2 Moo-moo Trips 07-04-05 w/pics
Fantastic Day for Barracuda And Bass!!
Hi there guys,
1) Thursday’s Report
Went on my usual ½-day-trip on the Southern Cal, out of Pierpoint to fish local waters i.e. fished both outside and inside the Horseshoe with 18~20 anglers. Went on the pm run. Ryan was the skipper, while the other Ryan decked, and Amy did galley duties.
Note: Countdown 1: Sand Bass …… Sand Bass numbers are growing substantially. According to my past 2 years records…. (and looking at water temps) It’s NOW that we start to get the travelers and 2 weeks till the full-on ‘Sandie-rush’ is here.
Note: Countdown 2: Remember there’s only 3 more weeks til school starts so get those kids out on the boats when you can.
Target Fish: Barracuda and Bass
Short Report- Thursday 07/05
18~20 anglers, including yours truly, caught tons of fish on the PM run. We had limits of Barracuda ….. some in the 8lb range and lots and lots of Bass. I think we had lots more bass than went into the count. Not over-limit mind you!! Shorts returned were in respectable numbers. Bass mix was maybe 60/40 on Calicos and Sandbass. Moreover …… We left the outside with the Barracuda biting and took off from the closer-in area with the bite still in the WIDE OPEN …… catching mode.
The AM run had what looked like 20 or so anglers and caught lots and lots of Barracuda.
The boat was going on a twilight and it looked like there were at least 30 people waiting for the boarding call ………. half an hour before their departure when I got off the boat.
(Please widen your view to fit monitor if word-wrap looks off)
07/05 Jackpot
Last Call ……………….… Winner!
Barracuda
Way to go Jimmy Park on catching the jackpot fish! A log cuda was the winner today. The near 9-lb fish was caught fly-lining a Sardine, fished at anchor. We had lots of contenders at 7~8lbs too!!
Long Report
The Days Fishing
Out, Back In, and Home ……………………….... 6;......... 6;.... Currents!
Grazing in the Pasture
Moo-moos This Week
Moo ………........& #46;.........& #46;.........& #46;.........& #46;.........& #46;... At Nachos ……......... ;.......... ;.......... ;..... Another
Nice!!
PBer’s This Week
PBer’s ………........& #46;.........& #46;.........& #46;......... Second ……………....... .......... .......... .... Third
Fourth …………....... 6;......... 6;......... 6;....... Fifth ………………......&# 46;.........&# 46;.........&# 46;.... Sixth
Seventh ……………....... .......... .......... .....Crowded …………....... 6;......... 6;........ Eighth
Ninth ………………......&# 46;.........&# 46;.........&# 46; Six Pack …………....... 6;......... 6;......... 6;....... Crowded?
Round-Up
2 Rounds
Out There
Round 1. First thing we did was head out the east end and head out a up a little to get to the area where Barracuda had been caught on the AM run. Made a couple of stops until the we were solid into the fish. Fish were biting on everything i.e. Iron, slider or dropper loop w/Sardines, Mackerel, and pinhead Anchovies. Current wasn’t bad so slider was only like 3/4oz and torpedo required was only 2oz with the pinheads and 4oz with the bigger baits but many people used minimum of 4~6 ounces!! Personally I think 6ozs is over kill on smaller baits!! Ohhhhhhh ya …. and plastic. I caught all my fish on the plastic as described in the Plastic section.
Cuda were biting all along the water column. Blue and white swimmers like the 544 did well per usual as well as just about any shade of green. Medium retrieve did the trick. Buddy next to me was getting them on the fall at a count between 3 and 15. Fish were also right on the bottom too!
Off the stern, fish were hanging about 70~90 feet from the boat but were willing to follow the bait to about 50 feet before committing to the bite. Few short biters. Only one move was caused by the dogs.
