2002 Saltwater Fishing Reports

October 23, 2002:
La Paz / Panga
This year Josh, Mike & Steve were joined by Mike Ramirez for our yearly trip to La Paz. Even though Jonathan (http://www.tailhunterinternational.com) had warned me that the fishing has been more consistent on the Las Arenas side we chose to fish 2 days out of La Paz & 2 days out of Las Arenas. Next time I'll listen to him! Our first day (Oct. 23rd) was out of La Paz with Josh/Steve on 1 panga & the 2 Mike's on the other. Making bait was tough, we tried several areas for a few scoops of sm. sardines but it took a couple of hours. Mike's Panga had finished making bait before us so they trolled a Big Hammer & a Krocodile along the island towards the pargo grounds waiting for us to catch up. The Big Hammer put a nice sierra in the boat before getting shredded by triggerfish. We set up 25 lb. rigs to slow troll sardines along the shallow rocky outcroppings. Steve hooked & lost a nice dorado right away along w/a strong pargo. Mike Ramirez caught a 30 lb. class dorado which would be the fish of the day. We each got a couple of pargo up to 10 lbs. with an assortment of trumpets, triggers & needlefish. Low on bait & tired of sm. fish we trolled offshore towards the bajo. I got a 15 lb. class dorado & Steve had a rapala buzzed off by a wahoo. Mike's boat never got bit offshore. After hearing of 65 to 85 lb. tuna on the Las Arenas side I made desperate call to Jonathan asking if there was any way we could switch our next La Paz day over to Las Arenas. I was amazed when he told me "Consider it done, no charge" especially considering the much longer shuttle ride, THANKS!!

We met the shuttle promptly @ 5:00 am for our much anticipated trip to Las Arenas. Today Josh/Mike fished together putting Mike R. w/Steve. Our skipper made bait in the dark putting us on the tuna grounds just after first light. Mike was on solid in a matter of minutes using dead bait on 50 lb. It took me about 10 minutes to get bit after switching from live to dead sardines. I put the hurt to him pretty quick followed shortly by Mike's fish. Ready for more we fed our dead baits line to allow them to sink along w/the chum for about a minute before we're both on again. As we're battling these brutes the skipper's flylined sardine gets exploded on. He just set the hook, put the rod in the holder & gave us a mischievous smile. After landing my fish I went for the hooked up 40 lb. rig in the holder. These turned into long drawn out battles as Mike & I tired from 3 lg. tuna in a row. I went into do or die mode & began the short strokes & hard pulling. I was so tired there was a bit of relief when the tuna's teeth finally cut through the 40 lb. Maxima. When Mike got his fish we decided to spare our back's & troll for wahoo. Steve/Mike R. had a similar day & began trolling a P/B Yozuri & a Marauder. Shortly after we decided to run in to throw some Big Hammers at the roosterfish Steve hooked & landed a 45 lb. skinny on the yozuri. Mike & I stopped on some buoys on the way in to practice C&R on some sm. dorado using 4" Prizm Shad on 3/4 oz Fishco heads. This bait is a great replica of the sardines down there & got bit the best inshore. We pulled up to shore in perfect shallow blue water to find waters full of life. Boils would appear as soon as the skipper would throw a handfull of bait. The little roosterfish chased & attacked anything that moved, just pitch the swimbait back to the boils & hold on!

Friday we woke up to some very strange dark weather. Once we got to the beach it was obvious no one was fishing today. All the Panga Captain's were just standing around watching the waves crash on the beach. Everyone was so excited by the previous day's success that was very disappointing to not be fishing. Not sure what the hurricane would do people started changing flights to get out before things got ugly. Once again Jonathan came through, giving us constant satellite weather updates & our odds of getting out on the water Saturday. Thanks to his tireless effort we got out again Saturday instead of panicking & flying home on Friday.

Saturday I fished w/Mike R. leaving the hot boat to Mike & Steve. We were one of the last pangas to make enough bait but that gave us time to take advantage of the WFO sierra bite going off all along the beach. I was really surprised at how well the Big Hammers held up to those toothy critters. By the time we got out to the tuna grounds most of the boats were already on their second drift in windy conditions. Mike R. got bit at the very end of our first drift w/most of the line out on his TLD 30. I noticed the skipper was sending out my 40 lb. rig, so I went to give him a 50 lb. setup to use instead. It was too late, so my 40 lb. nightmare began again. It was a long, tough tug-o-war to get him to color where he remained for way to long. Now Mike has his fish to color also both doing huge death circles. They eventually crossed then immediately wrapped each other over & over. It was chaos but we got them apart & went back to work. Mike got his fish to the bow while I was circling in the rear of the panga. Finally my biggest yellowfin ever is right alongside the boat. The skipper sunk the gaff but couldn't lift it out of the water. With a huge explosion of water it ripped the gaff from our skippers hands peeling half the line from my 16s. I eventually worked him back up to color where a very tired Mike was still battling his fish. We didn't get as lucky the second time our lines crossed as mine was cut. Our next drift Mike R. hooked up again as tuna came up boiling on our chum. I noticed a sailfish cutting through the boils as my line started screaming. I set on him & he came out of the water twice before throwing the hook. Mike got his tuna right as a school of dorado came through for our light tackle delight. We finished of a day of drama by having the hook pull on a wahoo. Mike Dunlap got big fish of the trip with an 85 lb. tuna caught the last day. Overall great trip considering we caught 15 tuna from 60 to 85 lbs. a bunch of dorado, a wahoo, roosterfish, pargo, cabrilla, sierra, & various reef fish.

