13lb Lincod, Salmon Season Closure

We went fishing on fishing on Sunday and had a great trip. We decided to fish out of the Half Moon Bay marina. Normally this time of year we would be Salmon fishing, but as many of you know the Salmon season has been closed for 2008 off the coast of California for both Recreational and Commercial fisherman. The closure was done to help reverse the catastrophic disappearance of the King Salmon population. So instead of Salmon fishing we went out in hopes of catching Lingcod, Halibut and rock fish. See the video at the bottom for some of the action.

We left Tracy at around 4:45am, got gas and headed to the Half Moon Bay Harbor to launch my Dads 21ft Wellcraft fishing vessel. I towed his boat with my 03 Dodge Cummins to help cover fuel expenses. We launched his boat and headed out in search of anchovies, hoping to net or catch some live bait. No luck. The bait just wasn’t thick enough apparently. There was a recent and mysterious die-off of Anchovies at Half Moon Bay recently that you can read more about here. There is a Video here as well. Some theories as to the die off include depleted oxygen and methane gas that is created when they die. I heard the stench was pretty bad for a while in the Harbor. The birds enjoyed it I am sure. I guess the bait goes in the Harbor entrance and doesn’t know how to come out so more and more come in and the rest is history. At any rate we headed out without fresh bait.

Since we can’t fish for Salmon we were targeting Lingcod, Halibut and rockfish. The weather conditions were ideal. We started the day with high fog, very little wind and just a 1 or 2 foot swell. We headed out and north towards the fleet and started fishing near the south end of what I believe is Montara St Beach. We were able to go in closer then usual due to the excellent sea conditions. We drifted and slow trolled over sand and eventually some rocks. There were no Halibut to be found, but we manage to catch what turned out to be a personal best Lingcod trip.

The best bait I know of for catching big Lingcod is Squid. You can buy it by the box in your local grocery store. I used a two hook rig consisting of a single hook followed by a treble hook. Although this rig can increase the snag potential it did well in catch rate for me. It wasn’t long before I hooked into a large Lingcod. He turned out to weigh in at almost 13lbs. Not bad for the 1^st fish in the boat. He would have been more, but he decided to upchuck two small octopuses which together must have weighed at least a pound. It is common for Lingcod to do this. We love it cause we know whatever they upchuck might be able to be used as bait assuming it is in relatively good condition. I know this sounds gross, but this is exactly what I did and it paid off. We managed to catch at least one or two more Lingcod on the two Octopus that the 1^st one gave up.

We also used large sardines which are a favorite of Halibut. We didn’t find the Halibut, but Rock fish like them two. We boated several small rock fish and the largest Cabazon I have seen. We ended the day with 6 Lings, one Cabazon, and 5 small rock cod split 4 ways. We ate the Cabazon that night and I think it might have been the best rock fish I have ever had. We also heard of one guy that limited on Cabazon. I wish I knew where he was fishing.

I also had what must have been a shark on my line. Although we never saw it, based on its behavior, it must have been a shark. The speed at which the line came of my line was just to fast, smooth and long to be anything else. He immediately took my line towards and around a rock and almost took all the line off my spool. I had braided line or it would have snapped in an instant on the rock. We managed to back the boat up enough to get off the rock. I had a ton of line to real up and although it felt like I still had something on my line eventually things went limp. The line broke off at the knot. Wish I could have seen what it was. It wouldn’t have been the 1^st time we have hooked up on shark in this area so that must be what it was. On a previous trip years ago we lost several shark and but managed to bring two of them near the boat that weighed in at around 60lbs each. Species is unknown, but could have been a Brown Smoothhound or something similar.

Networking info and WEP or WPA encryption?

More tech advice for you today. I have been immersed in research in hopes of solving a wireless networking issue. I now have three devices that need access to the internet. Since the PS3 will connect wirelessly I am ok there for now, but the DirecTV needs to connect for Video On Demand. The SlingBox needs a connection so I can watch TV on my PC from anywhere. I have a Linksys Game adapter that works as a wireless connection, but it only supports one device. So I have internet connectivity for two of the three devices. If I want to download Video on Demand and watch it remotely through my PC, I can’t unless I find a solution that will support the three devices.

It appears my best option is the D-Link DAP-1522 > Xtreme N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point. I am also surprised at how long it took me to find this. I would think this is a popular item, but BestBuy doesn't sell this according to their website. Linksys live chat support based in the Philippines recommended their WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge but wireless G is old and slower technology. The D-Link DAP-1522 bridge will allow me to connect up to 4 Ethernet-enabled devices such as Game Consoles, Digital Video Recorders (DVR), and Digital Media Adapters (DMA) to my wireless network at 802.11n speeds. I just bought the Linksys Gaming adapter and now it already needs to be replaced. This is why I am blogging. Hopefully someone else will benefit and I get to vent my frustration.

One very important fact that I learned as a result of my research today involved encryption that you use on your Router to prevent unauthorized access. Up until today I have been using WEP. I learned today that WPA is actually better and I learned that as a result of using WEP I was not able to take full advantage of the speed potential of my router.

Do you still use WEP encryption for your home network? Do you have a router that supports 802.11n speeds? If so you may not be connecting at full speed. If you are using the D-Link Gaming Router DGL-4500 (This may or may not apply to all routers that support the 802.11n technology) and you want to take advantage of the fast wireless speeds, then don’t use the WEP security option. This was news to me and the news paid off big time. If you choose the WEP security option the router will only operate in Legacy Wireless mode (802.11B/G). This means you will not get the 11N performance due to the fact that the WEP is no supported by Draft 11N specification. You spent the money to upgrade to this technology, so it aught to do what it advertised to do. To bad D-Link doesn’t let you know this important fact during the setup process. It should be shown in bold red print rather then a small blub buried in the manual.

What does this ultimately mean? Prior to using WPA my SlingBox streaming was ok, but there was some delay in optimizing which meant choppy audio initially as well as pixilated video. After making the change to use WPA security my SlingPlayer is streaming video at around 5500kbps. Smokin! Now when I change channels the picture shows up quickly without cutouts in audio. While slinging at work I was limited to around 300kbps. Next time I am at work I hope to see much higher #’s now that my Slingbox is slinging media at a much faster rate.

I still need to connect the sling box with HD cables. I might stop by Best buy tonight to pickup the required Sling Media HD Connect Cable. I will see if they will price match Amazon who sells the item for $10.00 bucks less and free shipping. This way I can use my Best Buy Rewards and I don’t have to wait to obtain the item.

SlingBox Pro Review and Tips

When I am not on some adventure I have adventures in the home. I have been busy enjoying new software and taking advantage of some recent technological marvels lately. Slingbox Pro, PS3 Blue Ray disc player, DirecTV HD with TiVo, Battlefield 2142, Cyberlink Power Director and more. All this new Software and tech toys are keeping me occupied at home. Maybe a little too much. That’s ok partly due to the fact that there isn’t much on TV lately until the new fall shows start airing.

Gas prices are keeping us at home more as well. We passed on a trip to Lake Davis which turned out to be good fishing according to my dad. Gas alone would have cost 200.00 round trip which in hindsight isn’t too bad for a week of fun. Is my math wrong. Over 440 miles round trip at 11 MPG would require 40 gallons of Diesel. At close to 5 bucks per gallon not including oil and general wear and tear that would be $200.00. Prior to writing this blog I had it in my mind that it would cost more. I only drive into work once a week or less lately. When I do drive I try to drive the Honda Accord rather then the full size Dodge Dually. So the timing is right to enjoy some new technology at home.

As I write this from work during my lunch break I am watching the News being broadcast from my home using my new SlingBox Pro which is connected to my DirectTV HD Tivo receiver. I can pause and rewind, watch prerecorded programs, PPV, ESPN or whatever just like at home. The quality is not the same, but it looks good. I am not yet connected using HD connections so the picture quality may improve. The install was surprisingly simple. I already had a working internet connection avail. I just plugged in and ran the install. The firmware was automatically updated for me during this process. Once complete I was watching TV from my laptop wirelessly.

Here are some tips you should be aware of if you plan to buy a Sling Box.

1. If you plan to hook up to the SlingBox Pro using HD cable connections you will have to purchase the Sling Media - SlingBox Pro HD Connect Cable. Out of the box there is a sticker covering the HDMI connector on the back of the SlingBox stating that this cable is a must if you want to connect in HD. Bust buy sells them for 50.00 or only 40.00 with free shipping from Amazon. Question is do you really need this. I plan on buying it and will let you know if it helps the image quality. If you don’t have a fast network, it may not matter much. Even with this connect cable you will still be using Component Video cables rather then HDMI.
2. The Sling Box supports up to 4 devices, but it only comes with an IR cable designed to control up to two devices. If you want to control 4 devices you will need to purchase another cable.
3. You may want to wait to buy the SlingBox until Q3 2008 when the SlingBox Pro-HD is supposed to be avail. Read more about it here.

Issues I still need to resolve.
1. Recently I went from needing just one internet connection to 3 behind my TV. One for my DirecTV, Slingbox and the PS3. I have three different Linksys 4 port routers at home. I tried two of them with no luck, so I have some work cut out for me to try to combine them with my Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter. Can it be done, or do I have to buy more hardware. It’s either this or keep swapping Ethernet cables between devices.
2. What if you wanted to watch and control several HD sources. I think there may be a way to use my HD Denon A/V receiver as the HD Input. I think you can create separate profiles for each device so that you will have remote control over it. We shall see. Wish me luck.
3. It would be nice to use my Sling Player on my work laptop from home while connected to my work through VPN. So far no luck. It would be great if I could do this and print to my networked home printer and access shared folders on my home pc etc. VPN is very private. Nothing outside can get in and nothing inside can get out through VPN even if it is trusted from what I have found so far.

I have more information surround this and other items mentioned above. More about them later. Time to get on the road so I can get home and play.

La Paz Fly Fishing

I spent a week in La Paz which included 5 days of Fly Fishing organized by Jay Murakoshi of Flies Unlimited. This trip titled Isla Cerralvo Adventure which you can read more about here was well organized. Although I have not gone on any of what my dad calls rich man trips, I am betting this one would be listed near the top overall. The price was very reasonable too. Although I consider myself an excellent angler I learned a ton thanks to Jay’s tips and the experience.

