Sports
Sport Fishing: Catching a Shark from a Rowboat
White sea bass and barracuda take the bait and hit the deck for Newport Anglers.
J.D., of J.D.'s Big Game Tackle on Balboa Island, was fishing off the Laguna kelp in his rowboat, this week, when a greenback mackerel ate his jerk shad. Not wanting to waste a good mackerel, J.D. dropped bait fish down into 40 feet of water and started rowing and trolling “until something ate it."
“The rod buckled, the reel sings out and lines stretched” J.D. wrote in his Wednesday fishing report.
It turns out that he hooked a 100-pound thresher shark.
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“It put up a good battle” J.D. said, “it jumped several times and thrashed about, even charged the boat, it’s mouth open and snapping, damn sharks."
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An overnight trip on the Thunderbird out of on Tuesday netted nine white sea bass, 12 calico bass and 27 sheephead.
The white sea bass were caught off the bottom using sardines, anchovies and dragon fly lures.
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Big schools of barracuda are moving up and down the Newport coast and anglers are enjoying excellent fishing for barracuda and bass.
spokesman Mark Underwood told me that barracuda have been biting in the morning and bass are biting in the afternoon and evening.
Newport Landing’s half-day and twilight boat the Nautilus, ran three trips on Tuesday. In the morning, 33 anglers hauled in 116 barracuda. In the afternoon the Nautilus had 36 calico bass and 10 sand bass for 44 anglers. The twilight trip with 32 fisherman netted more than 100 sand bass.
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Tracy Villoria and Jimmy Decker are holding on to first place in the Salt Water Bass Anglers 2011 standing. The local anglers have 442 points after four events. The next SWBA event is the “Cyclone Flashback” kicking off July 9, 2011.
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I fished the docks and empty slips in Newport Back Bay early this week from to the Newport Aquatic Center using jerkbait on a lead head with 6-pound test line in my kayak.
I caught, photographed and released three spotted bay bass, a sand bass and a short halibut.
The best action was around the boats in the first channel past Pearson’s Port on the incoming high tide.
