Well hello again, FNN.
My fishing buddy Ducky, my wife Krista and I went out for a little trip to Newport Harbor yesterday and had a great time! Got there and headed out to the AO with the sunrise.
The bait barge had nothing but big old yellowtail bait sized 'dines, which was sort of a bummer for my wife because she still hasn't learned to use artificials. Even on the ol' LC she's been skunked everytime. I advised her to tail pin them since most of the little guys in the harbor are most likely to come up and bite the bait fish from behind, and it would hopefully increase her hook rate. It wound up being the way to go as she landed a decent sized Cuda about halfway through the day after having no takers. He bit his own way through the line at the side of the boat, so no photo op, but she was super stoked. It was the first barracuda she's ever caught, and he tugged a bit harder than the stocked trout she's used to up in Big Bear!
Ducky and I went immediately to artificials after seeing the bait. He chucked the LC for a couple Cudas, one of which was really nice sized for the harbor, taped out to 26 inches.
He was having a hard time navigating getting his LC free of those nasty chompers!
I was dropshotting with various colors of Zoom Super Flukes. Caught this little sandy here, about 12 inches on tape. The photo was framed poorly, so he looks even tinier! Haha. I also caught a short calico (no photo op and didn't bother with the tape as he was a baby and I wanted to get him back in the water quickly) and a bait sized mackerel on the drop shot. After seeing Ducky land his big Cuda, I got a bit jealous and switched over to the LC to land this 20-ish inch range Cuda
Despite the bummer bait and the short fish we were catching, we still had a blast. Nothing beats a day fishing with the ones you love.
Til next time.