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.

Next Trip

The weather is warming up real nice and so should the fishing for calicos, yellowtails and other species. Now is a good time to go fishing and to that idea we have a trip on Sat. May 7th. out of Helgrens Sportfishing in Oceanside on the Electra. Hopefuly we will be heading to the Coronados Isl. for some yellowtail fishing. If nothing is happening their we have the option of going to San Clemente Isl. to catch calicos, white seabass and yellows. So come join us. Click below to view trip.
http://www.dansshoppingcart.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=dansshoppingcart&Product_Code=FT_Charter_51&Category_Code=FT

Two good friends fishing

With reports of yellows in our backyard Dan Salas owner of the Gail Force and his son 7 year old Christopher decided to take the plunge and charter the It’s 4 Reels despite reports that the weather could be up. We headed out of my slip out of Cruiseport Village around 6:30AM and headed to the bait barge. Still no live bait available in Ensenada. No worries we were armed with every size and color jig that was ever sold as well as the ever reliable frozen squid so if we ran into yellow we would get ‘em. Wind was down but there was definitely a large swell and we made the rounds, South of Todos Santos water temps were 58-59 with a few birds working but no signs of surface fish, North Todos Santos (Punta Norte) cold 53-55 degree water and few birds, North of San Miguel Reef 52 degree water and on down to an area off the tuna pens off Salsipuedes bay. We did not find any surface fish but we did find, with the help of my trustee Furuno FF, a nice reef that we hammered for limits of nice reds that averaged 5-6 lbs, chuckleheads, browns, lingcod, salmon grouper, 1 sheephead and 1 small whitefish. I was using a heavy pink jig and I was ripped twice on fish that took line and I was not able to turn them on straight 65 lb. spectra. Maybe a yellow or a big ling. We’ll never know. Regardless of that we still knocked them dead and the best part is we never fished more than 150 feet of water. We made several passes on the reef and Dan was bringing them up 2 and 3 at a time:


Christopher was a trooper and braved the heavy swells to grind out a nice rocky. He was cranking on that fish like it was a yellowfin. The kid has got skills:





The wind started to come up around 10:30 so Dan decided it was time to come in. Despite the wind and the waves it was an awesome day on the water with a nice load of fish.







HMMM good...the end result at Tequilas Sports Bar:

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__________________

www.its4reels.com
www.ensenadasportsbar.com

Yellows are comming

In recent days a few yellowtails have been caught at the Coronado Isls. This could be the start of another banner spring season for San Diego. This year we have scheduled some of our charters for the yellowtail bite. The first charter is on the Electra out of Oceanside. This is an overnight fishing on Sat. May 7 with plenty of open spots. The next is on the Dolphin ll a 3/4 day trip with only one spot left. Then we are on the Oceanside 95 on June 4 which is also a Youth Foundation Fundraiser. So if you you want to get into some of these yellows sigh up before all the spots are gone.

Fred Hall Fishing Tackle & Boat Show

We are at the Show in Long Beach all week. Come by and see us at booth # 436. I'll answer all your questions about our charters and fishing in general.

Pics from Indian Trip

Last week we had a great time fishing on the Indian for rockfish in Mexican waters. We had 19 Fat Reds ,47 Quality Grouper,28 Bank Perch,2 Lingcod,1 Cowcod and 113 assorted Rockcod fishing the Finger banks.

Larry talking about Rock Fishing

Larry's Blog from the Indian

Larry talking about fishing with B 52 Bucktails and how to pin on strips of squid on your bucktail.

Ranger 85 Whale Watching

The Ranger 85 called me to say they are Whale watching off the Oxnard coast and the last few days they have been seeing Orcas. See if I can get up there this week.


Join Captain Frank and his crew of naturalists on a fun filled voyage of discovery and adventure offshore as you search for Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Seals, Dolphins, Orcas, Sharks, a variety of bird life and many more unique marine animals in the waters surrounding the Channel Islands.

