With school starting on February 1st I wanted to get out one more time. Got invited by Jimmy Bass (you can read his report here) who also posts reports on FishingNetwork.net to go out of Redondo Sportfishing on the Tradition on a Saturday Bass / Structure fishing trip. I had not been out of Redondo for about a year (did a sculpin run on the Betty G a year ago) and after reading all of Jimmy’s posts for the past few months wanted to get out on Tradition and fish with him. Worked out great, so I packed up my stuff Friday night and headed down to Redondo on Saturday morning.
Got down to the landing around 5:15am and picked up my tickets at the shop and went over to the marina where the Tradition is docked. Noticed right away that the Saturday run has a big group of regulars that Jimmy is part of. Looked like it was a good group of guys to fish with. Total of 12 guys went out, deckhand came on up and started taking tickets and we left the dock right on time at 6pm.
The sun came up and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise right off LAX.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Jimmy had emailed me earlier in the week telling me to pick up a bunch of 2oz leadheads and to put 25lb test on my reels before coming out. I’ve done some structure fishing out of Long Beach and LA before but nothing like we did today. I ended up bringing my Penn Squidder 146 with new 20lb, and my Newell S229-5 also with 20lb (I had just put on new line so I opted to go a little lighter). Good news was I did not get cut off the whole day, other than when I snagged the rock and had to break off. I brought my Calstar and a new rod I just purchased, a Okuma Baidarka Kayak Rod BK-S-761M which I got for $44 at Turners. I bought the Okuma because of the two rods we lost in December going overboard (read about it here and here). This one floats so I feel better letting my friends borrow it and my 6 year old son can use it as well. Rigged up both with just a leadhead 2oz and waited out the ride as we went from Redondo to the Pacific Palisades area. I fished the whole day with just a straight leadhead with a whole dead squid. I did notice that most of the regulars were fishing with a green plastic as well, I had some stuff in my bag but I decided to keep it simple all day.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
We used frozen whole squid the whole day.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
First stop the grumpy sand bass started to come over the side. Learned with the structure fishing that once someone found the rock you moved to that side. I’ll be honest, I did not do this all the time or ended up on the edge of the rock at most of the spots. Which means I did miss some opportunities, but it I still brought in fish. Got 3 just short calicos on this stop which all went back home, some big sand bass came aboard as well. The blacksmith perch were all over the bait at most stops, I ended up snagging 4 of them over the day which I threw back as well.
Second stop I ended up on the rock right away and pulled up 2 nice sand bass, and farmed a few as well. They hit hard and if you are not paying attention or miss its over. Go a nice sculpin on this stop as well. Every stop we had the fish would start up, then slow down and die off. We ended up moving about 5 times all day.
Jimmy working the structure.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Beautiful day in the Santa Monica Bay.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
At the last stop I pulled up another nice sand bass and another sculpin.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
I also got my first cabazon in a long time. Beautiful fish which was released, photos never do them justice.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Like this all day
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Captain rolled it up around 2:30pm to get back to the dock at 4pm. Jimmy worked till the very end, got his limit after the anchor was pulled. A happy Jimmy at the end of the day.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Jackpot was called, a nice big sand bass caught by one of the regulars. Group shot by Jimmy.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Here was my take for the day.
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
Had a blast out there, crew and boat were great and the fishing was a challenge, unlike the summer sand bass runs off the Huntington Flats. All the fish were quality bass, big dark and rich colors. I could have landed a few more fish, but I learned a lot from everyone and l really look forward to doing this again before the bottom fishing season opens up in March. I’d also like to thank Jimmy for getting me to go out and try it!
My totals for the day
3 Sand Bass (kept)
3 Calico Bass (released)
1 Cabazon (released)
2 Sculpin (kept)
4 Blacksmith Perch (released)
Boat totals for the day
12 anglers
8 Calico Bass
68 SandBass
8 Sculpin
20 Perch
Everything cleaned up and ready for the freezer…
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
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| From 29th Trip: 3/4 Day Tradition Bass Fishing Trip |
