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Friday the 13th is now my favorite day!
After fishing up and down the coast between Santa Barbara and Ventura the past few months, watching the frigid water go from 51, to 54, to 56... and beyond, we finally made the decision to hit the islands seeing as the SST has been pushing 60 in a few areas.
My Dad, Dane, and I launched at C.I. under foggy conditions this morning and headed for Anacapa. We passed the Erna B fishing near Gina (perhaps for some early season sandies) and made a line straight for the East end of Anacapa. We saw several boats working the area outside of the East end for some micro-rockfish (not what we had in mind), so we circled around and headed for the West end to fish for some bass.
There were several pods of birds working in about 60-80' of water under 57.5 degree water and decided to take a look on our our way to the West end.
Dane and I love fishing the plastics so we proceeded to drop down and slow roll them over hard bottom (calico cocktail of course). Dane stuck a nice calico right off the bat. In the meantime, the fishfinder was getting lit up by some larger grade fish and we took notice as to where our baits were being fished with respect to the depth the larger arches were. No sooner that I mentioned this to the boys and I get absolutely slammed on my plastic. Keep in mind I'm fishing a Curado D with 12-pound with my favorite calico rod, not exactly what I want for a larger grade of fish.
Twenty-five minutes later Dane is still chasing this fish in our Whaler so that I don't get spooled and I'm starting to think I've hooked something I'm simply not going to be able to turn. I have my drag pinched down to the point where I'm worried it's going to bust, but I really felt I had no other option. So, after some finagling I started making some headway, eventually gained some line, and finally saw color...IT WAS THE RIGHT KIND and I couldn't believe it. Dane didn't screw around and stuck it with the gaff immediately (we could see the plastic had worn a hole in its mouth and I didn't give a rats ass where he stuck it).
The yellow hit the scale at 36 lbs, my personal best yellowtail by several pounds and certainly the lightest outfit I've used to land a homeguard.
Dane managed 4 nice calicos in deep water and that was about it for the day. I must admit, it was a great way to spend the day with my fishing partner and my father.
The forecast looks good for the next few days so go get them!
I'm so glad my Dad was around to witness the circus today, it was the perfect Father's Day gift!
Scott
After fishing up and down the coast between Santa Barbara and Ventura the past few months, watching the frigid water go from 51, to 54, to 56... and beyond, we finally made the decision to hit the islands seeing as the SST has been pushing 60 in a few areas.
My Dad, Dane, and I launched at C.I. under foggy conditions this morning and headed for Anacapa. We passed the Erna B fishing near Gina (perhaps for some early season sandies) and made a line straight for the East end of Anacapa. We saw several boats working the area outside of the East end for some micro-rockfish (not what we had in mind), so we circled around and headed for the West end to fish for some bass.
There were several pods of birds working in about 60-80' of water under 57.5 degree water and decided to take a look on our our way to the West end.
Dane and I love fishing the plastics so we proceeded to drop down and slow roll them over hard bottom (calico cocktail of course). Dane stuck a nice calico right off the bat. In the meantime, the fishfinder was getting lit up by some larger grade fish and we took notice as to where our baits were being fished with respect to the depth the larger arches were. No sooner that I mentioned this to the boys and I get absolutely slammed on my plastic. Keep in mind I'm fishing a Curado D with 12-pound with my favorite calico rod, not exactly what I want for a larger grade of fish.
Twenty-five minutes later Dane is still chasing this fish in our Whaler so that I don't get spooled and I'm starting to think I've hooked something I'm simply not going to be able to turn. I have my drag pinched down to the point where I'm worried it's going to bust, but I really felt I had no other option. So, after some finagling I started making some headway, eventually gained some line, and finally saw color...IT WAS THE RIGHT KIND and I couldn't believe it. Dane didn't screw around and stuck it with the gaff immediately (we could see the plastic had worn a hole in its mouth and I didn't give a rats ass where he stuck it).
The yellow hit the scale at 36 lbs, my personal best yellowtail by several pounds and certainly the lightest outfit I've used to land a homeguard.
Dane managed 4 nice calicos in deep water and that was about it for the day. I must admit, it was a great way to spend the day with my fishing partner and my father.
The forecast looks good for the next few days so go get them!
I'm so glad my Dad was around to witness the circus today, it was the perfect Father's Day gift!
Scott
What a great way to start off your summer season.
