave us any relief at all for a short time.
Wild Creatures: 1 Sealion visited but soon lost interest and went away. and were rewarded with those who were using Sardines for bait. The usual Seagulls, Pelicans were hanging out and were very aggressive. Those pesky Cormorants were again attacking my JerkIt swimbaits!
An Aside: OK guys …… It’s SWRF time and everyone has broke out the torpedo sinkers. Right now …. everybody is using 4 to 6oz weights locally on the ‘Shoe’ but later in the season it going to be 8oz, 10oz, or even 1 pound + sinkers.
Problem:
This may be mostly a ‘If ………, they might be a newbie’ infraction but ……. give the boat a break. Don’t rig up your outfits so that when they are in the rod holders, their sinkers don’t bang against the bulkheads (sides/walls of the cabin). This practice chips paint, dings the surface, mars glass, and may make the skipper or deck unhappy with you. Nobody wants to be thought of as a Barney!
The problem occurs when a) the sinkers are positioned at the top 1/3 of the rod so that when the rod tip flexes with the weight, the give allows slack and BAM! or b) the motion of the boat causes the setup to unfasten from the outfit and starts to swing and BAM! Whichever …. There’s a problem!
Solutions:
a) Fish plastics and don’t use torpedo sinkers! or b) position the setup so that the torpedo sinker’s attached line can be wrapped around the reel (two wraps) with the sinker ending up facing outside of the outfit.
Another Aside: Pulled in one Pelican today. Silly creature flew mid-air into a cast and got the line wrapped around his or her bill. Released unharmed. All the birds were so aggressive and I was amazed to see a Pelican grab a poor Cormorant by the neck and clamp-down hard enough to make the poor bird neck bend. I thought the Cormorant was a gonner but the Pelican released it in two to three seconds.
Cormorants were grabbing my JerkIts and holding on to them to a point I thought I had a hits !!
Yet Another Aside: Although we fished up until 1:30pm and conditions developed to a point of no-return, the skipper was very generous and gave everyone a ½ fare pass! With the good counts the day before, it was a reasonable call to go fishing in the first place just too bad things got rougher, quicker than expected. The two other boats out, that we knew of, had started heading home before we gave up the ghost.
And Yet Another Aside: Along with the usual Johnny-on-the-spot fish handling, Jason did an impromptu, at-the-rail setup class. Got a new (to me) bit of fishing lore. The outside was really rough and you could see the horizon was uneven and looked like it had a bunch of bumps. He said that condition was called something like ‘buffaloes on the horizon’. Cool !! Priceless !!
Useful Information Stern Shots
I have posted the stern rail numbers and the color sections of the boat for two past reports. In subsequent reports on the boat, I will not post the graphics again but have you refer to the post for the 11/22 trip for the visuals reference. The Victory’s 5 color sections (red, green, yellow, blue, and white) each have 18 numbers going clock-wise 1 to18.
The Victory George .................Mike ..............................Jason ............................. Ron 
Rainbow Harbor Bound! 
Trip’s End!
Today, the skipper, crew, fishing buddies, and some regulars made Wednesday a great day to be on the water and fishing even if conditions were tough. We were off the boat by 3:00 and I was home at around 3:30pm.
tsurikichi
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