DUNGENESS CRAB and LINGCOD DOUBLE LIMITS (Unexpected Ending)

nice bright and early morning it's probably about like seven i guess it's like 7 30 maybe now it takes me a little while to get this thing set up it's one of the drawbacks but um you know once you get out here obviously right now it's really nice i can set everything up don't need to worry about pedaling just change this a little bit change the direction but anyways we're out here bright and early it is today is april 1st which is the opening day of rockfish season in the bay area so depending on where you are in california the opening day is different days southern california opens a little bit sooner northern california opens a little bit later i think it's because the mating season or breeding season or whatever for lingcod and rockfish i think that is determined by the water temperature and because the water temperature is a little bit warmer in southern california they breed a little bit earlier and obviously the same or the whatever the opposite up north because the water temperature is a little bit colder up there they breed a little bit later in the season i think that's why but don't quote me on that but anyway so today's opening day rock fish first day first crack at it i'll try and get some ling cod but first i actually brought some crab traps my my kayak here is pretty pretty full i got crab buoys i got crab pots in the back got all my bait in the back um so we're gonna test the the capacity of this kayak i guess i just i guess there's probably like let's see like if you don't count the motor and the battery like additional gear probably close to 100 pounds somewhere around there i don't know i'm just guessing each trap is probably around 10 to 15 pounds with the bait and then the crab yeah maybe not quite 100 pounds but anyways we got a lot of gear on here it's just taking up a lot of space like we saw up front there's like hardly any room for my feet even this is my first official time on the open ocean i did actually take it out one time but didn't make it to a video because i didn't catch anything so a fish first official uh open ocean mission for the old town sportsman autopilot all right it's nice to have all this deck space here all right so last night i actually pre-rigged all my bait cages here um if you've ever done this in the morning sometimes it'd be a huge pain especially when everything's frozen to try and fit it all into these cages so i did it the night before that really helps makes it easier in the morning so now i just gotta strap this on i like using the bait cages as opposed to the bait bags but different people like different stuff both work um so anyways i just strap it in there like that and then i gotta put a buoy on top oh do not fall over last one boom all right that's good to go man that made it a lot easier just drop that down so i'm using lead core rope which is much better than the uh cheap much cheaper rope the rope that floats and the reason for that is when it's down there i mean have some excess rope oh it's already hit the bottom all the excess rope sorry one second i like to feel the bottom here make sure it's feeling kind of sandy yeah it feels pretty good i think also when i like bring it up and down it like shakes the bait around a little bit so i i don't know maybe it's just a mental thing but i feel like that gets some scents going get those crabs excited um but anyways what i was saying is i like to use lead core rope not required in california some states it is um but it's a lot better for other kayakers other boaters because this rope will sink below the surface um the cheaper like floating rope like the yellow rope it floats on the surface of the water so boats coming by or other kayaks coming by they might not see it and actually this morning i almost ran over another one that had some floating rope um so i mean it's not like i didn't break the you won't break the um rope with a with a regular kayak or like this motor like this but it's just a big pain so anyways it's nice to use lead core rope if you you know if you have a choice anyways there's number one let's mark it it's about number 96 all right one down two to go so for bait today i got a big mix of just everything i had left in the freezer um just some old carcasses i think i have some turkey in here from like thanksgiving um what else do i have oh i threw in and i threw in one herring in each uh bait bait uh cage thinking that the herring probably won't last very long um but it'll be a good initial uh scent disperser to get the crabs going hopefully bring them into the cage early and often all right here goes number two all right number two down one more to go this was a whole lot easier when getting the bait in earlier usually this takes me a little while but today it was pretty quick i didn't time myself but i think it only took me about maybe half an hour tops to drop all three pots each buoy is tied to the lead core rope right here and then that lead core rope is tied to a little harness i like to use the harness some people don't people like to