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SOCAL PRIVATE BOATER: Yellow fever overtakes Coronado Islands
Western Outdoor NewsPublished: Mar 09, 2010
SOUTH CAL PRIVATE BOATER REPORT
Weather and the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach kept fishing pressure to a minimum last week, but there good indicators that this could be a spring to be reckoned with. The deep water yellowtail bite at the Coronados led the way.
“Tom Chaparro and I launched my boat Caballito at 3:30 from Shelter Island on Friday morning for a few hours of fishing before running up to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach,” reported WON sales rep Ben Babbitt. “With the weather scheduled to take a turn for the worse over the weekend, I just couldn’t resist! We ended up scoring 4 nice yellows in 3 hours of fishing. All of our fish were caught on the yo-yo after stopping on meter marks off the south end of North Island in 180-200 feet of water. The boat was back on the trailer at 930 and I made it up to the show with some time to spare!”
In other news, WON Saltwater Editor Brandon Hayward said there were reports of small seabass caught out at Catalina, with a couple just legal fish taken aboard Tino Valantine’s Options, while Mark Wisch at Pacific Edge in Huntington Harbour reported schools of breezing yellowtail were seen at the same island.
Kayakers connected with a couple big white seabass off La Jolla, while there were reports of giant croaker seen by divers deep in the kelp beds of Palos Verdes.
As noted, however, the best bet last week was the great bite on large yellowtail out at the Coronado Islands.
“The bite peaked at mid-week and was producing limit fishing on good sized yellows that were running from 15 to 30-plus pounds,” noted Bob Vanian at 976bite.com. “The weather turned stormy over the weekend and the yellowtail bite did slow down in the windy and rainy weather.”
The yellowtail bite peaked on Wednesday when Captain Steve Peterson of the Mission Belle out of Point Loma Sportfishing reported a catch that included 115 of the large yellowtail which represented limits for the 23 anglers aboard.
Thursday was also a very good day of yellowtail fishing at the Coronado Islands.
“I had a chance to talk with Captain Ron Baker of the Point Loma out of Point Loma Sportfishing who was at the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach and who said that his wife fished aboard the Mission Belle on Thursday and caught her limits of yellowtail that went to 31 pounds,” said Vanian. “All the fish were caught on yo-yoed iron.
The yellowtail were located by finding meter marks with scanning sonar and with traditional up and down fathometers. Most of the yellowtail are being caught by dropping yo-yoed iron down to the deep meter marks, although the sportboats were able to get some fish up around the boat that would eat the surface iron. The best colors have been blue and white, blue and chrome and scrambled egg. The fish are being found over the hard bottom and ridge areas around North Island. A good depth range in which to locate a school of yellowtail has been from 18 to 35 fathoms of water. The fish have been found over a large area ranging from northeast of Pukey Point on out to the area along the weather side of North Island. There have also been catches of yellowtail made outside of North Island to where you are fishing the area outside of the south tip of North Island.
Vanian said Bill Davidson of the Copout fished on Thursday morning with his son Sean Davison and friends Craig Boegler, Thomas Villegas and Mike Lewis aboard and reported 10 hookups on the large yellowtail that resulted in 4 boated fish. They also had two of the jumbo-sized 10-pound bonito in their catch. Davidson said that the weather was very sloppy on Thursday and reported that it was hard to stay over the meter marks they were finding for very long before getting blown off the spot by the 15- to 20-knot winds. Their big fish of the day was Bill Davison’s 30-pound yellowtail and Davison reported that they had their best action while using a blue and chrome Sumo Jr. jig that had a glow in the dark back.
Up in the Channel Islands region, the rockfish opener meant plenty of meat for the table as limits were common on boats that found a break in the weather or didn’t mind the conditions.
— Compiled by Rich Holland
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SOUTH CAL PRIVATE BOATER REPORT Weather and the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach kept fishing pressure to a minimum last week, but there good indicators that this could be a spring to be reckoned with. The deep water yellowtail bite at the Coronados led the way. “Tom Chaparro and I launched my boat Caballito at 3:30 from Shelter Island on Friday morning for a few hours of fishing before running up to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach,” reported WON sales rep Ben Babbitt. “With the weather scheduled to take a turn for the worse over the weekend, I just couldn’t resist! We ended up scoring 4 nice yellows in 3 hours of fishing. All of our fish were caught on the yo-yo after stopping on meter marks off the south end of North Island in 180-200 feet of water. The boat was back on the trailer at 930 and I made it up to the show with some time to spare!” In other news, WON Saltwater Editor Brandon Hayward said there were reports of small seabass caught out at Catalina, with a couple just legal fish taken aboard Tino Valantine’s Options, while Mark Wisch at Pacific Edge in Huntington Harbour reported schools of breezing yellowtail were seen at the same island. Kayakers connected with a couple big white seabass off La Jolla, while there were reports of giant croaker seen by divers deep in the kelp beds of Palos Verdes. As noted, however, the best bet last week was the great bite on large yellowtail out at the Coronado Islands. “The bite peaked at mid-week and was producing limit fishing on good sized yellows that were running from 15 to 30-plus pounds,” noted Bob Vanian at 976bite.com. “The weather turned stormy over the weekend and the yellowtail bite did slow down in the windy and rainy weather.” The yellowtail bite peaked on Wednesday when Captain Steve Peterson of the Mission Belle out of Point Loma Sportfishing reported a catch that included 115 of the large yellowtail which represented limits for the 23 anglers aboard. Thursday was also a very good day of yellowtail fishing at the Coronado Islands. “I had a chance to talk with Captain Ron Baker of the Point Loma out of Point Loma Sportfishing who was at the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach and who said that his wife fished aboard the Mission Belle on Thursday and caught her limits of yellowtail that went to 31 pounds,” said Vanian. “All the fish were caught on yo-yoed iron. The yellowtail were located by finding meter marks with scanning sonar and with traditional up and down fathometers. Most of the yellowtail are being caught by dropping yo-yoed iron down to the deep meter marks, although the sportboats were able to get some fish up around the boat that would eat the surface iron. The best colors have been blue and white, blue and chrome and scrambled egg. The fish are being found over the hard bottom and ridge areas around North Island. A good depth range in which to locate a school of yellowtail has been from 18 to 35 fathoms of water. The fish have been found over a large area ranging from northeast of Pukey Point on out to the area along the weather side of North Island. There have also been catches of yellowtail made outside of North Island to where you are fishing the area outside of the south tip of North Island. Vanian said Bill Davidson of the Copout fished on Thursday morning with his son Sean Davison and friends Craig Boegler, Thomas Villegas and Mike Lewis aboard and reported 10 hookups on the large yellowtail that resulted in 4 boated fish. They also had two of the jumbo-sized 10-pound bonito in their catch. Davidson said that the weather was very sloppy on Thursday and reported that it was hard to stay over the meter marks they were finding for very long before getting blown off the spot by the 15- to 20-knot winds. Their big fish of the day was Bill Davison’s 30-pound yellowtail and Davison reported that they had their best action while using a blue and chrome Sumo Jr. jig that had a glow in the dark back. Up in the Channel Islands region, the rockfish opener meant plenty of meat for the table as limits were common on boats that found a break in the weather or didn’t mind the conditions. — Compiled by Rich Holland |
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