Jackpot Jimmy
02-13-2011, 02:15 PM
Good day everyone, I hope everyone’s doing well. Saturday came around and it was time to go fishing on the Tradition. I talked my friend Steve “Ghetto Dad” Phelps into coming out fishing with us as he has been itching to go structure bass fishing for a while. We got down to Redondo in the morning and boarded the boat, rolling off the dock at 6am and heading out of King Harbor. Our first order of business would be sculpin fishing. Meanwhile, I took care of hanging the sacks and sack tags and shot the breeze with Steve and a few others on the way out.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve10.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve11.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve12.jpg
Our ammo for the day was live squid, which the guys made a couple nights before. Soon, we arrived at the sculpin grounds and started fishing. However, there was a stiff and increasing wind coming out of the northeast that made things difficult…early in the morning and it was already capping…so, Steven had to reset a few times, but we eventually filled our quota on the sculpin along with a few nice dabs, and we were off and running to the bass!
Once we got into the bass area, the wind had ceased and the water lay down nicely. We started moving around the boat trying to find the structure. This spot was pretty sticky but we couldn’t find a hungry bass. At the next spot, the spot was mainly off the port side towards the bow. I was bouncing in and out of structure and I felt a thump that loaded up my rod tip, and I swung and was off to the races. I could tell it was a nicer bass by the initial resistance and difficulty getting it out of the rocks, and by the fact that it fought all the way to the surface. I backed my drag off a little bit after getting the first set of cranks, and pulled it to the net, and up it came! It weighed about five pounds, one of my better structure bass!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve13.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-Copy.jpg
However after that nothing much was doing, so we moved on to the next spot, but that spot only produced one bass. We bounced around on a few spots that weren’t holding very many hungry bass, but held plenty of blacksmith perch, and one guy caught a nice opaleye!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/004-54.jpg
Time was running out, and we had time to try one more spot before heading in. This spot was very sticky, and a few more bass were caught off of this one. If not a bass, there were plenty of sculpin like this one…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-73.jpg
Steve had no bass at this point, but he was determined…he had a really nice bite, swung, and wound in a nice bass that also fought all the way to the surface. Morgon netted it, and another five pound bass came up onto the boat!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-56.jpg
Nice bass Steve! He soon after landed another legal bass that left him tied with me on the bass score. We picked a few more bass here, but then it was time to head home and off we went. Honestly it was a slower day on the bass, and my theory is that they have been eating well, as one bass coughed up a half-digested octopus. But most of the bass we did get were nicer ones and good fighters as well. The top sticks of the day in the bass department were me, Steve, and Carlos with two bass each! Steve won jackpot with his big grumpy sand bass...nice job Steve!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve4.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-48.jpg
I almost forgot an interesting story…Tom landed a bass that had another leadhead in its mouth, and the leadhead belonged to my friend Bill but the leadhead was made by Tom. Bill must have lost that bass last week. But anyways, I hope fishing improves in the near future, but we’re still catching a few nice ones. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve10.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve11.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve12.jpg
Our ammo for the day was live squid, which the guys made a couple nights before. Soon, we arrived at the sculpin grounds and started fishing. However, there was a stiff and increasing wind coming out of the northeast that made things difficult…early in the morning and it was already capping…so, Steven had to reset a few times, but we eventually filled our quota on the sculpin along with a few nice dabs, and we were off and running to the bass!
Once we got into the bass area, the wind had ceased and the water lay down nicely. We started moving around the boat trying to find the structure. This spot was pretty sticky but we couldn’t find a hungry bass. At the next spot, the spot was mainly off the port side towards the bow. I was bouncing in and out of structure and I felt a thump that loaded up my rod tip, and I swung and was off to the races. I could tell it was a nicer bass by the initial resistance and difficulty getting it out of the rocks, and by the fact that it fought all the way to the surface. I backed my drag off a little bit after getting the first set of cranks, and pulled it to the net, and up it came! It weighed about five pounds, one of my better structure bass!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve13.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/002-Copy.jpg
However after that nothing much was doing, so we moved on to the next spot, but that spot only produced one bass. We bounced around on a few spots that weren’t holding very many hungry bass, but held plenty of blacksmith perch, and one guy caught a nice opaleye!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/004-54.jpg
Time was running out, and we had time to try one more spot before heading in. This spot was very sticky, and a few more bass were caught off of this one. If not a bass, there were plenty of sculpin like this one…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/005-73.jpg
Steve had no bass at this point, but he was determined…he had a really nice bite, swung, and wound in a nice bass that also fought all the way to the surface. Morgon netted it, and another five pound bass came up onto the boat!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/006-56.jpg
Nice bass Steve! He soon after landed another legal bass that left him tied with me on the bass score. We picked a few more bass here, but then it was time to head home and off we went. Honestly it was a slower day on the bass, and my theory is that they have been eating well, as one bass coughed up a half-digested octopus. But most of the bass we did get were nicer ones and good fighters as well. The top sticks of the day in the bass department were me, Steve, and Carlos with two bass each! Steve won jackpot with his big grumpy sand bass...nice job Steve!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Steve4.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-48.jpg
I almost forgot an interesting story…Tom landed a bass that had another leadhead in its mouth, and the leadhead belonged to my friend Bill but the leadhead was made by Tom. Bill must have lost that bass last week. But anyways, I hope fishing improves in the near future, but we’re still catching a few nice ones. Great times, great fishing!