Catalina white seabass on the chew. Does it look like it will last?

05/06/2012

Catalina white seabass on the chew. Does it look like it will last?

Captain Jeff Jones from Captain on Board was on board Mike Mundy's 38-foot Uniflite the Mundy Mooring when he saw birds picking at the water on Friday. Jones, Mundy and Dennis Friedman were pre-fishing Catalina Island for the Southern California Tuna Club Spring White Seabass Tournament.

As Jones neared the backside, east end of Catalina, he also noticed that conditions were optimum and like all really great skippers, had a gut feeling that things looked really fishy. Jones anchored up, started to chum when the bite took off. "We hooked two fish and got them right away," said Jones. Then another fish got tangled in the kelp and just wouldn't come out. Jones tossed another squid out and instantly hooked up.

When the men reached their 1-fish limits, they quit fishing. Other boats noticed the action and moved into the area too. "They instantly started to hookup," said Jones. "It was full rack; epic."

Earlier on Friday, Jones had been soaking a live squid around the middle, backside of the Island on 15-pound test when he hooked a gorgeous 36-pound seabass. "It was one bite, one fish," said Jones. "That's why we went looking."

On Saturday, the white seabass bite just shut off. Not one single croaker was taken during the tournament. Was it the boat pressure? Changing currents and water temperatures or was it just the fickle gray ghost?

By Sunday, the light switch had been flipped back on with several boats, including Options and many other private boaters taking their one fish limits of seabass. Conditions all seem to be ideal now and with the white seabass penchant for biting when there is a full moon, the Super Moon certainly will not hurt.

Get ready for one of the best bites you'll encounter anywhere. Taking monster, hard fighting, great eating fish in as little as 10 feet of water is an anglers dream come true. But remember, this is the gray ghost and like most ghosts you just never know when they will appear and disappear again.

Photo: Captain Jeff Jones with a 36-pound white seabass taken at Catalina Island on Friday.
Credit: Captain On Board

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