Night Fishing @ Westport? Jetty or Dock - No boat

[mizm05]

I'll be out on the south jetty tomorrow morning as soon as Westhaven opens...but I want to head out this evening and get a head start on fishing. I want to fish into the late evening, catch a few Z's in my rig, then hit Westhaven the minute it's open.

So are the finger jetties open for night fishing? Any decent harbor or marina spots that are open to night fishing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have a marine battery and floodlight to help draw in bait fish.

Anyone else care to join me? Not sure how many in my group will join me for the night part...but we've got a group of 5-7 expected for the south jetty tomorrow, and a couple of us are board members. Hit me up if ya wanna join.

Thanks!

[schu7498]

Wish i wasnt working! The marina closes at dusk unfortunately. And there is usually someone there to make sure everyone leaves. The smaller jetties should be fishable. Good luck to you all. Those gulp penny colored grubs are my favorite.

[goonatic]

for lings the new penny is a great color, so is pink shine, id rank them as equal killer baits, but, if you ever come across the discontinued rootbeer red color, that was the BEST! that color gave me twice as many lings and big rock fish than all of the other colors combined, i wish i would have stocked up more of them =(

[Bay wolf]

Mizm05, you are hard core my man! Love it! We will have to do this thing! I spent the night there a long time ago and fished off one of the small jettys. Caught a bunch of small Black Sea bass.

Good luck,be safe and let us know all about the epic adventure!

[mizm05]

I'm gonna post a report...but it was a bust. The finger jetties are safe for night fishing as long as the rocks are dry. No issues there. I had 2 hookups in the dark, but couldn't get either one of them on the rocks. One popped off after the first set of head shakes...the second was something HEAVY...but it was dead weight and got hung up in the rocks at my feet and I broke off on the rocks. It was heavy enough that I don't think it was a sea star...wondering if it was an octopus or something.

Either way, came home with no fish...will post an official report though, because I did learn more...and we got to witness a Coast Guard rescue with a chopper and rescue diver and the whole 9. Some guys drifted too close to the jetty and got stuck on the boulders just under the water. They couldn't get it out and the waves were crashing the boat into the rocks. They had to jump ship onto the jetty and one of them must have hurt himself because about 15 minutes later here comes the rescue chopper with the rescue diver and basket to airlift the guy off the jetty. That was nuts. I got some brief video.

[natetreat]

Crazy! I made it to the jetty on Saturday, we hooked six lings and a boatload of greenling. Going to go again soon. It was a good day, the weather was perfect!

[mizm05]

You must know the honey hole Nate. Nobody had that kind of success on Sunday.

Here's the link of the Coast Guard rescue along with a video of the basket rescue. I was about 200 yards away. It was crazy to watch in person.

http://coastguardnews.com/coast-guard-a ... 014/03/24/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[natetreat]

Naw, I grew up out there. We have a system, and when followed, we almost always go home with fish. Nobody else caught very many fish on Saturday either.

[mizm05]

Ok ok...so I said I wasn't heading back for a few weeks...well I'm full of it. There's razor clam digs next week! Gonna head over there early next week and get my 15 razors and any sand shrimp I come across, then fish the jetty for the rest of the day. Hope the surf forecast stays accurate for early next week.

[SeatoSummit88]

I lived in Westport for a while and loved to fish the marina for black rockfish, in the late late afternoon to evening. If you hit the water about two hours before a flood and use either anchovies ( or any small bait fish) or gulp crappie jig worms, you'll be in for a treat. I started with curly tailed worm jigs, like the ones used for lings or kelp greenling, but found out, if you use really small crappie jigs, about 1 or 2 inches long, and throw a split shot about 2 to 5 feet above your hook, combined with light tackle spinning gear, its crazy!!! These bass attack your jig, i noticed this a lot more during the June-September time frame. Right before it got dark, we would start to see fish jumping, and we thought it was the anchovies that schooled around the marina, however, it was giant schools of smaller rockfish. Had never seen this, but out on the ocean, on shallow rock peaks or reefs, when we used live bait. Its great fishing and some a worth taking home to cook up, others are just fun to catch and throw back. White and glow green colors were best at night

tight lines

[mizm05]

Thanks bro! A few of us are headed out there tomorrow. Start the morning with a razor clam dig, then head to the jetty to fish during the day...then I think we're gonna end our day dropping a crab ring at the marina. Hope to come home with the trifecta of clams, fish and crab!

[ResQ]

So, when you say Marina, are you talking about the finger jetties behind the Half Moon Bay? May have to try that some time! If you want, you can just PM me.

[mizm05]

Thanks ResQ! I just might hit you up one of these days.

[SeatoSummit88]

Resq- I mainly fish the breakwater wall, right where the boats come in and out of.. if you cast off the corner on a high tide, jigs work well. Careful, lots of snags!!! But I also do quite well near the coast guard station. The small finger jetties are all right. People have caught salmon off the points when the schools run strong early fall. And you can catch nice rockfish and kelps there. Bigger rootbeer colored jigs, or black, or dark purple are killers. keep it on the bottom, work the jig like a large mouth bass lure. The south jetty produces killer lings to those who: find deep holes near the rocks, have lively bait, and who luck out on picking the days where the swells arent bashing too hard. Ill be down fishing this weekend!

tight lines

[ResQ]

Excellent. Never thought of fishing out there. I have always just done the south jetty. Be neat to fish the big jetty during the day and small fingers at night. Make a weekend out of it.

[schu7498]

I will be out there fishing wednesday in the nice weather. Hopefully the swells cooperate.

[mizm05]

I think our next trip is tentatively Saturday the 19th. Just waiting to see if they approve the clam dig that day.

[Bay wolf]

The Bay Wolf clan is waiting for the 19th approval also. Except we will be heading up to Pacific Beach for the clam dig and then some surf perch fishing. Wish we were doing the jetty this time, but we will have the grand kids and they will not be safe on the jetty.

[ResQ]

Pretty certain we will be up that way too Bay. Our favorite place is on the Movkrocks stip! Never surf fished there. Any good?

[Bay wolf]

Pretty certain we will be up that way too Bay. Our favorite place is on the Movkrocks stip! Never surf fished there. Any good?

The fishing can be really good. Although, don't quote me, but I think the bigger females are more migratory or stay in deeper water till later. To be honest, we have had lights out days and we have had days that were flat. But...

The clam digging has always been good to us. And since we are there, we always give the perch a shot. Plenty of sand shrimp also, and sand shrimp is like candy to the perch.

Let me know if you are heading up. Hope we can meet up.