Thanks again to Jonathan Roldan, the only way to do La Paz!

Click here for pictures.

October 5, 2002:
5:00 AM / Dana Landing / Little Striper / 3rd Place
Josh, Steve & Ken started fishing the wrecks in front of the harbor for a steady bite on sm. sand bass mostly on the 5" Silver Sardine Big Hammer. Our next spot was around La Jolla Canyon & the Torrey Pines Reef. We spent most of our time in this area along with a bunch of other boats fishing the halibut division for a few shorts & a shovelnose. A decision was made to work the inside of the kelpline back down around the point. With 2 hrs left I finally hooked a decent fish on lg. sardine that ended up @ 8lbs., which was second largest halibut of the tourney. We kept drifting this sm. sandy area in 20 ft. for raked baits & missed bites each drift. Once we drifted onto the hard bottom the slime sticks would take over. I landed a 24" on the Silver Sardine Big Hammer & Steve lost what looked to be a very good fish before we had go get back. First place was around 23 lbs. w/4 fish. The big fish was a 14 pounder also making second place w/1 fish. My 12lbs. was 3rd place. We also had 10 lbs. w/4 sandbass but it took 14 lbs to get 2nd. Ron & crew came in with 40 something odd pounds of yellowtail & won the class by 10 lbs. He also took big yellowtail with a 16 pounder. Weighed in @ 2:30 pm.

October 4, 2002:
5:30 AM / Dana Landing / WitchCraft
Due to drama w/our tow vehicle the "Striper" was stuck in Ensenada so Friday Steve & Ken brought down the "Little Striper" to fish the halibut division in the W.O.N. tournament. Early Fri. morning I drove down to Paradise Point to meet Capt. Ron Atwood, Tom Pak & Mike to Pre-fish with them. They were planning on heading to the Butterfly but I brought some info that pointed us towards the 390 in perfect conditions. The jigs were in about 10 min. when the B/P Yozuri & Cedar plug stopped us. I hooked up on the slide using a 4" Prizm Purple Big Hammer on a 1.5 oz silver Fishco head. Everyone got a baitfish or 2 with the sm. sardines getting bit better than the large ones. Ron pointed the boat west looking for some fish bigger than 20 lbs. We came across a few paddies & 2 of them were loaded w/sm yellows that we left biting. Tired of the lull we headed back to our previous area where we found a couple of boats all stopped. We slid in & started chumming the tiny sardines/anchovies. That started a plunker bite that we fished (releasing smaller fish) until we were plugged & tired. Back @ ramp 4:00 PM.

September 22, 2002:
8:30 AM / Coral / Striper
Josh, Mike & Steve ran up the coast to fish some local kelp for bass. The calico's were there eating the oranges & browns best right along the kelp edges. I got 4 between 4 & 5 lbs. & a short seabass. Mike lost a real toad just under the boat but he got a few nice ones also. Not very many sm. fish, only 2 sandbass & a couple of rockfish. Back @ ramp 12:30 pm.  Click here for pictures.

September 21, 2002:
3:00 AM / Coral / Striper
Mike, Steve & Josh Dunlap found Justin sleeping in his truck waiting to fish with us for the first time. We then met up with Greg & Ray on the Marlin Rouge. Being new to private boating they contacted us via the site to buddy boat & learn their way around. The fog was as bad as it gets so it was a slow ride down to see Mike for bait. By the time we got there we had a train of boat following us, we joked that if we ran aground it would be a pileup. Happy just to have bait we left with a mix of lg. sardines & mini macks. The fog didn't thin out until well past the gap where the slop took over. The further out we got the nicer it was but the run to the 295 was a slow wet one. The purple daisy chain provided a few stops but just singles w/one baitfish. Our first double & baitfish turned out to be skipjack. As we trolled up to a sm. paddy a skipjack ate the daisy chain followed by an albacore on a sardine for Steve. I picked up a 20 lb. tail on the same kelp on a sm. mackerel. A very sm. nearby kelp held a couple more 10 lb. yellows. Greg & Ray had 1 in box & it had slowed for us so we picked up to run to #'s provided by Blackbeard 10 mi. south of the 295. Half way there Justin spotted some jumpers that looked like nice bluefin. Jigs back in, we started circling the area when all hell broke loose. It started with a double then I hooked up on the slide w/a p/b MC Swimbait . Suddenly freeswimmers were thick under the boat & boiling on chum & hooked baits right next to the boat. I called Greg/Ray into the action & the fish put on a show for them a couple 100 yds. away also. It was 2 hrs. or so before we were tired & plugged (released many of the smaller fish). Back @ ramp 2:00 PM.  Click here for picture.

September 15, 2002:
6:30 AM / Coral / Striper
Josh, Steve & Mike R. made the quick run to Punta Banda to try our luck at the bass. Mike R. got the only bass amongst tons of red crabs but there were some nice lingcod to be had on the swimbaits. We also caught a few rockfish including a very nice red & found a kelp area infested w/olive rockfish. Back @ ramp 11:30 am.

