Hi Gang,

 

It has been a while since I have reported anything.  Like all fishermen, I went through a little dry spell but the fish gods are smiling on the Parker once again.

 

Two weeks ago there was a small window of good conditions at the Coronado Islands and a buddy and I hooked some nice yellowtail in the twenty plus pound category.  It sure was nice to finally have something pull back again.

 

This week we really hit the jackpot!  We had been gathering information about a white seabass bite that had developed and we decided to give it a try.  Pete Gray, Rockcod Rick, and I met at the Fisherman’s Landing dock at noon on Sunday, July 6th.  We got a small but valuable pass of live squid from a buddy and headed out of the bay.  We broke the point a 1:00 pm and headed for the postage stamp sized spot. 

 

Sometimes in fishing, luck is on your side.  This was to be one of those times.  On the way to the spot, we crossed paths with two friends who were on their way home from the same area.  We received passes of live squid from both of them giving us more than enough to fish with all night.

 

As we approached the spot we were pleased to observe that there were only two boats there.  This allowed us to easily meter the area and find a nice spot of squid with fish marks on it.  We metered up wind until the marks ended and quietly dropped the anchor.

 

As we came tight on the anchor, we put out six rods with live squid.  On 3 of the rods we used balloons as floats.  The other rods were fished more traditionally with dropper loop or jig and squid.  Pete was throwing a baited hook with an egg sinker. We began a steady chum line of cut squid rings.

 

We had been anchored only ten minutes when Rick’s clicker started to scream.  He was hooked up with a nice fish.  At the same time, Pete’s egg sinker rig got ripped and he was on.  Within ten minutes we had gaffed two twin 51 pounders and were thrilled with our good fortune. 

 

We re-baited and started our chum line again.  We waited about an hour before the next clicker went off.  This time I was on the fish.  These fish were capable of taking very long runs.  Within a few minutes I was thrilled to have a 44 pounder on board.

 

By this time several more boats had come into the area and there were a few other fish being caught.  It took another hour of chumming and waiting to get our next bite.  This time I landed a 48 pounder and it was starting to become apparent that we had set up on position Alpha.  Most other boats had either one or no fish by this time. 

 



As darkness fell upon our little hot spot we were stuck on four fish.  We put out the squid light and chummed consistently.  Between 9:00 and midnight the giant Humbolt squid became a problem.  They were eating all of our hook baits and getting hooked up.  We worked through the night releasing the little devils and re-baiting.  At midnight the cloud cover came and hid the light from the moon.  Almost instantly the giant squid vanished and the seabass returned.  We had about one bite per hour though the night.  There is no better way to be woken up than to have your clicker screaming with a 45 to 50 pound seabass. 



 

By the time morning came we had boated nine seabass out of eleven hookups.  Unfortunately the on huge one that we hooked managed to shake the hook at gaff.  It appeared throughout the night that we were the only boat fishing in the dark.  Everyone else had gone to sleep.  We were hugely rewarded for staying up and changing our baits and chumming.

 

At 6:30 am we called it quits and headed for Point Loma.  The familiar feeling of satisfaction when you have a good trip filled us all.  This was truly the seabass trip of a lifetime and none of us will ever forget it.

 

Doug