Rockfish season opens March 1, 2019 after the annual two-month closure in January and February. Many of you were stocking up the freezer in December before the closure, because we all know how tasty those flaky white fillets can be. While you were fishing, I was busy slaving away in the kitchen as the Executive Chef of La Jolla Country Club with a half dozen holiday parties per day. That still didn’t stop me from sneaking out to some of my favorite rocks so that I could put away a few vacuumed-sealed fillets of my own in the freezer until the season reopens. I’m going to talk about some of my favorite fishing techniques and share a couple of my favorite recipes to help you along with both catching success and improving your culinary skills. 36
BDoutdoors.com
Rockfishing can either be a lot of fun or very disappointing, depending on the rock you choose to fish. One thing is for certain – you will seldom drive home empty-handed if you put in the time. When I go rockfishing, I like to have a game plan because some of my spots are not always holding fish, so having numerous spots plugged into the GPS is necessary for success. Personally, I enjoy fishing in 200 feet or less. Going deeper will typically increase your success and the size tends to be bigger, but it also wipes out your arms reeling in fish from the new legal maximum depth of 450 feet. My go-to set up is a double dropper loop with 2/0 Owner bait hooks or 4/0 Owner Aki, 6- to 12-ounce weight (depending on the current), and Berkley Gulp. I like the Gulp Minnow
Grub in red or pink for the 2/0 Owner bait hook and the 6-inch Gulp Grub in nuclear chicken or white for the 4/0 Owner Aki hook. Be sure to make your dropper loops 6- to 12-inches long; this will increase your bites. I like to use a snap swivel on the bottom for your weight. This will limit line twists and makes it easy to change out your weight quickly if you need to scale up or down. I also never leave the harbor without picking up a half scoop of sardines and a couple bags of frozen squid. I like to have options, but you can almost guarantee that the Gulp will produce. Sometimes I like to use a squid strip on the bottom hook and a Gulp grub on the top hook; I call this “the buffet”. If one is getting bit better than the other, I will double up on that bait. Many times, the fish are