September 14, 2002:
3:00 AM / Coral / Striper
Mike, Steve & Josh Dunlap along with regular Mike Ramirez headed down to Ensenada harbor to see if we could make any bait since none was available. We failed but decided to head out to see what we could do with artificials. Around 15 mi. out the seas turned nasty & continued to worsen the further we got on our 225 heading. At first grey light 21 mi. out I decided to put the jigs out since the water had just jumped to 66.5 & we couldn't go much faster than trolling speed anyways. In about 3 minutes the p/b yozuri was bit so Mike D. put that one in the boat while we dropped back swimbaits for nothing. It wasn't long before the cedar plug went off pretty good so I grabbed it landing a bigger albie around 20 lbs. Since the seas weren't cooperating & we didn't have any bait, a decision was made to work the area instead of punishing ourselves further. An hr. went by before Mike R.'s funky green hardbait lure started screaming & I hooked up on the slide w/a 5" p/b MC Swimbait on red 1 1/2 oz. Fisco head. We gave out the #'s to some friends still searching & in about 10 minutes we had 10 boats working the area, each picking fish here & there. We continued to struggle with the rough wet weather & the fact that you had to clear the weeds from the jigs every 5 minutes for a couple more hrs. before throwing in the towel. Back @ ramp 12:00.

August 24, 2002:
5:00 AM / W.O.N. MDR Tournament / Little Striper
Ken Gorsline JR., Steve & Josh Dunlap left the harbor along with 67 other teams for some friendly competition. We decided to start w/our local stones & work north. First cast Steve hooks up solid on a sardine but after a short tug-o-war his new 15 lb. Maxima breaks. My suspicions were confirmed after a quick check of his drag, absolutely locked down. We caught a couple of sm. sandbass on the MC Swimbaits before it turned into a slow pick on junk. As we started bouncing our way up the line I caught a just legal halibut (released). We saw tons of bait & lots of marks on the meter but very tough fishing. Working some of the hard bottom/kelp line areas up along Malibu we came across a couple of spots thick with 25" seabass. Right around the tide swing you couldn't put anything in the water without it being attacked by the mini croakers. We bailed that area & headed back to spend the last hr. on the stones we started on. We started getting bit right away missing way to many fish. Kenny & I both hooked up solid at the same time but his got him into the rocks with mine being a 5.5 lb. sand bass. As far as I know that was the second in the big fish category for sand bass to a 6 pounder. I caught a short halibut before pulling anchor, again (thank god for the Blue Fever Gloves) to run back just making the 3:00 pm weigh in. 15 lbs. ended up winning the sand bass class, very disappointed we couldn't beat that. Only on tournament day! The rest of the weights were pretty impressive.  Click here for pictures.

August 17, 2002:
Striper / 5:30 am / Coral
Everyone was tired & sore so Mike R. & I just ran out to Punta Banda for a quick check on the bass scene. Mike R. was getting bit on a bright yellow 4" MC Swimbait almost every cast while my favorite 6" brown/orange was ignored. I switched to a 4" smelt color & got my only 2 bass but they were both solid 4 pounders. The ripping current stopped & so did the 1/2 hr. hot bite. We dragged the plastics through some boils to produce 2 bonito but we were to tired to enjoy them so we headed in. Back @ Ramp 9:00 AM.

August 16, 2002:
Striper / 1:00 am / Coral
Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap along with Mike Ramirez decide to head toward the double 220's to look for bluefin. Since we didn't arrive in Ensenada until 11:pm thurs. night we got gas, set up the rods & took off for the bait receiver. For once Mike didn't have much for information besides saying the further you get away from here the better. He was able to load us up w/perfect size cured sardines. Mike D. drove for the first couple of hrs. as Steve & Mike R. slept. I took over until first light when I handed off the wheel to Steve @ 55mi. & I began to look for signs of life. It wasn't a couple of minutes before I saw a flash in the water & the meter confirmed marks. We assumed trolling speed & were able to get 3 rods in before we were stopped by the cedar plug. Steve, Mike R & I caught 2 15-20 lb. baitfish each besides the albie caught on the troll. Barely moving the cedar plug gets hit again w/2 more baitfish in the 30lb. class this time. The next stop came quickly which filled the able limits for the 3 of us that were awake plus we released a few of the smaller baitfish. We then put out the big jigs looking for bluefin but didn't get much of a chance because Mike R. spotted one of the biggest paddies I have ever seen. I stopped 50 yds. away just knowing it would be loaded with jacks. The 3 of us were instantly pinned to the rail making enough noise to finally get Mike D. up. Not even awake yet he tossed out a sardine & nearly had his rod ripped from his hands. We played with these guys for about 1.5 hrs. before we were tired. We released most & broke plenty off in the paddy even on 40lb. 2 of the fish we caught had brand new owners in their mouth from breaking us off earlier. Tired, we got back on our search for bluefin but shortly came across another much smaller paddy but it had the same volume of quality fish. We tried those for a while hoping for the bluefin to pop up but we couldn't get through the yellows. A Skipjack came trolling by so we handed off the paddy to them & found out later they killed a bunch of yellows plus a few albies on it also. Tired we ran back to some warmer water I noticed on the way out. Spotting jumpers all along we couldn't resist catching & releasing a few more on each spot of fish. Finally we spotted a lg. area of 10-20lb bluefin jumping around but not hitting the jigs. We tried different tactics of sliding in on them but they kept sinking out & we had very little bait. I finally hooked one on 15 lb. fished way away from the boat but the hook pulled after a long battle. We tried a long soak with our few remaining baits until we spotted some larger boils 100 yds. in front of us. I came in down swell of them & we all threw the lightest stuff we had then let our baits run. Just as we were about to pack it in Mike R. hooks up solid & 30 min. later he landed his first bluefin just over 30 lbs. Another great day of fishing, pretty much hooked up all day. Once again we were all amazed at the strength of the yellowtail. Mike R. & Steve even resorted to putting hooks on troll rods to try to keep them under control. I broke several off on 40 lb. doing a tug-o-war at the paddies edge. Back @ ramp 3:00 p.m.  Click here for pictures.

