Bass, barracuda biting

JIM NIEMIEC

Conditions along the coast and the off-shore islands continue to

improve and fishing should really kick into high gear by this

Memorial Day weekend. The water temp at Catalina Island jumped up to

67 degrees over the weekend but fishing was slow for white sea bass

and yellowtail, perhaps due to strong winds and the currents that

were not moving in the right direction. The Sea Hawk, operating over

night trips out of Davey’s Locker, is seeing lots of activity at San

Clemente Island on schooled up yellowtail, but the bite has yet to

really get going.

Catalina Island has been steady for bonito in the 2- to 8-pound

class, with a mix of fish along the front side of the island. The

Freelance has been heading over to the island daily on three-quarter

day trips and returning dockside with a mix of calicos, bonito, a few

barracuda and assorted rockfish. The six-pack charter boat Bongos II

has been having fair results on calicos to go along with an

occasional sea bass and yellow.

It has been tough fishing along the coast with only a few good

days being posted last week by Newport two sportfishing landings. The

water jumped a couple of degrees earlier this week and this might be

the key factor that attracts big schools of barracuda that

traditionally show up off Newport by mid-May. Bait conditions out of

Newport harbor are good with a mix of anchovies and sardines, but the

lack of squid at Catalina has skippers a little concerned about what

is going to develop for this island fishery in June.

Strong winds have hampered surf anglers along with rip tides and

smashing breakers. The peak of the corbina season is just a couple of

weeks away and with sand crabs showing up in good numbers surf

fishermen could be looking ahead to some great “catch and release”

fishing for these kings of the surf. The surf between the Balboa and

Newport piers has been kicking out some yellowfin croaker, barred

perch, a few small halibut and some sharks for anglers fishing the

incoming and outgoing tides.

Albacore have not showed up again since their first movement into

the beach earlier in the month. Multi-day boats running out of San

Diego report longfin action on fish in the 20-pound class some 200

miles below Point Loma. There were a couple of jig fish caught on

private boats within 85 miles of San Diego but no concentrations were

reported.

It’s looking more like this might be a traditional season for

albacore along the coast with the bulk of the fish showing up in late

June. Water conditions are good on the outside and when the seas

settle down a little and the strong westerly back off, sport anglers

could see dock counts on albies jump considerably.

The long-range fleet is having a very good season on huge

yellowfin tuna fishing at Hurricane Bank, located some 580 miles due

west of Cabo San Lucas. This writer made the trip down to the bank

aboard the deluxe sportfisher Excel and posted a catch of a giant

tuna weighing in at 224 pounds. Also on board was Dave Gould of

Huntington Beach who caught his biggest tuna ever that tipped the

scale at 170 pounds to go along with a couple other tuna in the

150-pound class. The Excel stayed on the fishing grounds for 9 days

and filled all the slammers with nearly 28 tons of fish caught by the

23 anglers on board. If you are wondering what to do with half-ton of

frozen tuna and wahoo Fisherman’s Canning, based out of Fisherman’s

Landing, and Moreno’s Sportsmen’s Seafood will exchange bulk fish for

cans, you can opt to purchase gourmet custom canned yellowfin and

wahoo with jalapenos and olive oil or have your catch filleted,

packaged and shipped. For information on long-range fishing phone the

Excel office at (619) 223-7493.

Looking at the fresh water lake angling scene there is a mixed

catch coming out of Irvine Lake with trout catching mixing well with

warmer water species. Big bluegill were in a biting mood last weekend

off Trout Island, while most of the trout caught were taken in deeper

water. Bass have been active on top water plugs fished early in the

morning and channel catfish have moved into the shallows where

mackerel and night crawlers are producing limits. Bob Matthews of

Costa Mesa released a 5-pound bass to top off a good morning’s trip

to Irvine Lake last week and then picked up a limit of feisty rainbow

trout trolling along the west shore after the sun hit the water.

Action at the Santa Ana River Lakes has been good for catfish but

action on trout has slowed due to warm weather. Nighttime trips to

these lakes have been productive for channel cats weighing in the

2.5- to 7-pound class.