tie it to one side of the crab pot but i like to use the harness because that way when i'm dropping it down i know for sure it's dropping straight down it lands flat on the ocean ocean floor if i ever feel it like if i feel like it's hitting a rock or something i'll definitely move it because you know rocks not only will they you know you're tempted or you're liable to get snagged up on a rock and lose your your pot um but rocks are what keep the rock crabs that's where they uh like to hang out and i'm trying to avoid rock crabs if i can if i get them on accident then yes i will keep them because they are also tasty but it's definitely more worth your while in my opinion for a dungey this is the raw crabs maybe they taste a little bit better but the dungeness for the work that you put in like work to meet work to pay out ratio uh the dungeness are way better third and final pot going in all right those are all set hopefully they get me some crab now we're gonna head out to the fishing grounds so my plan for lingcod is first i got on a sabiki here i'm going to try and go out and catch some live bait i don't know what kind of live bait whatever i can find smelt kingfish whatever i don't know what else sand dab whatever i can get anything that swims and that's alive i'm gonna put it on um and then if i can't find any of those i'll probably chop this down to two hooks and try and get some smaller rockfish to use that as bait but um yeah that's the plan for now i'm not seeing much on the finder yet but um yeah i'm still looking so we'll see if we can find something here all right guys a little update tried for live bait for a little bit didn't get any but then when i was out there i realized forgot the dang crab gauge which is critical for crabbing so i'm gonna head back in and get that uh hopefully the battery doesn't die we're gonna test uh capacity now we'll see i probably gone like a mile that way maybe a mile out and then a mile back so maybe like three miles so far back out another mile you know we'll probably do close to 10 miles today we'll see if the battery can handle i think it can but uh we're gonna see so anyways let's go back and get the crab gauge so dumb should have forgot that but anyways we'll go get it get back out there hopefully it's not too late for some lingcod all right got the crab jig i actually got two just in case but when i was coming back i just kind of like put my kayak up on the sand i didn't do it too well and it was coming back from the car it was floating away luckily it's a really gradual um whatever slope here so i'll still weed out get it but it's kind of up to like almost my waist in the water but uh this is a nice little jog all right let's go get some fish and then some crab come on we gotta get them [Music] all right guys well the uh smelled kingfish all that stuff didn't work out so i'm gonna try to get some little rockfish here so i got a little it's basically it's my sabiki i just cut off four of the hooks i only have two left um the reason i do that is because for rockfish you can only use two hooks um per line per rod one rod two hooks um so a full sabiki with six hooks on it wouldn't be legal but two hooks wiki perfectly legal um we're gonna we're right over the little reef here just dropping my sabiki down to the bottom i'm trying to look at my fish finder as well so i can make sure i'm on the on the reef and it shouldn't take long once you're there oh missed one there we go here's one smaller one but this is ideal all right okay there we go oh quick release here let me show you what we're using here there we go oh that was close almost lost him all right that's a little black rock fish um so these are legal to use as bait but you have to remember each one uses bait counts towards your limit your legal limit so you're only allowed to use 10 per day so you got to make them count and oh here let me get this in the bucket here keep them alive um and if you uh if i wanted to keep any rock fish i can only keep however many left to have so i'm gonna probably get like four or five six i don't plan on keeping any rockfish anyways but uh hopefully get like four or five and then we'll start trying for halibut here did i say halibut i meant trolling for lincoln we're gonna try drifting for not even trolling drifting we're gonna try drifting for lincoln all right guys it's go time no more catching bait i got i only got three but uh if i need to stop and get a few more i can do that put this away it's over here i got my bling cod set up ready to go here all right you can see it there just one of my i got the medium one on here i'm gonna start with the medium one i got one that's like a bite-sized one and then i got one that's a little bigger that um we'll probably use that one last see if we can get a big big one but anyways we'll just drop this down the lincoln will be right in the same little areas that these rockfish are in um so yeah we're gonna drop it down here make sure my drag is good [Music] so especially with rock fish you you want to bring your bait up off the bottom rock fisher you know