2 Flats Moo-moo Trips 06/26-27 w/pics
♫ Oh Where Oh Where Are My Little ~ Sand Bass ♫
Hi there guys,
1)Tuesday’s Report
Went on a 1/2-day-trip on the Southern Cal, out of Pierpoint Landing to fish semi-local waters i.e. ‘The Flats’ with 14 anglers. I love fishing down there. Did the PM run. Collin was the skipper, while Stan decked, Alex was 2nd deck, and Ed did his usual consummate galley duties.
Note: Countdown 1: Next countdown will be when the Sand Bass are expected to show in substantial numbers. According to my past 2 years records…. (and water temps at nearly 70º F) It’s about warm enough to start fishing for them. Sand Bass numbers increasing and ]b]TRAVELERS[/b] are creeping into the counts slowly but surely. See Asides for details!!
Note: Countdown 2: Well…….. it looks like school is out and we’ll be getting our usual influx of kids on the moo-moos, a new generation of pin-heads, and more experienced second-decks. Be sure to take advantage of the specials the landings have for kids on school vacation. There are around 5 weeks till the kids return to school here in the L.A/L.B. area.
Target Fish:Barracuda and Bass
Short Report-Tuesday 06/26
14 anglers, including yours truly, caught 61 Sand Bass, 7 Calico Bass, and 2 Barracuda on the PM run. The AM run again had 14 anglers and caught 70 Sculpin ……. that’s limits! I was thinking about hitting the AM too but I chickened out thinking they might run across some Giant Squid! Yech !!! Yuk! Do a double-dip next week for sure.
(Please widen your view to fit monitor if word-wrap looks off)
06/26 Jackpot
Last Call ……………….Winner!
Barracuda
Way to go on catching the jackpot. A father and son team won the jackpot with a Barracuda. The near 6-lb fish was caught as the skittish, and scattered fish breezed through our anchored spot. I believe the fish was caught on bait. A majority of the bait was more suitable for chum until we dipped a little deeper into the tank later in the trip!!
Long Report
Down South
The Days Fishing
Out, Down, and Back ………………………….... .......... .......... Currents!
Grazing in the Pasture
Moo-moos This Week
Moo 1 ……………………………...&# 46;.........&# 46;....Moo 2
Moo 3 ……………………………...&# 46;.........&# 46;.......Hummm
PBer’s This Week
First ……………....... .......... .......... .......... Second ……………....... .......... .......... ........Third
Fourth ……………....... .......... .......... ........Fifth ……………………….... 6;......... 6;......Sixth!!
Round-Up
2 Rounds
Near First Stop
Round 1 Arrived at the grounds between 1:30 and 2:00pm from a 12:30pm start. No stop at the bait receiver. On the whole, the truth is …… although we moved maybe six or seven times, we fished pretty much the same two areas that many moo-moo fish … a little past ‘Sand Bass Junction’ and then a little further down around and out from the ‘Twin Stacks’ at varying distances. Not many boats out there as we have experienced in the last two weeks.
Guys fished the large-sized pinheads (don’t laugh there is such a thing), some medium hook-bait, Squid, Iron and the plastic.
Picked up a number of fish off the hard bottom. The fishing was scratchy but steady and it kept you on your toes with all the little fishys that weren’t ready for the frying pan. We made our first major move around 3:30.
Down A Little Further
Round 2 Did our second major move to go further down the road and out a little. Although I could swear we were fishing a little ‘softer’ bottom at first impression, the tell-tale tick-tick came up through my line. Being stubborn, I STILL think that we had a mixed bottom of sand patches, rocks, and hard bottom.
Again we had our pinhead but also had some nice hook-bait pulled out of the tank as well as a little brown bait. As usual, as success of plastics are seen …. more and more people fish them! And yes …. We did catch a couple of short Halibut. Headed home around 5:30pm for a pretty long day. What a ride home !!
Conditions: Conditions were typical of an early and later afternoon trip…. being sunny and cooling with water conditions moderate to choppy, windy, and finally wet heading home.
Air temp stayed in the 70ºs during the fishing day. Constant breeze made things feel comfortable. You needed sunblock today! Check out the NEWUV rating graphic!
Gallery
My Beauty of the Week
Fish & Anglers This Week
Beauty ……......... ;....Johns ……......... ;.........Go at ………........& #46;....Another!
Nice …………....... 6;.........Nic e Ones …………....... 6;Accident
Good Haul …………....... 6;......... 6;......... 6;......... 6;......... 6;......... 6;... Fish Tacos ……......... ;Buddies
Bassers!
Lastly .....
3 Generations ………………......,& #46;Dad & Son …………………...... ;.......... ;.........Mo m and Son
Other Topics This Week
Pinheads …………………...... ;.......... ;...Anchovies
Herring …………………...... ;.......... ;.......Nice Birdie
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 #31
Flip Flop
Tails of Tales
Although I have whacked up plastics in a number of ways, I haven’t accosted whams or blams. Similar to hooking Mogambo’s the opposite of what the manufacture suggests so that the tail is turned 180 degrees.
What You’ll Need:
1) Two blams
2) One razor blade
3) One finishing nail
4) One tube of super-glue
How To:
1) Take two (2) blams and cut the tails off of both ……… right at the point where the back of the dorsal fin meet the body. Most jighead hooks don’t go past the dorsal fin.
2) Flip the tail so that the curl point down. (If you haven’t cut the plastic correctly the tail will not be in line with the body!!!!)
3) Using a finishing nail, by trial and error, join the body and tail together so that the top and bottom of the cut parts match.
4) Super-glue the (head) end of the nail into the body. Next, apply glue to both the rest of the nail and both faces of the plastic to be joined and press them together.
5) Make sure both surfaces have made full contact and are cemented well.
Plastics
Fishes
First Day’s ………………………….... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ...... Second Day’s!
Hot Plastics!
No Skunks This Week
Had a great time this week with success on the bass …… Sandies and Calicos. Fished all kinds of models and colors with few takers on anything but the two top producing setups above. As you can see, I’m using both the standard and the long-shank, 1/2oz swimbait leadheads. You’d have thought that the clear/red spark would have done will but that was not the case.
Most fish caught pretty much just off the bottom ….. but few bottom huggers. Most caught on the slow crank. A few caught on the stop and go in mid-column. Calicos were up off the structure pretty good. Kinda wild but there were more than a few sandies caught on plastic just as the boat was at the end of slowing to anchor. This means they are up all along the water column and moving around a bit in my opinion.
Went Through Other Colors
For Nothin’ …. Hardly a Hit !!!!!????
1st...2nd ...3rd …4th …5th ..6th
Tuesday Out There
Lunar …………………………………..& #46;.........& #46;......Wind Direction and Speed!
Tides ……………………………………. 6;......... 6;......... 6;......... 6;......... 6;.Water Temps!
UV Rating!
Tuesday’s Conditions
Fishing Grounds: Check pics and stats!!
Wild Creatures: Saw some Sealions. Cormorants, Pelicans, and Seagulls pretty much stayed away until it was time to clean fish BUT……………….. the Terns drove us crazy.
Asides
First Aside: ‘Travelers’ are showing !! Why the excitement ? Well …… if you don’t know what they are …. they’re (not pelagic) migratory fish … specifically Sand Bass! How do you tell them from our resident fish ? I’m not sure on the whole story but I could see they were of a lighter color, had a plump well-fed look, and were of a pretty high average (2~3lbs) weight. Plus …… they look like they’re ready for romance!! Heh heh heh
Aside: Weird Filet Regulation. Good ol’ DFG Regs … Title 14, section 27.65 concerns filets. The gist of it ……. a filet is defined as a piece of meat from the side of a fish separated from the head, tail, and carcass.
Item 10, paragraph C states: Fish that may not be filleted. No person shall fillet on any boat or bring ashore as fillets the following fish. Cabezon, greenlings of the genus (Hexagrammos), Salmon, Striped Bass, Sturgeon, and any species of flatfish, except *California Halibut!! That’s Sole, Turbot, Flounder, Sand Dab ARE NO-NO’s!!??
Halibut
Careful
Be careful………. DFG persons may go by the fine print and letter of the law. Talked to a PBer who got zapped coming in to San Pedro a couple of months ago and was on his way to city hall to pay up for filet violation. The good news ….. he got the fine knocked down to only $1K.
One decks solution was to cut/clean the fish but leave the components just hanging together for the angler to quickly and easily separate later with the swipe of a knife. Really?! Once you go to the trouble of carefully reading the regs ….. it really gets nuts !!