Whale Watching

Rates & Schedule
January 1 through April 11
Departure times:
Weekdays: 11:00am
Weekends: 9:00am and 1:00pm
Individual Rates
Adults: $30
Children (12 & under): $21
Seniors: $26

Channel Islands Sportfishing Center
4151 South Victoria Avenue
Oxnard, CA 93035
805 382 1612
Ranger85.com

Here's video report from Mac Arthur Park

Here's a little video report I did at Mac Arthur Park during a Dan Hernandez Youth Foundation free fishing event. You can find out more at www.danskids,org.

Ranger 85 Whale off Oxnard

The Ranger 85 called me to say they are Whale watching off the Oxnard coast and the last few days they have been seeing Orcas. See if I can get up there this week.
Join Captain Frank and his crew of naturalists on a fun filled voyage of discovery and adventure offshore as you search for Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Seals, Dolphins, Orcas, Sharks, a variety of bird life and many more unique marine animals in the waters surrounding the Channel Islands.

Whale Watching

Rates & Schedule

January 1 through April 11

Departure times:

Weekdays: 11:00am

Weekends: 9:00am and 1:00pm

Individual Rates

Adults: $30

Children (12 & under): $21

Seniors: $26

Channel Islands Sportfishing Center

4151 South Victoria Avenue

Oxnard, CA 93035

805 382 1612

Ranger85.com

A Report from Chris Randel

Just got back in from an over night Dan Hernandez TV show trip with limits of Rockcod for 21 Anglers and everyone had a blast catching fish and being filmed for the up coming show.We had 19 Fat Reds ,47 Quality Grouper,28 Bank Perch,2 Lingcod,1 Cowcod and 113 assorted Rockcod fishing the Finger Bank in Mexican waters.

As a bonus the weather was flat calm and Sunny till around noon when the Marine layer developed and it cooled down a bit but thats OK.

We are sold out for next Tuesday nights trip but still have room on Friday nights trip and if anyone would like to jump on this trip give Chris a call at (619) 523-8862 and we will get you on the water.

PS The Indian has a great deal on his Mexican water rockfish trips. $99.00 on Wed. and $125.00 on the weekend, includes Mexican permit and lunch. Contact Chris at 619-523-8862

Getting Ready for Indian Trip

I like to take two rods one rated 30 to 80 lbs. for my ganion rod and a 30 to 60lb rod for fishing the heavy jigs. In Mexican waters you can use a four hook ganion. On this I use 1/2oz B-52 bucktails on the bottom two and plain or shrimp-fly hooks on the upper. Another trick I like to use for sinkers is to take an assortment of torpido sinkers from 6 to 16ozs. and some split rings. This way when I need more weight to get to the bottom I just add another torpido sinker via the split ring to the other.  In a few days I'll give a full report on our trip.

SST, Chlorophyl Charts

SST, Chlorophyl, and other sea conditions


Very useful when tracking the movements of offshore pelagic species.



NOAA Coast Watch Sea Surface Temperatures. Accurate and updated several times daily. Use the customize feature to zoom in on your area.

Southern California Bouy Temps Quick and easy temps. Just doesn't show where the breaks are.

SCCOOS SST, Chlorophyl and other usefull information.

Ranger 85 November 2010

Fishing San Nicolas Island in beautiful weather on the Ranger 85 we caught Nice rockfish, lingcods and even had a shot at some yellowtails.

Winter B-52 Rig

January and Febuary we are fishing for sandbass and sculpin. A great rig to use here is a dropper-loop rig with the the bait leader longer then the sinker leader and a 1/2 oz. B-52 tied on to the bait leader.

Another Record Tuna

The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan sells a bluefin tuna for $396,000 a new record for the sale of a blufin tuna. The tuna weighed in at 754 lbs. and sold for $526.00 per pound. Now that makes me appreciate the bluefin we catch during the spring and summer seasons, makes those high price offshore trips seem less expensive. I love to tuna fish anyway.