SoCalSalty – Trip Report – July 4th on The Mission Belle

Wednesday, I rode the 3/4 day boat out of Point Loma Sportfishing, the Mission Belle. I had guessed that they might have a light load due to the holiday and I was right…only 18 anglers! John, his friend Rob who was visiting from Phoenix, Big Tim, and myself were among the group of anglers hoping to score a yellowtail at the Coronado Islands. Capt. Tony Sotelo was driving. Karen was running the deck. Carl split time in the galley and helping on deck. We had live sardines and cut squid for bait.

We got close to the islands and made our first stop. Almost immediately a couple anglers got picked up by barracuda, exciting for the non-regulars, but not our target fish. Almost everyone was fishing bait. A handful of anglers were throwing iron. The trip really kicked off when Tom got picked up throwing a mint colored surface iron…

Video: Tom’s Yellow On The Plug

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY00kLRuJdg&w=560&h=315]

Sean’s big island yellowtail

Shortly after Tom boated his yellow, angler Sean Yo scored one on a live sardine. Then things went dead for awhile. We went all around the islands looking for hungry fish and had no takers. It got to the point where even some of the regulars decided to work the bottom to see what might be down there. Others were throwing swimbaits and picking at calico bass. I saw one angler fooling around with an Alabama Rig…or in this case, a Cali-Wham-a Rig (Alabama with 3 Wham’s) and finding willing calico bass to bite it.

It was starting to get late in the day and it began to look like we might not get anymore yellows. Then came the day’s big bite…multiple anglers getting bit on bait (lots of people including myself tried, but no takers on the iron). During this bite, if you were capable of picking a good bait, and getting it out and away from the boat, you got bit. Just 2 obstacles prevented people from getting fish to the boat…seals and big strong fish figuring out a way to bust you off. I got one and lost another (on 30# test). John got bit 3x and lost them all (on 30# test). He later tried to move up to 40# test, but didn’t find a willing fish at that line class. Sean, (the angler who scored the first bait yellow) got bit 3x in this run, but lost them all (he was using 25# test). Despite the challenges, by the time this bite was over, 9 more fish were added (with at least that many lost).

And that was pretty much the day…11 yellows, a ling, and some cuda, calicos, and sculpin to round out the count. Another enjoyable day on the water on the Mission Belle. Thanks to Capt. Tony, Karen and Carl for helping to make it a good day. Tight lines!