Went out with The Quadfather today to give a shot to crab and rockfish. We dropped the first pots north of Golden Gardens and south of Carkeek around 9:30, then went south, crossed the sound over by Bainbridge, and dropped pots again at around 10:15. Then we hung out around a chunk of exposed rock (forget the name of it, but it's on the maps) and jigged for rockfish. QF started off with a bigger jig and grub while I went with a 3/4 ounce jig, and a 4" grub. We were both using chartreuse grubs with sparkly stuff in 'em. The difference between the rigs other than size was I was using some kind of scent baits that were like beef jerky except with shrimp scent.

Ask The Quadfather. It shall now be known as The Bowtie Rig.

Anyhow, he started off slower but I was getting all kinds of bites. Seemed like the fish were more interested in the smaller rig. Almost pulled in a good sized one - broke the surface and if we'd had the net ready it would've been in the boat - but it shook the hook and was gone. Lost a couple others before finally getting one in the boat.

We went to check pots and the crabs were sparse overall by the end of the day. The GG ones came up basically entirely empty but we ended up with three rock crabs to the south. One was huge - it looked like a good size dungeness and we had to take a beat or two to realize it was a rock crab. The WDFW guy at the pier when we got back said it was the biggest one he'd ever seen. Woot!

Anyhow, we both ended up getting good action. Chartreuse abruptly quit working, so we ended up switching to white grubs with the scent things. We both got lots of action. QF ended up with the biggest fish. I ended up catching and keeping a Red Irish Lord just for kicks as a quick internet via cellular search said they're "good eating." We'll soon see, but it was surprisingly beefy once cleaned.

All in all good times indeed. Lots of fish, lots of action on the lines. Wish we'd had more crab success but them's the breaks. I'm sure QF is going to post his own version with the pics.

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