Well way back in September myself and a bunch of friends from the Sac State Marching Band wanted to go out and do a camping trip to Bodega during winter break and go out for crab and rockfish. Then crab season closed down, but we were still up for the trip. Then just before the trip the weather looked absolutely horrid during the time we were supposed to be there. A lot of people dropped out scared of the weather and I didn't blame them, but several people still wanted to go and brave the elements. I was hosting the event so I said screw it if people still want to go I'll go and rough it out with them. Wednesday we left sac around 1230 and here at home and during the entire trip it was absolutely dumping buckets. I was dredging the thought of setting up a tent in the rain. I tried not to let it bother me too much and just prayed that mother nature would let up on us just a little bit. When we got on hwy 1 only about 5 miles from Doran the road was flooded and we had to detour through the sticks to get to camp, but made it without any issues.
Got to camp and the weather was absolutely beautiful. A little cloudy with no wind what so ever.
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Got camp set up and had just a little bit of time to hit the rocks before the sun set on us. 3 of us hit the rocks only for about 45 mins and managed 3 rockfish before the tide came in on us and the sun set. We went back to camp made dinner and felt so blessed to have the sun shinning on us for what we all feared was going to be a miserable rainy day.
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It was not avoidable though, the rain came down just after 2200 and when it rained it poured. It poured from then until atleast 0500 in the morning, but we all piled into a tent and stayed warm and dry all night.
Next day we hung around camp having fun playing bocci ball all day then around 1230 I knew the tide had gone out so we all headed over to the rocks to put the hurt on some rockfish. I rigged everyone up with a texas rigged white gizit. 1/4 ounce of weight on top and a little bit of sardine scent usually does the trick. I didn't fish much for the first hour, I mostly played the part of guide. Everyone else though was either getting hits or ripping lips.
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Haley was the first to hook up and she destroyed these guys while we were out here.
Almost everyone I had with me had never caught a rockfish before and a few had even never fished before so I had a great time sharing this experience with everyone.
Jerry with his first rockfish.
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Emily with her first ever fish.
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Daniel with his first of the day
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We spent a few hours pulling fish out of the rocks and just having a great time in the beautiful weather that was never in the forecast for us.
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I did get to fish once everyone learned how to unhook their own fish and get out of snags.
A double I had with Emily
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A little over an hour into our day Haley had her limit and she asked me about this poke poling thing I kept talking about. I set her up with some squid then she went and pulled eels until the rest of the day.
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After a while our rockfish bite kind of died so Elijah and I followed suit on the eels.
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Daniel even got a rare catch of a short cabby while we were out here.
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We didn't measure it, but it was maybe an inch or two short.
We stayed until it got dark, most of us had switched to going for eels at that point since we had a full bucket full of rockfish. Right when the sun hit to horizon though the rockfish bite went WFO. Nothing bigger then 6 inches was caught but we were getting fish on the gizits every single cast. We had a ball doing some C&R with the small guys until it got two dark to see. After that it was time to go back and I went and got all the fished cleaned up and ready for a fish fry.
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Had a great dinner with friends that evening. Made fish fans out of people who don't normally like fish. I always tell them it's different when it's fresh, and probably ruined any store bought fish for the rest of them. Rain came back in around 2300 and it stayed until about 0300. Woke up Friday morning to another beautiful day on the coast. Took our time packing up, then we stopped the the birds cafe for lunch in town and made our way home.
We had a fantastic time in Bodega even with crab season being closed. The weather held out for us and we were able to have some fun in the sun. Hopefully next year we'll be able to go for some dinghies. Oh btw I asked at the gate and they told me it was safe to eat clams and mussels. I had a few the first night and didn't get sick so I picked and pulled probably 4 lbs worth of them and I haven't gotten sick from them. That's a plus I guess.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
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