you don't ever want to drag on the bottom when you're fishing the rocks like this but rockfish are just really good at getting in those crevices i'm using them as live bait so i want to get it a good ways off the bottom you could bring it even 10 feet off the bottom and those lincoln will come up and grab it oh there's a fish that's a fish oh that's a good one oh that's a good one that's a good one that's a good one that's a good one that's a good one stay on there i think it'll move like that for this one there he goes there he goes all right this is a good one everything in order here stringer ready i'm gonna depend on that one [Music] oh there he goes oh my god oh yeah nice link nice sling it's definitely a keeper it's actually not that big but it's keeper get out of there bait tank all right there we go found him and he felt a lot harder than i i guess it's just been too long since i caught a link cod man i thought he was a lot bigger than that but that's okay i'll take him first bling cod of the season that's why i use the double hook rig that treble got him all right there's our first keeper ling of the year oh man this guy was a an angry fish man he pulled pretty good i thought he was a lot bigger than this let's see exactly how big he is so minimum size 22 inches all right they're right at about 24 not huge but that's solid one so it's been a while since i caught any lingcod on film here even because the season's been closed but this blue coloration it looks kind of funny but this is perfectly normal for these fish probably like a little less than half maybe like 30 percent 40 percent have this bluish color and i'm not really sure why i mean it's not really like they're blending into anything blue down at the bottom of the ocean but i don't know for whatever reason they have this blue blue flesh but anyways that's a nice fish you can see he's got those big teeth these are the ones you gotta watch out for but um they're pretty much apex predators in in these little in these waters it's inshore waters pretty much the only thing that will eat them is themselves i mean every once in a while you'll hook a smalling cod and then an even bigger one will they call it hitchhiking they're basically just holding on to the fish they're not hooked at all they'll come up all the way to the surface and then sometimes just let go but anyways there's our first one we're hoping to get two so we can get back to the crab pots see what we got in there but uh yeah there's number one all right guys what do you think should we tie on this i have a little baby one now a baby rock fish and i have a pretty big rock fish which one do you guys think i should tie on next you know let's put the big one we already got one fish under our belt by the way i have a affiliate link for this bait tank right here um the thing i like about this bait tank as compared to the other ones is it it's a little bit more aerodynamic so i can leave it in the water while i'm moving around and it won't drag me down as much as some of the other bait tanks on the market so anyways if you're interested i'll leave that linked in the description huh it's fun to get another one uh or so fun to get some fish that'll pull some drag been too long in the fresh water don't get me wrong i like fresh water fishing too but you can't substitute for the saltwater fish much stronger much angrier and a little bit more fun to catch in my opinion is that a bite oh yeah that's a bite that's right i'll put my lunch down for this one oh do you let it go i think you let it go oh dang dropped it yep dropped it dang it oh oh he came up and grabbed it he came up and grabbed it yep see that i was reeling my bait up and he came up and grabbed it these lingcod are so aggressive all right i'm just gonna try and hook set them yeah i got him oh that's a big one that's bigger than the last one let's see if i can get him in the net oh it's not that big he's in the net he came back for it greedy fish that's why i'm not a huge fan of netting lingcod because they get all wrapped up like this but i had the net in hand so wanted to get him before he went on a run he never really went on a big run because i didn't let him yeah see now he's got oh you know what it's what i thought he wasn't even hooked hitchhiking another nice one probably about the same size i'm guessing like 24 25 inches let's see yep oh this one's a little bigger about 24 and a half so this is what i was talking about earlier some are blue and some are not this one is not this is just a normal you know white flesh fish but they're totally the same species i mean they inner breed and everything just some are blue and some are not so that's a regular blue one but still got or sorry regular colored one but still got those big teeth they'll eat anything they see i don't know if you could tell by the gopro footage but um this i'm assuming it's the same fish this fish hit it hit my bait when i was drifting on the bottom and then i was kind of waiting for him he dropped it so i was like oh let's bring it up and check my bait halfway up i kind of stopped