BODEGA BAY: F/V BIGEYE

Today we pointed north into a pretty lumpy ocean and made the slow pound north into the steep swells. The fog was thick but I had high hopes the ocean would lay down, and luckily it did around 9am. The water was a balmy 48 degrees but the cold water was incredibly clear with us being able to see the bottom clear as day in 30’+ of water. We sent down rockcod setups on spinning rods and flies and instantly found a wide open lingcod bite with several lings chasing rockfish around the boat at the surface completely fearless. We continued to rake in 16 mid-grade lings with tons of action and a handfull small lings being released. The water was so clear we were watching the lings approach the baits before they even committed to the bite. It makes fishing easy when you can literally see the lingcod laying on the bottom. I was even able to drop swimbaits on top of a few lings I spotted from the boat and get them to bite. Beyond epic lingcod bite and the clear water made it even more fun.

Afterward we moved in pretty shallow to about 15 feet of water and collected limits of good quality blacks. The rockfish fishing wasn’t wide open but the quality was fantastic, with jumbo blacks peeling drag off the spinning rods left and right and also not afraid to eat shrimp flies.

Overall, it was an epic day with a ton of action, definitely the most fun inshore day we’ve had yet this year and possibly one of the most exciting days we’ve had yet. Of course, right when we get a taste of good action, the ocean goes back to endless wind for the next few weeks. As a few others may have Seen, Capt Josh will be writing reports on here as well, hopefully when the wind lays down we will have lots of reports being posted, but for now all we can do is hope the wind give us a chance to get back out there again.

Capt. Ryan