Spots should be different from scup fishing, likely deeper water. Probably the boat fishes rocky bottom with drifting. I thought I needed 8 oz sinker and a rod which could handle the weight. I picked up the 9’ Shimano surf rod. The reel was Okuma spinning with 50 LB PowerPro and mono leader. I also carried a light tackle. As for rigs, I made a few high-low rigs.
When I got to the dock, I looked at a rental tackle. It was a bottom fishing gear similar to scup one but used a Shimano rod and a 12 oz sinker with a triangle swivel. What surprised me was the boat let fishermen/women fish only on starboard side. The boat would drift as I expected and limited the number of people to fill only one side of the boat. Excellent!
It took an hour from the dock to the spot. Fishing time was only two hours. Squid strips were the bait. I started with a high-low rig with an 8 oz sinker. Although regulars fishing at stern caught nice seabass steadily, I couldn’t get any. After a while, I got a small one. Soon after that, I got a better one, too. At that time, I found I always got hits during I felt the sinker bumping the bottom. I talked with a father of a family that it seemed like keeping the bottom was the key. After a few resets, I gave up a high-low rig and switched to a single hook rig with a triangle swivel. I also increased the hook size to 3/0.
I asked a regular catching many about tips to catch. He said that you had to keep the bottom. He used a 16 oz sinker but he lost it. Got it. Keeping the bottom was the key and the 8 oz sinker was too light for the drift speed of the day. The heaviest sinkers I had were 8 oz ones that day. I asked him if it was a good idea to put two 8 oz sinkers. He replied that I could borrow one the boat had for rental tackles. I asked a mate to allow me to use a sinker and set the 12 oz sinker to my rig.
Until this stage, I kept the rig ‘around’ the bottom once I felt the bottom. Considering the drifting situation, depth should change continuously. I should have released the line as I missed the feeling of bumping the bottom. I hadn’t done that diligently worrying about the tangle with others. I changed the handling of the rig to keep the sinker always bumping the bottom. After that, I began to outfish next fishermen significantly!
I brought some small squid I got at a local pier. This bait worked deadly as well. I had non-stop action with a few nice ones. Meanwhile, I tried the light tackle with an 8 oz sinker. It worked well as long as I could keep the bottom. However, the rod was too soft to reel in a big seabass against the drift. After getting back to the Shimano rod, I kept 2 more. The captain called the end of fishing at 11 o'clock. I kept 11 fish. Regulars kept 20, limited out.
The biggest fish was 18’, weighed 2.6 LB. As I cleaned fish, I found they ate mostly small crabs. They preyed on crabs swimming around rocks. It makes sense. If you pull out the sinker a few feet from the bottom, you have no chance.
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