La Jolla 4/11 anyone have any luck?
 

Was out at La Jolla this morning from sunrise til about 2. Easily made bait and paddled out and kept seeing so much bait hitting the surface. I even made a couple of random casts with the surface iron to see but nothing, just a ton of bait. I was with a buddy and all we caught was a couple of rockfish, and the picture of mine was released because I'm still not that familiar with the colors of the restricted ones didn't feel like taking chances over a rockfish. Curious if anyone out there today got anything good, or see anyone on any fish? Don't know if theres such thing as too much bait out there:confused:

U could have kept him

looks like a copper aka chucklehead

thats 4 tacos!cool post

I was out about the same amount of time (I think I saw you at the launch) and same thing here, easy greenbacks but not much else. I got one bite on the dropper from something with size but it spit the hook. Other than that nothin till the way in I managed a few calicos in the kelp. Seemed like a pretty slow day, I heard someone got a wsb to the top but lost it before he could get it to gaff

The more bait fish, the more Pelagics. But also more seals and other mammal life.

I went to the shores on Sunday (4/12) with one of my daughters to take out the tandem kayak (not to fish). We headed out at about 3:30. I talked to a number of guys coming in. All were either empty handed or had a few rockfish, mostly pretty small ones.

BTW, this pdf from CA DFG has good pictures of the "no take" fish and selected other rockfish. I keep it and the current regs on my phone.
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.a...06&inline=true

I was hoping my daughter would see some dolphins or whales, but with the onshore winds we didn't get too far out. The most interesting thing we saw was a sea lion at the surface with a decent sized red rockfish. There weren't any fishermen around (he was inside the MLPA) so I guess he came by his fish honestly. My daughter thought it was neat, and I think she had fun. We had a pretty smooth landing, surfing into the ankle deep water before getting out.

Now I just need to install a rod holder aft of the rear seat in the tandem...

I went on 4/11, kinda last minute decision, Mike text me Thursday asking if I wanted to go and I sure did after not fishing for a few weeks. Unfortunately my battery was shot, so basically fishing blind except for Mikes Lowrance x-4. No love on the fly line, caught mainly Spanish, only one green. After a while Mike, asked Russ and I if we wanted to drop some squid. So we did, and for a few hours we had a fairly endless supply of rockfish (coppers, reds, salmon grouper, and Tons of whitefish). We threw a bunch back since they were pretty small rockfish. I changed my live bait rig to a slide sinker and dropped it down about 20 feet of the bottom, it went heavy and ended up being a nice lingcod tangled, not hooked, with my bait, got a few pics, and he spazzed out, freed himself and swam away. Bummer. Then rockfish bite died. Had another bait near the bottom, and then went bendo around 1pm, on the right kind. Locked down drag on the old jigmaster and just couldn't gain line. After 30 minutes, he popped off, second heart break of the day. Line intact, hooks not bent, knots just fine. He just popped off I guess. Need a live bait reel with more power, damn jigmaster, lol. Good times overall though! Here's a few pics. Good times Mike&Russ! [ATTACH]15199[/ATTACHAttachment 15206]Attachment 15200Attachment 15201Attachment 15202Attachment 15203Attachment 15204

Nice rockfish man, yeah I'm going to give my luck a try Friday morning, just hooking up my new fish finder this week too so hopefully that helps out!

Has anyone definitely IDeed this fish yet? I'm still learning myself and would like to know. Look at the DFG chart that PBB posted, looks like this one might be a "Rosy"? I saw someone had mentioned a "Copper" but if this chart is correct, the color is off... the Copper looks more brown & white to me, not orange & white like this one. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks for your patience... still a lot to learn yet...

I was out there with you when you caught that one i was the dude who caught the red on the flat fall that we weren't sure if i could keep it as well lol! Yeah i hooked up to one of the right kind but it shook the hook was a beautiful day but not much fish!

Yes, the fish in the OP is indeed a copper aka chucklehead. Not even close to being a rosy.

Never-die.

Some dude on the radio kept saying he caught a bunch of canary rockfish. So I asked him if he was sure about that. Never seen or caught one. I bet he was confusing coppers for canary

Canarys will look just like reds, sometimes they are a bit lighter in color. The next time you catch a red, run your finger along the jaw of the fish. On a red or vermillion it will be rough to the touch. On a Canary it will be perfectly smooth rubbing both ways. Most likely the guy didn't catch a bunch of canarys, he probably was mistaken. You usually get those things further north, they seem to be pretty rare down here.

I got a canary off Dana.

Dropped it like a used condom.