Not Fishing For Garibaldi 6/30

[jrodda]

Got some frozen peas and went to Newport jetty to try for a new species. I was not fishing for Garibaldi. On my way out I talked to two people:

Newbie fisherman with his girlfriend: "hey do you know what those orange fish are?"
"Oh those are Garibaldi, state fish! They're protected, can't keep 'em."

Wildlife observer lady: "See those orange fish? They're protected."
"Oh yeah they are, Garibaldi! State fish! I would never!"

There were a number of them, maybe one every 30-50 feet.

I found what seemed like a good pocket between kelp and more than one species around and hopped down the rocks. 3/8oz dropshot on the ultralight seemed like it was scaring the fish so I dropped down to a 1/16oz splitshot, about the same size as the peas. I started flinging some peas in for chum and watched both the opaleye and the Garibaldi move in on the snacks.

However, the state fish would not have it when, by some odd chance, my pea would end up in front of it.

I did get the skunk off with an Opaleye quickly enough. I already count it on my species list but didn't get a pic when I caught a couple 20 years ago.



I pitched behind a stone where perchance a state fish was and I got bit. Uh oh! Set the hook and thankfully something else came up, my first Black Surfperch! I found the blue hue under the scales to be pretty cool.



I managed another slightly larger Opaleye but couldn't find any other willing biters. I tried a few more spots along the jetty but nothing else produced, and the tide was turning, so I skedoodled.

[Tim524]

Rock Hopping is always fun, them Opel Eye can get pretty Feisty sometimes.