For newer anglers:
Gotta give kudos to Ryan (skipper) for getting on the fish but just as much to both Ryans (skipper and deck) who teamed up to keep just the right level of chum both on the initial setup of a stop and while building a bite. Fish just don’t always start biting. There is a balance of what to chum, volume, and TIMING that keeps the fish around but doesn’t attract unwanted attention from other species like Mackerel or even worse yet ….. the dogs. Moved around 3:00pm with limits and the fish still biting.
During a hot bite …. there is always this element where if there is not sufficient teamwork, and the crew has to stop chumming (when needed) to gaff fish ….. there is a danger that the school will lose interest and move away. This is one reason why many moo-moo crews prefer that anglers use heavier gear for the cuda. Anglers learning to bounce a fish may allow the deck to continue chumming …….. which is equivalent to more fish boated!
Closer In
Round 2 Having loaded up on the slime-sticks, gratefully we moved a little further in and fished for the Sandies and Calicos. It may have taken us about 2 moves to hit a spot that was to develop into more wide-open quality fishing BUT ……. this time it was for my beloved Calicos and Sandbass. Fished this spot till it was time to head home.
For the bait dunkers, they pretty much used the same setups as they had for the cuda. Fly-lining a bait did very well also, with jigs to a lesser degree BUT …… the plastic just killed ‘em. More on that in the Plastics section. Fish were waaaaaay out, under the boat ……. like everwhere!! No place in the water column you couldn’t find fish! Funny though ……. they weren’t falling for the ol’ drop straight down trick!! The real fun to me is catching them out a distance, on top!!
As with the usual later afternoon weather change, it started to get windy and soon it developed into a wind against current situation which is usually ……. not good for the bite. For us …… the bite continued to the end. Naturally we started to swing quite a bit but all in all conditions remained better than usual. Average grade of bass were a good 14~15-inch fish but there were no real pigs in the bunch. Calico/Sandie ratio was around 60/40.
Fished our brains out until it was time when we HAD TO HEAD HOME due to the twilight run. Left them biting. Oh ya ……… the cuda were still around if you wanted to fish for them but …. we had already limited out!! Got back to the dock about 6:30 with anglers awaiting the twilight run.
Conditions: Warm but with a very nice breeze! Water clarity was very nice with visibility at maybe 20 feet. Please check out the graphics for the water conditions.
Skies were clear and sunny. Air temp stayed in the 65º~75º during the fishing day. Constant breeze made things feel comfortable. Definitely needed sun-block.
Gallery
Beauty of the Week
Fish & Anglers
Cuda ………………......&# 46;.........&# 46;.........&# 46;.........&# 46;...... Johns …………….. Jimmy’s
Jerry ……………....... ......... Fishys
Other
Grumpy Getter
Dad’s and Kids
1st …………………….....& #46;.... 2nd …………………...... ;....... 3rd
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 #33
Nothing for this week but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.
Plastics
Fishes
Great Color ……………....... .......... ......... Nice Bass
Limits .......... .......... .......... ... Decent Grade!
Fantastic
No skunk …………... on Wednesday at the ‘Flats’ for sure but the real plastics trip was on the Thursday trip. ½-day PM trip locally with ……. full limits of Barracuda and Bass for me. My bass limit was 90/10 Calicos. Largest bass maybe 2 ½ with largest cuda …. 7 ½ to 8-lbs. Best day of the year so far for me!! Had lots of 7lbers on the cuda. Not a single short for me.
Interesting that so few people are as yet convinced on the effectiveness of plastic. Time after time …….. I overhear the same old phrase. ‘Dang that guys is catchin’ ‘em like crazy on plastics’. I’m the only guy fishing plastics and half an hour later, a quarter of the boat is fishing plastics! ha ha ha funny!
Fished mostly ¾ oz standard triangle leadheads (unpainted) and 6 different color combos of 4-inch versions of Kalins and blams. I did go lighter to ½oz leadheads to keep the plastic up nearer the top longer when casting for the outside fish! Wednesday ….. just about any plastic with a red leadhead was getting bit BUT Thursday ….. the red simply didn’t do the job …. nor did the yellow darter style with red eyes do THAT good! It seems like the bite was subtle with a lot of pants being pulled down near the bottom while the surface strikes were very aggressive!
