Rockfish basics for private boaters

February 22, 2022

3838

BY CAPTAIN BILL SCHAEFER

SAN DIEGO – It’s almost rockfish season again. On March 1 it’s on. Other types of fishing also start to take off this time of year, but those tasty rockfish are already hanging off the man-made artificial reefs and natural contours of the bottom off California right now, and the bite should stay strong until the waters warm enough to chase them off.

If out chasing other fish like early yellowtail and they are not cooperating, you can always fall back to rockfishing. Just make sure you have your bass rods along with you and you can fish a lot of the inshore rockpiles and reefs that litter the bottom. You should have a fish finder on board, and if equipped with a mapping unit you can locate drop offs and high spots by following the contour lines. You can also purchase map cards for certain units to enhance those lines. There are a ton of natural spots you can find just off the entire southern California coast.

As I mentioned, you can get away with using your bass gear for many areas. Nowadays with everyone stringing up with braided line, and with the no stretch characteristics, you are already set up to fish without going out to buy new tackle. For example I use a Daiwa Proteus WN or DXSB swimbait trigger stick rod with Lexa 300 or 400 reels loaded with 50- to 60-pound Daiwa J Braid 8 and the new Daiwa fluorocarbon leader.

For those baits that will get bit, your favorite swimbaits or extra large curltail grubs, in dark colors, from Big Hammer, Reyes Swimbaits, Reebs Lures, or LK Lures will do. You may need 1- to 3-ounce jigheads to reach bottom, depending on the depth or the current, but I’m talking 80 to 160 feet of water on average. Heavy iron jigs, spoons, and rock cod jigs will also work well as long as they can make the trip to the fish. Tipping any of the above with a squid strip or a coating of Uni-butter can also help attract the fish. Sometimes all it takes is to get one to bite and all the fish go off.

If you’re out looking for yellows or fishing bass in deeper water, take a little time to meter around and find some new spots to fish. If you find some, mark them and fish them. If they don’t bite, then you can always return to try the spot another day and it may go wide open for you. If you’re already a fisherman who fishes shallow rockfish, then you may want to add fishing for bass as well to your repertoire. Bass fishermen, I know you already have incidental catches of rockfish, so take them home for dinner.