July 20, 2002:
Striper / 4:45 AM / Ensenada
Today the decision was to go a little more south to look for bluefin early then search the warm water on the inside for exotics. Once again, as we're setting the lines a single on the outrigger resulted in a 20 fish stop w/most of the baitfish released. We started working our way in to the warmer water when I spotted some jumpers. This turned into another C&R frenzy with fish eating every piece of chum dropped right next to the boat. As the tuna stop slowed Steve & Ken both hooked up solid at the same time. Steve's turned out to be a very long/skinny mossback but he sawed Ken's fish off in the process of trying to tame that tail on 15 lb. line. Mike's bait provided a perfect mix of sm.-lg. chovies topped with sm. sardine hook bait that made it very easy to keep the fish around for long stops. As we got into the warm water we put on some marlin jigs & a disco wood for flatheads but nothing. At 25 mi. from the hotel Steve spotted jumping bluefin so we slid in chumming heavily & we all went bendo in 67 deg. water. Steve backlashed his cast so he just reeled over the tangle when he was picked up. He cranked a 15lb. bluefin right to the boat but while he was fumbling for the gaff it took off & broke the line as soon as it hit the tangle. The rest of the 50+ fish we caught this day were albies but BlackBeard managed a couple of the darker variety which went down nicely at their pad. THANKS! Awesome WFO Greasy Flat Weekend! Back @ ramp 2:30 p.m.  Click here for picture.

July 19, 2002:
Striper / 4:00 AM / Ensenada
Josh, Mike & Steve took Ken Gorsline Jr. towards the 295 in search of albies. At 35 miles the water temp. dropped from 66.5 to 64.5 so we began to set the troll lines in greasy flat water. BlackBeard announced he was stopped less than a mile from us so I knew we were in the right area. As Mike was sliding back the 3rdrof 5 troll lines it started burning then the outrigger went off. Boils erupted on the chum & we each able put a bait fish or 2 in the box. Limits of 15-20 lb. fish were had in 3 stops, every one producing baitfish. The Bluefever Short Pump fishing gloves are a must for C&R albacore fishing. They saved our hands from the usual line burns that are always the result of trying release tuna. Looking for variety we decided to head in early & checkout the yellowtail/seabass bite in the bay but it didn't pan out. Tons of tiny baitfish, birds, logs & boneheads so we got a jump on the fish cleaning. @ ramp 1:30 p.m.

July 13, 2002:
7:30 AM / Stearn's Warf / Leapin' Bass Summerfest Float Tube Derby
Pete & I met 8 other guys near the Santa Barbara pier for a little halibut derby & some laughs. We all started just to the south of the pier w/ a couple of sm. sandbass & lizard fish caught early by all. Everybody spread out w/most working north of the pier around the harbor entrance. I fished my way south inside the mooring, trying to stick w/a school of tiny anchovies that some birds were working. Every time I decided to leave the area the bait would pop back up again so I stuck around since nothing else was being caught elsewhere. After about 2.5 hours Pete finds the first halibut on a 3 inch Mackerel Big Hammer inside where I have been fishing. Shortly after I got my first of 2 shorts on a clear grub. A little later Pete ran into a flurry and got three in a row on the Excalibur Long A. One was 21.5 inches with at least an inch of tail rot (would've been legal) - DO NOT NET FISH YOU'RE NOT GOING TO KEEP! - Buy a BogaGrip or a Berkeley Lip Gripper. This is the second fish Pete's caught this year near Stearn's Wharf with tail rot. With about 5 minutes to go and no legals caught Mark announces that he's going to go to the other side of the pier, make a few casts, and give up. Sure enough on his third casts he hooks up with a 23 inch. halibut and takes the pot. So to sum it up: 10 anglers, 1 legal, a dozen or so shorts, a few sand bass, 2 lg. smelt, and quite a few lizardfish. About half the halibut were caught on 3" Big Hammers and half on crankbaits. Back @ Beach 12:30 p.m.  Click here for picture.

June 30, 2002:
Little Striper / Marina Del Rey
Ken & Kenny Gorsline took the Little Striper to a small structure spot near Topanga. We anchored on a rock covered with marks for a steady, all day pick on quality sand/calico bass to 5 lbs. We also caught several halibut including 3 just legals that were all released. Kenny topped the day with an est. 100lb BSB that ate a popsicle on a 15 lb. line. The swimming dinosaur was released without being removed from the water.

