This El Niño is great! We’ve got glory fish close enough to Santa Barbara that we could darned near catch them from the beach.
The monsoonal influence has the weather a bit strange too and when we put it all together we have short boat rides to some fabulous fishing and an opportunity to fish and sing in the rain while pulling on freight-train fish like yellowtail.
These catches are members of the jack family, like amberjack and jack cravalle, and when they hit, it feels like a runaway freight train is on the end of the line.
They make adrenaline glands pump and spurt like a volcano!
A run out to the Channel Islands adds possibilities like dorado and even striped marlin.
There have been a few tuna caught inside the Channel and lots more caught out on the backside of the islands.
A word of advice about dorado… in restaurants we know it as mahi mahi, but in fishing circles we would never call it such a thing. We use the Spanish word, dorado.
On the east coast it is frequently called a dolphin fish, but in California, calling it that would probably be like political suicide. (Californians are nuts like that!)
Normally we just don’t catch dorado this far north, however, this is a strong El Niño. They followed the extremely warm water up here, so we are blessed for as long as it lasts.
Last weekend a group of three ladies chartered my boat, WaveWalker, to take them fishing. We caught fish and they had so much fun that the one who put the group together called me back the next day to see if we could do it again.
On the following day, I took two of the ladies (one couldn’t get out of work) out for another great adventure.
First we jigged up some mackerel right out in front of the harbor and put them in the bait tank. With large live baits, we cranked up those big Yamahas of mine and blasted out to the 4-Mile where we put those baits on hooks for livelining at the surface and on sliding sinker rigs to drop them down just a bit farther in the water column.
We put the rods in “rocket launchers” (that’s what we call rod holders) and waited. While waiting we busied ourselves dropping baited rigs to the seafloor and catching red snapper and lingcod, all great tasting fish.
It was a wait, but when the fish decided to bite, both of our rods in the rocket launchers suddenly bent deeply and the reels’ clickers began screaming like maniacs on the loose.
We jumped into action, fighting big fish. As if on cue, the skies darkened and those big monsoonal drops began falling.
The day was warm and we dried right out, so it was comfortable, but it created such a scene that we had to sing in the rain as we fought those ornery fish.
A big yellowtail is an admirable adversary, and it was a lengthy battle. It is easy to begin to tire during a long fight with a fish that doesn’t want to budge.
The ladies about died laughing when I loudly told them, “Put down yer purses and pull on those fish!”
Soon we had two big, beautiful California yellowtail on board and the high-fives began.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
