The Barracuda Bite—Including 6 Pending World-Record Catches

The cold storm that blew through Newport Beach over the last few days shut down the barracuda bite, but not before a lot of action took place in the area.

 Six pending world-record fish were caught during the bite by anglers fishing out of Newport Harbor.

 Victoria Sabatino, fishing with her dad, Tony, hauled in a 6-pound, 10-ounce on  No. 16 line that is a pending world-record barracuda. Her dad brought in a 7-pound, 3-ounce barracuda on No. 4 line, which broke the Balboa Angling Club record.

 Captain Jimmy Decker and Pete Binaski went fly fishing on the boat Disco Punk during the bite and came back with four pending world-record barracuda on 8-, 12- and 16-pound tippet.

 Paul Hoofe landed a 7.77-pound barracuda—in his boat Vortex on 2-pound line—that is also a pending world-record fish.

 Anglers packed the open party boats at Newport Landing and Davey’s Locker during the pick of the barracuda bite that lasted in the Newport Beach area from May 11-14.

Iron jigs in blue and white and chrome colors were doing the trick on these big barracuda.

Most anglers were taking home limits of 10 fish after three-quarter day trips.

 JD at J.B.'s Big Game Tackle estimated 1,800 barracuda were caught by 230 anglers fishing in the waters between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach in four days.

 Kayakers who fished before the rain and wind arrived were catching lots of bass at the end of Newport Harbor around the Newport Bait Barge and drifting along the jetty.

 My son Mark and I caught four legal sand bass on gulp minnows Friday morning. We talked with another kayaker named Ray who had fished the kelp line south of Corona del Mar.

 Ray reported that it was slow and that a bunch of kayakers were fishing out there.

He started fishing inside the jetty and was hooked up with a nice calico as we were paddling away.

Decker told me that the wind was blowing 25 knots Wednesday May 18, 2011, but the forecast is for temperatures to warm up into the low 70s through the weekend—maybe enough to get the barracuda biting again.