Dana Point 7/21

[AnachroniD]

Hi all, first post but I've been lurking for years. On the water by 6am and made my way down to the headlands. Landed a 13" sand bass right outside the harbor. The water was a bit choppy but smoothed out as the day went on. On the trip down I see lots of bird activity at my destination and as I arrive, my fish finder lights up! I haven't seen this kind of activity ever at dana (admittedly I'm kind of a noob there lol). So I drop down a Gulp copper penny jerk shad and I hook up with a barracuda almost immediately. For the next hour or so it was wide open and I landed 3 barracuda, about 15 calicos and too many mackerel to count.

Then it happens...my rod goes full bendo and I hook up something big!! I was using my light weight setup (daiwa coastal tws on a shimano 12-20lb medium action rod) so conditions were less than ideal for the fight. After 5 minutes of fighting, that dang fish spit the hook! Bummer!!

Frustrated, I immediately switch to a heavier setup (20-50lb tiger ugly stick with a shimano torium 16) and hook on a Gulp copper penny 8" worm and send it down. First cast and bendo again! Sadly I lost this one even quicker....

The bite slows down so I decided to head out to deeper water to find some rock piles I had marked on my GPS but there were too many power boats in that area and I didn't want to crowd them. I was able to get about 5 more calicos in that area before heading back over to the first area. On my way over I see another kayak heading my way so we chat for a bit but I see birds crashing into the water nearby so I start going that way when I hear the other yakker yelling for help! Poor guy flipped his yak and lost 4 or 5 rods to the murky depths... I help him flip and re-board his yak and gather up any thing I can. Fortunately we did find his wallet and cell phone!

After that, I head over to see if I could locate the pipe. I have a couple coordinates for it and my chart plotter shows the location of the pipe, but those don't exactly line up. Not sure if I ever actually found it but I did find some structure and managed 6 or 7 calicos there. Funny thing tho, two of them weren't even hooked! They were biting so hard on the Gulp that I was able to land them before they let go!

The wind started picking up so I headed back in and was off the water by 2pm. I will try to post some pics in the next post from my phone if I can figure out how to do it lol

[AnachroniD]

Pics

[AnachroniD]

Pic

[AnachroniD]

Fishfinder!

[AnachroniD]

Barracuda

[SmokinBass]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a good day!

[Denis_Ruso]

Sounds like a great day out there. Too bad you didn't find out what the bigger models were. Might want to reconsider your rigging, if you lost 2 big ones it could be bad luck or it could be the way the bait was rigged.

[AnachroniD]

Originally Posted by Denis_Ruso

Sounds like a great day out there. Too bad you didn't find out what the bigger models were. Might want to reconsider your rigging, if you lost 2 big ones it could be bad luck or it could be the way the bait was rigged.

Thanks for the tip. The setup was just a 1/2 or 3/4 oz jig head attached with a uni knot with the gulps threaded on through the nose. Doesn't get much simpler than that, but if u have any suggestions im all ears. Neither of the bigguns broke the line, both rigs came back with the hook and bait intact.

[AnachroniD]

This was the rig (before the gulp got crispy overnight lol)

[joefish808]

Thanks for the post.

How does your PA handle larger chop and swells at Dana?

And did the guy you helped out who flipped his yak tell you the reason how he had rolled? Sucks he lost all that gear.

[AnachroniD]

Originally Posted by joefish808

Thanks for the post.

How does your PA handle larger chop and swells at Dana?

And did the guy you helped out who flipped his yak tell you the reason how he had rolled? Sucks he lost all that gear.

Handles it like a champ! I don't think I've ever felt that I was gonna tip over and I've been out in some pretty big swells. It definitely handles them better than I do

The other guy was in a cobra fish and dive iirc and a decent sized swell came from behind and knocked him over....

[joefish808]

Thanks for the reply. Sucks to hear about the guys losing 4 set ups, that hurts!

[Denis_Ruso]

Originally Posted by AnachroniD

Thanks for the tip. The setup was just a 1/2 or 3/4 oz jig head attached with a uni knot with the gulps threaded on through the nose. Doesn't get much simpler than that, but if u have any suggestions im all ears. Neither of the bigguns broke the line, both rigs came back with the hook and bait intact.

All I can think of is make sure you have sharp hooks. Makes a world of a difference!

[AnachroniD]

Originally Posted by Denis_Ruso

All I can think of is make sure you have sharp hooks. Makes a world of a difference!

Funny you mention that! My hook sharpener was delivered today lol This was a brand new Jig head out of the package so one would assume it was sharp. I guess my one hesitation is that both times I hooked up it was near the bottom and I was thinking (hoping) it was a halibut. I've read they have soft mouths so I didn't want to set the hook too hard. Maybe next time I'll just set the hook harder...

Do u have an opinion on circle hooks?

[AnachroniD]

Originally Posted by joefish808

Thanks for the reply. Sucks to hear about the guys losing 4 set ups, that hurts!

U ain't kidding! They didn't look like cheap Walmart versions either lol

The water was a bit unusual yesterday. there were decent sized (2-2.5ft) swells coming in from 2 directions regularly plus the current was in a North West direction and the wind was blowing South. Made for some confused waters, which probably contributed to his capsizing....

[jbl_91762]

Thanks for the post as we are hitting it up tomorrow morning! Hope its still as abundant tomorrow as well as its our first time fishing that spot and my cuz is a transplant from Frisco and will be his first time fishing off his PA in SoCal.

[Dave Legacy]

Originally Posted by jbl_91762

Thanks for the post as we are hitting it up tomorrow morning! Hope its still as abundant tomorrow as well as its our first time fishing that spot and my cuz is a transplant from Frisco and will be his first time fishing off his PA in SoCal.

Conditions look OK around the Doheny side tomorrow, but around the strands looks kinda choppy. That is if the forecast is correct, but forecasts aren't known for accuracy. Get an early start and you'll likely have a better experience.

[Starsky]

Sounds like a fun and eventful day, great job with the fish and helping the other yakker

[alanw]

Water is warm, fish are biting, but sailboats are out.. watch the wind!

[jbl_91762]

man so bummed, my cuz couldn't make it down as his trailer wasn't working proper... Still going out solo and thanks for the weather info guys. It will be my first time out in open water but Im going to stick around the headlands until winds get bad then I'll fish closer to mouth. Anyone else going out?