BKR - Point Dume - Dang that's cold.

Yikes...56.9 Degree water on the surface and 52 below.  I dive with a heated vest in the Winter and by the end of my first 50-minute dive I was shivering.  We covered the area marked on the attached Navionics Chart varying from 25'-50' and found the most fish hovering around the 25'-35' range.  Lots of action with the typical shallow water rock fish and even a few small Lingcod. 

We looked hard for any halibut but no luck, we didn't see any nor did we scare up any.  3 weeks ago, Jack Bushell had good luck in this area but too many storms and too much time has elapsed.  

We usually make 3 dives, but I was happy to head home after just 2.  I was colder than normal and couldn't think of anything other than the heated seats in my truck.

Catalina 4/20-21

Left San Pedro at 8 am Saturday morning with a scoop of nice slimy deans. First stop was west cove, plenty of other boats on that spot hoping for the same thing. No bites other than mackerel, I didn’t see anyone else hook up. We then made our way down the beach, through Iron bound cove for no bites or signs of life. Lobster bay only produced a small white fish. We drifted Cat harbor after reaching out to Dave H. for some advice.

 His guidance was correct. After drifting over and over we got bit off multiple times, on the same spot. We pulled the plug after a few hours and made our way to the west end humps. Landed 3 nice bocaccio and called it a day. Anchored up near eagle reef for the night.

 Next day we had mackerel boiling all around the boat, same as it was in west cove. I made about 20 macks for bait and headed back to cat harbor to drift for halibut again. We didn’t land one but something chomped my mack in half without a good hookset. Then we got bit again on the mack just at Pin rock. Confident with the new technique Dave H. told us to do and how to do it, we moved down to little harbor and scored our first legal halibut. Stoked with our first Halibut, we tried and tried again until the wind started to pick up. All in all it was a great learning experience. Using a hootchie rig, slow trolling a mackerel with a stinger hook, missing bites and finally landing a halibut.

Note: Tons of sailing jellyfish are everywhere around the island and tons of mackerel are eating them. Also saw a huge blue flying fish as we left Avalon.

Quick Dana Point Report for Sunday 4/21.  Launched the boat with my oldest son around 7 AM and headed out to the headlands to make bait.  My son caught a couple nice Calico's while I dropped the sabiki on bait balls.  And I did see some Barracuda follow my sabiki up to the boat.  The bait was a nice mix of small mackeral and a couple sardines off the point.  After that we head down to San Mateo point and drifted with bait on the bottom looking for halibut while we fished plastics for bass. Lots of Sand Bass on both Bait and plastics.  Had a few raked baits but no luck on the halibut. The area was very fishy with lots of birds and tons of bait.  The highlight of the day was catching a Thresher Shark on my bass rod.  A lot of fun on light tackle.

SD bay fish report for 4-1 to 4-20 

I have been fishing the back part of the big bay from the bridge to pepper park … mainley for bonefish , leopard sharks , shovel nose , bay rays , angels sharks .. . Water temp started at 60 and is up to 65 yesterday … clarity is stained with about foot of visibility . Depth is anywhere from 13’ to 2’ … for bone fish been using live gostshrimp… for the sharks been using dead sardeans and squid … on a dropper loop or Carolina rig on 50 lb ..,bite has been real steady on a good moving tide .. now is the time to get out there .. I can guide you on your boat or you can charter mine … captainclowers.com or call me direct 619-800-3474 . 

Had the opportunity to take Pablo out yesterday in the Bay …. Lots of bone fish with lots of sharks .. leoapard , smooth hounds yellowfin Crocker … pretty much wide open … now is the time to go ! 619-800-fish or captainclowers.com