The 1^st two days looked really promising. My dad and I both lost big fish. My dad lost a big Mahi Mahi the 1^st day. You have to move with the fish and he didn’t move fast enough and his line caught on the out board motor causing the line to break. I managed to catch a small one around 5 lbs shown here. Out captain Beto is holding him. Had I known it would be my last Mahi Mahi I would have held him for the photo I presume, but there were other fish around. We just couldn’t hook anymore up. We both caught some decent sized Black Skip Jacks.

We tried our best to stay away from the needle fish like the one shown here, but they managed to take several of our flies on this trip. They are toothy critters and if you are lucky and they don’t take your fly you will at least have to retie your fly as they will do damage to your leader almost every time.

Day two of fishing was better then the 1st day aside from rookie mistakes. It was windy and we weren’t sure we would fish, but someone recommended an option that would get us out of the wind so we headed towards protected waters for bait. We got bait and immediately started fishing and hooked into around 7 small rooster fish each give or take a few. It was an exciting start and good practice as I was new to big game fly fishing.

We had aspirations for bigger and better fish and with the strong northerly decided to make a move around the south side of a point where big roosters sometimes hang out. It turned out to be a great move. We had the place all to our selves at 1^st. The captain threw bait and it wasn’t long before big roosters were circling the boat. We boated one or two Pacific Jack Crevalle’s before my dad hooked up with his 1^st big rooster. He fought the rooster for around a half hour. He had the drag set pretty tight and eventually the ling broke at the knot. Jay was on the boat with us and estimated the fish at around 50 or 60lbs. My dad was plagued with broken leaders on this trip and as it turned out the 20lb leader material we were using was lucky to withstand 14lbs. Although it was recentl purchased, we theorized that it must have been on the shelf too long. I was using the same leader material, but I think I used less drag then he did. I was religious about checking for abrasions on the line and always retied with the slightest imperfection.

On Saturday before our 1^st day of fishing Jay gave us the lowdown on what to expect, fly’s, tackle and technique along with some photo’s to get us excited. He brought up a story was a guy that lost a big fish. The fish took enough line to get down to a spot where a knot was. I guess the guy knew about it and forgot to fix it. He lost his fish as a result. I didn’t think anything of it, but that was a mistake. I was borrowing a reel and had faith that it was setup properly and didn’t check the backing to see that it was wound on tight. This turned out to be a mistake as I too lost a big rooster. As soon as it pulled enough line out to get down to the loose backing it somehow managed to tangle under another strand and the reel froze and the line snapped instantly under the pressure. Needless to say I will be removing the entire backing and putting it back on tight. If you roll your thumb over the backing, the line should be tight and not move. Lesson learned.

Day 1 and two turned out to be our best opportunity. We mainly targeted Mahi Mahi since we wanted to take home some fish. We caught more fish, but none of the good eating variety until the last day. A school of African Pompano moved in and I cheated. Since they were deep I put a sinker and a live bait on my fly rod and dropped it down and hooked up and boated a nice one around 10 pounds. We ate him up last night. It was excellent. It was like tuna only softer like a salmon.

We saw some amazing things while out there. We drove by a bird sitting on top of a turtle floating out in the middle of nowhere. A whale passed by as well only about 300 yards from shore. We saw flying fish. We watched needlefish scoot across the water like it was on ski's. Pretty amazing. What was even more spectacular was the large Manta Rays that would jump 10 feet in the air and perform aerial acrobatics. They would flip two or three times in the air sometimes before crashing down. You have to see it to believe it. Scary thing is sometimes they have been known to inadvertently jump into a boat. Most are 50lbs and bigger. Many were well over 200 lbs I am sure. I wouldn’t want one of them in the small panga’s that we were in.



Fly fishing takes a lot out of you. We were using 10 weight rods with heavy sinking shooting heads. You are casting all day long and the 1^st few days were grueling. There was pain in the back, shoulder, forearm and wrist, not to mention the normal tired eyes from being in the sun all day. We would take Aleve at night and by Thursday I was feeling less pain, and by Friday I don’t recall any pain. Guess your body will recover and build up those muscles. So why do we do it? Honestly if it were up to me I would have enjoyed using some conventional tackle, but there is more honor and respect if you can catch the fish on a fly at least amongst the fly fishing crowd. In hindsight trolling around with conventional tackle would have produced more fish, but with day 1 an 2 being so good we really thought we had a chance at the big one during the remaining three days.

It is amazing how many varieties are out there that people don’t eat. There are a lot of rock fish that are good but we were not targeting them. I did catch a small Cabrilla which I let the captain have. We tried to avoid catching Ladyfish. I free dove on Saturday out in front of our hotel La Concha. Saw several species including a puffer fish, a couple trigger fish.

We had great weather for most days. Some things in life unfortunately require you to learn the hard way. As a result the big fish got away on this trip. This however just makes you want to go back. If it was easy catching big fish you probably wouldn’t fish as much. It was a great trip regardless and I look forward to doing something similar again. Thanks for the Birthday present dad.