I Need help bottom fishing!!!

iwanttofish · 06-03-2008, 06:50 AM

Ok I am the first to admit that I suck at bottom fishing. I fish out of Garibaldi and every time we go out I just can not find or catch much of anything. We do good on crab but just can not find or get them to bite the hook. Any ideas that could help? And yes I know I am opening up here to get some great comments but Oh well let me have it.

We went all over on Sunday this week and could not get anything. We got 30 crab on memorial day and 24 last weekend. So crabbing has been good.

chrome obsession · 06-03-2008, 07:21 AM

hmmm....Maybe the bait your using..?

.....No really this will help me as well.....I will be keeping an eye on this thread....Although we did get three black rockfish, 2 yellow eye's and one 20inch ling....But that was in one drift with berkley gulp and herring....After that one drift we didn't touch anything for the rest of the day.....We must of been over a small structured bottom or something....

fishsauce · 06-03-2008, 07:36 AM

Hmmm.... I knew there must have been more iFishers out there. We were also out in the bay for the first time Sunday and did okay for the maiden voyage. Fished till high slack and only managed 3 black rock and one crab. We were jigging grubs and sandshrimp off the bottom. All the black rock were found holding in some sort of structure.

Lucky one · 06-03-2008, 07:38 AM

I wonder if you might let me know where you've been fishing out of garibaldi? Three arch rock area? North by manzanita?

Tip-Sea · 06-03-2008, 10:10 AM

What are you using for bait/ jigs? Are you using a decent fish finder?

two by four · 06-03-2008, 10:42 AM

Went out yesterday and ended up with eight (5 big quillback, two blacks, one yellowtail). Fished mostly straight out from Twin Rocks, also tried Dinner Reef found fish but they had lockjaw and the current was moving pretty fast. Used 4 inch swimbait and 6 inch Berkley Gulp.

Roger

Tinman · 06-03-2008, 12:12 PM

90% of bottom fishing success is finding structure. It is very, very much worthwhile to find the pinnacles and reefs, and position the boat precisely to ensure you drift over them. Don't be surprised to spend more time maneuvering the boat and setting up drifts than actually fishing.

Don't worry too much about tackle and lures, concentrate on structure. And when you do manage to set up a perfect drift over structure, be prepared to catch fish fast and furious.

Chesapeake · 06-03-2008, 12:29 PM

All my experience out of Garibaldi is in three locations.

Halibut hill, Manzanita, and The arches.

For simple bottom fish the arches is probably the easiest. Its about an 8 mile run south out of the tips. We fish out in 100 to 150 feet of water just south of the actual arches. There is a bit of a reef that runs out there going south south west. If you use your finder you should be able to locate it, or just look for the buoy markers. Seems there is usualy some buoys out there on the reef. Dont fish too close to them though, they will take your gear. Our catch is pretty much black bass and lingcod of the barely legal size. Once you find the structure you might have to hunt a little to find a school of bass.

MakoMark · 06-03-2008, 01:00 PM

Like you I had trouble bottom fishing (in northern California) so I went fishing with a very cursty salt and found several key points that changed my luck.

1. use the fish finder to not only find structure but fish holding on the structure.

2. All fish feed at the same time and most are caught one hour before to one hour after high tide, slack low tide may also be good. Some times it's like someone flipped a switch, the top of the tide comes and the fish just start biting, the tide starts to run again and the fish stop just like clock work! If you find a hungry fish and put the bait right on his nose he may still bite.

3. Put the bait right on the bottom, in less then 100ft and no wind I use 6 oz. and 10oz. on a fast drift, a sea ancor is a big help on windy days

4. Most people use a 3-way dropper, but this old salt would out fish me especially for LingCod using a banana weight with 12" leader. Use a short shank #2 red hook for the top and a longer shank curved hook for the bottom. The red hook is attached with a sliding snell and the bottom hook with a fixed snell. The red upper hook goes up under the mouth and nose and keeps the bait mouth closed. The bottom hook goes through the back just in front of the tail so the hook lays flat across the baits back. Slide the top snell so the line is tight but the bait is straight.

5. Snags on the bottom are a way of life with this rig so I snell 20 rigs to go fishing, if you hang the bottom just brake it off and tie on a new snell rig. As you drop the bait down the moment you feel the bottom you raise your rod tip up as high as you can. This will minimize the snags but also as you pull up, the banana weight will move from side to side, giving the bait a swimming action. I like big baits for big fish and have had good luck with the medium herring or large sardines, also the smaller squid rigged whole with the red hook up at the point end and the back hook in by the eye and part of the body so the tenicals stay with the bait.

The above information is just my

and is worth what you paid for it!

iwanttofish · 06-03-2008, 04:37 PM

Thanks for the info it helps and I will try some of these things.

Mike

Arnolds Ark · 06-03-2008, 06:18 PM

On those days when you can see those black rock fish splashing up on the surface, casting those swim baits like we use for tuna work great. A week ago, almost every cast that my buddy or I cast had a fish on. We caught our limit of 12 total for the two of us in about 20 minutes. Great fun. We were about 6 miles south of Newport.
Steve

Mypursuit · 06-03-2008, 06:59 PM

OK, Finally, I can help somebody...

3 Arch Rocks --- You will usuaully find boats over most of the hot spots. But, the fish there are not always on the bite. This past weekend I had to work hard for the 2 of us to keep 8 fish.

Graph the structure first and look for depth variance. If the fish are not sitting on top of the reefs then they are usually hangin' off the edges of the structure dropping down the sides.

If the wind or current are working against you then you have to run your motor, like halibut fishing, backing into the current to keep your lines straight down. Rockfish look at bait moving horzontally with their eyes crossed.

At times it seems that big tides will "pull" the fish off of the reefs so hunt them in deeper water. If you hit a school, stay over them and check their depth. Often you have to come up from the bottom 20 -30 feet in 100+ water to get their attention.

I usually fish a weighted minnow or chrome 4 -6 oz jigs with different colored shrimp flies rigged above. Lings and Cabs tend to prefer the jigs and the rockfish and greenling prefer the flies. If you are not catching and you know you are on fish keep changing up your colors, jigs and bait.

I could go on for awhile but this should get you started.

iwanttofish · 06-03-2008, 07:07 PM

Thanks that is a big help and I will try that next time.

Mike