and just kind of like i don't know it's a hail mary see if he chased up and he definitely indeed chased it all the way up and grabbed it halfway up and then i was able to hook him and actually now hook him i think he just hitched like all the way in all right there you go my blue ling my regular colored ling you can see the second one's a little bit bigger than the first one all right well i'm gonna bonk them and bleed them just like i did with the first one and then i'm gonna finish my lunch and then i'll go in and check those crab pots it's only 12 15 right now so they've only been soaking for a few hours kind of want to give it a little more time so i'll just kind of hang out eat my lunch and then we'll go in and check them well successful day so far got my two ling cod what i came out here for now let's see if we can get a few crab now honestly crabbing is not that great right now it's kind of the tail end of the season um if you want to like get good crab numbers you got to come out at the beginning of the season but i'll be happy with like if i get two or three keepers actually let's say if i get three keepers i'll be happy more is just bonus three keeper dungeness that is more just a bonus but can't complain about the weather i mean look at this no wind there's a little bit of wind actually earlier in the morning but it really calmed down there's like nothing right now hardly any swell maybe like one to two feet at the most so uh yeah beautiful weather but anyways we're making our way into the crab pots i'm gonna go up i'm not in no rush so i'm just going at like half speed right now finishing off my lunch we'll see on the crab pots all right oh first crab pot of the year well yeah first crab pot of the year not the season let's see what this thing has in store for us i'm hoping that with this low swell the crabs are coming out to feed who knows if it's true or not but that's what i'm telling myself feels like i don't know maybe maybe i'm just out of shape but feels like it's got a little weight to it oh there we go oh yeah so we got one two three four five dungees and two rock crab we'll see a couple of these dungees are a little small and they're females but there's at least at least two keepers let's see let's pop this thing open it's nice to have all this deck space now it's a luxury i'm not really used to on the outback but because the motor is farther forward on this kayak there's all this space about my feet here all right well let's get the small ones out here first this is a little female i shouldn't have even measured oh wow gotta be careful it's been too long since i've crabbed forgot that these guys can pinch you gotta watch my feet too one small female back she'll go another female that's too small that one's a male you can tell right there that part is pointed so it's borderline it's got all its legs so i'm hoping it's a keeper um best way to hold them in my opinion is like this with these two back legs here then they'll never pinch you oh i think this is keeper i think we gotta keep it here oh barely it's barely a keeper but it's keeper five and three quarters minimum size here in uh california i just double checked oh it's not it's not barely that's a good five and seven eights all right keeper number one as first keeper on uh this kayak there's a little raw crab that's a female another female dungey i'm pretty sure it's too small uh we'll just throw it back it's better to keep the males i don't know if it really helps the population or not they say it does assuming it probably does um but the males have more meat in each uh segment or whatever here we go this is the winner male right here do not look at that one all the legs big hard legs oh yeah that one's gonna be full of meat i think this might be seven well just under seven it's like six and seven eighths that's a solid one right there second keeper okay all right all right here we go so yeah first look at that release there we go all right not too bad two keepers like i was saying if i can get three keepers i'll call it a victory i already got two in the first pot so hopefully if that holds there should be you know we're on pace for six keepers right now we'll see how it goes but uh we're anyways we're two thirds of the way to victory all right part number two so uh another thing here in case you're not familiar everyone has to have their go id number on their buoy so that is a number that is given to you when you buy your fishing license it's right at the top of your your license and uh i'm not really sure the exact reason for it but i know a couple of reasons well one reason why you do that is if your buoy gets lost someone can track you down and get bring it back to you i think a second reason is so that um if someone pull like if dfg pulls up on you and you're pulling someone's crowd pulling up a crab pot you can tell them that it is indeed your crab pot it feels pretty heavy and another reason is um a lot of the buoys like these buoys they're just the amazon buoys that a lot of people get so um just because i have doesn't mean that someone else