advice on fishing trips, early Sept. near Huntington Beach

Started by tristan, May 04, 2019, 10:11:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

tristan

Looks like I'll be in California come September, and would love to do some fishing!

Can anyone offer advice on which boats are good to take out for the day, or even a couple/three day trip in the general vicinity of Huntington Beach?  Willing to drive a bit as well.

I know Charkbait has a shop in the area, are there any other good shops in the area?

Thanks!!

Fishy247

Looks like you're going to be in the area at the right time! September is usually a good month in SoCal. You've got a few options near Huntington. Newport Beach has boats that do overnight trips fishing San Clemente Island and offshore when the fish are there. To the north, you have several landings to choose from. Long Beach and San Pedro both have landings. About an hour south is San Diego. You can get any kind of trip there. Check out 976-TUNA.com and Sportfishingreports.com. Between the two of those, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what's going on and where, as well as what trips are available.

Good luck when you get down there!
Mike


mojocvh

Quote from: Fishy247 on May 04, 2019, 11:05:19 PM
Looks like you're going to be in the area at the right time! September is usually a good month in SoCal. You've got a few options near Huntington. Newport Beach has boats that do overnight trips fishing San Clemente Island and offshore when the fish are there. To the north, you have several landings to choose from. Long Beach and San Pedro both have landings. About an hour south is San Diego. You can get any kind of trip there. Check out 976-TUNA.com and Sportfishingreports.com. Between the two of those, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what's going on and where, as well as what trips are available.

Good luck when you get down there!
Mike

I caught the largest fish ever off a Long Beach charter. 32lb barracuda about an hour or so out [at a fair old clip] to a seamount position.

44 years ago lolol.
I loved my slosh's until that dammed Avet turned up!

Brewcrafter

Tristan - Also look at Dana Wharf in Dana Point (South of Huntington).  They have one boat (The Fury) that runs pretty affordable overnight/1.5 day trips out to the islands and the banks, and lately has been doing good on Yellowtail and some tuna.  Good time to be here!

gumpie44



Like Dana Wharf Also....Nice Place, Lot's Of Options, Plenty Of Boats...1/2 Day To Full Charter. Very Close To Huntington Beach, Lots to do and see in Dana Harbor. Google Dana Wharf....Website has all options and prices.
Lived in So Cal for 25 years fished lots of landings, Dana Wharf is a favorite.  Enjoy the trip.
Barry  :)
Barry
Carpe  Diem   The Days Go Fast

tristan

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

I'm going out on the overnight tomorrow out of Newport Beach, on the Thunderbird.   Seems they've been getting some good action lately.  They still have 5 seats available, 22 hours leaving at 9pm 9/2...   Just in case anyone had a last minute hankering to go fishing!  

Thursday, I'm set for an all day on the Fury out of Dana Point.   They still had some room too, last time I checked...   ;)

Hopefully we'll have some luck.


SoCalAngler

#7
Go get them. I know the Tbird has not had great reports for the last couple of days but Jeff is very fishy and tries real hard. Most of the LA and OC boats are not fairing well right now as it seems the bite is a little more south than they could head to on a overnighter, but that can change tonight.

Light line no more than 20 lb test with fluoro, some say a #2 hook but have a few #4's and don't be afraid to step down to 15 lb test line. You got to get bit first to lose a fish.

I was in that area last week, fish boiling everywhere and not many took a a hooked bait. I stepped down to fishing 20 lb Seaguar Premier flouro with a #2 hook and only got one fish. It went for the JP but it was only about a 22 YFT and only 7 were caught on our boat that day.

I was not on either boat your going on so I can't say much there, other than go small and worry about it later.

I was kicking myself for not bringing one of my 15 lb setups.

tristan

SoCalAngler, what's the bait situation?   Real small baits?

Those two boats seemed to fit my schedule the best, with some catches in the recent past - hope all the stars align, know what I mean?

I have one spinning rig which I can downsize tomorrow if necessary to 20lb...    I've got some #2 hooks, some small weights if necessary.

Thanks for the heads-up on the current situation.

Smols

I'll chime in here... The bait will be sardines - and will range in size daily - but usually between 4-6 inches. As was stated earlier, 20lb and small hooks are key as these fish are picky eaters. Yesterday's reports had the majority of the biting school sized yellowfin further south - off Ensenada near the Hurricane Bank. Not sure if that is in range for your overnight trip. There is another area of fish just north of the Mexican border, in US water, that has been around for 10 days or so. That bite is slowing down as the volume of fish seems to be less. These fish have been mostly 12-20lb yellowfin with some 20-40lb bluefin mixed in. I've never fished the thunderbird so can't help there but hopefully the captain will put you on the fish. For your all day Dana point trip, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but the local bite has not been good. You can expect mostly sand bass and calico bass on that trip. So hopefully you will get your tuna fill on your overnighter.

Smols

SoCalAngler

#10
For our trip the bait was fine to very good and most of mine swam well. The problem was the fish, they wanted light line. Well ,not even that for us.

With the extended weekend most of the bait barges will be very busy/hammered hard and I bet they won't have really well cured deans.

If you can get yourself a colt sniper 100 gm or smaller, I don't know the sizes, but the smaller ones have been getting bit better. On my trip the only guy to hook 2 fish used these. He seemed to be a very good fisherman but lost both fish when they came unbuttoned.

Edit: Oh yeah on our trip 2 different boats handed off there bite to us and one was the Tbird. Both boats got limits but we could not get the fish to go for us, but that can happen. It was very frustrating having fish boiling not more than 15 yards from the boat eating every chummed bait and I would cast right into the boils for nothing :(  Well not nothing I did get one,

If you are going for tuna, right now I would not even step onto a boat without a 20 lb setup. So, yeah if you have a setup for that rig it up.

tristan

So I must admit I'm new to this particular game.

So you'll understand if I ask a couple noob questions.

When you say 20lb setup, you're not talking bigger gear with a light leader, but more like heavy freshwater gear or inshore 20lb gear, right?


I was practice casting my gear with 30 & 40lb line, down to 1oz weights, doing OK...   Getting about 35-45 yards.   But IIRC Sardines would only be about 1/2-1 oz., right?

I'm headed out to the store, will check into the colt snipers and such.   

Thanks for intel, guys!

Smols

The problem with the heavier line, even with the 20lb fluoro leader, is that the bait has to work harder to swim. With the likelihood of the bait not being the in best shape, and with these fish being picky, I would prefer to set up a reel with a long top shot of 100 yards of 20mono attached to a 3ft 20fluoro leader. We had a good day on these fish with that setup on a private boat about 10 days ago. Good luck!

Smols

SoCalAngler

Being new this may not mean a lot to you but my 20 lb setup was a Avet SX 40 lb braid backed with a long 20 lb topper, I added around a 5-6 foot piece of fluoro on top of that. Rod was a Calstar 800XL. Wish I would of had my 15 lb setup which is a Seeker BlackSteal 196-8 matched to a Newell G220.

Good luck and post a report if you can.

tristan

20lb fluro and #4 bait hooks unavailable so far this morning.   Will check at the dock.
Did pick up a lighter rod, which should make casting a light bait a bit better.

Is this a sport or an affliction?   Asking for a friend.    ;)

I'll put a 20lb topshot on my gear as necessary.

Just notified we will need a Mexican permit.   I'm thinking that's a good sign. 

I think I've gotten enough gear cobbled together to make it work, if the fish will cooperate.   :)

Thanks a million, guys!