Tunaslam
06-03-2012, 08:33 AM
Fishing Sat. 6-02-12, with Lal on his 18’ boat: The “Rubber Ducky”. I met Lal at his house in Cerritos at 5am. We headed down to Huntington Harbor and launched the boat at 6:00 am, our target being early morning Bass and then Barracuda when they showed up a bit later in the morning.
It was a rough ride out, as the wind was out of the south, and blowing about 10 knots, with a 2 foot wind chop, which we were running right into it.
About a half hour later we stopped on some stones on the Flats in Huntington Beach. The smaller Sand and Calico Bass were on the chew, on the plastics, all released. After a few moves I got hit on the drop and this was a bigger, feistier fish. Quite a surprise, as up comes a Spotted Bay Bass on the flats? In over 50 years of fishing, neither I nor Lal ever caught one outside the harbor?
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2158640x480.jpg
Pretty much every stone we hit held Bass and in about 1.5 hours we had nearly a limit of mixed Bass each. The Sport Boats began to show up three miles outside the Huntington Pier where Lal had hammered the Barracuda with his friend Richie the day before.
The Sport Boats and we criss crossed the area for nearly an hour and found absolutely no signs of Barracuda, anywhere on the flats. Where did they go? Some of the Sport Boats returned south and others headed north, stopping at Izor’s Reef or continuing on to the Horseshoe Kelp area.
We met up with Lal’s good friend Glen on his boat “Pacified” and exchanged plans of attack for the remainder of the day. Glen headed north to the Shoe, while we made a stop at Izor’s joining about 40 other boats, however, Lal had stones to fish on the upper end of the reef where few boats were hanging out.
It’s surprising how many private boats anchor up on the reef? That’s a good way to donate your anchor with all the rebar down there. We lose enough plastics as it is. We watched while one boat struggled for nearly half an hour getting his anchor up.
With all the traffic and a ton of bait on the meter, the Bass did not want to play on the Reef and it was now slack tide too. We picked up a few Sand Bass for nearly 45 minutes of fishing the reef. Suddenly we get hailed by Glen. “It looks like it is going off at the Shoe”; we’re heading to a fleet of boats, about 15 minutes away. Lal decided to make a move in that direction.
After a short run, sure enough, there ahead of us was the armada. We arrived in just about 15 minutes ourselves, as we caught up with Glen. They anchored up and we chose to drift, setting up where the birds were diving. Our first couple of casts of the iron into the mêlée resulted in no bites? You could see boils under the diving Terns, and we just kept after it. Finally Lal was bit, and seconds later so was I. Darn a short biter, then another and another! Yikes that is frustrating? Lal landed his Cuda, just short, and released.
I get a solid hook up and this Barracuda is on. A 29 incher and into the bait tank it went, as the only way I eat Cuda is smoked, and that’s what I planned on doing on Sunday. We drifted out of the area and moved back to the birds, which were diving off to the side of Glen’s boat in between them and a Sport Boat about 150 yards a part. Lal set us up properly and we were both bit on our first cast. We both brought up better size Barracuda, with no need to measure and into the bait tank they went; after a quick slit to their throat to bleed them.
Here I am with a good sized Barracuda:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2162640x480.jpg
It was very much nonstop action for several hours. We had easy limits each, keeping only ten and releasing the rest. Lal started fishing with the plastics as we drifted over some stones. He caught a couple more Sand Bass and a few more Barracuda.
At noon, it was virtually over, as most boats scattered, and the half day boats returned for their afternoon run. We heard several Captains’ say “folks, we have a lot of fish to clean so we are going to be running slow back to the dock”.
The water temp was at 64.3 degrees, about the same as Friday according to Lal, and the water clarity was quite clear.
We spent the next hour checking out some more stones for Bass. There was about one biter per stone. We checked out the wall for several more small Sand Bass and called it a day at 1:30pm, as the wind began to increase to about 10-12 knots and some popcorn appeared.
