fish_sauce
05-09-2008, 08:47 AM
Work was extremely slow, so i called my buddy up to tell him i would be leaving work early to hit up a new spot in Long Beach. checked the tide charts and water temp, everything looked good...so i made the hour drive from Ontario...
When i got out there, he was already in the water waiting for me. Conditions weren't very desirable. Heavy overcast/clouds with bouts of 20-25mph wind. However, it was incomming high tide. Water was very warm though!
Lots of debris and trash in the water. The city was actually raking the beach/sand for trash, so a lot of the light plastic debris got picked up by the wind and carried into the water.
I switched between dropshotting 5'' shads and krocs for halibut but got no love, meanwhile my buddy was hooking up to YFC on an iron rig...so i decided to switch over to get in on some action. (i did manage to nail two YFC's on the soft jerkbaits though)
About half an hour later, we manage to find a hole, and it was wide open bite from there on until the sun fully set...we hooked up every other cast, oftentimes double hook-up. I took time to experiment with different color/pattern, metalic/silver/anchovy seemed to work best, but it wasn't a drastic difference---i even used an iron with all the paint stripped off from it with the lead exposed, and it still manage to hook up--its all in the action and retrieval, i guess. The fish were all healthy, in the 16, 17, 18'' range...they weren't quite what i had in mind, but it was fun nonetheless. I haven't hit a pocket of healthy/strong YFC's like this in ages! We must have topped out over 40 fish within an hour! There was one other guy fishing out there with us, and i think he was dumbfounded at our hookup rate. (told me he has been out for three hours with no bite, soaking musscle and cut squid. not even one croaker? sounds a little fishy! He gave up and left soon after that.)
Sorry guys, no pics. I only took time to measure a few of the bigger fish, all were cleanly released. :D Definitely worth the drive.
When i got out there, he was already in the water waiting for me. Conditions weren't very desirable. Heavy overcast/clouds with bouts of 20-25mph wind. However, it was incomming high tide. Water was very warm though!
Lots of debris and trash in the water. The city was actually raking the beach/sand for trash, so a lot of the light plastic debris got picked up by the wind and carried into the water.
I switched between dropshotting 5'' shads and krocs for halibut but got no love, meanwhile my buddy was hooking up to YFC on an iron rig...so i decided to switch over to get in on some action. (i did manage to nail two YFC's on the soft jerkbaits though)
About half an hour later, we manage to find a hole, and it was wide open bite from there on until the sun fully set...we hooked up every other cast, oftentimes double hook-up. I took time to experiment with different color/pattern, metalic/silver/anchovy seemed to work best, but it wasn't a drastic difference---i even used an iron with all the paint stripped off from it with the lead exposed, and it still manage to hook up--its all in the action and retrieval, i guess. The fish were all healthy, in the 16, 17, 18'' range...they weren't quite what i had in mind, but it was fun nonetheless. I haven't hit a pocket of healthy/strong YFC's like this in ages! We must have topped out over 40 fish within an hour! There was one other guy fishing out there with us, and i think he was dumbfounded at our hookup rate. (told me he has been out for three hours with no bite, soaking musscle and cut squid. not even one croaker? sounds a little fishy! He gave up and left soon after that.)
Sorry guys, no pics. I only took time to measure a few of the bigger fish, all were cleanly released. :D Definitely worth the drive.