Kayak fish of the week June 5th-12th 2022
 

Last week I went to UC Santa Cruz for my daughter's graduation! The weather was beautiful on Monterey bay, and I saw a few kayakers out there from the Campus. An angler on the Santa Cruz pier reported a 38" halibut. Due to the Cali trip, the only kayak angling I did was the Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament on the 5th.

The tournament nemesis for me was the Great Barracuda.

https://i.postimg.cc/k5T4RC44/Cuda1cfsm.jpg

The Cudas don't count for the Tournament. Mine were taken on Ribbonfishes rigged like the one in the photo below.

https://i.postimg.cc/90dYybnJ/Ribbonfish.jpg

Last year ribbonfish caught the king mackerel that won the tournament.

https://i.postimg.cc/NFkRKMKn/Cuda2efsm.jpg

This year I took 4 cudas on ribbonfish :reel:

https://i.postimg.cc/kG2c1Hyc/Cuda3fsm.jpg

, and no King Mackerel :mad:

https://i.postimg.cc/Gp1zzzV0/Cuda4cfsm.jpg

Usually when a Cuda hits a goggle-eye, they make short runs compared to King Mackerel, but when taken on Ribbonfish, I found the fights equal to kings, making them a total spoiler at color.:(

Did you purchase the ribbon fish for bait or catch them in a previous session? Pretty cool. I have seen other east coasters target barracuda with long plastic lures that resemble ribbon fish and thought it was odd. Now it makes sense.

Nice cudas even though they didn't add any points!

I wish I knew where to catch Ribbonfish. I hear they are taken off the piers in Central and Northern Florida. They are a random occurrence off Ft. Lauderdale. I caught one once trolling a large Bonita strip at night while targeting a Cubera. The ones I used were line-caught brined frozen at $18/2 pack, it was pricey bait to waste on Cudas. They don't really look like the long surgical tube lures that are often marketed for Cudas. I have yet to try one of those lures as Cudas are an incidental and not a targeted species.




Thanks Ben, What I would have done to trade all 4 of them for even a runt King. Hindsight is 20/20.... had I known the other anglers' catches, I would have stayed out deep jigging for Tuna. The one I got was good for 9th place.

https://i.postimg.cc/P5brKkb0/Bft-Extreme.jpg

I was out of town last year, but someone local sent me a photo of ribbonfish they were catching in a creek mouth up here near Melbourne. Date of the photo is 2021-11-18, so they must head up creeks to spawn around that time. I believe he said they were catching a lot of them.

Interesting, I have a buddy who found them near a boat ramp in an 8ft deep x 30ft pocket surrounded by 3ft shallow waters over in the Thousand Islands area -- weird fish.