Rolled down to Santa Cruz yesterday and rented a 14 foot wooden boat with an 8 horse power engine and headed out against a mixed swell to the sorrounding reefs. The bite was slow early in the morning with wind swells pushing us off the reef making snags common place. I was able however to raise a few gopher rockfish with yellow and orange shrimp flys topped with strip cuts of squid. After some help finding live bait from some dolphins who were forcing pacific mackerel to boil and give up their location we snagged some live bait on my friend J.P's sabiki rig which I used to pull a ling off the bottom. The ling was all of 30 inches but was not as fat as other lings I have pulled out this area. For 75 bucks which can be split four ways you can rent one of the wooden boats for 9 hours on Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf if you get sea sick check the tides and weather before you go when the weather and tides are tame I can't think of a better way to fish for rockfish without owning your own boat. I fileted todays catch and made fish tacos for a few friends and now as I look at the clock and realize I have been up for 21 hrs it is rack out time... Good luck. Dave
