Friday, August 3 on the Victory

[npdes]

I went out on the 3/4 day Victory out of Long Beach on Friday. After reading all the great reports by JapanRon, I thought I'd give it a try. Long Beach is about 20 minutes further than San Pedro for me so I had to get up a little earlier than normal.

The landing was very professional, and the boat was in good shape. The load was a little bigger than a typical Friday (at least for the other boats I fish on) but there were a couple big groups of buddies and kids. I got a decent rail number and the people to my immediate left and right were pretty cool so I didn't mind much.

We fished the Flats pretty much all day. We moved around to avoid seals and mackeral but kept in the same general vicinity. The first stop was pretty good. I caught a couple bass (one calico and one sand) both on the anchovy with a 1/4 oz egg sinker. Then the barracuda started hitting. I tried using jigs but they weren't going for mine. So I went back to the anchovy. I had about five of them on, only to lose them. I guess my 20lb test was not good enough against their teeth. I brought in two and lost five. Lost a lot of time re-tying my stuff as well. Another complaint was the mackeral kept getting in the way. And there were so many one-day fishing licenses, these people would hook onto a mackeral and either not know how to reel it in properly or just wanted to see how many people they could wrap around their lines. More lost time as we had to untangle all the time.

We moved on to another spot and they rotated rail spots. I ended up on the rear, great spot. I was doing pretty good catching and releasing a couple sandies. Then the barracuda started up again. This time, they were hitting my jig (blue and white). Pretty much every cast I would get a hit, or see one following my jig in. It was great! I ended up with at least a dozen barracuda for the day (given away to other fisherman), 8 sand/calico bass (keeping 2) and kept 5 mackeral to be used as catfish bait.

Great day, great boat, great crew, only complaint, too many newbies who tangled people all day. The deckie did a good job but he needed about three more deckies to help gaff and untangle people. One major negative, this was my first time out of Pierpoint and I parked in spot 62, went to the machine and thought I had paid for the day. However, when I returned, I got a $35 parking ticket. Oh well, you live and learn.

Here are a few pics of the trip.


Here are my barracuda...
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/barracuda8-3-07.jpg




Here is the crew cleaning fish, a long time taken to clean all the fish...

http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/fishcleaning8-3-07.jpg





Here is my biggest sand bass of the day....
http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/sandbass8-3-07.jpg

[one_leg]

npdes, Congrats on the bass and other fish.

Too bad the n00bs harshed you buzz.

One_Leg

[JapanRon]

Hi npdes,

Dude ..... everyone in the world has asked me about parking except yourself!! Dang! :twisted:

Anywho ..... the cold fact is ....... the counter person should have asked you on the parking .... if they didn't Probably a mis-communication which is easy early in the morning.

You either have to be in spaces 1~22 and get a yellow slip or buy a token and park down past the under pass.

Good job on the fishys and great report and pics.

JapanRon

[Wingnut]

Nice job on the catch, bummer about the ticket. :x

[ghetto dad]

thanks for the report man......great job!!

[k3vin_kim]

That's George.. he's definately one of the better deckhands.

[ghetto dad]

i miss the victory at LBSF....damn it!!

[seanboi]

ghetto dad,

Is it still the same captain and all going out of pierpoint? I havent gone on it out of pierpoint. Ive been on it 4 times out of LBSF. I still have a half off rain check because on a 3/4 after limiting out on sand bass and cuda we went for sculpin and one of the engines blew half way through the trip. I was amazed they gave us a half off rain check even though we limited out. that was cool of them. Won the jackpot too on a log cuda and gave them the winnings becasue they did that. great boat.

[ghetto dad]

yeah sean...at least the owners and captains are the same.......one of the deckhands is george, i have known the dude for years....cool dude......

[StoughtyRods]

Thanks for the report!

**Tip for catching Cuda with bait** - Use 25 or 30 # floro for a leader. Teeth will not bite throught it as quckly. May have to re-tie a hook every other fish though, but you will land most if not all fish hooked.

[npdes]

Thanks for the tip. I had 20lb fluorocarbon but obviously that wasn't strong enough. I'll have to upgrade to 25 or 30!

[okiplug]

You may want try this to up your scores.

First of all stay with your 20# main line. Next head for your local tackle shop and purchase a package of single strand 27# or 32#. This is the coffee colored wire NOT THE PLASTIC COATED MULTI-STRAND CABLE that is used for wahoo leaders, etc. You are going to use this as a short yet stealthy 6"-8" leader that will prevent biteoffs.

Cut yourself a 12" section of wire and attach it to your 20# main line using an Albright knot as follows:

http://www.optitackle.com/images/Albright_Knot.jpg

You can “Google� up some other websites for more info.

On the other end will be your hook #1 live bait style hook. I like the Mustad 94150. No you don’t need some fancy designer hook for cuda. These hooks are cheap, yet effective. Attach it using a Haywire twist as follows:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DG (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sefly.com/images/hw5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sefly.com/haywire_twist.htm&h=182&w=220&sz=10&hl=en&start=8&tbnid=eMR_tW_EiEPj9M:&tbnh=89&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhaywire%2Btwist%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D1 0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG)

For more control, I like to hold that first “X� with a pair of pliers, then continue to twist both pieces of wire.

You now have a rig that will reduce your biteoffs dramatically! If they are extra finicky, you may have to put the wire away and use a short 6"-8" section of 40# mono attached to your main line using the Albright. You would attach your hook the same way you do to 20#

If the cuda are holding deeper, the next rig is deadly.

You begin by attaching a 1 oz chrome torpedo sinker to your 20# main line.

Next attach a 2-1/2' length of single strand wire to the opposite end of the sinker using a haywire Twist.

At the hook end use a Haywire Twist.

The key to this rig is that it allows you to fish the water column from top to bottom.

You begin with a long cast away from the boat counting down to say 20. You are now going to impart a slow lift - wind - lift - wind retrieve back to the boat. I like to keep my rod tip moving from 10:00 - 11:00. If you are fishing a conventional outfit you want a longer limber rod that will cause the sinker to lift drop in a slow lazy fashion. When you get bit you will feel pressure DO NOT SET THE HOOK!! Instead you want to slowly lower your rod tip allowing the cuda to turn the bait in his mouth. They grab your bait like a dog grabbing a stick and they need time to turn a spin the bait. This is why you were holding your rod with the point up so that you can give them some slack. Let them run for a brief moment then wind into the bite and SWING! You may want to even go into to freespool if you find that your missing the short biters. This rig is one of the best. If there are any old timers on the boat they’ll recognize this rig. It’s what we used to call “pump� bait fishing. We used to also fish “hexhead� feathers the same way and load the boat.

I would recommend that you pre-tie a dozen leaders in advance as you will get kinks in your wire from landing fish as well as from mackerel etc. There are wire straighteners that help get the kinks out. Sometimes though a kink will lead to a broken leader and a lost fish. If you want to make attaching the “non-sinker� rig easier to tie on during the bite, you may want to add a small black ring opposite the hook end. You can ask the tackle shop guys for small wahoo rings and they should know what your after. Stay from swivels entirely as they’re too bulky.

Give these rigs a try and report back.

I was out there last Friday and it was unbelievably good fishing. I was in my skiff flyfishing and C & R’d over (30) before noon. One anchor job uphill and between the City of Long Beach and Monte Carlo and the bite was ON :D !

Hope this helps,

Glenn

[npdes]

Glenn, thanks for the advice. I'm probably going out again either tomorrow or Monday and will take your advice. Wish me luck. By the way the reports have been lately on the board, it should be a good day!