On the outside, there are some real pigs out there not willing to expend the energy to compete with the dinks closer in sometimes!! Cuda or Bass, I ain’t gonna admit the leader lb-test I used as … Ryan will kill me …. no both Ryans will kill me! Truth is I ask for a gaff on the cuda more times than I shoulda. One problem was gear and the gar ……. with my Ambassaduer 6500 … well I’ll put that in an ‘aside’ below.
The Usual Colors
1st ...2nd ..3rd ..4th ...5th ... 6th
Thursday Out There
Lunar …………………………………………†¦â€¦....Wind Direction and Speed!
Tides …………………………………………†¦â€¦.........& #46;.........& #46;.........W ater Temps!
UV Alert!
Thursday’s Conditions
Fishing Grounds: Check pics and stats!!
Wild Creatures: Saw many Sealions say …… 4 at a time. Few Cormorants, Pelicans, or Terns but Seagulls were around especially when it was time to clean fish.
Asides
Aside:
DFG Regs
Tsurikichi©2007
Dip Nets
Less Commonly Known DFG Regulations. Good ol’ DFG Regs … Title 14, section 1.2 concerns DIP NETs. You can get a ticket for any dip-net over 6-feet at its’ greatest dimension. (excluding handle) There goes my float-tube net!! Joke! To make things interesting … I heard that any boat was required, when fishing, to be equipped with a large net suitable for use in releasing short, overlimit, and or protected species. Anyone know the specific source of this regulation? Boating/fishing regs?
Another Aside:
DFG Regs
FREE Licenses
Tsurikichi©2007
FREE Fishing Licenses for Handicap/Disabled
On page 5 of the DFG’s 2007 Ocean Sport Fishing Marine Regulation Booklet, there are details on conditions under which those who of us that are handicapped or disabled might qualify for a FREE or reduced fee fishing license. Hit the DFG site for details on how one might apply.
Oh …. ya …. Certain low-income seniors may qualify for a reduced or free fishing license too.
Yet Another Aside:
Wrapping Cord!
Improved Hangers
Regarding my suggestion on Barracuda or Bonito hangers a few weeks ago, I have found that the monofiliment I used is inadequate. I’ve replaced the triple-wrapped 30lb-test mono with some marine wrapping cord that I’ve had around and use for almost everything.
If you’re not familiar with this particular type of cord, and you fish a lot, I suggest you get some. Designed and made of materials suitable for use in heavy-duty saltwater applications, It is used by the pros to wrap gaff, rod, net, and dikes’ handles for a non-slip grip. It is super for various uses including shoelaces, sunglasses, fishing license lanyards/tethers, and even as line for chum bags, my live-bait tow, live-catch bag, umbrella bait-net, drift-sock, etc., etc. Thin diameter, stiff enough not to coil or tangle, and tough as nails. Try it …. You’ll like it!
Near Last Aside: Moo-moos’ Blues
Mooooooo!
[font color=�blue�]Mega Loads
We’ve had mostly ½ to ¾-capacity loads overall this week ……. even without the previously strong Barracuda bite and long awaited Sand Bass ‘Rush’ yet to appear. Many landings (doing twilights) are running between 1 and 5 twilight trips a week and are showing respectable numbers mostly due to fishing the Giant Squid. Last weeks’ ‘Pack ‘em On’ award goes to the boat that went95 for 99 angler capacity for their 1/2-day, AM trip. Perfect scores go to a number of other boats of less capacity. I assume that boats showing only species caught in the reports had full loads of anglers.
There is a reason these boats have the numbers they do so …….. hop aboard these fish-getters sometime. Good to see our moo-moos getting the business that will help them survive through the lean late-Fall and Winter months. 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.
