Wind, wind and more wind seems to plagued our typically calm summer months. Our trips have been scattered and we haven’t had much to report so this covers the past 2 weeks of inshore rockfishing, when we can get out there the rockfish bite has been red hot. At least there’s finally there is an end to the non stop wind in the forecast.

Wide open shallow rockfish bite out of Bodega Bay, lingcod bite has been decent.

7-19-23

We decided to run north today and fish real shallow on light tackle gear. Weather was pretty nice all day, and we found a good bite on black and blue rockfish, then spent some time pulling up 7 lings up to 15lbs. The really light trout rods got some good action today, pulling up several the lings and reds and the majority of the rockfish. Felt good to fish in 40 feet of water instead of 700 though.

7-26-23

Weather wasn’t great, but the wind held off and the swells were manageable so we ran north and fished in shallow and stayed within the more protected areas. Immediately in the morning we had a solid rockfish bite on blues and blacks and had a few lingcod in the mix. At about 10am we had most of our rockfish limits and 4 lings, but the bite died and we tried a variety of spots but couldn’t get the lings to bite well again and kept having only undersized lings. We ended the day with one last Ling and headed home

8-3-23

Had a light load today with only 3 clients. Forcast showed heavy winds but based on the past few days we decided to run the trip and had some great weather in the morning. We stayed close to home and found a decent bite on canaries, browns, reds and a few others. We had to check a handfull of spots to find more quality sized fish but picked up limits of rockfish fairly easily, we then switched to lings and hooked 3 on our first drift, the bite slowed and we only ended up with 4 lings for the day after checking all the spots in the area

8-4-23

We left the dock and headed north into choppy weather then found sunny sky’s and a glassy ocean on the fishing grounds. Rockfish bite was slow in the morning on the slack tide but picked up quickly and became wide open by 10am, we spent all day catch and releasing many rockfish on the trout rods to eventually get our client and crew limit of very good quality blacks and blues with a few solid reds. We kept a few reds and released several other medium size reds to grow bigger. Rockfish were biting great all the way up the surface with multiple fish jumping out of the water to hit swim baits. We moved around and tried for lings in the afternoon and ended up with 4 lings up to 18lbs and released several undersize ones.

8-5-23

Went back to similar areas as yesterday and had similar results. Slow start but wide open rockfish bite by 10am with lots of catch and release action on the trout rods for quality limits of blues and blacks and a few reds in the mix. We spent a while looking for lings and only came up with 2, the biggest being landed on the trout rod as well.

8-6-23

Had some not so great weather but the kids stayed patient for the ride north and we luckily were able to find some nice protected areas out of the wind and waves. Hot rockfish bite in shallow with a 3 lings and with a few shorts released. Made quick business of rockfish limits then surfed the swells for a smooth ride home.