North County 4-2-06

[Chizuck]

I figured with the lack of posts about yellowtail recently you BWE regulars might tolerate a bass-fishing post.

Mark and I hit the Fletcher Cove launch in our tandem around 7:45 to paddle through 3-4 foot sets and into glassy-calm conditions. The kelp beds that seemed so prolific off the coast of Del Mar, Solana Beach, and Cardiff last summer have been hard to find the last few weeks. I don't know if the stringers are still there being held down by current or if something actually killed a lot of them off, but it certainly is hard to find the bass habitat these days without sonar assistance.

We managed to find a pretty decent patch between Solana Beach and Cardiff and Mark actually got the first calico on his first cast. A half hour and few fish apiece later I hooked what I thought was a WSB, only to bring this toad to the boat:



Biggest Calico I've ever caught or seen - I'm guessing around 9lbs. His mouth was big enough to fit my entire fist in. We snapped a bunch of pictures and then let him go. The rest of the morning was pretty productive with probably a couple dozen calicos and a few sand bass caught between the two of us. About 10:30 the wind picked up and conditions got kind of nasty, but the bite never really slowed down. We found a few mackeral out in deep water and paddled against the wind back to the launch bouncing them along the bottom looking for the halibut that never showed and then called it a day about 1:00.

We saw a lot of schools of bait on the meter when we were away from the kelp and occasionally saw them puddling on the surface, but dropping swimbaits into them never produced anything. Can't wait for the bigger fish to come back in.

Are there any kelp experts around here? Anyone know why it isn't visible in North County right now?

-Chuck