I decided to take the day off and make an attempt to convince the girlfriend to come out fishing. My girlfriend has come out fishing plenty of times in the past, but since the weather has cooled down she has stayed clear of the boat. It wasn't easy, but after taking her out to breakfast and dressing her like an Eskimo she decided to come out in an attempt to catch her first rock fish. We got to the boat a little after noon and made our way out toward the #1 at the mouth of the West River in search of some birds Joemassi had said were working the area. We found the birds in no time and with her first cast my gf steph had a small rock fish on.
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We played around with the school for an hour or so catching ten or so undersized rock and decided to leave the birds in an attempt to find larger fish. We dropped the trolling gear in the water and worked our way over to the Eastern bay with plenty of marks on the finder but not one take down. While over there about 4:00 I saw some birds in the binoculars and decided to pull up the gear and head over to them. We got there and caught three more undersized rock, but decided to pack up and head back across the bay in one last attempt to find larger fish. We ended up finding a few boats back near the #1 working a school of birds. Within minutes we both caught 17" fish, but had high hopes to find their larger brothers. Long story short we each managed a keeper, mine at 23"
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her's at 21" and a half dozen or so additional undersized rock.
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All in all it was a great day off, not the fastest day or largest quality of fish, but I was quite excited to see her catch her first rock and first keeper. On the way in ran into Joemassi who was unfortunately hitching a ride from Towboat US after an electrical fire. Tough way to end the day, but once again speaks mountains for investing in towing insurance.
View attachment 12897
We played around with the school for an hour or so catching ten or so undersized rock and decided to leave the birds in an attempt to find larger fish. We dropped the trolling gear in the water and worked our way over to the Eastern bay with plenty of marks on the finder but not one take down. While over there about 4:00 I saw some birds in the binoculars and decided to pull up the gear and head over to them. We got there and caught three more undersized rock, but decided to pack up and head back across the bay in one last attempt to find larger fish. We ended up finding a few boats back near the #1 working a school of birds. Within minutes we both caught 17" fish, but had high hopes to find their larger brothers. Long story short we each managed a keeper, mine at 23"
View attachment 12898
her's at 21" and a half dozen or so additional undersized rock.
View attachment 12899
All in all it was a great day off, not the fastest day or largest quality of fish, but I was quite excited to see her catch her first rock and first keeper. On the way in ran into Joemassi who was unfortunately hitching a ride from Towboat US after an electrical fire. Tough way to end the day, but once again speaks mountains for investing in towing insurance.
