Qualifier 105 - Big Hammer Skiff/Kayak Trip 2007 - Report
June 1st through June 9th

June 2: Travelled straight to San Benitos Island in time for an afternoon skiff run. Mainly fished boilers on the North side of the East Island. A steady pick of fish in the 2 to 5 pound range with our biggest right around 6 pounds. Most fish were caught on the 5˝ inch and new 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout colored Big Hammer™. Lost two "boiler" yellowtail. All following pictures are of 5 lb. bass or larger.

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June 3 - San Benitos Island: Brian and I fished the late morning run along with Dennis for about 25 bass each. Stuck mostly to boiler fishing again because, well, because it's boiler fishing! Quality was a little better than yesterday with most fish in the 3 to 5 pound range topped by a thick 7.25 pounder caught by Dennis on a 5˝ inch "Darkside" colored Hammer. They seemed to be focused more on browns this morning with "FishChick" being the hot color. Hooked a couple of yellowtail again including a nice one that boiled on my 4 inch "FishChick" as soon as it hit the water. Had it for a few minutes but lost it to the rocks. Still a little rusty fighting yellows on bass gear. Again, all following pictures are 5 lb. or larger.

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June 3 - San Benitos Island: Brian, Dennis and I fished both afternoon runs. We started by purposely targeting yellowtail. Wanted to catch a few just in case we didn't see them later. Resorted to trolling two Rapalas and a 5˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer. As soon as we went around the North West corner of the East Island my swimbait gets slammed and I get my first yellowtail of the trip. We started trolling the area again and in minutes I get slammed again - fish number two. Started trolling again passed a small patch of working birds. Brian stands up, hands his troll rod to Razor (skiff driver) and says, "I just have to make a cast in there". He throws his 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout right in the middle of the birds and immediately hooks up on the bass gear. Trolled a little while longer for one more yellowtail on one of the Rapalas. Trolled into a an area off the North side of the middle island where Brian gets two bass, one 4 and one 5 pounder on the Rapala - both at the same time! We stopped fished bass there for the rest of our run with a good pick of bass to 5 pounds on the swimbaits and Candyman surface iron. Brian hooked one more yellow on the swimbait while fishing bass that he couldn't stop.

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June 4 - Cedros Island: Fished the North side during the morning skiff run for a slow pick pitching swimbaits into holes in the kelp. 5 inch swimbaits on 1.5 oz. loaded with Pro-Cure got the best results. Finished the skiff run on the lee side targeting bass tight beautiful areas using light gear (10 lb.), small swimbaits (3 and 4 inch) and various other freshwater bass lures. Even got one on a 3 inch Big Hammer swimbait rigged on a Buzz Hammer jig head.

June 4 - Cedros Island: Started fishing bass on the lee side for a short while before the yellowtail erupted into a wide open bite extremely close to shore. It would have been easily possible to surf fish for yellowtail! Everywhere you looked you could either see yellowtail boiling or swirling on baits. When it was all said and done Brian and I each ended up with 4 fish on the boat and lost a couple each. I got two of mine on Candyman jigs and two on the 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer using my new Curado 300 filled with 65 lb. Spectrex. That little reel handled them no problem. Brian got 3 of his on the 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout and one of the on an Owner "Tango Dancer" freshwater topwater bass lure. He had several other amazing strikes on the Tango Dancer. So close to shore, beatiful scenery, crystal clear water - this was by far the most fun wide open yellowtail bites I have ever been in. Most fish were in the low to mid 30 pound range. Brian's Tango Dancer fish went 34 lbs.

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June 5 - Chester's Rocks: During the early morning run Brian and I were on the big boat. We found a decent patch of yellowtail. I got one on the Candyman jig and Brian got two on the heavy bass gear using the 5˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer. Once the bite died we searched around for some bass and picked a few. Tried little Chester's rock but we couldn't get close enough.

June 5 - Chester's Rocks: Fished the mid-morning skiff run. Started by running out to Little Chester's for a little boiler fishing. I knew there had to be at least two fish on it and there was. Moved inside and fished some hard bottom areas. Bite was a bit slow so we switched to the light tackle and yellow jig heads (yes, to my dis-belief, it really did seem to make a difference) and had an incredibly fun run with a consistent pick on smaller bass to 3.25 pounds, some weird exotics, and lots and lots of laughter.

