Two of the boys, Hayden & Ollie, both age 9, seemed more interested in fishing than the others, so Kevin & I took them out for a day of bottom fishing. Trolling is frankly pretty boring when you're not catching anything. At least with bottom fishing something is happening most of the time, and it ends up being far more active than trolling.
We went out to a spot I have fished before, near Cutter Rocks, which are near Mountain Point. I dropped my secondary anchor, which has more line on it than my primary anchor.
We set up Hayden & Ollie with bottom fishing rods and it wasn't long before they started catching Pacific Cod & Rock Cod. Pacific Cod can be kept, but I normally don't keep them. We used to be able to keep Rock Cod, but they are protected now so those had to go back in as well. Not only that, the Rock Cod have to be released at roughly the same depth where they were caught. In order to do that I had to use a deep-water release device that opens up at depth and lets the fish loose.
As you can see it was a nice calm day which makes it easier to bottom fish.
I didn't count, but I bet between the two boys they landed a total of about 20 Rock Cod. For each one I would put it back down on the deep-water release and let it go that way.
Those spines are dangerous. They won't kill you, but if they stick you in the arm or the hand, you'll probably get a nasty infection.
I've tried cooking these Pacific Cod, but I just don't like them. I guess I'm spoiled, and I prefer salmon and halibut.
I never was able to get a line in the water because I was just too busy helping the kids. Kevin managed to get a line overboard but didn't hook anything.
I think the kids had a good time even though we didn't keep anything that they caught.
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