June 29, 2002:
Striper / 2:45 am / Ensenada / W.O.N. Saltwater Rodeo - 3rd place!
Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap ran to our #'s from the morning fish the previous day without a sign of life. As we worked our way NW we found a huge paddy w/ 2 small yellows we released, knowing the yellowtail weight would be substantial. A short while later we saw a sm. paddy with a boat hooked up 100 yds off the paddy. We eased up on the opposite side a good distance from the kelp & were all 3 bit right away but mine was quickly dropped. Mike & Steve each landed 14lb class albies. As the original boat came back to his paddy we slid off to go back on the troll to look for the 25lb class fish from the week before. We went dry 3hrs before Steve Ross on the Bad Dog put out #'s to his double hookup (THANKS). They were close so we worked toward him finding great meter marks but no strikes. We kept going over the same line & marks, each time switching jigs hoping to find the magic bait. I remembered the sm. baits in the belly's of the previous days fish so I put on a sm. pl/bk Rapala. It took major modifications to the bill & front hook removal to get it to pull straight in our pattern @ 7mph but it paid off. It was short bit in about a minute or 2 so we quickly stopped, threw bait & Mike put a 17 lb. baitfish in the locker. They wouldn't stick to the lure so we continued this process for an hr. putting on 4 more fish around the same size. Thinking 64 lbs. wouldn't be enough we decided to look at the banda bank for bigger fish on our way in then spend our last 1.5 hrs on yellowtail. That turned out to be a mistake because we were bumped out of 2nd. place by less than a pound. Back at the weigh in @ 3:40 pm. Congratulations to Capn. Ron for winning the outboard motor. Very Exciting!

June 28, 2002:
Striper / 4:15 am / Ensenada
Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap took off toward the same area we fished last weekend but the water was warm & green. We had to run to 39 mi. today to find some life & the right water. As we worked N. we were stopped by the bl/pl yozuri & mike lost a bait fish right under the boat. We worked the area for another stop on the yozuri & this time Steve lost a baitfish. The next stop came on a cedar plug but this time they came up boiling. I cleared the lines as Mike & Steve both hooked up on bait w/Mike landing his. By the time Steve handled his backlash the fish had gone under the boat & the hook pulled as the line made contact with the outboard. Did a lot of running around to look for a good temp. break that we never found. Ended up with 4 albies from 12 to 16 lbs. We decided to run back a little early so we could check out some of the yellowtail spots that have been producing. Inside punta banda the birds were working so we slid back a couple of sardines & the slime sticks went nuts. They were coming straight up out of the water after anything you skipped along the surface. We kept chumming, weeding through the snot missals & occasional bonehead until big boils came up on the stern. I landed 2 20 lb. class yellows on 15 lb. & Steve got 1 on 25 lb. line. Mike was hooked up for a while on 25 lb. to an obviously very heavy seabass that eventually bit through the line. His next cast he landed a nice but smaller seabass. With that we called it a day and headed for the ramp. 3:30 pm.  Click here for pictures.

June 23, 2002:
Striper / 7:00 am / Coral - Ensenada
Josh, his hangover, Steve & Ken Gorsline ran to Punta Banda for some Bass action & to poke around for seabass. I stopped on some marks little short of the rocks but those turned out to be slime sticks. The bass were on a decent bite but the best we managed was a 4lb caught by Steve on a sardine. I caught a nice ling on a 6" MC Swimbait in brown/orange. I spotted a nice lone leftover mackerel in the tank so I pinned him to some 30lb & sent him way back behind 2 Rapalas. It wasn't 5 min. of slow trolling him inside the rocks in 70' when it started screaming. Steve jumped on it so I told him to go ahead (I must have been hung over). After 30 min. and a nice battle a thick 25lb tail came to gaff. We tried a little more trolling w/sardines for a bunch of bonito, which were fun but thick. About a mile or so inside the bay a lg. group of birds/boats were working so we gave that a quick troll for a couple more bonito & a 10lb. yellow for Ken on the bk/pl rapala. Back at the ramp 10:15 am.  Click here for pictures.

June 22, 2002:
Striper / 4:15 am / Coral - Ensenada
Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap along with Ken Gorsline headed toward some #'s 35 mi. out given to us by Mike @ the bait dock. We stopped to put the jigs out 5mi. short of the #'s when the water dropped from 65 to 63 in the Trough. It wasn't long before we spotted a lg. paddy where Ken & I were each picked up but quickly dropped. Another drift provided 3 12lb albies on bait before our shadow for the day "Wasabi" parked on top of us after some ridiculous throttle work right on top of the paddy. After exchanging pleasantries we headed off in disgust but were quickly stopped on a sm. bk/pl jet head followed by a baitfish. Next was a double but no baitfish. The next stop on a bk/pl yozuri was a better grade & they came to play. We all got a baitfish but were hung on the 15lb line to long to keep these 25lb fish around for long. We had caught all our fish in 1 sq. mi. area so we kept working our way around that area for nothing else. We kept boxing a larger area but only picked one more single. Ended up with 13 albies from 12 to 26 lbs. @ 2:30 pm.  Click here for pictures.

June 9, 2002:
Striper / 4:30 am / Coral
Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap along Mike Ramirez took the Striper back to it’s home in Ensenada for the season & a shot at the albies. We ran 35 mi. on a 230 heading before we came across a couple of boats working an area of 62deg. green water with lots of life. We were debating whether or not to fish the area or look for blue water when we spotted some birds working a lg. area of boils. Throwing bait resulted in a W/O bonehead bite, which was fun but not why we ran so far. We were about to abandon the area when Tom on the “Wide Open” got double on the right kind. After checking a dry paddy I slid back my wood but was nailed before any other jigs were in. We threw bait & quality albies came right to the boat boiling. It turned into chaos being the first tuna stop of the year & only managed to put the troll fish & Steve’s baitfish on the boat. Mike R. was broke off on 15lb. & the school vanished. We continued to work the area for nothing but bones until Don on the Shana Maria called us to an area to the SW that put us 42 miles from the Coral. We ran over to his much nicer blue water checking numerous dry paddies along the way. Mike R. got a single jigstrike on a root beer feather but that was it for hours besides a quad on bonies. As the afternoon rolled around more boats showed up in the area & jigstops became a little more frequent for everybody. Our next stop was a double but Mike R. lost his troll fish while Steve put on another & I got my first baitfish of the year. We ended up with 2 20# class albies + 4 10-12 pounders & should have had twice that. Put the boat on the trailer @ 4:00 pm.

