The Spring Fish are Here! The Spring Fish are Here!

Signs of spring are everywhere for Southern California anglers. Water temperatures are warming with more and more gamefish flushing into a myriad of local hot spots every day.

Boats from Newport Beach to San Pedro were catching copious amounts of barracuda off Huntington Beach again on Wednesday. “You can see the barracuda blowing out on bait with big flocks of birds overhead,” said Captain Mitch Christensen from the half-day boat Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. “Everyone on board is hooked up; this is crazy.”

Mike Gross from Torrance had great success fishing with lures. The key was to retrieve the jigs at a slow to medium pace. “I watched Mike hook up over and over again,” said Christensen. “Blue and white jigs seemed to work really well.”

Captain Andy Siratt from the Enterprise was having a similar day out of Marina Sportfishing in Long Beach. “We have been busy all day,” said Siratt. “There is no shortage of barracuda here.” The anglers on board the Enterprise finished the day with

Captain Mike Jewitt from the Big Game 90 was at Santa Barbara Island over the weekend when he heard a loud splash off his bow. When he looked over in that direction, he saw a sea lion carcass flying through the air with a great white shark right behind it. “That was a damn big shark,” said Jewitt, who said the giant shark continued to maul its victim.

Surf fishermen had good action this week with more corbina starting to bite with warming water temperatures. The key for corbina is 4-6 lb test with a soft shell sand crab for bait. This is sight fishing at its best as you will many times see the corbina foraging for sand crabs in less than a foot of water.

Fourteenth Street in Seal Beach was good again this week. Fishing between the pier and the navy jetty has produced barred perch, corbina and spotfin croaker.

Good fishing at Dog Beach at the Huntington Cliffs for some barred perch to 3 pounds as well as some corbina. There were also some halibut and leopard sharks taken here.

Anglers continued to catch good numbers of barracuda in the Santa Monica Bay too. The Redondo Special had 100 barracuda on their Wednesday morning run for 30 anglers. Other schools of barracuda were seen near Point Vincente and Rocky Point too.

Over the weekend, David Choate from Torrance watched private boaters at Rocky Point catch a white seabass and a yellowtail. Both fish easily exceeded 20 pounds and were some of the first of these species taken by rod and reel.

Tradition skipper Steven Konrady is happy to hear about the Rocky Point catch. “Barracuda fishing has been so good that we might have to start checking Rocky for seabass and yellowtail,” he said. “The Bay (Santa Monica Bay) is on fire this year.”

Freedivers continued to spear white seabass at Rocky Point. One private boater who insisted on anonymity speared two seabass over 60 pounds on the same day earlier this week. Divers also reported  big schools of barracuda swimming with the seabass in the Palos Verdes Kelp.

Rock fishermen around Palos Verdes continue to catch lots of opaleye perch as well as a few more calico bass and cabezon. Frozen peas best for the perch while squid worked best on the other species.

Exotic Catch

Tracy Viloria from Huntington Beach was at Hotel Palmas de Cortes in Baja’s East Cape last week when she caught an interesting looking fish. “Looks like a Golden Trevally (or Golden Jack) (Gnathanodonspeciosus)” said Rick Feeney, collection manager from the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

 “They are found from the Red Sea all the way to the tropical eastern Pacific. They have a protractile mouth used for feeding on bottom stuff like mollusks, crustaceans, etc. Pretty fish. Sometimes small ones are seen in aquarium shops. They are common in the Indo Pacific but not so common here in the eastern Pacific.”