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I finally got a day off and made a trip out to the Westport jetty. As I headed out that morning my Weather Bug app
told me there was and 85% chance of rain and will all the squalls that had been coming through the last couple days I was a little discouraged. We stopped at Cabela's on the way and used the gift card I scored in the monthly WL drawing (thanks!) Picked up some gulp alive grubs, and power bait eels, some jig heads, and rain ponchos. As we headed to the coast the weather just kept getting nicer! I could not believe it. Glad I brought some sunscreen...
Since high tide wasn't going to be until 5PM we headed to the marina and joined some other nice folks that were crabbing. We tied on a casting snare and baited it will some pickled squid. Or first haul looked like it had a keeper dungy but it came off close to the surface. Our only other catch had three crabs, all too small though. A nice couple came down and checked 4 pots with only one keeper. They gave it to us.. and also gave us an old but still usable pot. Funny thing on the ramps down to the docks there are sighs that said "don't feed the sea lions". We kind of chucked at that thinking "yeah right". Boy were we wrong. There were at least few of them there and they are not shy. My son talked to one...and it barked right back. He got a kick out of that.
After some killer calamari and chowder for lunch we hit the jetty. I was told that the green buoy was a good place to start. I was probably 3ish and the tide was coming in. We tried white grubs, live sand shrimp, squid, and the eels. Went and tried the ocean side. Between getting our lines tangled and retreating from the occasional large wave we decided to head back to the calmer side. I found a spot that seemed to have more of a straight drop and as the tided went slack I could easily jig the bait back to me. I tied on a chartreuse gulp alive grub and just kept going at it. Just as I was thinking I came all this way to get skunked I got a hook up and the head shakes started! Called my son over with the net. He was kind of panicky and pulled the handle apart while trying to extend it. I could tell the fish was hooked well and tried to keep calm myself. He eventually got things back together and did a perfect job of netting the fish for me. I was no monster ling, but just legal and since I had worked so hard for one fish I decided to keep it. I just fried some up and it was delicious. My boy tried it and said "you've got to me kidding me" with a smile on his face. :)
Can't wait to head back out there.. hopefully sooner than later, and thanks to the folks that post about fishing the jetty. I was able to head out there with some sort of idea on what to do and didn't go home empty handed.
On a sour note I got back to my car and found a ticket on the windshield. I was like what the heck! Apparently my discovery pass had fallen off the mirror and was laying upside down on the dash. Seems awfully petty to write me up when anyone with a bit of logic can see that it fell from the mirror. I'm still a little peeved... Try and play by their rules and they still get you. :(
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