Fishing Rocky Point

[YumaJames]

I'm from Yuma, AZ and head down to Rocky Point every so often to do some fishing. Have a 24 foot Chaparral Signature boat, and launch and stay overnight at Safe Marina. Bought the boat about a year ago, and been down to Rocky Point about 5 or 6 times with it. The first couple trips we hired a guide named Felipe out of Safe Marina, he was great, took us out to Area 51 and a couple closer areas. With him we caught a lot of Calico sea bass in the 3-7 lb range. I've been out to Area 51, Caballo (about 20 miles south of RP near Bird Island), and Caibo hole (about 10 miles south of RP) and have been successful at catching Calico bass (3-7 lbs), rock bass, trigger fish, and other types of smaller fish. The way Felipe showed us how to fish is to use about a 16 oz weight at the bottom of the line, then have a couple #6 hooks hooks spaced out 1-2 feet above the weight, baited with squid or smaller cut up fish. We travel out to reefs he had on his GPS (which I now have) and use the sonar to fine tune where the reefs are, then drift fish these reefs. On my own I've also tried 16 oz silver jigs and trolled the reefs with large rapalas, but I find that Felipe's set works best.

So how do you catch the bigger fish? I'm happy catching these smaller ones, but I really wanna hook up to something bigger. Is it the season? I'm anxious to go halibut fishing this fall out to Area 51, but in the meantime I'm hoping to go out this summer and catch something bigger. Any tips and suggestions?

 

[dmcauley]

If you were on the 51 with Felipe you could have hooked up many other species including black sea bass to 300 lbs. Like the rest of us , you need to pay your dues and get out and learn the reefs. This is the time of year to fish in close and go after the big grouper , but like I said, learn the reefs. They come with time.

 

[YumaJames]

Ya, pretty much what I figured. Thanks for the advice. Just wanted to make sure people weren't doing something really different. But thanks, and can't wait to get out there again!

 

[SunDevil]

don't most people catch their own live bait and use it when fishing the reefs out of RP?

 

[moore_rb]

yes, live bait wrangled up with sabiki's is a good idea - frozen squid works great, but sometimes they want something more wiggly.

also (and without giving away too much top secret info publically ) if you know how to catch 12-inch calico bass, and if you know how to find a rocky ledge on your sonar, then you know how to catch grouper - you just need to connect the dots on how it all works together -

and don't get discouraged by the lack of big fish - like Dan says -- the dues are yours to pay.. I hooked my first big grouper in February 2009. I actually LANDED my first big (50 pound plus) grouper in September 2010. In the meantime, those first 5 or so that I hooked into (and promptly lost) provided some very valuable education about everything I still needed to learn...

With time, effort, and perserverance, this could be you: Just don't be the big wimp-bag on the far right of the photo who is too girlie-girl to lift a 75 pound fish - much better to be the handsome short guy with the small-man syndrome (and the snazzy yellow T-shirt) who throws 80 pound groupers around like they were empty pinatas)

 

[YumaJames]

Thanks moore-rb. You're right. Time and patience.

 

[Stuart]

Or... you could hire somebody that already knows how the game is played to school you. <hint-hint>
What you read here vs. practical application on the water are two very distinctly different things.

Just sayin'.