My newbie question is, how do you find the rockfish? I assumed that finding the structure would produce the rockfish. Is there another way to find submerged structure other than wandering around until it shows up on the FF? Or just getting marks on the FF as you peddle around? BTW, we used a mix of jigs and squid strips on dropper loops. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!
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"Time on the water"...is the best advise I can give any fisherman.
Look for structure in water over 100' deep if you're looking for rockfish, and look for hard bottom areas...that would be a bottom on your fish finder that shows red or solid rocky ground...then look for scattered fish marks just off the bottom...these usually appear as smaller blue dots or specks littering the bottom and just off the bottom.
I use my breadcrumb feature on my GPS to back-track or remember the areas I've covered. and when you find fish just follow that track right back to the spot and watch your sonar as you get closer to where you caught the fish...I usually use a split screen and thats a good reason to go with the bigger screen on your electronics...4" just doesn't cut it.
Jigs work OK but a strip of squid on a shrimp fly with a larger hook will keep a lot of the little guys off the hook and it's easier to maintain the bottom without getting hung-up...especially for a newer fisherman.
"Rocks don't move" so don't expect anyone to give up some numbers very easily.
You'll just have to "wander around until it shows up on the FF?"...I've found many new spots while traveling to fishing spots or looking around while my lobster nets soak.
Sorry...youre just going to have to put some work in to get some fish tacos...
Hopefully Kevin Nakada and I will be doing Kayak GPS/Sonar seminars at the Hobie seminar stage at the Fred Hall Shows in March.
Good Luck