{"id":587,"date":"2018-01-15T16:55:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T00:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/?p=587"},"modified":"2023-08-14T08:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T15:29:00","slug":"ahra-ahn-for-sand-dabs-1142018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/?p=587","title":{"rendered":"Ahra-Ahn for Sand Dabs — 1\/14\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Julian,<\/a>
Julian, and passengers, wait for the first drop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My friend Julian asked if I\u2019d like to go with him and a buddy fishing sand dabs this winter.\u00a0 This being something I\u2019d heard about but never done, I said I would.\u00a0 He set a date and we made our reservations.<\/p>\n

The boat leaves at 9:00 AM.\u00a0 I planned to get down there around 8:00 to get my license for the year as well.\u00a0 Checked in and waited.\u00a0 Julian arrived and introduced me to his friend Allan.\u00a0 Armed with my 5 gallon \u201cHome Depot\u201d bucket and several one and two pounds sinkers (Yikes!) I boarded with everyone else.<\/p>\n

On board we had Captain Andy, James in the galley, and Cameron and Patrick on deck.\u00a0 We had about an hour out to the fishing grounds.\u00a0 Julian brought me a 10 hook sand dab rig so I tied that on, and I had a six hook rig in my bag I found in the attic that we could use for backup, if anyone of us lost theirs.<\/p>\n

I ordered breakfast to eat on the way out\u2026\u00a0 a breakfast burrito, but put it in a bowl and keep the tortilla.\u00a0 A little bit of hash browns, bacon, fried over easy egg, cheese and salsa.\u00a0 Really good!!\u00a0 Thanks James!<\/p>\n

\"Sand<\/a>
Sand dab rig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the novice, a sand dab is a flatfish, similar to halibut and flounder, an\u00a0opportunistic predator that camouflages itself on a sandy bottom, waiting to attack squid or small shrimp that pass by.\u00a0 There is no limit on them, and California regulations allow you to fish for them with more than two hooks.\u00a0 Anglers could be seen with anywhere from 6 to 20 hooks…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pam,<\/a>
Pam, Official Member of the Bucket Brigade!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We ran out from Long Beach out near the oil rigs and anchored.\u00a0 Flat calm seas, not much current, but 240 feet is plenty of line to get in tangles without any current.\u00a0 We baited each hook with a piece of squid, drop down, and wait.\u00a0 The nibbling started almost immediately.\u00a0 When it stopped I wound up the first drop of 240 feet\u2026. Nothing.\u00a0 Not one fish.\u00a0 And no bait.<\/p>\n

Baited up and dropped again.\u00a0 Julian said you needed to set the hook on them, so every few seconds, when you feel them nibbling, give it a good jerk.\u00a0 But after a few minutes, I felt that strange vibration in the line that says its rubbing another line.\u00a0 Wonderful.\u00a0 Wind up again to find the line belonging to the guy next to me wrapped up on mine\u2026 and no fish.\u00a0 5-10 minutes to untie the mess, bait up again (only about half of the hooks empty this time), and drop again.<\/p>\n

Finally, after a few minutes, it felt like it could be a little heavier\u2026 (one pound of weight, its really hard to tell).\u00a0 Wind up again\u2026 I have one sand dab, and 3 tiny little red fish.\u00a0 \u201cJulian, tell me again how much fun this is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the mackerel showed up.\u00a0 Apparently they were in school\u2026 studying underwater macram\u00e9.\u00a0 So you wind up halfway and find you\u2019re wrapped up on someone who already has a mackerel almost to the surface.\u00a0 While your bait is hanging mid water column getting the first guy untangled, you\u2019re loading up on your own batch of mackerel, who in turn wrap up the guy on the other side of you\u2026..\u00a0 \u201cJulian, is this the fun part?\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Andy observes the disorderly jumble ensuing on deck, and announces we\u2019re going to make a move.\u00a0 We try another spot, that produces nearly nothing, and quickly move again.<\/p>\n

I had arrived in a sweatshirt and jacket, both of which were gone before we left the dock.\u00a0 As the day wore on it was getting downright warm.\u00a0 I got a bottle of water and sat down in the galley.\u00a0 James said they had done pretty good the prior day, and the fish hadn\u2019t started biting good until around 1:30.<\/p>\n

\"Sand<\/a>
Sand dab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the anchor drops again its nearly 1:00.\u00a0 And within a few minutes there, we did start picking up a few more sand dabs.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t fill my bucket, as Julian had predicted, but I probably got it about a third of the way\u2026\u00a0 Not a bad day.<\/p>\n

We called it a day and headed back in, with a 5:00 ETA back at the dock.\u00a0\u00a0 I cut off my sand dab rig, carefully rolled it up knowing full well when I go to use it again, it will be hopelessly knotted.\u00a0 And put it back in my tackle bag… for next time.<\/p>\n

And all joking aside, Julian, I did have fun!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Julian asked if I\u2019d like to go with him and a buddy fishing sand dabs this winter.\u00a0 This being something I\u2019d heard about but never done, I said I would.\u00a0 He set a date and we made our reservations. The boat leaves at 9:00 AM.\u00a0 I planned to get down there around 8:00 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}