Tunaslam
07-22-2011, 09:30 AM
Fishing Thursday, 7-21-10, with Lal on his 18’ boat “Rubber Ducky”. Can’t believe this late in July we aren’t out chasing Tuna and Tails? We launched out of Huntington Harbor, at 5:00 am, our beginning destination being Izor’s Reef. The seas were grease calm, with only a gentle rolling swell, there was a heavy Marine Layer, making the ride out a bit misty, where are those windshield wipers when you need them?
Arriving in the grey light, our first drift resulted in almost immediate hook ups or short bits on the drop down. Despite the glassy waters, the boat drifted at a nice pace. Today it was just right on! Most every cast for the first hour produced a bass or rockfish bite, or lots of short biters by the smaller fish. We had a count of 30 Mixed Calico and Sand Bass, plus a half dozen Rockfish by low tide at 7:39 am, then it simply shut down.
Lal with a nice Calico Bass:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1627.jpg
And then a dandy Sandy:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1629.jpg
It took a while longer for me, having released a bunch of one to two pounders, so I finally landed a Sandy worth a picture moment.
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1624.jpg
Myself with a Chocolate Rockfish, good size for the reef:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1625.jpg
Spent another hour at the Reef, all the Sport Boats had arrived and anchored up, plus a bunch of private boaters. We fished strictly with plastics, while we understand the Sport Boats were having excellent results on the anchovies. Hard to believe they can pull a thousand or more mixed Bass off that reef for so many days in a row, and that’s not counting the Twilight bite.
Picked up only one more Sand Bass during the hour, and then we moved south to visit some local stones. Never found an area that was red hot, yet we managed to pick a few Bass off each drift. We were also faced with nearly no current until late morning, slowing the bite further, although moving to new stones usually resulted in a few more fish.
Late morning with current resulted in a flurry of fish here and there. They were just biting everywhere today. We metered huge volumes of fish and bait in a number of places. In fact we often were surrounded by schools of sardines and mackerel.
The wind finally came up at 1pm, but not too bad, although the current was now racing. Holding bottom with even a 2 oz lead head was difficult. Most of the boats had left Izor’s Reef, so we returned to fish the high tide at 2:30 pm. In 1.5 hours we only caught one Sand Bass, Lal’s four pounder, jackpot for the day:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1628.jpg
We finished up with a total of 70 mixed Bass, perhaps 20 were Calico Bass, plus the Rockfish. All caught on plastics, all but two bleeders released to fight another day. Our best trip this year, and compared to last week’s fish count of four total, quite an improvement.
Thanks Lal, another day of awesome Bass’n on the Ducky! Sure hope the next trip is spent chasing Tuna and Tails!
Hook up! Cory
Arriving in the grey light, our first drift resulted in almost immediate hook ups or short bits on the drop down. Despite the glassy waters, the boat drifted at a nice pace. Today it was just right on! Most every cast for the first hour produced a bass or rockfish bite, or lots of short biters by the smaller fish. We had a count of 30 Mixed Calico and Sand Bass, plus a half dozen Rockfish by low tide at 7:39 am, then it simply shut down.
Lal with a nice Calico Bass:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1627.jpg
And then a dandy Sandy:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1629.jpg
It took a while longer for me, having released a bunch of one to two pounders, so I finally landed a Sandy worth a picture moment.
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1624.jpg
Myself with a Chocolate Rockfish, good size for the reef:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1625.jpg
Spent another hour at the Reef, all the Sport Boats had arrived and anchored up, plus a bunch of private boaters. We fished strictly with plastics, while we understand the Sport Boats were having excellent results on the anchovies. Hard to believe they can pull a thousand or more mixed Bass off that reef for so many days in a row, and that’s not counting the Twilight bite.
Picked up only one more Sand Bass during the hour, and then we moved south to visit some local stones. Never found an area that was red hot, yet we managed to pick a few Bass off each drift. We were also faced with nearly no current until late morning, slowing the bite further, although moving to new stones usually resulted in a few more fish.
Late morning with current resulted in a flurry of fish here and there. They were just biting everywhere today. We metered huge volumes of fish and bait in a number of places. In fact we often were surrounded by schools of sardines and mackerel.
The wind finally came up at 1pm, but not too bad, although the current was now racing. Holding bottom with even a 2 oz lead head was difficult. Most of the boats had left Izor’s Reef, so we returned to fish the high tide at 2:30 pm. In 1.5 hours we only caught one Sand Bass, Lal’s four pounder, jackpot for the day:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/100_1628.jpg
We finished up with a total of 70 mixed Bass, perhaps 20 were Calico Bass, plus the Rockfish. All caught on plastics, all but two bleeders released to fight another day. Our best trip this year, and compared to last week’s fish count of four total, quite an improvement.
Thanks Lal, another day of awesome Bass’n on the Ducky! Sure hope the next trip is spent chasing Tuna and Tails!
Hook up! Cory