The Gail Force followed with 14 folks picking another 13 flats to go with 16 calico bass. The Sport King also got ‘em, though the numbers never appeared anywhere. On the overnight run, the Toronado pulled 48 flats and 4 yellowtail. But the Enterprise 3/4-day kept it real and coaxed 16 barracuda, 21 bass and 98 bonito – the 3 Bs – plus spiced it with 4 yellows rather than churning the channel in search of dodos.
And while the sculpin hole finally backed down production from instant limits to fishing, the City of Long Beach took 44 folks to bag 185 and added 140 bocaccio and other rockfish. In contrast, the Native Sun 3/4-day spent Saturday struggling to get frothing masses of bluefin to bite something with a hook and line attached for a single fish. Then Sunday they were back at it again, but with different results – a 20-count of 40- to 50-pound class bluefin and 4 dorado.
The big game was less of a longshot on the longer trips and the overnight to 1.5-day runs made their efforts count much more consistently, the Freedom with 12 anglers on a 2-day getting 90 flatheads plus 21 yellows and a few bass, barracuda, bonito too. The Eldorado overnight also connected well with both dorado and yellowtail, while Long Beach Sportfishing’s 3/4-day Victory and Ahra Ahn kept to basics stopping on the sculpin before heading on across for some island nearshore fishing. The Victory emerged with 125 sculpin, 21 barracuda, 44 calico with 14 keepers, a bonito, 43 sheephead, 25 whitefish and 10 rockfish on Sunday.