* California Halibut- When having Halibut cleaned on the boat be sure the deck leaves the entire length of skin on the fillet. According to recent posts …. It’s pretty difficult to get a legal minimum length 16 ¾-inch filet (22-inches) fillet (yes, the DFG guys can measure the fillets for size verification) from a minimum legal length California Halibut …… just legal at the time of catch and then fish measured later after natural shrinkage…….. Hummmm Oh ya … no minimum length on Pacific Halibut in California!
Another Aside: New Regulation on Sturgeon Fishing. If you plan on running out and fish for Sturgeon any time soon, be aware that you now need, must have, are required to have a ‘Sturgeon Fishing Report Card’ if you are alive. This card is FREE but you must have it to be legal !! Everybody ….. that’s everybody under sixteen, lifetime-license, old, handicapped ….. no regular fishing-license …. Who~ever!!! Check the DFG website for further details. Don’t think SoCal anglers are gonna swamp the local DFG offices with this one!�
Yet Another Aside:
Handicap/Disabled Logo
Logo
Tsurikichi©2007
Handicapped Angler Friendly
I was asked how the logo, I made representing handicapped/disabled anglers, would appear. I forgot to delete my own request for input on the design last week. I’ve got the design protected now, so this is what I’ve contributed to the world of signage.
It would be cool if a landing or boat used such a symbol (hopefully mine) to indicate that their operation had put extra effort to promote patronage of their facilities by handicapped and or disabled anglers.
Near Last Aside:
Mooooooo!
Moderate Loads
We’ve had mostly moderate loads this week ……. without the previously strong Barracuda bite and long awaited Sand Bass ‘Rush’ yet to appear. Twilight trips are showing respectable numbers mostly due to those hunting the Giant Squid. Last weeks’ ‘Pack ‘em On’ award goes to the Matt Walsh out of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing with [font color=�red�]80 anglers for their ½-day, am trip. Nice to see our moo-moos getting the business that will help them through the lean late-Fall and Winter months. [P]
At least one landing is reporting numbers (angler and catch totals) for their half-day trips (2 trips a day) with two figures … that is ….. 1) total anglers and 2) total fish caught. We get a break though …. as at least they break down the ‘caught fish’ totals into species! � If you want to check the AM/PM ’catch trends’ (as I often do to simply fine tune my tackle choices) in their neck of the woods, you’ll have to go to other landings’ counts which often fish the same areas. No biggie Right?! Truth is … they will probably give you the count when you make a reservation.
Last Aside:
Remember last week when I was ranting (whining) about the fish thieves ….. ?? Well …… there’s more to the story. When my buddies and a guy who was on last week got together again this week …… without any prompting … they began to tell stories about how they got ripped off last week! Yep …. The sub-human garbage struck more than once. They must do it as a group. Tally: Two or three hand painted jig stolen out of tackle box… ya not grabbed ….. stolen … Three Velcro straps that were to be used to put rods together …. And ….. one rail mounted rod-holder. Funny …. They didn’t show up this week …. Punks off stealin’ somewhere else I guess! Ha ha ha
Boat and Crew
The SoCal (Nice Lettering)
Stern Numbers!
Crew
Collin file photo …….Deck- Stan ……......... ;.. Cook- Ed
Alex
Rainbow Bound
End of the Day
Fished the ‘Flats. Bunch of bassers and years-enhanced guys make up part of the group so I’m right at home!! Decided against a re-ride as I’ll be fishing tomorrow and have to get up early again. When I say early …. I mean early!! Don’t bother asking HOW early …… it’s embarrassing! �
2) Wednesday’s Report 06/27[/u]
First Things First
Phantom= 80 Yellows
Phantom did it again according to the report of the 26th with 8 anglers for 80 Yellowtail. To make the report true-on …. the boat was on a day and a half trip. Still ………limits and not quite a Halibut a piece too!
For My Trip
Went on a ¾-day-moo-moo trip to the ‘Flats’ …… pretty much around the twin stacks area and joined a dwindling fleet of moo-moos and PBers!!
The Catch- 06/27
25 to 35 guys caught a little over 100 of a combination of Sandbass/Calico Bass, with a hand-full of Sheephead, Sculpin, and single digits on Rockfish.
06/27 Jackpot
Last Call ………………… Winner!
Goat Wins Jackpot
Way to go on the jackpot. With no legal Barracuda and no real grumpy Sandies, a 4~5lb Sheephead took the jackpot. Lots of Sand Bass contenders ……….. just no cigar.
Summary
Went down to the ‘Flats’ and fished with the herd. Fishing conditions about the same as the day before. Weather and water conditions lightened up a bit.
JapanRon
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