Fish Report for June 2010
This report
really starts with the last Saturday in May, when Kevin Sage and I took the
Fish Finder out in the early morning to try and coax up some local white sea
bass. The weather forecast was for a 7
to 10 foot south swell and westerly winds building to 25 knots. After we turned the corner to the west after
loading up a scoop of really nice anchovies mixed with a few dines from
Everingham’s in Dana, we found ourselves in offshore wind conditions that
pushed us up toward Laguna. Big south sets rolled into the beach with the spray
blowing back off the breakers as the surfers got stoked. With the forecast for a big wind change, we
decided to stay close and cheat toward the west, rather than heading down
toward Cottons.
We bounce-balled
in 50 to 70 feet of 63 degree water outside the kelp at Dana Strand and Salt
Creek Beaches for nada with squid and sardines. No one seemed to be doing any
good and the current ran from stern to bow for the boats trying to anchor up.
Eventually, the
wind started to blow in the opposite direction and steadily gained force. We were then able to anchor up with the
stern into the kelp in about 50 feet of water in front of the Ritz. We caught bass and mackerel deep in the kelp
before I hung a legal halibut on a split-shotted anchovy on a wire hook tied
into a 30 inch shot of 20 pound fluorocarbon over 30 pound spectra. The fish went about 9 pounds and was a
pleasant surprise on a pretty slow day.
We thought the
tide might be turning for us when one of our whole squid on the bottom screamed
line off the reel. We had the perfect
kelp-cutter rig and I felt like I was doing a great job of sawing it free,
stalk by stalk, from where it had burrowed into the forest. As soon as I
allowed myself to think that it might be the WSB we were targeting, or the
mother of the halibut we had boated, it revealed itself as just a thirty-pound
Batman that pulled like a tractor. We gave
it an honest effort past noon and got off the water as conditions deteriorated
from the west.
We all had
halibut for dinner that night, as well as the following day, when the wind blew
30 out of the northwest and closed the ocean off to everybody.
On Friday, June
4th, I joined the Sage brothers, Kim and Kevin, along with their
buddy Ed Sidelinger in San Diego. We
took the Sages 36 foot Egg Harbor, Fiji Girl, to fish the Southwestern Yacht
Club halibut tournament the following day.
We had great conditions, a beautiful tank full of big, seasoned sardines
from Everingham Brothers and 64 degree water as we headed out to South Coronado
Island. We caught some junk that night
in clear water that was most noticeable for the complete absence of current. It was easy to hold straight up and down
with ½ and ounce of lead, with a bounce ball rig behaving like an anchor. When the current changed (slightly), Ed
hooked and landed a nice 8-10 pound halibut on light gear and we thought the
bite was on. It wasn’t. That was the only one we got. We spent the rest of the morning drifting
different beaches at the islands and middle grounds before slow-trolling some
mackerel where the yellows had been popping up and sinking out below the
birds. We got one short bite and that
was it.
When we got in
for the weigh-in, it became clear the real action was off Imperial Beach in 40
feet of dirty water where it mingled with a red tide at the river mouth. The ticket was fishing big ‘dines and
mackerel just off the bottom. Many guys
had several legal halibut. The winner weighed 18 pounds. There were even a couple of brute yellowtail
(32 and 34 pounds) that bit the halibut rigs.
That bite went on for over a week and may still be happening as I type
this.
On June 10,
Isaac and I joined Larry Marks on board his 28 foot Parker, Legal Limit, to
head out in big seas and strong winds to fish Catalina. Prepared for the worst, we had a pretty
uneventful channel crossing against a westerly wind and swell. After picking up a sparse 50-piece scoop of
live squid (despite a 20 buck tip) from the Carnage off Avalon, we set up
around 6 pm at the Palisades in about 80 feet of water over some pretty good
marks. There were a couple of light
boats and small private boaters to the east of us in the 64 degree water. As the evening wore on, the area between the
Vees to the east and a bit to the west of us filled in with arriving sea bass
fishermen. The current ran uphill, but
not that hard. There was a lot of bait
in the water as the squid boats lit up the island. We had no boats inside of us.
The bite did not happen for any one we were aware of as we fished
multiple rods with short flouro top shots over Spectra tied off to white jigs,
lead-heads, sliders and dropper loops.
Isaac was able to hit the hay, while Larry and I fished hard all night,
getting only pecking perch, mackerel and a bat-ray that got us excited for a
few moments before giving us some tangles with which to busy ourselves as the
darkness dragged on.
At 4 am, the
wind, which had been blowing out of the west in a traditional way, changed
abruptly and started blowing us to the west.
All of the boats swung completely around. The wind was noticeably colder. At about 4:30 am, I got slammed
on my newly wrapped 8 ½ foot Pacific Bay graphite stick while bouncing a white
Christy 2, which I had sweetened with two squid. The fish came to the boat
after a few head-shakes and short runs.
Larry laid a perfect head shot with the gaff as we got a nice halibut
over the rail and into the fish box about a minute before it went Berzerko and
tried to break out of its fiberglass mausoleum. The noise woke Isaac up, and he joined us on the deck. We thought
maybe the tide and current might fire up the bite, but as gray light gave way
to daytime, more boats fired up their motors and decided to look elsewhere. We
did too.
We worked our
way up west, fishing various spot where we thought we might scare up a
yellowtail. The southeast wind picked
up and the current really did not get going.
We threw every kind of bait that we were able to make – big sardines,
Spanish mackerel, greenback mackerel and squid, as well as jigs and slugs, but
it was slow going. We slid on a bird
pile outside of West Cove and I got stopped on a deep cranked Salas 6x Jr. I
fired toward breaking bait. It turned
out to be a horse mackerel.
We finished
up the day catching calico bass on the front side, with the most productive
spot being near the Red 2 buoy at the Isthmus.
By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired. I was also pretty sick of fishing spectra
with such a short topshot of mono.
The ride
back was kind of sloppy/lumpy as the wind blew harder and crossed up with the
west swell. We were back by 4 pm on a trip that lasted about 24 hours. I did not get the impression that others had
much better luck than we did on Saturday.
These are the Days
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