Victory 7/31 and a Jackpot Sand Bass
Today I boarded the Victory. Mike was the captain, Carl on Deck with Mike, and Ron was the cook. I went out with my brother hoping to get in on the good sand bass bite that’s been going on. We get to the landing just after 5 and park in spot 9 and didn’t have to walk to the other parking lot. We had relatively good spots. Not too many guys buying tickets when we got there and we were able to land on spots red 1 and 2, near the starboard corner of the stern.
We get bait just before 7:00am and proceeded head down to the flats. We arrive there shortly after 8:00am and the fleet was there, some boats from Dana Wharf and Newport already there. Just following was the fleet from the LBC and Pedro area. After looking around for about 30 minutes we finally settled down into a decent bite all day. We made only 3 or 4 moves the whole day, only to get away from the seals. The whole day it was up and down. The bite would go on and the bite would go off. But we got limits.
We planned on using plastics the whole day but plans changed. My brother was using a green wham and I was using and fish trap in anchovy color. We each got one fish on each at the first stop but that was it from there. My brother gave up after about an hour throwing plastics and used bait. By around 11:00am he had 4 on bait to my lone one on plastics. Everybody was catching their fish on bait: anchovy on a dropper loop or Carolina rig. Some limited out early on the bait. I finally followed and proceeded to catch fish slowly until we left. It was pretty much Sand Bass all day with a few Cuda mixed in. I did not catch any Cuda but my brother did on the dropper loop all the way on the bottom. I had one attack my plastics and could not set the hook earlier in the day but that was it.
Now for the Highlight: Approximately 15-20 minutes before packing up and leaving, at our last stop, I caught my personal best Sand Bass. I did not weigh it but it looked to be about 8-9 pounds. I caught it on a big anchovy on the dropper loop. There were several other big fish caught in the 5-6 pound range after I caught mine to round out a great day of bass fishing. My fish ended up winning Jackpot, narrowly beating out a Cuda. It was the first jackpot I have ever won in 8 years of fishing on party boats and also my new personal best Sand Bass.
Final Count for the Boat: 30 Anglers, 300 Sand Bass, and 21 Barracuda
BTW, these migratories are kinda happy or in the mood if you know what I mean. Some of the fish caught were spewing its man chowder. Some people thought they were urinating. That was not the case. Also some females were caught and just by looking at the cleaning table there were a lot of eggs in the fish’s bellies. The Migratory fish are here and hopefully they don’t disappear soon!
Jeff aka Mr. J
some pics:
Me with Captain Mike
Solo with the fish
My brother posing with my fish
My Brother and his Cuda:
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Originally Posted by jobi888