might not have the same buoy so and same rope and i've seen it before so anyways having that number on there can clarify it if you're ever not sure if it's your pot or not all right let's go let's get one more keeper oh okay oh yeah oh man bonus look at that those are some big ones look at that two raw crab no three raw crab and one two three four dungeness i think all of these might be keepers actually hold up dang wow look at that i was not expecting these numbers come on get out of there oh do not pinch my foot all right start weeding through them that is a nice raw crab right there let's see yeah it's pretty hard shell i think i'm gonna keep this one so rock crab in california just need to be four inches that's over six so that's plenty big uh we'll keep him start with the smaller ones here female raw crab toss their back another female here don't need her and the rest are male i think these are all male dungeness dang i think we got ourselves a a bounty here yeah keeper six and a quarter pretty sure that's the smallest one yeah six and a half this one's hanging onto the rock crab another six and a half and one last male up here running out of room oh oh do not pinch me yeah another over six and a half so that's four dungey keepers in that one plus a rock crab keeper that i'm going to keep plus the two dungees from my last spot so now i'm up to six dungees and one rock way more already doubled what i wanted to get man if this next one has four in it that's a full limit that would be sick there's definitely some crab in here whether or not there's four i don't know we're gonna find out oh that's why it feels so weird it's coming up sideways oh yeah at least at least two keepers well i shouldn't say at least one keeper so they're too kind of questionable this is a male let's see about this one gotta get the claws out of the way here all right oh yeah keeper that's a keeper this one might be a keeper i think this one's even bigger keeper all right and the last one yeah keeper so i know i probably said this a thousand times in my channel already but just really quickly properly measure a crab from inside the last spine to the inside the last spine on the other side not the spines themselves in california the minimum size is five and three quarters male or female but that is our ninth keeper all males and one raw crab keeper so i don't know probably me catching my uh lingcod limit so quickly actually prevented me from getting my dungey limit but that's okay i'm nine nine keeper dungees is a good day especially when everyone was telling me that the crabbing is so slow out here yeah man it's a good day it's like only like i don't know probably one o'clock now here let's get the actual time exact time is 126. got my limited link cod basically my limit of dungees basically a double limit before uh before two o'clock is pretty good especially from a kayak well that was fun got double limits one lingcod limit and one dungeness crab essentially limit i don't know if you wanna you don't have to count if you don't want to but i'm gonna count it double limit crabs bling cod and uh just amazing day out here good start to the season so hopefully many more of these days to come you know lincoln caesar rock fish season is just starting now today is the first day crab season goes for another couple of months so i'll definitely be doing some more combo trips like this one before that ends and then many more lingcod and rockfish trips after that so anyways thank you guys for watching hopefully you enjoyed the video if you have any questions i'll leave all the crab gear linked in the description i know a lot of people asked that before you're interested go and check that out you still got a couple months before crab season ends and you can get yourself crabs just like this one ba-boom ba-boom and i wish i could hold all 10 but not too bad for opening day all right guys check this out really quick i'm cleaning my fish i'm like putting the carcasses into the cages for next time and look what i found in here in the stomach of one of the ling cod this is a cable baiter right here and we use this for salmon and you can tell this person was you know definitely salmon fishing because they clipped the barb there and you know what's crazy about this is it hasn't been salmon season since last like october so this fish lived with this hook inside its stomach for over six months and it survived i don't know how and look at it it's got a big cable big old hook it was in that stomach the whole time anyways thought that was interesting

Channel: Die Hard Fishing

Views: 46,240

Rating: 4.9545455 out of 5

Keywords: DUNGENESS CRAB and LINGCOD DOUBLE LIMITS (Unexpected Ending), lingcod, rockfish, opening day 2021, Dungeness crab, rock crab, red, blue, black, ling cod, kayak fishing, old town sportsman autopilot, spot lock, california, fishing, fish, limits, regulations, live bait, trap rig, setup, offshore, inshore, deep sea, ocean fishing, die hard fishing, west coast

Id: avEDIg8Oe_A

Length: 34min 27sec (2067 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021