Slug Yellowtail biting on the Spitfire (Santa Monica Bay)

[etucker1959]

I haven't put a report in the last 2 weeks, not for lack of fishing or catching just no great shakes!!!! I've caught fish (quality fish) on every trip I've been on lately, just the same kind of fishing you have already heard about. However, things are changing for the good!!! There is more fish in different area's now, but that's not what I'm getting excited about. The crowds are now dissipating during the week!!! The kids are mostly back in school and after this coming labor day weekend, "THEY ALL WILL BE BACK IN SCHOOL." Couple that with the bites having been going strong since June, people are now starting to burn out on the local Yellowtail fishing. We won't even talk about the 5 pound tuna there now catching off of San Diego. After this weekend this would be a good time to go out and catch that nice Yellowtail you might have been dreaming about. The biggest problem you might have is deciding where to go???? I had with me my crony's this past week and caught Yellowtail in the Horseshoe Kelp, Catalina Island and now in Santa Monica Bay. Check the fish reports first before you get on any boat, but your chances are good now you will catch a Yellowtail if you fish during the week.

On to the fishing!!!!

After seeing the Spitfire catch Yellowtail all last week I knew it was a good time to go. This trip is a easy breeze kind of trip, what do I mean by that???? The Spitfire runs out of Marina Del Rey Sport fishing, easy to get to and the most convenient kind of parking. (you can all throw a baseball from your vehicle and hit the boat) The boat is nice and so is the Half-day boat the New Del Mar, I forgot to mention the Spitfire is a 3/4 day boat that leaves at 6:30 and comes back at 4:00. The worst thing about MDR sportfishing is the bait situation, they rarely have the bait already for you on the boat. Which means you have to go out and snag the Mackerel first before you can go fishing, this can be real easy or kinda hard like we had today. We already had some Mackerel on the boat left over from the previous trip. (which had caught 75 Yellowtail) We had a nice group of people about 25 fishermen. (no scum bags in this group) This is real easy kind of fishing, 30-40 pound test line and a 4/0-5/0 hook with no weight needed. The fish are within eye sight of the Breakwater (no long boat ride) right under LAX about 3 miles off the beach. As I said real easy kind of fishing, so easy I had my whole posse with me. I had Glenn, Redear and Peepy with me and between the four of us we landed 10 Yellowtail. 2 of us had 2 each and 2 of us had 3 each. Not wide open just consistent fishing, if we had more good bait in the morning I think the boat would have done much better. We had 40 Yellowtail for 25 people which is a little deceiving. (let me explain) We tried to catch bait for 2 hours in the morning and caught very little, so we started out with the left over bait from the previous trip. Captain Kangeroo on the Redondo Special made bait easily and set up first with a whooping 10 passengers on his morning half-day run. That bozo caught 30 Yellowtail for his 10 guy's and couldn't get enough passengers to fill his afternoon run. So we started out fishing with that crappy left over bait and still caught 20 Yellowtail and all the Bonito you would want!!! We then went looking to make some more bait and found it easy and plentiful. We then went back to the spot with good bait and caught another 20 Yellowtail in 2 hours!!! Had we had that bait in the morning we would have done sooo much better!!! Now here's the best part, there were all SLUGS!!!! Glenn brought a digital scale with him, so no guessing on the size. The JP winner was 35 pounds, Peepy caught the biggest fish in our group and it was 30 pounds, I had to weigh my 2 fish for vanity reasons. They were both 22 pounds and the smaller ones caught were all in the high teens. In other words all nice fish and "NO RATS!!!!!"

Thanks for reading my story!!! If any one has any questions on how to rig up for the Yellowtail, or a good boat to try just ask or PM me either way I like to help!!! I really don't believe in Secret spots or Secret lakes. lol By the way, the best Kids Catfish derby is coming up in a couple of weeks PM for details!!!!!!