Local Moo-moo 04/25 Trip w/pics
Skipper Followed The Doctor’s Advice
Hi there guys,
Rode a ¾-day moo-moo to fish local waters i.e.Horseshoe Kelp area for Bass and Sculpin yesterday ….. Wednesday. As the season advances, it’s nice to be able to get on more boats I haven’t ridden in a while and …… getting out on the weekdays too.
Note: Countdown 1 Should be [font color=�red�]a little less than a month, tentatively the middle of May according to past years, till the Summer season starts. That’s when the ¾-day boats usually start leaving at 6am and the ½-day boats leave at between 6am and 7am!! You will find that the all-day and or island free-lance moo-moos will commonly leave a little earlier …. typically 5am.
Countdown 2 The new bait barge/receiver should be operable in just about[font color=�red�]44days as tentatively that’s the estimate made onApril 6th, by the San Pedro Bait Company. Details (probably late!) in my report to follow when known. (see further details in an aside)
Target Fish: Sand Bass, Calicos, and Sculpin
Short Report- Wednesday 04/25
20 to 30 guys caught 1 to 2 Sand Bass each on the average, 30 or 40 Sculpin for the boat, a few Rockfish, and one or two Sheephead and Perch. Most Sand Bass were quite legal but very small. Couple of nice Sculpin but ………. no monsters.
(Please widen your view to fit monitor if word-wrap looks off)
04/25 Jackpot
Weigh-Off! …………….....Winner
Sand Bass Takes It
A Sand Bass was the winner today. The 2-lb fish was caught in a little less than 100 feet of water, using ….. hummmmm I think it was whole fresh dead. There were a few of the Sand Bass that were legit contenders for the Jackpot.
Carl was the deck on this boat today. Haven’t seen him for a while and it was good to have him handling the on-deck business. Always quick to untangle lines, give solid advice, grab a gaff, and keep things going in general. Thanks buddy!
Long Report
Nachos
Dines ………………………….... .......Doggie!
Slow Start
Nachos was friendly and ready as ever to be of service. Headed out with Sardines and frozen Squid …….. even got some fresh dead Squid. I love dogs, dogs are great little guys. I’ve almost always had mutts and they were not what you would call handsome. Looking at doggie at natchos …… I’m kinda worried. I mean ….. out there …. all alone …. no internet connection or chat-rooms. Is this doggie enjoying a well-rounded doggie social life? A mail-order bride may be the only answer to that age-old question.
The Days Fishing
Fished Further South ……………………………………. 6;.........Art ificial Reefs!
Out the Door
Finding Fish
Today, we got a pretty slow start as the office didn’t open till it was past time for the boat to leave. No real biggy for the regular boats …….. just wouldn’t want to be a skipper or chartermaster and need to get some licenses for my passengers in that sort of situation!!
More time was then taken to go and get bait at the receiver down on the east end and…… for that ….. I heard NOBODY whining or complaining! ha ha ha The Bocaccio (Salmon Grouper) should love the Sardines).
Artificial Reefs
Although the 7 local Artificial Reefs shown(of approximately 21 reefs from Malibu to the Border)are of minimal importance to the moo-moo patron, knowing their general locations is useful. Useful as in …… and matching the areas in which you see Pbers and yakers often anchored therebouts will give you an idea as to where you are fishing topographic-wise. Here locally, the artificial reefs are usually in shallower waters ranging from 60 to 85 feet. (exception being Palawan at 120 feet)
Grazing in the Pasture
Crackerjack ……………………….... 6;......... 6;......... 6;.....Second ……………………….... 6;.....…. Third
Fourth .......... .......... .......... .......... .....Last One
3 Rounds
First Stop
Round Up
Round 1 Most anglers fished the usual dropper-loop setups and frozen Squid with about 6ozs of weight. We started fishing a little closer to the breakwater than I have recently. We dropped the hook on a number of spots but alas the bite was scratchy at best. So be it … the season is still at it’s beginning. The bites we got were mostly on Squid. Skipper worked to locate and then set properly on metered fish. As this was a ¾ -day boat, we gave each spot a little time hoping to kick-start a solid bite. Being a on the inside, as we are typically shallow in 70 to 90 feet of water. Water that was muddy and nasty looking. With the relative calm of the morning and moderate current, fishing with plastics and light weight (2~3oz) setups made for pretty easy fishing and few tangles. I assume we were on flat bottom and predominately sandy. Tomcod a.k.a. Queenfish were on a full-on, bait-ripping, bite that tested the mettle of every anglers’ tackle aboard. Around 12:20 we move to our next area.
