Hell of a day at NP Harbor

[caddisx]

Launched at 6am and made my way to the bait barge. Water was 68 degrees and glass. Picked up some fresh squid and hit around the barge for a bit. Bam... legal calico with the half day boat watching. Make my way out to the kelp beds. I have one squid on a dropper and on on a fly line drifting the edge of the beds. The fly line starts to scream... I wait for a couple of secs and set the hook... now it is really screaming. I grab the other reel and start winding, get it in and place it behind me. I go to grab the reel and a hear boom splash. I turn to see my rod and reel going under... FU(k ahhhhhhhhhhh damn damn DAMN. Now I am supper pissed at myself but I still have whatever taking line going for deeper water. For the next five minutes I get some line, it takes some. I start to make some headway then SNAP... AHHHHHHH. FUUUUUUUUUUUU(K. I have no doubt that the people in those beautiful homes that look over the ocean could hear me. I composed myself... Took a while and went back to fishing. Ended up with 6 bass (2 sand 4 calico). One other weird thing happened out on the water today. While I was drifting, I hear a boat coming at me. I turn to see a sheriff boat charging hard right toward me. He passed within 20 feet of me going near full boar, just about tipped me. He stopped just short of one of those little beaches, turned around and left. I'm thinking what the hell just happened. When I got back in the harbor I flagged down a sheriff boat (don't know if it was the one or not) and told my story. Officer said they had been having a number of illegal landings... There wasn't a boat in sight when he ran past me. Hell of a day.

[t-$money bussard]

newport harbor has been on high alert ever since this incident....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...,5655767.story

i was fishing there 2 weeks after and us customs were on theyre 35 foot donzi with 4 250 hp mercurys m4s and all

[PE.rider]

Thanks for the report. Good to see fish coming out of Newport. It's been slow going lately.

As for the Pangas, I thought they moved north for awhile to avoid LE. Wouldn't it be funny to hook a bale or two that fell over ...

[Hondatom]

Glad you made it out safe Chris . Sometimes the patrol boats forget how badly they affect us little guys. Did you retrieve your lost rod?

[SeaEagle_1]

wow! pretty cool story! i haven't had much of a chance to hit newport this whole summer! only got out once this year. but yeah, its great to hear that guys are starting to catch decent numbers of fish from there again. last couple of years its been tuff. last year was very hard to get even a 5-fish day.

last year my buddy and i did an all-nighter for his bday, and between the two of us we got 4 fish! that was from 4p to 8a. lets hop the harbor keeps getting better! i remember those 25-30 bass days from 2005.

...man i think i'm getting old!

[caddisx]

had I not been in such a foul mood I might have enjoyed it more. all the bass straddeled that 14 inch line. I would have taken pics but I was on tilt after my loss. overall NPH has and kelp beds have been slow for me this whole summer. That said I like the easy launch and accessibility I gives me. Guess I will keep trying.

[dngayan]

Thanks for the report.

[T Bone]

Dave Wolfson

[T Bone]

He is a friend of my brothers who used to run the Bongos.He has an 80K a year part time gig as a capt on a 70' Viking in Cabo where he takes the owner out regularly and also fishes the Bisbee.Trolled up a trash compactor bale of buds a few years back.