Rpt-Sat-04-30-16 Local Bass, Reds, and critters.
Gad, both Lal and I were scratching an itch, having gone through withdrawals awaiting Mother Wind to calm down, after several weeks of blow! It was not the best of forecasts for today, yet a window of opportunity for at least a full morning of fishing locally was there.
So, I went fishing Saturday 4-30-16, with Lal on his 18’ boat the “Rubber Ducky”. Joining us was Lal’s Grandson teammate on the high school baseball team Buzz. We launched out of Davies in Long Beach at 5:00 am, our beginning destination being the Palos Verde Coast. The skies were ugly; there was a brisk breeze in the harbor and a serious lump outside the harbor.
We made our way up through the San Pedro harbor exit and found very confused seas and rather large swells. The big swells were far apart, however, there was a residual washing machine affect from the previous day’s afternoon high winds. This made our progress uphill along the Palos Verde Coast challenging.
Behind us was definitely a weather squall, with what looked like some heavy rainfall. Fortunately it never made its way up to our position. We began fishing at one of our favorite structure areas at around 6am. The water was brownish green, and water temps were 59.9, not as bad as we expected? Certainly down a few degrees from several weeks ago.
The first drift was nearly wide open on mixed Calico and Sand Bass. Buzz and I were using 4” Clear Red Flake plastics, while Lal did well on a 5” Halloween plastic. We each caught and released a half dozen bass.
Here is Lal with a big fat Calico Bass:
I caught this picture worthy Calico Bass:
Buzz added a nice Sand Bass:
The bite went to a slow pick for the next hour. We caught and released another 20+ mixed bass before heading up the line to catch some Reds for dinner.
The water temps improved to over 61.1 degrees, and the water cleared up nicely, while the cloudy skies cleared up. We stopped on several deeper reefs and stones where the Reds hang out, but caught only a few small Johnny Bass. The meter was loaded with Red Crab and Mackerel, which were boiling all around us. The birds were going crazy, counting on the Porpoise to drive the bait up into their feeding zone.
Lal made a move to another deeper water spot and found the Reds on the chew. Buzz was first to get bit on a Butterfly jig, while Lal and I were going with the Colt Sniper which had produced nicely in past trips.
Buzz with his Red:
I caught and released a few smaller Johnny bass before finally getting hammered and landing a nice Red:
Lal was soon to join the party:
The bite stopped in this area, so we looked around and Lal found another good stone that showed some great marks of fish above it. I hit bottom with my Colt Sniper and was bit instantly, and released this four pound Sand Bass:
My next drop resulted in another nice Red:
Lal and Buzz added more Reds to our count. We also caught a few more bass in the deeper water. The wind began to gain strength and we headed south, hoping for better conditions. Sure enough around the corner the winds calmed down, allowing us to fish our way down the coast.
It remained a slow pick, except for a few flurries of good bites on Sand Bass, Calico Bass and more critters, including one more Red caught by me as Buzz landed a quality Calico Bass:
We kept 11 Reds, releasing all 50 mixed Bass we caught, and 15+ assorted Johnny Bass and other Rockfish.
A few more pictures:
It was fun fishing until the winds showed up at high noon. We were on the Trailer by 1:30pm.
Soon to be fish tacos at Lal’s house:
Hook up! Cory
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Originally Posted by TUNAVIC
