Rpt-Sat.-2-05-11 Izor's, The Shoe, and Points South!
Fishing Sat. 2-05-11, with Lal on his 18’ boat “Rubber Ducky”. We launched out of Huntington Harbor at 5:30 am, our beginning destination being Izor’s Reef. The seas were flat and calm, and led to a pleasant ride out to the Reef. It looked like a real promising sunrise, which never reached a picture moment, due to the haze. Visibility leaving the launch ramp was a bit foggy, however, it cleared up as we left the harbor area.
There were a few other boats at the docks, and it appeared everyone was taking advantage of the good weather forecast for Saturday, and getting in a fishing fix before the Super Bowl on Sunday?
Arriving at Izor’s Reef, the little bit of wind existing, was coming out of the Southeast. Our first drift resulted in numerous short bites, and two quick hook ups of one pound plus Sand Bass. The drift was steady, however, the direction was constantly changing. More and more boats arrived near us, and we could see the first of the Sport Boats heading out to the Horseshoe area, most likely to find some deep water Sculpin.
We drifted over a pinnacle, with great marks, and Lal got slammed on the drop, which resulted in a solid hookup. It was obvious by the strong bend in the rod, and the constant twitching of the hooked fish, that this was a decent sized one. Here is Lal with the biggest Sand Bass of the day, a bit over three pounds.
We continued to work the reef for the next hour for a slow pick on a couple of Calico Bass to two pounds, and several more Sand Bass, also to two pounds. We went nearly 20 minutes with only some short bites to show for our efforts. Off in the distance we witnessed another four boats on the way to the Reef. Too crowded for our purposes of free drifting, so we headed further south to fish the smaller stones.
Lal found some hard bottom, with scattered marks, and the Bass began to chew. High tide at 4.9 feet was at 10am. It was now 9am and we figured we had a solid hour of possible good fishing ahead of us, before slack tide, and the potential of the bite shutting down? The only frustrating part for us was the constant changing of conditions. The wind picked up, then died down, it did a 180 in direction, now coming out of the Northwest. Nevertheless, the Bass continued to chew. Many, many short bites, which kept our attention, and our adrenalin flowing, plus just enough hookups to made things exciting, as well!
I was winding up, way high in the water column, at a fairly rapid pace, when I got hammered. Hey Lal, fresh one, and it’s taking line. I admit the drag was set rather lightly for my 15 pound rig, yet it is always a thrill to watch a fish take drag! This fish fought all the way up, twice more attempting to lose the hook, with violent head shakes and a short run. Up comes a 3.25 pound feisty Calico Bass.
So we reached slack tide, and sure enough the bite shut down. With no current, it was time to make a move, hoping conditions would improve with the rapid fall of nearly five feet from high tide, to low at 4pm. With calm seas, we could of easily made it to the Newport Reef and Pipe, however, Lal suggested we try a lunker Sculpin hole which produced well for us several weeks ago, out on the Shoe. Lal located the area, things appeared different, and there were very few marks, to go with a smaller stone than we recalled? Except for my catching one small Sand Bass, nothing else bit. It could still be the slack tide contributing, however, we didn’t think Sculpin would be quite as finicky when feeding?
Made a couple more moves on the Shoe, for nothing, then fished the Long Beach wall for three more Sand Bass, all little guys. We were hailed by Bill and Suzy, on the private boat Reel Swift, who were also fishing off the wall, drifting for Halibut, with live squid. So far things were real slow for their efforts. Shot the breeze with them for twenty minutes, telling old fish stories about, La Paz, Panama, and Cabo, etc. Discussed Lal’s and my upcoming 2.5 day trip to San Martin Island, on the Pacific Star, on President’s weekend.
It was 2:30pm, so we called it a day, with another decent day of Bass’n, thirty mixed Bass caught, of which eight were Calico Bass, all released to fight another day. Our fishing fix satisfied for at least this weekend? The wind remained calm all day, except for some early morning attempts to blow, it never got over ten knots, and at 2pm, was perhaps still only five knots, allowing us to travel at 30 MPH, most of the time.
Thanks Lal, another fun adventure on the Ducky!
Hook up! Cory
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Originally Posted by murrieta angler
