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Jackpot Jimmy
11-04-2012, 08:23 PM
Every week for a long time, my dad and I made the long drive to fish out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing. I learned to fish out of this landing, owned and operated by the Hansen Family, starting when I was six-years-old. Along the way we met some good people and good anglers, and we fished with them for years. We’ve also enjoyed fishing with the great captains and crews down there, who always making our fishing adventures a lot of fun. So we decided to go fishing with our friends Saturday morning for a morning half-day fishing trip on the Sum Fun.

The fishing on the local bass scene has been slow, even with 64-65 degree water. But that didn’t deter a group of us who were locked and loaded for a morning of fishing. A couple of us brought some pismo clams in hopes of getting some sheephead to bite, in addition to the decent boxed squid already on board. We boarded the boat a little after 6:00 and left the dock around 6:30, with a light load of 14 anglers, including our friends Lee, Doug, Amy, and Peggy. Before leaving the harbor we made a pit-stop at the bait barge to pick up some sardines for cut bait (or a halibut prospect).

Captain Chris Pica then welcomed us aboard, outlined the safety equipment on board the vessel, and gave us his game plan. We would be fishing some shallower areas, which excited us because those are notorious sheephead spots along the South Coast. Meanwhile, Capt. Brian Woolley was in the galley on cooking duties, and whipped up some great breakfasts for the hungry anglers. Jake, our deckhand was out on deck cutting up the squid and sardines. We rigged up our rods and after a half-hour run down the coast, the anchor was dropped and we were off to the races.

A few of us were already fishing with the pismo clam on slider rigs with light line (8-12 pound test) trying for the sheephead, but they weren’t quite ready to bite yet. I was the first to hook up, quite unexpectedly, on a fat blue perch. The smaller calicos started to bite a little bit too, when a nice two-pound calico was caught by Peggy Stein (winner of the halibut derby last year). Soon after, the mackerel and smelt started to build up under the boat. But Brian saw a different kind of flash, a flash that had to belong to the elusive bonito. It was then that my dad started to throw his trusty smoke sparkle plastic, and he managed to catch one of them. It was small, but a fish that we haven’t seen much of for a few years.

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/3595/img0014nv.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/img0014nv.jpg/)

The few of us fishing pismo clam were still persistent in it, and it paid off when some goats started coming over the rail. The first nicer one was caught by our friend Doug, who was fishing the slider rig with a little bigger (2/0) hook, which may be a good idea for targeting bigger sheephead because it keeps the smaller stuff off the hook until a bigger goat takes notice.

http://imageshack.us/a/img5/7317/img0016vp.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/img0016vp.jpg/)

Another one of our friends, Amy, was up the side fishing with the pismo clam as well. She first tied into a barely short cabezon, and not long after that she hooked a bigger fish that turned out to be a five- or six-pound cabezon, which is a big one for the area.

Capt. Pica holds up Amy’s Cabezon
http://imageshack.us/a/img440/2079/img0019hq.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/img0019hq.jpg/)

In addition to all these nice fish, the calicos were still biting a little bit (dad caught three calicos on rubber), some sand bass showed up, and a few small johnny bass came over the rail as well. Doug caught another nice sheephead and Peggy also caught a nice one (pictured below). The bite unfortunately slowed down some after the flurry with the sheephead, but we still picked a few before we backtracked toward the harbor to fish one more spot.

http://imageshack.us/a/img189/4468/img0018eji.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/189/img0018eji.jpg/)

This spot was shallower and rockier than the last spot, which is usually prime territory for big sheephead. We were still fishing lighter line, so when we got a bite, we had to wind like we meant it. We got quite a few bites here but not a lot that would latch on. I caught and released a nice sand bass and there were a couple other bass that came over the rail too. But it was Doug that hooked the desired drag burner, our targeted specie, the shallow water sheephead. He managed to get it out of the rocks, and a nice big sheephead was netted and lifted aboard. And this goat was a true shallow water sheephead – it was blacker in color, which I’ve only seen when fishing this shallow.

http://imageshack.us/a/img266/6937/img0020ms.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/266/img0020ms.jpg/)

Soon after this fine catch, it was time to head for the barn. Jackpot honors went to Amy with her nice cabezon, which was tanked and happily released. Brian then filleted all the non-sheephead, and gilled-and-gutted the sheephead per DFG regulations, and he did a heck of a job as always.

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/6783/img0021jo.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/132/img0021jo.jpg/)

The fishing, while still a little slow, was better than I thought it would be. But when you have the right bait and use some good techniques, the fishing can be relatively good. My dad and I had a lot of fun back with our old friends, and we look forward to some good trips in the future (and maybe a halibut in the derby). Great times, great fishing!

peanutbutter
11-04-2012, 09:02 PM
nice and quality species :Wink:

Jig-Guy
11-05-2012, 11:11 AM
Hay Jimmy, great report and pictures thanks for taking the time, enjoyed the read.

Jackpot Jimmy
11-07-2012, 10:08 PM
Hay Jimmy, great report and pictures thanks for taking the time, enjoyed the read.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it. This took longer than usual to put together. Photobucket's uploading system has changed and the pictures were too big, so I made an account on Imageshack, and I can honestly say that Photobucket has lost a long-time user. Then I had problems rotating the photos on my computer but after fiddling with it for a while, I finally got them to rotate and uploaded onto Imageshack properly. But now I know my new routine so hopefully future reports will be a breeze to post.

murrieta angler
11-08-2012, 06:26 AM
Hello Jimmy,
Good to see you getting out and getting on some nice fish with family and friends.
The other morning I was fishing the rocks, by the bait barge, and was looking at the boats. I thought to myself, that it's been a longggg time since I have fished out of Dana Point.
I used to hit the 2 fer 1 Tuesdays quite a bit.
Thanks for the report and the memories.
Robert
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Tunaslam
11-08-2012, 10:00 AM
Way to go Jimmy, a sweet report indeed!