Nearer Last Aside:
I am not really whining but …… if you have just started using a reel that has a thumb-bar, push-button, or push-lever in a class such as the Ambassaduers 6500 or Shakespeare 4500 round, level-winds …….. be aware that with the drag buttoned down and full tension on the spool from a heavy fish, it is extremely difficult to be able to push down the lever/button/whatever spool release. It’s near impossible to push it in as it sorta locks up. I lost a lot of Barracuda ‘at the rail’ due to that characteristic and trying to bounce them. See below.
Even Nearer Last Aside:
So as my kind readers don’t think I know not how to bounce a fish, my technique is as in the following. This would be a good time to describe this technique to newbies.
1) Bringing fish near the boat, check to see if the hook is solid enough to bounce then look to your right and left and indicate what you want to do.
2) With a good hookup, get against the rail and reel down so that your rod tip is about two and a half feet from the fishys mouth.
3) Doing a quick check behind you, yell out to fellow anglers ‘comin’ over the rail’ or ‘up and over’ to alert them to be aware and or stay clear.
4) With your thumb on the spool, grasp the rod a little above the hand grip with your free hand.
5) Watch fishy until it’s head and body are in line with your rod then smoothly and quickly lift the rod and fishy in one motion high enough so that the tail will clear the rail. The rod should take the weight, load up and begin to react by somewhat lifting the fish from the flex.
6) At the same time, with practice, check to your rear and as the fishy is near clearing the rail step back about a foot and a half making a little space for yourself.*
7) Pushing the thumb-bar or push lever for free-spooling (and instantly returning the thumb to the spool to apply a light tension), the fishy should smoothly drop down in front of the angler without a birdsnest.
8) Fishy should be in front of you and not all over the deck like some guys …. Jimmy !! ha ha ha
* In my opinion, putting the reel in free-spool before the fish is over the rail is asking for a couple of problems to occur …….. especially if the thumb slips off the spool.
* Be aware that leadheads are often the most difficult bait to keep a Barracuda hooked and bounced successfully.
Last Aside:
Sunblock Stinks We are now experiencing more and more days where sunblock is a must. If you use the stuff …. you’ll want something to break down the oily film that stays as residue on your hands ……. you know ….. the hands with which you are constantly touching your face, arms, and clothes to which some of the sunblock has rubbed off. Never mind the line, hooks, rods and reels, jigs, swimbaits, and baits you handle!!
Lots of brands that claim to be great for anglers and constant exposure to water.
The SoCal
Stern Numbers
Crew
Ryan .......... .......... .......... .......... .. Deck- Ryan .......... ... Cook- Amy
Going Home
End of An Epic Day
Fished ….. no …….. caught lots of fish. Bunch of old …..er …… years-enhanced guys made up part of the group so I’m right at home!! There’s some of us that might regularly go on different days but we’re there whatever the case. Gotta go on a re-ride trip next week.
2) Wednesday’s Report 07/04
First Things First
Tradition
Jimmy’s Busy
Looks like my buddy Jimmy got his boat out for a number charters this week. Went out both Wednesday and Thursday that I saw!
1) Wednesday’s Trip Report 07/04
For My Trip
Went on a ¾-day-moo-moo trip to the ‘Flats’ and joined the fleet!!
Short Report- 07/04
Between 25 and 35 anglers fished down by the twin stacks area for a mix of Calicos and Sandies. Decent grade of fish although not even near limits for most anglers. Plastics did very well! Can’t forget the nice Halibut! Yes, there were also a number of Barracuda too.
07/04 Jackpot
Jackpot .......... .......... ........ Nice Bass!
Mondo’s Hali
Good job Mondo … that was a beautiful fish and on a plastic …… looked like a sorta light-green upper half with a lighter lower body BH or FT too!
Nice Bass! Ron, sporting a new haircut, always seems to come up with a big ol’ grumpy bass. This guy sometimes makes just about 5 casts a trip ….. but he sure makes them count!!
Plastics
Fishy Plastic
Me and my plastics slingin’ buddy caught lots of bass and a on plastic.
Fun Day
Had a good number of people on the boat who did a great job and the boat made a happy trip without incident! Had a few Dad and kids on board too.
JapanRon
Reply With Quote