June 7, 2002:
Striper / 4:30 am / Marina Del Rey
Josh & Steve Dunlap along with Ken Gorsline took the Striper to check out the bay seabass rumors along with everybody else. We didn't see any seabass caught out of the 40 or so boats around us but got reports of some fish to 40lbs. We fished 3 mi. n. of Santa Monica pier in 100ft of water. There was all kinds of life in the area including: anchovies, smelt, sardines, red crabs, squid, mackerel, rays, bass & halibut. We caught 10 or so quality sand bass 4 - 5 lbs. (released). Right after the tide change Steve hooked & landed a 30lb + halibut on live squid. Shortly after I caught a 26" halibut (released). After 8 or so lg. rays & having the rest of our bait mauled by mackerel we called it a morning & headed for work. Pretty good 3.5 hrs. Put the boat on the trailer @ 8:00 am.  Click here for picture.

May 18, 2002:
Striper / 6:00 am / Ensenada
Josh, Mike & Mark couldn’t resist sleeping in and fishing the yellows again instead of going offshore due to the sm. size & lack of reports on the albacore. We got perfect sardines from Mike’s Bait & joined the fleet of about 30 boats for nothing in the first 2 hrs. Mark missed our first bite drifting a sardine. Shortly after Charo got a triple slow trolling sardines so we did the same putting 2 fish on back to back immediately. As soon as we put the gaff in my fish we headed back in due to boat problems. Put the boat on the trailer @ 10:30 am.

May 17, 2002:
Striper / 4:30 am / Ensenada
Josh & Mike Dunlap along with newbie Mark Oz left the harbor thinking of exploring for albacore in greasy flat seas. When we arrived at Mike’s bait all his lights were off then I remembered hearing a report from wed. that he didn’t have any bait so we turned around without disturbing him. Without bait we decided to chase the yellows from the previous week at the N. end of the island instead of going offshore. As soon as we put out the rapalas we heard Mike on the radio & found that he has had plenty of bait, just been working late & getting up late. CALL HIM ON THE RADIO BEFORE GIVING UP. We worked the usual areas but were just catching bonito so around 9:30 it was time to switch gears & start fishing the boiler rocks for a few bass plus a nice ling on the dark 6” MC Swimbait. The big sportcoats weren’t showing so off we went to check out Punta Banda. The lings were there in force eating the plastic but still no good bass bite. After fishing our way back up the backside of Todos Santos for nothing we put out the lures to troll the N. end again. As soon as the sun broke through the clouds at noon Mikes rod went off bigtime. Since Mark was a yellow virgin we let him pick it up & the show was well worth it. Having only fished for bottom fish it took some coaching & lessons on “pumping” a fish but I won’t soon forget his expression when that yellow hit the deck. We caught 5 more in the next 2 hrs including a double on lime colored slow trolled 6” MC Swimbaits. Good fishing but we had to work hard for the 14-19 lb very tough fish. Put the boat on the trailer @ 3:00 pm.  Click here for pictures.

May 11, 2002:
Striper / 4:30 am / Ensenada
Mike & Josh were joined by Mike Ramirez on the first trip of the season to Ensenada. We launched early with hopes of checking outside for albies but the ground swell & probability of afternoon wind kept us inside for bass. Salsipuendes held 58.5 deg. water which dropped quickly to 55.5 as you went N. around the point. That made the decision for us to work S. which paid off in a decent pick on 25+ all quality calico’s & 1 nice sandbass to 5 lbs. 6" MC Swimbaits rigged on 3/4 0z heads with 20lb line fished on our Leapin’ Bass Custom Calico Rods were the ticket, outfishing the sardines 4/1. We started to think about dinner so we headed to a nearby hardbottom area in 150 ft. for a quick pick on various bottom critters for dinner. 2 drifts produced plenty of dinner in the shape of lings, reds, & salmon grouper. When we turned down the stereo & turned on the radio we heard about some yellowtail biting @ the N. end of Todos Santos so we abandon bass fishing. We got there in time to see one tail caught before it turned into a bonito bite. The area was thick with red crabs & all sorts of life so we knew where we wanted to go in the morning. Put the boat on the trailer @ 2:30 pm.  Click here for pictures.

May 3, 2002:
Striper / 6:00 am / Ventura
Josh, Ron Atwood, Joey Peterson & Ed Zubiate decided to give the salmon another shot. We kept hearing how good the bite was yesterday but it never happened on fri. We fished 7-9 mi. n. of Ventura amongst the fleet on some of the best bait marks I have ever seen. Every school of bait was holding barracuda but the salmon weren't biting the trolled gear as well as the moochers seem to be doing. We managed to pick one on the pink rotary killer around 10:30 am & the next salmon wasn't until 4:00 pm on the green kroc. Put the boat on the trailer @ 6:00 pm.  Click here for pictures.