With the filet table in place Lal and I display the catch that was kept:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2161640x480.jpg
Thanks Lal, another fun time on the Rubber Ducky!
Hook up! Cory
It was a rough ride out, as the wind was out of the south, and blowing about 10 knots, with a 2 foot wind chop, which we were running right into it.
About a half hour later we stopped on some stones on the Flats in Huntington Beach. The smaller Sand and Calico Bass were on the chew, on the plastics, all released. After a few moves I got hit on the drop and this was a bigger, feistier fish. Quite a surprise, as up comes a Spotted Bay Bass on the flats? In over 50 years of fishing, neither I nor Lal ever caught one outside the harbor?
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2158640x480.jpg
Pretty much every stone we hit held Bass and in about 1.5 hours we had nearly a limit of mixed Bass each. The Sport Boats began to show up three miles outside the Huntington Pier where Lal had hammered the Barracuda with his friend Richie the day before.
The Sport Boats and we criss crossed the area for nearly an hour and found absolutely no signs of Barracuda, anywhere on the flats. Where did they go? Some of the Sport Boats returned south and others headed north, stopping at Izor’s Reef or continuing on to the Horseshoe Kelp area.
We met up with Lal’s good friend Glen on his boat “Pacified” and exchanged plans of attack for the remainder of the day. Glen headed north to the Shoe, while we made a stop at Izor’s joining about 40 other boats, however, Lal had stones to fish on the upper end of the reef where few boats were hanging out.
It’s surprising how many private boats anchor up on the reef? That’s a good way to donate your anchor with all the rebar down there. We lose enough plastics as it is. We watched while one boat struggled for nearly half an hour getting his anchor up.
With all the traffic and a ton of bait on the meter, the Bass did not want to play on the Reef and it was now slack tide too. We picked up a few Sand Bass for nearly 45 minutes of fishing the reef. Suddenly we get hailed by Glen. “It looks like it is going off at the Shoe”; we’re heading to a fleet of boats, about 15 minutes away. Lal decided to make a move in that direction.
After a short run, sure enough, there ahead of us was the armada. We arrived in just about 15 minutes ourselves, as we caught up with Glen. They anchored up and we chose to drift, setting up where the birds were diving. Our first couple of casts of the iron into the mêlée resulted in no bites? You could see boils under the diving Terns, and we just kept after it. Finally Lal was bit, and seconds later so was I. Darn a short biter, then another and another! Yikes that is frustrating? Lal landed his Cuda, just short, and released.
I get a solid hook up and this Barracuda is on. A 29 incher and into the bait tank it went, as the only way I eat Cuda is smoked, and that’s what I planned on doing on Sunday. We drifted out of the area and moved back to the birds, which were diving off to the side of Glen’s boat in between them and a Sport Boat about 150 yards a part. Lal set us up properly and we were both bit on our first cast. We both brought up better size Barracuda, with no need to measure and into the bait tank they went; after a quick slit to their throat to bleed them.
Here I am with a good sized Barracuda:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2162640x480.jpg
It was very much nonstop action for several hours. We had easy limits each, keeping only ten and releasing the rest. Lal started fishing with the plastics as we drifted over some stones. He caught a couple more Sand Bass and a few more Barracuda.
At noon, it was virtually over, as most boats scattered, and the half day boats returned for their afternoon run. We heard several Captains’ say “folks, we have a lot of fish to clean so we are going to be running slow back to the dock”.
The water temp was at 64.3 degrees, about the same as Friday according to Lal, and the water clarity was quite clear.
We spent the next hour checking out some more stones for Bass. There was about one biter per stone. We checked out the wall for several more small Sand Bass and called it a day at 1:30pm, as the wind began to increase to about 10-12 knots and some popcorn appeared.
With the filet table in place Lal and I display the catch that was kept:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Lal-Cuda-06-02-12/100_2161640x480.jpg
Thanks Lal, another fun time on the Rubber Ducky!
Hook up! Cory