Last weekend, Mike Taylor and I hauled his 18' Westcoaster to Trinidad for some bottom fishing. As we drove along Clam Beach we were happy to see the ocean as flat as it ever gets. “Oh boy, look at that ocean. It's going to be a great day,” I said. “Yeah,” Mike replied, “but the dots are small.” He was referring to the tide book, Dot's Fishing Guide. It claims, the bigger the dot, the better the fishing. The dots are based on Solunar tables that chart the movement of the sun and moon. That day, the dots were small.

”Do you think that really matters?” Mike asked. “I guess we'll find out. If you wait to go fishing until it's good, you might never get to go,” I responded. I have always been an advocate of fishing whenever you can regardless of the weather or tide. So I never paid much attention to Solunar tables or the dots.

We were the seventh boat in line for the launch at Trinidad Bay. The boats are lifted from the trailer with an electric hoist and set on a cart that rides rails into the water. There is also a beach where you can launch smaller boats, but it requires four wheel drive and you'll get wet without waders.

Once we were in the water, I sat

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back and enjoyed the scenery while Mike piloted his skiff through the moored boats in the harbor. The party boats were loading their guests and the constant cries of gulls and terns filled the clear air. We left the cliffs of Trinidad Head running on a plane across the flat water. We saw whales spouting offshore as we ran north toward Patrick's Point. Sea lions littered the rocks and their barking and purring were non stop.

Mike stopped at a familiar rock and we started fishing. “There are fish all over the bottom,” Mike said, nodding his head at the fish finder. I dropped my lead anchovy jig to the bottom, reeled up a couple of cranks, and started jigging it up and down. Soon, I felt the tug of a rockfish and reeled up a nice black. Mike was using a lead head jig with a big rubber grub below a gang of reef flies, but after I put six fish into the boat to his one, he changed. The 3 ounce painted lead jig is easy to fish and has a lot of action while jigged on the bottom. And the fish love them. Anytime we saw fish on the scope, we caught them. Most were black rockfish, though three were vermillion. We caught a few sea trout, which we released, and ling cod which we kept.

It is easy to feel the difference in the fight when you hook a ling cod. They are heavier and have a slower head shake. And I hooked a big one. I did not have enough rod to horse it off the bottom, so I maintained pressure and hoped it did not find a cave. “We're going to need the net for this one, Mike,” I said through clenched teeth. It was a good battle of give and take and I enjoy a fish that can really fight back. Eventually, the fish tired and I was able to lead it into Mike's net. “Wow, that's my biggest ling ever. What do you think? 30 pounds?” I asked excitedly. “Maybe,” Mike answered, “that is a nice ling cod.” He picked up the ling and hefted it, made a face, and nodded, “maybe.” It seemed the stars were aligned.  

In fact, Solunar tables chart the movement of sun and moon which govern our tides. Everyone knows that the best fishing times of the day are sunrise and sunset. We also know from experience that incoming tides are the best time to fish. So, couple an incoming tide with the sunrise and the fishing should be even better. The rising and setting of the moon is also an active time. In predicting these periods, the bigger the dot is when all these favorable influences happen at the same time.

One famous experiment helped prove the theory. Oysters from the Atlantic were sent to a marine lab in Chicago. The oysters opened their shells during the high tide of their home ocean for the first week, but by the second week they adjusted the time they opened with the moon, high over Chicago and without any tidal influence.

When I got home and the fish were filleted and put away, I looked up the Solunar table and found the moon was rising, with the tide, at the time we caught most of the fish, including the big ling cod. Even though the dots were small, we fished at the right time for that day. All this is very interesting and might be useful. But I still say, you should fish when you can and not just when it's good. And remember, keep your bait in the water.

Casey Allen is a North Coast outdoors freelance writer and can be reached at longfish@humboldt1.com.