Dana Point 6/25 & 6/26

[alanw]

6 foot swells rolled through all afternoon Saturday but managed some shorts and barely legal Calicos on Big Hammers at the Pipe, all released safely. The water temp jumped 10° in a week to 73° this weekend which really picked up the activity.

Sunday still had some big swells but it was also a lot bumpier out there. I didn't see any other kayakers out in the afternoon but I decided to slow troll a rapala to the Headlands anyway. Nothing on the troll, but at around high tide 3:00 I found myself in the middle of a wide open bass bite for about 20 minutes before birds started crashing nearby and then all around me turned to Macs busting up anchovies at the surface. I couldn't even get my zman down to where the bass were without Macs tearing up my lure. I never destroyed zman lures this fast before, but the Macs managed to rip them up pretty well. The bass were spitting up anchovies and were mostly short and maybe barely legal, didn't measure any and lost count after about a dozen. I didn't mark anything bigger in the area and the texture was getting bumpier so I took a tank full of Macs on a stressful trip back to the harbor to look for Halibut. I really dislike traveling with following seas. In the harbor I hooked up with a decent 4-5 foot leopard that finally bit through the 40 pound mono at the kayak after a good struggle. All fish released.

With the warm water it shouldn't be long now before the bonito, cuda, and hopefully yellowtail will be around.