May 20th Pacific Dawn report

The winds were blowing but we made it out to Santa Rosa Isl. to do some rockfish fishing. The morning didn't show anything on the exocits but the shallow water rockfish were willing to chew.

doing a normal type drift drove the boat over the spots too fast so Pat decided to put the stern into the wind and use the motors to keep us on the spot longer. Soon we were coming up with double reds on the ganions and lingcods for anyone bouncing a jig off the bottom of 90'. With some hard fishing we ended with limits of lingcods to 15 lbs. and limits of red snappers to 6 lbs. Even though the wind was up the fishing was more up. This was the best day of catching quality rockfish I've ever seen. Thanks to Captain Pat and second ticket Bill Cavanaugh and the rest of the crew.

Some Dolphin ll Pics

Time to Catch Up Reports

After 6 fishing trips in 14 days I finally have time to catch up on our fishing reports. I'll start with the weekend of May 14, 15 down in San Diego.
We started on Sat. at Chollas park for a kids fishing event. A nice lake which only allows kids to fish. With a plant of catfish the 300 kids had a great time filling their stringers with fish. Day was overcast but fishing the deeper end of the lake proved to be the places to fish.

Then on Sunday we had a 3/4 day charter on the Dolphin ll at Fisherman's Landing. We headed to the Coronado Isles. with hopes of getting into the barracuda bite that was seen only a few days before and maybe a yellow or two. We started fishing off Casino Point in cold water and breezy conditions. The only fish here were a few calico's and rock fish. Then it was a move to the outside of south Island but only a few more rock fish were the prize. Moving and moving from spot to spot fishing was slow Looked like the cold water was keeping the fish from biting. So went the day as Captain Greg tried to find some fish to bite. Well you have those days when fishing is tough but that's fishing.

How to catch Barracuda

Good news the barracuda are bitting from Santa Monica to San Diego so things are looking up. Here's a few tips for catching barracuda. The most fun way is to throw the irons. Use a surface iron cast out and wind the jig in slow enough to give it a good kicking action. Blue and white colors are the most popular color but any jugs with contrasting colors will work. We use the MM7 Magic Metal lites in blue sardine, anchovy and squid colors and sometimes the fish want the smaller MM5 jigs. Use a 7 or 8 foot 20 to 25lb. rod with 20 to 25lb. test line and your in business. Then there is the live bait fishing. Some people like to use wire leader with a 2/0 to 3/0 hook and a sardine but I like to use 25lb or 30lb test fluorocarbon leader this gives the bait a chance to swim more freely and the strength of the fluorocarbon leader will resist the bite from the barracudas sharp teeth. But be sure to check the line for any teeth nicks after each fish and retie the hook if any are found. If you don't have wire or fluorocarbon you can go to a long shank hook or even a circle hook. Once the barracuda bites your offering don't pull on the rod to set the hook just point the rod at the fish and start cranking on the reel all the way to the boat. Just as you see the fish close to the boat call for a gaff. Never lift the barracuda out of the water keep it just below the surface. If the barracuda gets above the water surface it will go wild and you'll probably loose the fish.

Electra Trip Report

Returned from our weekend trip on the Electra out of Helgren's Sportfishing. After loading up on sardines and mackeral from the bait barge we headed to San Clemente Isl. to see if we could get into some of the yellowtail. We started our morning around China Point waiting for the yellows to show and in the mean time caught some sheepheads and rockfish. Later we moved west of the point looking for calicos. After a few short moves Captian Joe decided to go for some quality rockfish. After getting limits of salmon groupers along with quality reds and bank perch and staries. We made our way back to China Point to try for the yellows again. Lots of bait in the water and Dan hooked one but was lost to a seal. We ended our day at Pyramid Head catching some nice calicos. This was a great trip, nice weather and great food by Nacho. Count 18 sheephead, 200 rockfish and 14 calicos.

Barracuda

The Barracuda are biting in Santa Monica Bay. This means there is a lot of bait in the water and its only a matter of water temps raising and we should begin to see more exotics biting.