Dorados and Bonitos

Short report on my fishing ventures from the Labor Day weekend. Had a late start on Saturday, didn't launch until 8:00. Left the dock at 8:15, got bait and off to open water at about 8:45.

Headed out 20+ mile northwest of Pt. Loma and started the day trolling. Had 4 trolling rods out when we ran in to school of bonitos, all rods were hooked up. Took quite a bit of coordination and luck but got them all in and released. 

Kept trolling while also keeping eye floating kelps and diving birds. A couple of hours in to it, we saw a single bird sitting on a small floating kelp. We stop short of it and my buddy started throwing surface iron without any takers. So I decided to toss out a flylined sardine and got bit right away. I thought it was a yellowtail at first till it jumped out of the water and saw those beautiful colors, it was a Dorado. We started chumming live sardines right away and were able keep them there for awhile. We managed to pick off 5 dorados and and lost 2 in that little kelp paddy.

It's been windy and rough waters all day, so after the dorado bite shot off, we decided to call off the day. On our way back, we were lucky enough run into diving bird just outside the jetty. It was wide open bite on nice size calicos and small baracudas. They were biting on irons, plastics and the rest of the live sardines. It was definitely a fun day! PS...caught my PB (personal best) biggest dorado on this trip.

Mission Beach Surf Fishing - July 13

Since low tide is at 7:00 am, decide to get there around 5:30 to catch the outgoing tide. Turned out to be a good decision.

First cast, hooked up a nice size yellowfin croaker and then it was on. Seems I stumbled on a fishing hole full of yellowfin croakers which is not uncommon. Caught a nice size corvina as well.

Had some of the boys show up later on including my mate's dad Big Al Aylward visiting from New Zealand. Nice to see him catch his very first barrred surfperch. Wish we could have put him in more fish but the bite seem to have died after 7:00 am as the tide slack.

We did manage to catch a few small perch after but for sure not the same as our other outings. Here are some photos:

Here is a corvina and a croaker

Here's Big Al with a very nice Barred Surfperch

Here's my buddy Emilio with a nice Yellowfin Croaker

Some nice fish for the dinner table...

Fishing could have been better, but had lots of fun with the guys. 

Weapons of choice: 2-inch Berkley Gulf Sandworms in natural & camo colors on light tackle. Wanted to try some sandcrabs but could not find any.

Surf Fishing, Saturday June 1st

Went to Mission Beach to get some fishing in early before all the tourists overcrowds the beach. Got there around 5:30 am, overcast morning, air is in the cool side, water is warm and incoming tide.

Fishing was great early on with non-stop hook up for the first hour, then the tide started coming in and so did all the kelp. Had to work my way around the weeds in the water, after the first hour I don't think that I made a single cast without reeling back in some salad.

After awhile kinda got tired of unhooking the weeds of my hooks, fish on or not. Also, got tired of getting beat up by the surf, soaking wet and cold. Called it the day at around 8:00 am. Got  a couple of hours of fishing in, caught around 15 barred surf perch and 1 croacker.

Even with that misery, still a great morning to start the day with. Bait of choice was 2-inch Berkley Gulf Sandworms on light tackle.

Lake Poway, April 24

Took off work for the day to do some spring fishing. Got to the lake when it opened at 6:00 am, got the boat and off I went.

Weather was over cast and a little in the cool side. Started off fishing the shallows with a spinnerbait and was able hooked in to a couple, but nothing big. When the sun finally came out, decided to do some sight fishing and able to catch a few smaller male. Did really see any females, but did see a lot fry's swimming around so I figured it was in between spawn. The wind picked up and made it hard to sight fish let alone hold the boat in place. I then decided to anchor up and fish the rock pile, turned out to be a good decision. Switched to drop shot with Roboworm in bold bluegill color and just slayed them with some decent size bass.

After a couple of hours fishing that same rock pile, decided to call it a day. Ended up with 22 bass, with the biggest one at about 4 pounds. Here are some photos. Last fish was the biggest one, very long but skinny, figure it's a post spawn.

Massive Great White Caught at the Sea of Cortez

A great white shark nearly 20 feet long and weighing 2,000 pounds was reportedly hooked by commercial fishermen in the Sea of Cortez in northwestern Mexico.

The massive catch, according to local reports by Milenio News, would be one of the longest great white sharks ever recorded if verified at a length 19.8 feet, or 6 meters.

The shark, which was dead when it was brought to the surface, was netted by fishermen named Guadalupe and Baltazar, according to reports.

"We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and then we thought 'what are we going to do?'" Guadalupe told Pisces Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas.

The fishermen towed the shark's carcass 2 miles to the beach while aboard their 22-foot-long ship. Dozens of people then helped drag the animal onto the sand, reports say.