The sun was still fairly high in the sky as we boarded the Native Sun at Berth 55 in Long Beach, CA. Aboard were 41 anglers – some new, some veterans and regulars – and they were all ready for a night of fishing. The barracuda had popped up off Long Beach earlier that morning, so we were hoping they would pop back up for us night fishermen.
With anchovies and fresh frozen squid on board, we headed out just a couple miles outside the Federal Breakwater, where Captain Gabriel Ceballos metered some barracuda, and ordered Deck Boss Thomas Dunkerley to throw bait. We didn’t see any gar crash the surface, but there was a lot of fish on the meter.
All of a sudden, Raul Martinez hooked up with the very first barracuda of the evening on the jig. That got the blood pumping for many anglers as a lot of them started throwing jigs.
The first to hook up on bait was Neleah Nunez of Paramount. She was out fishing with her sister Tatiana and dad Ed, celebrating her 10th birthday. She caught not one, but two large barracuda.
A popular technique for taking barracuda is throwing a jig. Surface irons are very popular, but in a situation where the fish are deeper, as was the case on this trip, a smaller, heavier jig works the best. If you are fishing bait and the fish are deeper, try fishing a dropper loop with the liveliest anchovy you can find in the bait wells, one with all its scales. A hot bait is the key to getting bit.
Unfortunately, even with all the barracuda marks, they just didn’t really want to get with it. After the sun went down, we shifted our focus to bass over structure. When you fish bass in structure, you need to keep your bait in the structure. In this area, if you are away from the structure, you may get a sculpin, but rarely a bass. The big bass like it in the structure. Some spots that Gabriel fishes are not as structural, so a cast-and-drag technique works well.
A good amount of sculpin came over the rail while we were fishing for bass. While bass is our main target, sculpin provide plenty of excitement and are great eating. This season, twilights on the Native Sun have seen sculpin up to three pounds. They don’t get very much bigger than that!
Everybody on the boat was fishing hard for the bass, but they just didn’t want to bite this night. However, the bass that were caught were the quality grade. The biggest of the night was five pounds, nine ounces. On most any other night past that bass would have won jackpot, but not this night with barracuda on board. Raul Martinez took jackpot honors with his big gar.
Captain Gabriel saw a big jag of barracuda on the meter at one point this night. They are out there. When they want to really go on the chew is undetermined. Until then, fish hard, and you’ll be rewarded.
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