Yellowtail Put On Catalina Island Bite

The Day at the Docks celebration of Sportfishing coming this Sunday has become known to many as the start of the saltwater fishing season.

Anglers will see the latest fishing tackles presented by the industry's leading manufacturers. Also, lots of how-to seminars by expert fishermen reveal secrets on how you can catch more and bigger fish.

Anglers can test their skills at casting contests held throughout the day. Sportfishing captains will showcase their vessels and will be available to answer all of your questions about how you can book the trip of your dreams.

Participants can enjoy boat rides on San Diego Bay, displays by marine artists and fishing tackle experts, great food, entertainment, open house aboard sportfishing boats, kids' fishing, contests, prizes and just plain fun.

Catalina Island produced some excellent yellowtail fishing for Captain Jeff Wiley on his private boat last weekend. Wiley was fishing with live squid and caught six of the hard fighting jacks out of nine hook-ups.

Captain Jeff Jones thinks this bodes well for the future. Jones said this may well signal the start of some great yellowtail action at Catalina Island.

“The report I got was that the guy left them biting 'wide open' only after running out of live squid," Jones said.  

Fishing alone, Wiley had double hook-ups, and nearly ended up with limits. Looking back in my logs, I had a 70 fish day (limits for six passengers and a crewmember) at Catalina in February, 1998 while running the "RailTime".

Copious amounts of tiny market squid are invading Southern California Coastal and Island waters. Last week, on board a Twilight trip on the Native Sun out of Long Beach Sportfishing, crew members netted a scoopful of the tiny mollusks to show passengers on board. The squid were between one-two inches in length.

Don Ashley from Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach thinks this means good fishing in the future.

“With the cool water, one would expect that we will have another good market squid season,” Ashley said. “There has been no commercial seiner pressure on this fishery as they met their quota early last year."

This means the food chain is working and with a little luck, the big ones will come out to eat the little ones.

Rockfishing remained excellent as these bottom dwellers also flourish in cooler waters. Fishing up and down the Southern California coast has been really good for a variety of the colorful and delicious bottom fish.

Boats from Newport Beach, Long Beach, San Pedro, Redondo, Marina del Rey as well as other Ports of Call have been catching near limits (10 rockfish per angler) on a regular basis.

There has been some good surfishing up and down the coast. Bob Osborne from Surfside caught a 12-pound halibut fishing during a recent grunion run. Halibut like to come up in the shallows during grunion runs making them more vulnerable to fishermen.

Osborne and fellow surfishing angler Tom Raftican put on a mini tournament last Saturday. Fishing was slower but Raftican did manage four fat barred perch taken on a plastic grub. He was outdone however, by Philip Friedman, 21, with two yellowfin croaker. Friedman took home the Godzilla trophy and bragging rights for a year.

The Toronado out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach is hosting a great Fishing with Phil Trip departing April 28 at 10 p.m. and heading to San Clemente Island.

The trip will fish both surface and rockfish and will provide pro-staffers, lots of raffle prizes and a chance to start in the next Patch Fishing Video. Regularly $175, you can save $25 and go for $150 if you call or text 424 237 0250.

The Native Sun had excellent sand bass fishing last Friday night on their twilight trip, catching more than 100 bass for 28 anglers. That was followed by a very slow Saturday nights fishing; go figure.

They will be at it again on the weekend with Friday and Saturday night adventures from 6:30 p.m.-midnight. The price is $42 and you can book by calling 562-432-8993.