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June 5 - Cedros Island: Since the bite wasn't so hot at Chester's we ran back to the South side of Cedros. Brian and I had a skiff run and the big boat went a little offshore to a 5 fathom spot for a wide open yellowtail bite. Our skiff run was pretty good. We fished the boilers at Redondo Point for some nice bass including a fat 6 pounder for Brian on the 5˝ inch Brown Grunion Hammer. I got a nice one in the 5 pound range on the 5˝ inch Rainbow Trout.

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June 6 - Cedros Island: Morning skiff run - the plan was to go offshore a little and find some bass and possible yellowtail on a high spot. The weather was very rough and reports from inshore were showing signs of yellowtail so we turned around and came back. It didn't take long until the entire bay was filled with working birds, bait, and lots of yellowtail. Razor was the first to hook up on a jig followed Brian who hooked up again on the Owner Tango Dancer. A little later Razor hooks up again and then I get one on the Candyman. After they settled down a bit we set up a drift and I started throwing the swimbait. Got two more back to back on the 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer using Cal's Jigger 1500P reel. Awesome reel but not available in the states. After working them a little longer for nothing we braved the high seas and went back offshore. Didn't see much but started slow trolling the swimbaits. I hooked up and broke one off on the 5 inch Pierce's Perch colored swimbait so we stopped and started throwing. I see my jig in the face of a wave and watched the next yellowtail nail it in the face of the wave - what a sight! Brian proceeds to get one on the 5˝ inch Rainbow Trout followed by another one I nail on the 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout.

June 6 - Cedros Island: Afternoon skiff run. Fished for bass off of Redondo Point for a decent pick on quality bass topped by a 7.25 pounder I got on the 5˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer. After that I started playing with colors and picked two more nice ones on my kid's colors Pierce's Perch and Sara's Trout. Ended the run with Razor hooking up with what we thought was a nice white seabass that took wrapped him around several kelp stocks. We cut kelp for the 20 minutes or so and finally got the fish out which turned out to be about a 30 lb. yellowtail.

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June 7 - Cedros Island: This morning Brian and I fished the lee side off the big boat. The first excitement of the morning was when John Ryan nails a 19 lb. halibut on a 5˝ inch Hammer. A little later we find some yellowtail. Brian and I each get one on the 6˝ inch Rainbow Trout Hammer on the bass gear. Then Brian switches back to the Tango Dancer and proceeds to entertain everyone at the bow with spectacular displays of yellowtail trying to destroy it on the surface. I hook and land another one on the same 6˝ inch swimbait.

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June 7 - Cedros Island: Afternoon skiff run - last skiff run of the trip. Most of the action had died down before lunch so Brian decided to make the last run entertaining in a different way - starting off by drop-shotting for garabaldi. We were on a serious garabaldi hunt and laughing every minute of it. After a half an hour or so and two little senorita fish he finally gets a garabaldi. When I saw that bright orange thing come over the rail I literally fell over laughing - and at the same time was hooked up with a bass. After safely releasing the garabaldi and gaining our composure we got a tad more serious and started fishing bass in tight. The laughs continued as we were constatly quoting guys from freshwater bass shows. The bite was actually pretty good with lots of fish up to 3 pounds or so. I was using my light gear with 3 inch swimbaits and Razor was using a spinnerbait. We ended the trip fishing a beautiful inshore rock structure for several nice bass on the light gear.

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Once again the trip was astonishing. The boiler fishing at Benitos and the yellowtail bite at Cedros made the trip. Everything else was icing on the cake.

Gear used:
Shimano Crucial CRC-C711ML/Calcutta 50/10 lb. P-Line CXX
Shimano Calcutta XFA815/Shimano Curado 300/65 lb. P-Line Spectrex
Shimano Calcutta XFA820/Shimano Calcutta 400te/65 lb. P-Line Spectrex
Shimano Teramar TMC-90H/Shimano Trinidad 30/80 lb. Power-Pro

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