April 28, 2002:
Striper / 1:00 pm / Ventura
Sunday Josh, Mike & Steve Dunlap couldn't resist the taking advantage of the great weather so we took off to Ventura along with Mike Ramirez & his 6 yr old son Mike Jr. It was 1:00 pm when we put the boat in the water then made a quick run 9 mi. up the beach to start fishing short of the fleet on some huge bait balls in 100 ft. of water. The big slime sticks were in there pretty thick so we worked north losing our 1st salmon. It wasn't long before Mike D. got an 18 lb. salmon on a green kroc. with the down rigger at 100 ft. We kept fishing the birds and bait inside and south of the fleet & lost what felt like the right kind but it never stopped ripping drag until the hook pulled. Shortly after Josh hooked & landed our best one yet @ 27 lbs. Also on the green croc. with no flasher. Put the boat on the trailer @ 6:00 pm.  Click here for pictures.

April 26, 2002:
Switchcraft / 4:00 am / Long Beach
Friday morn. Captn. Ron Atwood his 7th grade teacher Rich Decudres & Josh Dunlap followed Ken Gorsline & Steve Dunlap on the Little Striper over to Catalina. After getting bait from Little Jack @ Avalon we ran up the backside to join the fleet at Little Harbor. No one was bent there anymore so we ran back to our spot at Ben Weston that looked good & started a drift. Rich's triple pinned glow in the dark white iron dragging on the beach was picked up which resulted in a 20# seabass. We called over the Little Striper & we both anchored up right in the surf for an hour long WFO bite on 20# class seabass with a few halibut mixed in. About 6 other boats moved in tight to us with everybody limiting. Around 9:00 am the wind started & the bite shut down so we ran around the West End to check out conditions before running home. We were told that there was a morning in West Cove also. We were back in Long Beach by 11:00 am.

April 12-14, 2002:
Lady Lu / 4:00 pm / Long Beach
Captn. Ron Atwood & Josh Dunlap were invited to fish with Dick Hatfield aboard "Lady Lu" in a tournament for Southern California Tuna Club members. Friday afternoon we loaded up with squid and headed for west cove and a quick poke around the west end backside to checkout conditions. We spent the night on anchor in Little harbor planning on fishing the same area we got fish last week first thing in the morning. At the first hint of grey light Ron was on the deck hearing bait hit the surface & birds diving but it was to dark to see where they were. By the time I got up & dressed he was hooked up on a double pinned glow in the dark white iron. I got on the swim step with a gaff in one hand & a spotlight in the other and put a 22 lb seabass in the box. We spent most the day working between there and Ben Weston but the only other tournament entry was a 2.5 lb calico. We decided to spend the rest of our time before the 3:30 lines out on a halibut spot on the east end. That's when we saw where all the boats were and got word of the awesome Friday afternoon bite at Church Rock. We boated a 25" & 30" halibut before heading to the weigh in boat in Avalon. The only other boat out of the 58 entries that came in with a seabass had a 38 pounder and won that class. The winning halibut came in at 20 lbs & the calico was 4.5 lbs. Thank's to the club for a great time and dinner, a real group of class act guys. We made it back to Dick's slip/house around 10:00 am Sunday.  Click here for pictures.

April 10, 2002:
Striper / 6:00 am / Ventura
Mike & Josh Dunlap brought Ed Zubiate and Lance Wheeler out on the Striper for some salmon fishing out of Ventura. We ran up to the gap along with the fleet to find calmer seas, birds working & good conditions. Mike put 1 downrigger at 100 ft. with 15 lb. line, a green Krocodile and no flasher. I put the other around 150 with a flasher and a silver Kroc also on 15 lb., which was short bit within minutes. That same rod was knocked down again before Mike hooked up to our only short of the day. It was about 10:30 before Lance put the first fish in the box on rotary killer fished in the center with a release clip and 1 lb. ball on 20 lb. line. After that the green kroc was bit about every hour on the downrigger at 100ft. We lost quite a few before I sharpened the single hook then it got 4 in a row. We saw a lot of bait on the surface so we put a rotary killer on 12 lb. line behind a chrome 2 oz torpedo sinker & got 1 on the surface. Lots of fun on the long-limber Leapin' Bass Custom Rod's with light line, especially the jumps & runs they do when you get them to the surface. Back @ ramp 4:00 pm.  Click here for pictures.

