Dana Point, Saturday, 02-04
 

What a magnificent day on the water!!! You could have oredered better weather. You could see the cliffs on Catalina, you could see Long Beach, heck, I think I saw a couple of kayaks off Newport. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.

Headed north out of the harbor, trolled a small mac but no love from anything. Fishing was a tad slow, got a couple of small calicos on the plastics, released. Started doing some exploring and fished a couple of areas I hadn't fished before.

Okay, I think I may smell like Black Sea Bass musk or something, seems I am catching a bunch of these lately. Caught my PB for the species on a sardine, first drop in a new location, about 50' deep.


Took about 30 minutes to get it that 50 feet to the yak. Granted, I was not using the heaviest of gear at the time. It was a whole lot of fun. I went to released it and discovered the necessity of gloves, it shredded the skin on my hands. That's going to hurt for a few days.

I am attaching some pics, have a video, but will cut out 25 minutes of tug of war. I would like some help though, I am not real good at estimating the weight of these fish, so I would like those who are to look at the pics and give me rough idea of it's weight. For reference, the leader in the one pic is 16" long.


Oh yeah, caught a 13.5lb halibut, sardine, shortly there after, well, once I peddled back to where I had started.

Sounds like a wonderful day.

Yeah Catalina looked amazing, felt like I could paddle there being so clear and flat. For the life of me I can't catch any bait but mackerel, I need to land sim of those smaller guys

Nice job. Great conditions too. I can't go until Tues. and it looks like it might be wet and snotty. Hopefully the fish don't care.

Good job! I think I passed you as I was coming in the harbor. Did you get stopped by the DFG survey people when you came back in.

Alright Papa...
nice din din there....looks like a great day out there:reel:

Looks like a wonderful trip, congrats on the nice 'but.

Mackeral is a good bait for Hali's. I usually get a scoop at the bait dock, runs $10 but it worth it. I would like to get some of that live squid...

No, I didn't get back to the harbor until about 4pm...

Nice work!

No need to stalk dude... I have been wanting to hit up O'side for a while. Pick a Saturday and I'll take you out to some spots I know of.

Thanks, I've been working out... OH! you mean the fish! :biggrinjester:

So no guesstimates on the size of the BSB?

congrats on the legal hali and a nice sized BSB from the yak. if that leader is 16 that fish is easily twice as long so put it around close to 3 feet...unfortunately that still gives me no idea as to the weight of a 36ish inch BSB. Im sure someone will chime in though.

As far as only catching mackerel, try and smaller sized sabiki for the smaller fin baits. What size are you currently using that all you get is mackerel? try like a 12 or so and you should be good. Still get the mackerel but if there is sardines or chovies in the mix youll pick some of them up as well.

I saw on BD that the squid moved back in to DP and that someone found them in 80 feet of water directly west of the red buoy out by the point/headlands. Gotta fish the squid sabiki rigs not standard sabikis the guy also mentioned. Get em while you can before they move back out of the area.

been using size 12, just always dropping in the mackers I guess

ya sometimes the right bait can be hard to find. unfortunately i dont even have a FF so im always blind when i go out for them with the sabiki but usually find at least a couple sardines mixed into the macks. Been lots of bait around the DP area lately.

75# It tasted like tuna :D

:you_rock: