Catalina 7/28

[Baseballer44]

Headed out of Huntington Harbor around 430, and got into Avalon at about 530. Picked up some live squid since thats all they had. (By the way $40 for half a scoop is kinda crazy)

Trolled around to the Vees only to join the tons of boats already there. Was there from 6-9, catching a few 12-14" calico, a few small halibuts, and a skate/ray. Sorry no pics, we were pretty excited to finally be in Catalina after a few years of a broken boat, and we totally forgot about the camera.

Picked up and tried to hit up some local kelp beds, which were all dead, so we headed out for Farnsworth Bank to see what we could find. Caught a Sheepshead, a lot of red rock fish, and some weird blue fish around the surface that were in small schools, and ate just about anything. Looked like some kind of croaker with color, thats the best i can explain with no pictures.

Picked up and went to the frontside to try some assorted rocky outcrops and kelp beds, and got a lot of nothing. I think we caught one white croaker in those few hours on the frontside.

Ended up leaving and heading for the mainland around 6, only to get beaten and bruised by the evening winds. We have a 17' Arima boat, so needless to say it was brutal. Still made decent time, and it only took us about an hour and a half to get back to the safety of the harbor.

Our humble boat...
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/IMG_1823.jpg

I was looking forward to seeing some large barracuda or yellowtail around some of those areas, but i guess we were fishing in all the wrong spots. Next time.

[ThanksKK]

thanks for the report. i went to catalina a couple weeks ago with the same result - a whole lotta nothing. I focused on the kelp and rocky areas too with no results. If it keeps like the way it is, i'll probably launch out of san diego next time for some better action.

$40 does seem steep for squid. I'd rather buy a box of dead squid from my local asian market for $5. I think when the bite is good, ie yellowtail wfo, $40 is worth it, but in these conditions, they should have a sale.

[xahx]

those blue fish up top are most likely mackerel or perch... They swarm the boats once the bait hits the water, its hard to get the line/bait past them without them attacking it!


Usually should be no more than $60 for a FULL scoop of squid. and typically they are pretty generous...

[Baseballer44]

yeah the fish definitely werent macks, i think we all know when the macks are on. it must have been the perch. out at farnsworth we had to put on 4 oz weights just to get our bait down to the bottom.

[JapanRon]

Hi baseballer44,

Thanks for the info. Going on a club charter and haven't decided to stay local or hit Catalina..... Probably stay local or see if the firecrackers are still breezin' up at Rocky Point.

JapanRon