Newport / Dana Point 4/11/11 Bass, Cod, and Whale

[marzocchi]

Headed out with Dennis again to do some fishing. We did a overnight bass / morning cod trip in the Newport / Dana Point area. We went down the line to the newport pipe for a slow pick on the sand bass and calicos. Nothing big, just some 1-2 lb fish. We picked at them until near sunrise for about 26 bass between us. All released. We took a nap right after. Woke up with some sun in our eyes and a patch of marine layer that almost looked like rain clouds. I was cold and wanted to go home, but I had some cod spots that I have been marinating for over a year. I mustered up the motivation, turned on the engine and set the fishfinder to the first coordinate. We hit the shallow area first and found the big vermillions chewing up everything. We released 60% of the fish to keep them around for our trip later on in the season. Went down to the next spot, didn't find the red snappers at home, but the barberpoles were out in force. Very nice size to them. All released. Headed out to the deeper spots and found some of the biggest red snappers I seen in this area for a longtime. Suckers were almost pulling drag. Rounded out our limit of vermillions and headed home. Dennis slept the whole way back and didn't even clean fish. He almost killed us on the drive back home too. What a jerk. Pictures from earlier:


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Dennis was first on board with a checker.


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Then I got a smaller one.


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We started getting some double bass, but that was a short flurry.


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There is a bass on my lap.


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Pissed off sandie.


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Dennis last fish of night.


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Yes I am very tired. My last fish of the night before I knocked out.


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Woke up and this is how I started the late morning. XL local snapper. Beautiful. This spot only has vermillions in April, then they disappear for some reason.


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Here is Dennis going bendo on a shallow water red snapper. He always fish like this. Hope he falls into the water one day.


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You know it's thick down there when you keep bringing up doubles. We are fishing pretty shallow for them to be coming up like this.


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We went to some rockpiles for some more rojos but ended up barberpoling. It was unintentional.


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Nice size flag rockfish. We didnt keep any of the flags and they went back down just fine, tree hugger.


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Dennis got this nice lingcod on this little rockpile. Rarely do we find lings on the dana point line, so we released her back down to hopefully populate this rockpile.


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We motored out to the deeper gps coordinates. The vermillions are always big here. The average size red snapper we were catching today were close to 21".


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Next drift the bigger mofos went on the chew. We got slammed before we hit the bottom. Too bad we were only able to keep a few because we limited out.


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My share on the limits of reds.


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Dennis didn't break anything on this trip, so he decided to almost kill us this time. This is us on the a freeway transition in the number 1 lane. Boat came off the hitch because Dennis locked it incorrectly. You never cease to amaze me Dennis.


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Everyone keeps asking me what kind of fishfinder I am using. I got this POS. A late 90s/early 2000 Garmin 235. Close to 10 years old. Black and white. I can't read the bottom past 350 feet. I lose the bottom tracking all the time. I dont see fish past 280 feet. It may be lousy, but she has put me on the fish every time I am out there. I am quite afraid to replace her. Too much good fish juju on her.


Thats it. I had a ton of cracked out fun. See you all next time.


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Here is some whale pictures and video of a previous trip. We had a whale that kept on following us around from spot to spot and breaching verrrrrry close to the boat. She came up so close to the boat, we could have practically petted her and rubbed her belly. Dennis wanted to take her home, but I said no.

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[TaperSteve]

W0W!!! Those whale pics are amazing! I'm soooo jealous....

TS

[Jackpot Jimmy]

Nice report Dat! Good job on the bass and rockfish, those are some nice reds!! Oh and you must have the patience of a saint if Dennis causes so many problems and you let him keep fishing with you. LOL

[Newfishsmell]

Hey great report guys.
Up and close with a Whale ... awesome

[fishinone]

Nice catch guys.

Those whale pics are awesome.

[murrieta angler]

Howdy Dat,
Very nice looking fish.
Seems you have spots all along the coast...:Cool:
I love the whale pictures.
My family, back in the 1800's, had 7 whaling ships but lost all of them in a real bad storm one year.
Thanks for the report and pics,
Robert
<><

[k3vin_kim]

Gaff!!!!!!!!!!!

[smokehound]

Cool, a minke whale! Nice report!