Big bay Sunday 6/15

[Cattledog]

I had a pretty good day on the big bay on Sunday. I went out at about 11a and stayed on the water until 4pm. I threw a smallish green shad a few times on my way to the bait dock and caught a few undersized calicos. The bait doc had anchovies this time, no sardines. The anchovies were a bit on the small side but there was a good mixture of sizes. Speaking for myself, I have always had better luck with bait vs artificials in the bay.

I’d read an earlier report over on sdfish about striped bay bass feeding at between 60-70 ft so that’s where I started. I found water at this depth near Ballast Point and I used a sliding sinker to reach the bottom baited with an anchovy. The problem is that the areas at this depth are pretty much right in the middle of the traffic channel with large boats going by constantly. Sure enough, I started catching striped bass one right after another at this depth around Ballast Point but I couldn’t stand the large boat traffic for very long and had to retreat. All the fish I landed were in the 10-12” range, on the small side but fun nonetheless.

After getting out of the middle of the channel I spent most of my remaining time between the shoal signs on the South side of the channel and North Island (Coronado). There is almost boat traffic in this area, but there is a different problem lol. I caught lots of small calicos and two that were about 15”; all c and r. Interestingly I also caught 3 short halibut and had two more follow my bait back up the boat when I was checking it. All the halibut I saw were small but they are definitely out there in the shallow areas, generally at 15’ depth or less on the bottom and they were very interested in anchovies.

The “different problem” is the “Naval Secuity” police. They have a big bad ass rib inflatable (30+ ft with a large machine gun mounted up front) that they constantly rip up and down the bay with and they will yell at your if they see you within 250 ft of North Island. They are pretty serious about it and I wouldn’t want to run into them twice in one day. I have read accounts of a few people being cited for violating the “security zone.” I definitely caught most of my fish close to shore on Sunday but happened to miss the Naval patrol.