Round 2 Heading a little further outside, we got in a little deeper water (100~120 feet), hoping to find a few spots holding Sand Bass and Sculpin that were in the biting mood. These series of stops was where we got the majority of our fish. Again, most used the dropper loop rig although some opted for a sliding-egg sinker rig/Carolina rigged setup. Water still remained pretty dirty. Further up the scale were the guys using leadheads an whole fresh dead Squid and finally guys like me (catching the fewest fish) fishing plastics. No skunk for me today. The Sheephead were caught on Shrimp …. Uncooked !! Left this area about 2:20.
Round 3 Moved a tad out and West for the last series of stops of the day. The conditions continued to worsen (for both anglers, fishing, and catching) with the wind starting to blow, against the current, chop increasing, swells getting bigger. Yada, yada! The only thing that was promising was that we found some clean water! A buddy said the boat hadn’t caught a keeper in a couple of hours ….. which was not far from the truth. The skipper stayed out waaaaaaay longer than anyone could reasonably expect …. late start or not!! I was ready to head back in less than half an hour into the last series of stops!! Beggin’ to get on and beggin’ to get off! ha ha ha
Conditions Check out the graphics for the water conditions.
Skies were clear and some even used sunblock. Air temp stayed in the 50º~60ºs during the fishing day. Jackets felt good almost all day long.
Gallery
Few Photogenic Fish!
Typical Bass ….. Jackpot Rules ……………………….. What Year?
IFO ……………………………...&# 46;.........&# 46;..... Double Rig …………………... Gilligans
Seagull!
Let Them Know
The photos above are just a sample of the fish and things of interest, at least to me, on this trip.Note: If you see a friend in the pictures, let them know they can copy the photo off the report.Directions: Click the right button with the ‘cursor’ on the picture, then click on ‘save picture as’, next choose where they wish to copy the picture, and lastly click ‘save’. Later, they can edit and print the picture at their leisure with a simple photo-editing program.
Tweeking Plastics #27
Easy Tweek…… Who Needs a Diagram?!
Having got a number of brand-new model soft-baits for drop-shotting from BH at the FH show, I decided to give them a try on the Rockfish that seem to have become so picky and light biters on the plastics the last two months. These same baits will be killers on my tubing trips for sure!
Just about any garage or shed has a couple coffee cans or jars full of various types and sizes of nails from various projects over the years. Having browsed a few sites for new ideas (to me), I came upon a variation on my use of the Mojo slip-shots to alter the balance and weight of a bait. The simple device used to change the weight distribution and thus action of a plastic bait is the humble finishing nail i.e. the type that doesn’t sport a typical nail-head.
Extensive bathtub tests, (meticulously documented with the strictest of investigative discipline, following the most stringent of leading-edge, quality-assurance precepts, and under the auspices of the pseudo-scientific community’s’ espirit d’ corps; seldom ever attempted in the civilized world, only to be seen by those privileged few, and without further adieu) resulted in the following findings. (Palomar knot of 12lb-test line used)
1) Weight Distribution- Using another term, the ‘balance’ of a bait can be most radically altered by positioning the nail at the extremities of the bait …. That’s the part of the bait that is furthest from the main weight. The smaller the size of and slower the bait is moved, the greater the effect of the alteration realized.
2) Action- There were two different alterations that showed promise in being somewhat independent of the ‘balance’ issue. Both the length of the nail and its positioning seemed to be effective in altering the baits action.
a) Positioning a nail inside and along the main section of a bait, that had a wide range of motion, caused that segment to be stiffened and thus action changed according to how long a nail was used.
b) The same length nail could produce different actions when placed in sections that were more susceptible to alteration.
c) Bending a nail and inserting it in a bait initially produced the desired effect for … alas … a
short period. It became obvious that it was necessary to super-glue the nail in place for it
to last. Even then I could see there was unwanted wear on the plastic from the nail and
motion.
Summary- As was expected, it was impossible to change one characteristic action without changing another and one has to fiddle with a bait from 2 or 3 directions to get a desired effect. Good luck on the trial and error. Expect a lot more errors.
Update: Had a fishy bite a nailed bait. Don’t be disappointed when this proves to be a one-bite alteration guys …….. still it works!
Plastics
Fishing approaches ……………………………...&# 46;.........&# 46;......... Double This Number
Caught A Couple of Fish
As a plastics buddy fishing right beside me has been consistently successful (couple of fish a trip on plastics) by scaling down his plastics size and leadhead weight, I decided to alter my big-bait, big-fish strategy for at least a couple of trips. I threw the kitchen sink again today but what I threw was of a very different array of plastics.
As well as using various types of softbaits hereto little used, I made a concentrated effort to fish any of the above 3 different ways of bait presentation my buddy didn’t……… whatever the depth and or bottom. I also played around with using shorter leaders as well as directly rigging to the main line. Went extreme on the pound-test of the leader material. In desperate times, desperate anglers, do desperate things!
I fished each bait without a Squid strip. I would fish three cycles then switch baits and tried 3 more cycles …. over and over till I had quite a collection of used baits ….. 15 in number. Varied reactions from fish but mostly they just grabbed the tail and hung on long enough from me to strike and miss them!
Plastics colors included the chartreuse, red, clear w/red, purple, orange, mint green, pearl, etc. Leadhead colors varied. Leadhead/weights ranged from ¼ oz (all morning) to ¾ oz leadheads w/3~8 oz weights later in the afternoon.
Wednesday Out There
Lunar……………………………………… ……..…Wind Direction and Speed!
Tides …………………………………………†¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........ .......... .........Wa ter Temps!
Currents!
Nice to Naughty Conditions
Fishing Grounds: Sunny, warm, calm water …. clarity maybe 6 feet ….. then …….. the wind comes up current, waves and swells grows stronger and or bigger and …. the last 3 hours …. less than a hadfull of fish are caught!!
Wild Creatures: Saw a seal that looked lost. Cormorants, Pelicans and Seagulls pretty much hung around all day …… awaiting fish cleaning ….. no doubt.
Asides
Aside: Moon Phases- For those that believe in the moons’ effect on fishing, It’s pretty easy to follow the phases. ‘General’ or ballpark percentages are given to reflect the illuminated area.
New Moon- 0%
Waxing Crescent- 25%
First Quarter- 50%
Waxing Gibbous- 75%
Full Moon- 100%
Waning Gibbous- 75%
Third Quarter- 50%
Waning Crescent- 25%
Another Aside: Artificial Reefs- Assuming that the artificial reefs would look like what I consider to be a typical reef, (oblong/rectangular ……… length of structure rising above the sea-bed) I found that our reefs are overwhelmingly comprised of ……. from a modest couple ……………… up to 30 piles of quarry rock, cars, concrete rubble, etc. arranged in such a way as there exists an open area in the collective center of the piles. Interestingly …… the 7 fish havens indicated above measure from ¾’s of a mile to 4½ miles distant from the nearest shore. The ¾’s of a mile-distant reef (Redondo) is just about close enough from King’s Harbor for a suicidal-try from a float tube!! (Oh ya …. Don’t forget no float-tube launching allowed within King Harbor itself).
Yet Another Aside: Awaiting our forthcoming live-bait receiver!! With the word that the Long Beach/San Pedro marine sportfishing community stands a chance in getting a live-bait receiver in the not-so-distant-future …….. never mind which end of the harbor …… the Summer season looks a lot brighter for the moo-moos and PB anglers alike!
As reported by the new bait receiver firm ‘San Pedro Bait Company’ and a number of message-board members: Within the next two-months, there will be a live-bait receiver ‘Bounty’ positioned and in operation off of Cabrillo (beach) at approximately the same position as where two other long-time receivers (L.A. Harbor and Bill’s Bait) had anchored and done business.
Great boost for everybodys fishin’! I’m thinking selfishly ……… Yaaaa baby !! Having tanks loaded with pinheads, it’ll get the fishys goin’ and I’ll have a max shot at not only whackin’ ‘em but getting the big boys too ……. with plastics! I can hear it now …. ‘ok guys, put 2 or 3 pinheads on your hook’!! Shouldn’t smart-off ….. that actually works pretty darn good sometimes!
Last Aside: The real Summer schedule- When boats up and down the coast start offering ‘twilight’ (6:30pm~11:30pm or midnight) trips on week-day nights consistently, you’ll know we’re in the middle of the Summer season and the Sand Bass spawning migration. The last few years has seen a general decline in twilight trips. IMO the major reason is based on fewer twilight anglers but also include:
1) The number of landings that have offered twilight trips has decreased in recent years. Especially week-day trips other than Friday.
2) The length of time (weeks) the landings that offered twilight trips seems to have been shortened the last few years.
3) I suspect the number of boats willing to do that 3rd run (after an am and pm trip) is decreasing …….. for reasons other than either crew-availability or lazyness!
4) From what is a consensus among fellow-regulars I fish with ……. the behavior of the schools, migration period, and quirky weather and water conditions have not given us a ‘business as usual’ season in a couple of years! That’s either for the Sand Bass or the Barracuda. Let’s hope for a long, killer season for both species this year!
Heading Home
Trips End
Speedy!
End of the Day
Had a fun day on the water playing with my stuff. Caught a decent number of fish for the way I was fishing. Every angler that wanted them got off the boat with a nice bag of filets. The boat docked by 5:00 and I was home before it got too dark. Good Job!
JapanRon
