Sea Bass Yesterday

We ran back out for sea bass again yesterday. No ice this time. Around 20 fathoms, we saw porpoise, whales and some bird action. I did not stop but I did tell the guys that on the way back in to have their tuna catching jigs on (as opposed to those bug jigs they have been using on the sea bass). We have caught bluefin tuna in those conditions. We got to our wreck and it was loaded with sea bass. Conger eels were also prevalent. We did not catch a single dogfish. We caught our limit of sea bass with fish to over 5 pounds. On the way in, we did not see the same activity but there were some birds, slicks and when I slowed down, we saw some big bunker floating on the surface. We had just missed something. We cruised around and saw some fish marks. The guys dropped their jigs and hooked up. No tuna or bluefish but big rockfish. We moved around a bit to see if we could find a tuna or bluefish. After a few tries in some different locations with only rockfish to show for it, we left them alone and came on in. It was good to see that there are still some ocean rockfish out there even though they are further offshore than I would expect to find them.

When we got close enough, we did call VMRC Operations to report that we were coming in with sea bass as required with the special February sea bass permit. The Marine Police did come and visit us at the dock. They just congratulated us on our catch and wanted to make sure that everyone knew that blueline tilefish was closed.

A few fish down there: https://www.facebook.com/HealthyGrinSportFishing/videos/1957731197601751/