San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Hello all,

Here's what I saw at Barrett this Wednesday. Got there at 0415, on the water at 0445, once again moving as if I had all day. Air temp wasn't bad, wind was pretty light also. Water temp at Pigs, was 78.3F. Caught first fish at 0500, which was nice. It always feels better after you have that first fish skunk off. Took a while for the next fish though. Popper bite was spotty and there were more than a few missed. But then I thought to follow the miss with the little bluegill jig. That was a good move. Over the course of the morning, I pulled in 23 bluegills. All decent size and on the ultralight, they pull the drag and everything a bigger fish does. Maybe even a little better, taking scale into account. I microsized my jig for the bluegills. It's 1/32 and oddly, they cared about the color. I had white, silver, a sparkle blue and chartreuse. Chartreuse was the clear winner.

Total bass for first part of the morning was only 7. One on crankbait, three on poppers and three on jerkbait. Then came the boils. I will state, I have witnesses. Chuck and I both pulled over 30 bass each for the day. The boils were later and there was a little wind on the surface, but the fish were busy, busy, busy. We were using stick baits and jerk baits. I got zero on a jig I was skimming through the boils, but maybe that was my skill set, more than the lure. Had some very amusing angry bass hitting multiple times on the topwater until they were hooked. Great blowups and had a lot of fun with Chuck on his kayak and a couple of guys in a boat.

Thanks for the report..!

Looks like a Prop strike on that Basses back. I killed a Marlin once when I hit it in rough water with my Center Console. Never saw it until I hit it. Jumped over and grabbed it as it sunk. Made a lot of Tacos at the Descanso fire pits, just past the Casino. Always great times in Avalon, 26 miles from Newport, a Thousand miles away.

bendopolo 44+ wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:10 am Looks like a Prop strike on that Basses back. I killed a Marlin once when I hit it in rough water with my Center Console. Never saw it until I hit it. Jumped over and grabbed it as it sunk. Made a lot of Tacos at the Descanso fire pits, just past the Casino. Always great times in Avalon, 26 miles from Newport, a Thousand miles away.

You jumped over in rough water to get a fish? That's a commitment. See you Saturday.

Great report as always Dave! That was truly a great day getting them on top water especially a 4lb der on a popper. This place is magical!

Nice job out there Dave! Interesting on the mini jig. In the past it was a go-to when the bite got finicky later season. And a productive one at that. Yes there's lots of bluegill bycatch (or are the bass bycatch?) but we seemed to catch more bass and many nice sized at that. Its a real trick landing them with those tiny barbless hooks though. The bluegills are just a blast out there too, healthy and mean!

PS I’ve tried posting this like 5 times so if all 5 suddenly show up, sorry lol.

JWall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 9:09 am Nice job out there Dave! Interesting on the mini jig. In the past it was a go-to when the bite got finicky later season. And a productive one at that. Yes there's lots of bluegill bycatch (or are the bass bycatch?) but we seemed to catch more bass and many nice sized at that. Its a real trick landing them with those tiny barbless hooks though. The bluegills are just a blast out there too, healthy and mean!

PS I’ve tried posting this like 5 times so if all 5 suddenly show up, sorry lol.

Hi, I figure why not target the bluegill directly, I think they are awesome fighters, everyone of them pulled drag out on the 4lb rig. And they seem to always be ready to go. When the bass are quiet or shutdown, the bluegills always seem ready to go. The biggest problem with the bluegills is you can't lip land them, so occasionally you get poked by a fin, when they wiggle. I did weigh a couple of the bluegills, all the bigger ones were ranging from 12 ounces to 1 pound 3 ounces. Not a single bass on the mini-jig, and I didn't have any on the larger bass jig. Last week I had better success on a mid sized jig, so maybe I'll try that again.

Good seeing you guys out there that day, my buddy and I were in the boat. We started in pine, had some good blow ups on a popper, couple 3+ lb bass. Missed a couple good ones also, but that bite on the wolf packs was pretty cool. They were all over the jerkbait. Think we had 60 total ( I had 43 ) 30 + were on the jerkbait. Good times guys , watching them throw your bait 3 feet in the air was wild

Good to meet you both. Sure was a fun day and we all got a lot of memories from it.