Dana Wharf Fish Report: Back to Bass-ics

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Every week, Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching provides the Dana Point and San Clemente Times a report on the week’s fishing from Captain Brian Woolley, in addition to the weekly fish count.

Here is Captain Woolley’s report for the past week’s action:

More transition this week for us. Water temperatures in the 70s along the beach here. We’ve got some streaky red tide in some zones, but it hasn’t affected the fishing too much.

On the half-day scene, the bass fishing has been pretty good. Lots of action in the areas with the cleaner water. Lots of fish caught on the fly-lined sardines, and for some anglers choosing to fish the artificial stuff, it was great action on the fluke-style baits with cast after cast catching a fish. Lighter lines got bites the best, as well. Guys fishing the 12-15 line had good shots at fish.

Three-quarter-day trips slid back into a more typical routine. Some bass fishing for the guys that fished down off Camp Pendleton. It was hard to get a good read on the actual opportunity, as the water there was dirty and some pretty strong current too. But some bass and some sheephead were the standard catches. Also, a bit of rockfish was in play a day or two as well. Good mixed bag fishing on that fish, but again, the current was pretty strong.

Off the beach, we did have more shots at dorado. The fish I definitely still in our zone. We’re seeing quite a bit of uncooperative fish. The fish that we did catch was caught quite a ways from home, so, it’s more now in play for our all day trips. But yesterday (Saturday) was the first day in quite some time that we didn’t have any mahi in our fish counts, so we’ll see what the week bring with that. We went 54 days straight with mahi in our fish counts! Crazy stuff!

And finally, over at San Clemente Island, the yellows were biting really well. Fish were caught on the yo-yo jigs, surface iron and live baits. Catches were a good island grade of fish 15- to 25-pound stuff. This fish had been roaming around for a bit, and it finally got in bite mode. Also, some good shots at the bluefin for the Fury earlier in the week with some nice 100- to 150-pound fish hitting the deck. Some wind on the outside in the forecast, so, we’ll see how that affects things as we move through the week.

Here are the latest fish counts from Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching:

Sept. 29 – 7 boats, 150 anglers: 46 yellowtail, 29 bonito, 111 calico bass, 2 sand bass, 3 sculpin, 19 sheephead, 52 white fish, 37 rockfish, 28 vermilion rockfish, 21 bocaccio, 6 barracuda, 1 trigger fish, 12 sand dabs, 1 sargo, 1 blue perch, 230 bass released

Sept. 28 – 7 boats, 99 anglers: 2 dorado, 9 yellowtail, 7 calico bass, 9 sculpin, 22 white fish, 95 rockfish, 119 vermilion rockfish, 64 bocaccio, 15 bonito, 8 sand dabs, 25 bass released

Sept. 27 – 7 boats, 127 anglers: 30 yellowtail, 1 striped marlin released, 62 calico bass, 29 whitefish, 23 rockfish, 21 bonito, 15 sheephead, 7 sculpin, 3 sand bass, 3 vermilion rockfish, 1 barracuda, 1 cabezon, 1 blue perch, 100 bass released

Sept. 26 – 7 boats, 105 anglers: 97 rockfish, 48 sanddab, 44 bocaccio, 43 whitefish, 28 vermilion rockfish, 16 calico bass, 3 bonito, 2 sheephead, 1 sculpin, 93 bass released

Sept. 25 – 9 boats, 226 anglers: 5 yellowtail, 85 calico bass, 71 rockfish, 30 sanddab, 29 bonito, 18 whitefish, 18 vermilion rockfish, 15 bocaccio, 7 sheephead, 3 sand bass, 3 sculpin, 312 bass released

Sept. 24 – 11 boats, 270 anglers: 66 yellowtail, 1 white seabass, 131 calico bass, 41 whitefish, 34 rockfish, 31 sanddab, 28 bonito, 10 vermilion rockfish, 8 sand bass, 8 sheephead, 2 blue perch, 1 barracuda, 1 lingcod, 1 blacksmith, 1 sole, 361 bass released

Sept. 23 – 8 boats, 150 anglers: 56 dorado, 5 yellowfin tuna, 45 rockfish, 39 whitefish, 19 sculpin, 10 vermilion rockfish, 6 calico bass, 5 bocaccio, 3 sheephead, 2 sand bass, 1 triggerfish, 226 bass released

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