Rpt.-12-19-15 Salsapuedes Lings, Critters and a Tail!
Mike invited me to join his friend Derek for a whirl wind ride down to Salsapuedes on Saturday, 12-19-15, to fish on his 22’ Grady White “GalaxSea”. Everyone I talked to said I was crazy, and I’m sure I am, as on Friday I attended two Christmas Parties, my luncheon at work, which ended at 3pm, and in the evening, at the parents of our In-laws, whom own a home on Balboa Island. The Parade of Lights being the main attraction. I will post some pictures at the end of my report for those who are interested.
Ok, so part of my craziness continued as I left the parade at around 10 pm, mas fortunately my wife Sheryl caught a ride with the In-laws. I was asleep by 11:15 pm. and up at 2 am, yikes! I drove down to Derek’s home in San Diego, where Mike picked us up at 4:15 am. We locked and loaded and headed to San Yasidro to cross the border. Sure is nice at this time of day, no traffic. Our only problem is having the boat be sent through the scanners, and the wait for clearance, also unfortunately two buses were ahead of us.
We stopped to pick up our FMM’s and arrived in Las Salinas at 6:30 am. Conditions were excellent, no swells and no wind, and cleared the harbor in over 3 feet of tide. We could not return until 2pm when the tides returned to 3 feet. The harbor is still a disaster, despite being dredged for over a year, by obviously an incompetent facility management!
We made our run toward Salsapuedes where Derek had reports of recent Yellowtail activity. We stopped on a high spot with meter marks and began to fish the iron. The first couple of drifts produced the usual variety of Boccaccio, Johnny Bass, Starries, Coppers, and a couple of Lingcod.
At around 7:30 am I was hammered on the Yo Yo on my new favorite lure, a 100 gram Green and Silver Colt Sniper. I was bit half way up, way off the bottom. Nevertheless the big Tail did its dive bomber decent to the bottom. I tightened the drag and slowed it down until it tired, and then I began to regain some line. The 16 pound Yellowtail put up quite the fight, before Derek stuck him with the gaff.
We all gave up on the Yo Yo after 1.5 hours, actually Derek and Mike did so much earlier, as I worked and worked at it for nothing. We never metered any. I switched to favorite Rockfish rig, an 8 oz. Burnt Orange Jax jig with a shrimp fly tied 18 inches above it. I was immediately rewarded with a 4 pound Boccaccio. I caught a Copper, a small Lingcod, released, and a nice Starry. Meanwhile both Derek and Mike had switched to large plastics and 3 to 4 oz. lead heads. They both caught a similar variety of fish and both caught Lingcod.
Several Seals showed up and crashed the party. On my next drop I was reeling up a Lingcod that was attacked by the seal and proceeded to rock me, losing my lure and shrimp fly. Mike also got sealed and lost his Lead head and plastic. In fact it was a rather harsh day of tackle losses for all of us, both due to seals and structure. I re-rigged with another Jax Jig and shrimp Fly. I caught some more rockfish and was again sealed, several times reeling in a fish head, both Lings, and then got broke off by another seal. No matter where we went the seals re-appeared.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with little wind and small lazy swells. The jackets came off and later so did the sweat shirts. We moved around and caught fish everywhere we went, releasing as many as we caught when possible. Most swam down, as our fishing depths varied from 150 to 240 feet.
At noon the sun disappeared behind the clouds as the approaching storm was apparent. We decided to move into the shallows, although the wind stayed away. We had some of our most active fishing in this area. I fished with my 20 pound plastic outfit and caught Calico Bass, Chocolate Rockfish, and more Boccaccio. On one drop I got hammered on the wind in and it began taking drag. My 20 pound line held up despite a long slow 100 yard run. Must be another seal, but surely it would of broke the line by now? Derek was tangled with my line and free spooled his reel.
I asked Mike if he could chase the fish down and he fired up the motor and followed my line. Wow it was further away than I thought. As we pull up to the area where fish had stopped, there was a huge Red. Mike attempted to gaff it, and missed, while Derek’s line broke. It appeared that what had happened is that Derek was stuck on the bottom and the Red had wrapped itself around his line. As Derek’s line went slack that was just enough to allow the Red to spit the plastic and he sunk out. I’m guessing the Red to weigh 6 to 8 pounds?
We made a short move and the meter lit up, as we ran over a large pinnacle and other hard bottom. All three of us were bit, I believe on the drop. It was a big school of good sized Calico Bass. Derek caught a double on his Lucanus and shrimp fly setup.
The one on the right looked to be about five pounds, although the picture does not do it justice.
Mike and I each caught nice sized Calico Bass:
We both released our Calico Bass, as Derek wanted a couple sweet filets from his. We set back up on the drift and all got hammered again. We also caught some bigger Johnny Bass, Chocolate’s and of course a few more Boccaccio. Another Calico Bass for me:
Several more drifts and it was getting late, 2:30 pm and time to call it a day. The wind was just starting pick up. By the time we reached the dock, it blowing near 20 knots, our timing was perfect. We cleaned the fish we kept, 25 including the Yellowtail and certainly released far more than that.
The day’s haul:
We started our long trek home at 3:30 pm, stopping at Charley’s for dinner. We dropped off five of the bigger Boccaccio. The owner Jaime greeted us and the place was very Christmas festive.
I ordered a Shrimp and Fish Taco, with two Shrimp Burritos to go. The wife would be quite disappointed if I didn’t show up with one of her favorite snacks. Mike ordered the same combo for dinner with rice and beans. Derek had a shrimp burrito and beans. Derek ordered a beer, Mike a coke, and me some Vino Blanco! Yum Yum, and Jaime was very kind with the Bill. Bid our goodbyes and said I would see him hopefully early in 2016.
We would we go through San Yasidro on a Saturday evening, yikes! Took us a little under 1.5 hours, as we lucked out when being in correct lane several other lanes opened up and we ran a quick sprint to one of the short one’s making up 300 to 400 hundred yards, at least a 20 minute time savings.
Back at Derek’s at 7:30 pm and off to Diamond Bar. It rained off and on all the way, yet the traffic was not too heavy and arrived home at 9:15pm.
Thanks so much for the invite Mike and a pleasure to meet and fish with you Derek.
Hook up! Cory
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Some Parade of lights pictures:
The party house:
The start of the parade which reached our area after 7pm, my wife and daughter and grandson in the forefront:
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Originally Posted by DockRat
