Finally had a chance to try getting in on the best so cal dorado fishing in my lifetime. Left the slip from Huntington Harbor at 4:45 am with three other hooligans on my buddy’s 26 foot Skipjack “Jugular”. Got sardines at Nachos then jigged up 100 mackerel for the second bait tank. Headed south in greasy flat conditions.
Started finding lots of kelps about ten miles south of the outer rigs. Hit patty after dry patty, working our way south. I knew it would be a numbers game - only one in 20 kelp patties is holding biting fish, but if you find the magic patty it’s game on. We finally hit some 70 degree clean water about ten miles south of the 14 mile bank, and pulled up near a cluster boats on a giant kelp. One sport boat got there about the same time as us. A few fish were jumping, but
none of team Jugular was getting bit, and there were only about three hookups among all the other boats. So after about 30 minutes we bailed.
Proceeded south and about 20 minutes later we came upon another scenario just the previous one. A few fish, but not the concentration of biters we were looking for, so off to continue the search. Five miles north of the 209 we hit 71 degree water and I spotted a nice patty so we stopped on it. After a few minutes of no action, I noticed two small boats about 300 yards away with fish jumping around them. So we left our baits out and started slow trolling toward the other boats. About 40 yards away from our dry patty one of the guys gets picked up on a live mackerel. Stopped the boat and chummed a bunch of chunk bait we had chopped up. Gold, green and blue streaks began emerging around the boat and for the rest of the day it was a bite on every cast.
I was using 15 pound fluoro tied to 50 lb braid and a small circle hook. Others got bit on up to 25 pound leader, and one tried 40 lb fluoro but the Mahi refused it. Bigger fish on live macks and smaller fish on the dines, but both were getting hammered on every cast. We each kept a few fish and began releasing. When our arms were tired we left em biting. Spent exactly 12 hours on the water. What a great day!
Started finding lots of kelps about ten miles south of the outer rigs. Hit patty after dry patty, working our way south. I knew it would be a numbers game - only one in 20 kelp patties is holding biting fish, but if you find the magic patty it’s game on. We finally hit some 70 degree clean water about ten miles south of the 14 mile bank, and pulled up near a cluster boats on a giant kelp. One sport boat got there about the same time as us. A few fish were jumping, but
none of team Jugular was getting bit, and there were only about three hookups among all the other boats. So after about 30 minutes we bailed.
Proceeded south and about 20 minutes later we came upon another scenario just the previous one. A few fish, but not the concentration of biters we were looking for, so off to continue the search. Five miles north of the 209 we hit 71 degree water and I spotted a nice patty so we stopped on it. After a few minutes of no action, I noticed two small boats about 300 yards away with fish jumping around them. So we left our baits out and started slow trolling toward the other boats. About 40 yards away from our dry patty one of the guys gets picked up on a live mackerel. Stopped the boat and chummed a bunch of chunk bait we had chopped up. Gold, green and blue streaks began emerging around the boat and for the rest of the day it was a bite on every cast.
I was using 15 pound fluoro tied to 50 lb braid and a small circle hook. Others got bit on up to 25 pound leader, and one tried 40 lb fluoro but the Mahi refused it. Bigger fish on live macks and smaller fish on the dines, but both were getting hammered on every cast. We each kept a few fish and began releasing. When our arms were tired we left em biting. Spent exactly 12 hours on the water. What a great day!
