FRIDAY MORNING WEEKEND REPORT!!

Good Morning!

Here is our bait and fish report for Friday 6/8. Our receiver is currently loaded with perfect size sardines and healthy big chovies. We have several wells of cured bait for the private boaters, so stop by and see Martin this weekend. You can call him on Channel 11 or at (562) 455- 9928. He will be able to give you the lastest bait and fishing information all weekend long.

We had both the Long Beach Carnage and the Provider at Catalina last night looking for squid. They combed the entire island and the LBC was able to make about 10 scoops of bait which is the only squid that was caught at the island last night. The Long Beach Carnage will stay at Catalina and try again tonight, so if you're heading across give Paul a call on Channel 11 or at (562) 714- 8103. He will be able to let you know about the bait situation before you make the run across.

Now to the fish report...
Coastal
The big news the last couple of weeks has been the schools of JUMBO barracuda along the coast. Several friends of mine have reported fishing them and said that all of the fish are in the 5-10 lb range and a couple of guys have reported fish as big as 12 lbs (weighed on a scale, not estimated). The fish have been scattered from the south end of Huntington Flats all the way up to Rocky Point, but the biggest concentration yesterday was down at Huntington Flats with the fish moving west throughout the day. If you're targeting the gar this weekend, I would suggest that you start looking for meter marks and bird schools as soon as you leave the east end of the breakwall and head down the beach in 80-120 feet of water. Sometimes the fish will pop up in the deeper water, so if you're not seeing any life on the beach, you should bend it out and look around a little deeper. The fish have been showing really well when they are around and have had a lot of birds on them, so don't pass up any big areas of birds that are sitting on the water as there may be fish under them. The barracuda have been biting the jigs very well with all the usual colors working well.
Several friends reported that they had the greatest success using a Tady C or Salas J-Pot size jig with the hottest colors being black and white or black, purple and white. If the fish are up boiling around, but not biting the jig, switch to a C size jig and try a really slow surface wind. This has really been the ticket lately (especially miday). There are also some sandbass starting to bite on some of the spots on the east end of the horseshoe and Izor's reef areas. It being very early in the season, these fish are all structure oriented and you will need to anchor on a rock, reef or wreck to have a chance at catching them. Drifting will not work because you won't stay on top of the fish. Also, there have been no fish in the mud yet this year, so fishing the flats proper will not be very productive. The sandbass have been biting the chovies much better than the sardines, so if you plan to target them, make sure that you take some chovies.

Catalina
The good news is that the weather has come down at the island. Our boats reported flat calm conditions on the backside of the island last night. The Big Seabass and Yellows are still biting on the backside of the island, but you need to have squid to catch them. The live squid availability has been sporatic at best and I would not advise running across without frozen squid on your boat. If you don't have any frozen from earlier in the season, you should by some blocks of high quality frozen squid from one of the seafood markets before heading out. We will have the Long Beach Carnage at the island this weekend, so you can call Paul before you leave to find out if there is any live available.
There have been two areas of seabass biting well at the island. Earlier in the week, most of the fish were caught at the west end, with fish biting at the usual spots from the west end highspot down to iron bound cove. These fish are all big (30-50 lbs) and have been biting in shallow water tight to the kelp line, so make sure and fish at least 30-40 lb test. The seabass are not line shy and if you are lucky enough to be anchored up where they swim through, they will bite the heavy line with reckless abandon. The other area that the seabass have been biting is at the east end of the island. If you get there before graylight, I would suggest anchoring out on the squidgrounds outside the V's. There have been big seabass (30-40 lbs) and some jumbo yellows (25-40 lbs) in this area. There is no trick to catching these fish. Just meter around in 80-100 feet of water and anchor up on any bait that you find (there has been scattered squid in the area). Rig your rods with set-ups that allow you to target diffferent depths. I would suggest one rod with a heavy white jig with a squid on it fished on the bottom. You can just put this rod in the rod holder with the clicker on and the motion of your boat will bounce the jig around for you. My second set up would be a hook with a 1 oz sliding sinker and a squid. This allows you to fish the entire water column as your bait sinks out. To fish this, you should cast the bait out and feather your spool so that the bait sinks slowly. If you make it to the bottom without a bite, work your bait slowly back to the boat. The final set up should be a flyline rig. Just pin a squid on a hook, cast it out and let it drift back in the current. With these three set ups, you will be covering the entire water column and have a good chance at any fish that swims through. Again, don't be afraid to fish the heavy line as the fish are not picky when they swim through. After the sun comes out, that area has been shutting off, so you may want to move in tight to the island and check out the beaches and kelplines. There have been some good fish caught on the beaches from Orange Rocks to the East End of the island. When fishing the beach, the most important factor is conditions, so make sure you have some current and try to fish the tide changes. There has been some really good calico bass fishing on the frontside of the island. You don't need squid to catch these fish (sardines and chovies work great!). Most of the spots from the Isthmus to the west end have been biting well, so check out your favorite kelpline or reef. There have been some smaller yellows on the frontside as well, so don't anchor too close to the kelp so you have a chance of landing a yellow if you hang one.

San Clemente
Not many reports coming from San Clemente because most guys are fishing the seabass and yellows at Catalina. Earlier in the week there were some yellows to be caught on the backside of the west end (outside the runway). There have also been a few seabass caught on the east end backside in the dark. These fish are smaller than the ones at Catalina (15-25 lbs) and the bite has been inconsistent. Other than that, I haven't heard much from Clemente.

Santa Barbara
There have also been some yellows and a few seabass caught at SBI lately, but they are smaller than the ones being caught at Catalina and I don't think that it's worth taking the longer run to catch them unless you are trying to avoid the crowds at Catalina.

See you on the water!