By Capt. Steve Lassley
I can feel it in the air — it’s that time of year again. If you love fishing tournaments, then September in California is like Christmas to a little kid. The anticipation, the check in, the shotgun starts — all of it — what an adrenaline rush.
Unfortunately I can’t fish the Catalina tournaments this year. I’ll be in Mexico getting ready for the tourney’s down south. But for all you So Cal boys, the local fishing isn’t as bad as some guys make it seem. Is there a lack of fish? For sure, but I have only been out like, I don’t know, less than three full days with our boat (which isn’t set up for our fishing). In that time period we have seen six marlin and went 0-for-2 on bites. On both of these the sea-surface temps were right on.
Early in the season, when we had the first marlin of the So Cal season on, we saw two sleepers on the hot side of the edge. The other day we went out for five hours and we had a jig bite, and saw a tailer and a jumper. These fish were on both sides of the break. Ryan, who is fishing with Lance on the Leslie Ann this year, called and told me he had also seen a tailer. He said they didn’t spend any time there and basically just straight-lined through the area. I know Ryan and am 100-percent for sure that he gives out good fishing dope. That gave me a place to start. I looked at all the SST stuff and saw a 32-mile-long, north/south break that went right across the 209.
Pretty much a no-brainer — good info and good water on structure…
It was also within about 12 miles from where Jimmy Kingsmill had a seen a fish four days before. We got to the 209 about 9 a.m. after a little bit of a late start and then catching bait. I made a tack across the 209, the 312, the Footprint, then into the beach off Carlsbad. The 209 looked the best so at 11:30 we blasted back to the 209 for the late tide that was at 12:30 p.m.
We arrived 10 minutes before the tide and started trolling north, tacking back and forth across the break. After 20 minutes we had a jig strike on the hot side of the break, maybe 400 yards off the edge. About 10 minutes later we saw a jumper. Then I found a tailer. I almost glassed right over it as it only had half a tail, literally. It could only bob up on the biggest swells and was getting so high out I could see the finlets on the side and top as well as the blue color in the tail. I was getting closer and closer but didn’t know how to switch the controls over to the tower by feel as this is a new boat to me. I was forced to get out of the glasses at about four boat lengths and then run off the bridge to put the boat in neutral. Anthony could have done it but he was running a bucket of bait and his casting rod to the bow because there is no bow tank on the boat yet. We felt a little like the keystone cops. Needless to say that one was long gone.
I do have to say these SST shots we are getting are looking a lot like fall pictures. That just makes it that much easier to find fish as all the water is compressed into vey definitive pieces that are usually well formed and pretty small (as compared to the entire bight). I do wish I could have done just one three-day trip. I saw so many pieces of good water in So Cal that I wanted to explore and I know nobody got on any of it. I always fish the best when I can spend time looking everything over, put it all together and stomp ‘em. I’m not so good at this radio, telephone stuff. It makes me appreciate what many of you guys are up against with limited days and limited time on the water.
If I was fishing the Catalina and So Cal tournaments this year I would find out where one fish was seen. Go look at the break. Plot it out on your plotter or write it down on a piece of paper. Mark where the top, bottom, inside and outside edges are and then grind it up until there is no water left. Then walk home. I just about guarantee you that if you’re patient and don’t wander off you’re gonna get a shot or two. You might want to have two, three or even four places plotted out. If somebody is getting bites and you aren’t seeing anything I would run to one of the other edges. If they don’t pay off you might have to do a little poaching and get into the zone that’s biting. I can’t believe I just wrote that. I HATE when guys do that!
Writing this I am even more acutely aware that I SURE DO MISS fishing against you guys. Good luck out there.
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