April 4-5, 2002:
Switchcraft / 4:30 pm / Long Beach
Ron Atwood, his 9 year old son Charlie & Josh Dunlap launched Ron's 26' boat "Switchcraft" out of Long Beach around 4:30 pm thurs. afternoon. After picking up some squid from the receiver we were off to the west end of Catalina. The last hour of daylight was spent in west cove for a couple of calico's and a short halibut. We decided to have dinner at the isthmus before anchoring up for the night. A lg. light boat had a huge float going so we stopped by to top off our squid supply then called it a night. The radio chatter woke me up before gray light so I got the gear ready before waking Ron & Charlie. I spotted Ken Gorsline & my father Steve Dunlap on the "Little Striper" (teamstriper.com) coming out of Twin Harbors. They had come over a few hours before us & side tied to a friend on a 40' Luhres "The Spot". We saw some good conditions in the Ben Weston area so The Little Striper settled in there & we ran out to check out some birds that were working what turned out to be feeding seals. Another boat came in and anchored next to the Little Striper & hooked 2 seabass landing 1 of those. We came in and set up for a decent calico bite before Ron & I each hooked up solid but were both broke off in the closed quarters. We hung there awhile picking at the bass before deciding to head for West Cove. Water was very clear there so we did a few halibut drifts which paid off for Charlie with his largest halibut to date at 35". We knew where we wanted to be for the evening tide change so we fished our way back down the island with a decent pick at the calico's along the way. After setting back up in our spot for a while with only a 26" halibut to show for it we pulled anchor to go talk to a commercial fisherman for any current info. While we did that another boat set up on our spot. A quick call to the Little Striper revealed that they had just farmed the right kind in the next cove over. We set up about 50 yards from them which must have been the right thing to do because Ron hooked up pretty quickly but it broke his 20lb flourocarbon leader right at the boat. I cast right on the beach, instantly I felt the bounce & as soon as I set the hook a 20# class seabass came 3' straight up out of the water like a dorado. After a careful fight on the 20# it felt good when the first seabass of the season hit the deck. I looked up to see Ken bent and he gets his into the boat also. Up on the bow Charlie's cranking the handle on his bent spinning rod gaining nothing. After an amazing battle & a trip around the boat Charlie got his first seabass, also around 20 pounds. Steve hooked up to a toad that we got a very good look at & probably could have gaffed from our boat if we would have been ready. His reel fell off of his rod & the slack line was enough to earn that 40lb+ fish his freedom. Ron was next this time his fish made it the boat where Charlie was standing eagerly with the gaff. Now with limits we moved out to let in a sm. skiff that was waiting patiently, who quickly got his fish which turned out to be the last. We headed to a friends condo in Avalon for a halibut/seabass BBQ. The Little Striper stayed for their limit & tried the morning bite sat. but nothing developed. They also said the squid was tough to come by friday night. Back @ ramp 12:30 am Saturday. Click here for pictures.

March 1, 2002:
Lady Lu / 4:00 am / Long Beach
Captn. Ron Atwood & Josh Dunlap were invited to spend the weekend aboard Dicks new 40' Riviera "Lady Lu". The 3 of us were loaded up with squid & on our way to West Cove to fish the grey bite friday morning. The water was 59.5 with a nice milky edge but loaded with baby seabass, calicos & halibut to just legal (all released). We left there due to the baby seabass & worked our way down the backside for a slow pick on small bass. The Orange Rock area produced a thick 32" halibut for Ron in 30' of water. By late afternoon we found some good conditions just n. of Church Rock for a good pick on sm. calico's & 1 27" seabass just before dark. We moored up in Avalon for a hot shower, good dinner & sleep. Went back to the last spot we 
fished for a slow morning bite on bass, a few short halibut & 1 25 incher before calling it a day at around 11:00 am. All fish were caught on live squid, Leapin' Bass Custom Tackle & 12 - 15 lb Maxima line. If your at the Fred Hall Show stop by and say hi we'll be in the Blue Fever Gloves Booth in the Meltons area. Back @ slip 12:00 am Saturday. Click here for pictures.

February 25, 2002:
15' Aluminum / 6:30 pm / Long Beach Breakwall
Josh & Ed Zubiate took out his little valco for a test run and some bass. We started working the inside of the wall near the bait barges with sm. swimbaits & lg. Grubs for nothing. We moved around the outside & found a slow pick on small calico's to 2 lbs. with the grubs working best. We ended up with 8 legal calico's 2 sandies & a very aggressive 20" cabezon that hit a 5" Big Hammer ass soon as it hit the water. There were about as many short fish as legal & all fish were released. I talked to a commercial gut that said calicos were on the chew at Catalina big time. He brought what he said was a 13 & 14 lb. back in his livewell and released them at the wall. Back @ ramp 11:30 pm

January 13, 2002:
Little Striper / 5:30 am / Marina Del Rey
Josh & Steve Dunlap Along with Ken Gorseline & Ken Jr. took out the “Little Striper” to follow up on Kenny’s toad. Loaded with nice 4” sardines we made the run up to Malibu. We halibut fished for most the day up around Peperdine with 1 @ 25.5" + a bunch of shorts, sharks & a few sm. sand bass. I lost a big halibut on a Big Hammer swimbait. At the end of the day we went to a sm. structure spot in 100 ft. in the bay loaded with toad sand bass.  We got 2 5's & a bunch of 3 & fours mostly on swimbaits. It was a sm. rock so we would just get 1 or 2 fish each drift then have to do it again. I also got 6 mantis shrimp, 5 on swimbaits (very weird). Back @ ramp 4:00 pm.

January 2, 2002:
Little Striper / 5:30 am / Marina Del Rey
Steve Dunlap & Ken Gorseline took Ken Jr. out on their boat the “Little Striper” for some post-holiday halibut action. “We got such an early start the bait boat wasn’t back yet, so we fished outside the break wall waiting for the sun to come up or the bait boat to come in.” The sun was first so we headed up to a spot off of Topanga armed with frozen squid & swimbaits. Working the 75 ft. depth range the squid produced lots of trash fish & a couple of sand bass. By 7:30 am Ken Jr. had enough catching Croakers so he hooked a nice 8 incher to some fresh 15 lb Maxima fished on a Leapin’ Bass Custom Rod & Calcutta 400. It wasn’t long before Ken Jr. was hooked up solid, carefully following his fish around the boat 3 times before bringing it to color. “Both of us were bit while Ken Jr. was fighting his fish but we missed both of them during the excitement & trying to fit this huge halibut into our net.” The 50 lb digital scale bounced between 39 & 41 lbs before breaking. We fished the area until noon for nothing but were anxious to get to work on this amazing fish. We attempted to stop by the 76 dock to get a more accurate weight but there were to many yachts trying to gas up. It measured 48”.. Back @ ramp 12:30 pm.  Click here for pictures.

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