Spring Rockfish

I have a lot to catch up on. I'll try to do that over the weekend but first wanted to report on Thursday's fishing trip to the area around the Bay Bridge. I dropped my 4 rod light tackle spread in just above Sandy Point Light, just me and Crockett. I saw lots of marks on the fish finder, but no fish. Moved on about a mile below the Bridge and saw gannets diving near Matapeake. Picked up two fish right off the bat, but they were small. I wondered if my light tackle might be resulting in smaller fish and was thinking of changing, but moved up to shallower 65' water when another rod went down with a much heavier fish. Probably 38" or so. I was sending a cell phone message to my boys when, boom... another hook up, this one maybe just a little bigger. Storm clouds were building but the fish kept biting, all above red buoy number 88. Hooked and lost one, then got two more over the side before lightning got too close and I had to run north where I hid out below the Sandy Point side of the bridge. After the rain, I headed back down toward a nice rainbow, but there was no pot of gold. Gannets were still there, but I couldn't catch another fish. I ended up with 6 fish, 4 of which were the biggest I've pulled into my boat so far.

My spread is two Bagleys DD22/bucktail combos, one small daisy chain/parachute, and one parachute/bucktail tandem. I stagger them at 20-30 yard intervals behind the boat. I'll sometimes add another rod but it's a lot of work for one person. Crockett's job is to drive the boat, open the Natty Bohs, and take the pictures... The forecast is for wind, rain, and snow this weekend. If I can get out next week I'm going to try tying a parachute above the DD22s to see if they run true. It it works, I think it'll be the secret weapon for trophy rockfish season. My personal best rockfish is a TVA lake fish about 30lbs. I hope to break that record this spring -S