Was able to get the weekend off work and able to participate in a great tournament right here on the Central Coast.

Morning started with everyone meeting at Montona de Oro with a 6:30am launch.

Launched with Ryanimpreza, AnacapaBob and DerrickA2H and we headed to some spots off shore and I started to pick at the canaries… Well those were not gonna help. Found a nice reef with about a 30-40ft drop off on the outside edge. Dropped a tady4/0 with a Sardine Baitwrap down and get wacked by something. Drag started coming off the reel. Get it up from the depths and a nice 22.75inch rockfish on the end.

Talking with Ryanimpreza we decided we needed to move shallow for a cabby and still have a chance for lings in there shallow. But we both had a decent rockfish as did AnacapaBob. So we headed in fishing the 120ft, 100ft, 80ft, 60ft, 40ft, 20 feet of water marks and we pulled a couple rockfish off each spot but nothing we were looking for.

As we got to about 60 feet of water Bob pulled in a nice ling.

We continued to work shallow and south almost to the MLPA zone and get shallow after almost getting ran over by some yahoo in a skiff in the fog, going way to fast for the fog. Its about 11am and know we have about a 30 minute paddle north just to get to the beach. I decide to switch it up as I had been fishing big baits for big fish all morning and tie on a 5inch big hammer and a shrimp fly and toss a piece of squid on it. First drop something that wants to take some heavy drag takes my bait and bring in this nice Cabby.

Well we continue to fish as we work south and keep on working the 30-50 feet of water zone. Nothing wanting to bite. At this point I am just looking for a nice ling. Thinking I am gonna need at least a 30inch ling to bring home 1st place for the tournament.

We get to the point of the cove of spooners and still had about 20 minutes to fish and we decide to just drop a couple more times. I say to my self this is the last drop and was able to hook into something again. It felt like a decent fish and ended up being the species I needed.

Got my Rockfish on a Tady4/0 with a Sardine Baitwrap on it.
Cabby came on a shrimp fly and some bleached squid.
Ling came on a 4oz leadhead with a 5″ big hammer.

Got back to the campground and turned in my scorecard and started talking with the rest of the anglers. Excited because I felt like my rockfish might bring home the biggest rockfish of the tournament well it brought home more then that my combined catch helped me win the Second Annual Estero Bay Challenge.

Was an awesome day on the water and a blast to fish with everyone.  Can not wait till next year.

Till next time,

RH