Rockfish season wraps with heavy sacks and monster lings

January 2, 2025

3101

Ventura Harbor Sporfishing’s Island Spirit decks 39 pounder

Merit McCrea

WON Staff Writer

VENTURA – All along the coast from Morro Bay to San Diego the final days of the Deep-Only rockfish season saw some final catches of tasty rockfish and other bottom biters. Perhaps the heaviest catches came from the northern sector, as many days of calm water greeted anglers making their way offshore.

CHECK OUT THOSE GUNNIES behind this Island Spirit angler with a 39-pound ling. PHOTO COURTESY OF VENTURA HARBOR SPORTFISHING, ISLAND SPIRIT

Another stand-out came aboard the Triton, L.A. Waterfront, and it came with a report of limits of lobster on a combo-run. While the rockfish season is a wrap until April, lobster hooping rolls .on along with the opportunity to take whitefish, bass, sculpin, halibut and of course, sanddabs by the hundreds.

Aaron Graham, owner and skipper of the Native Sun out of 22^nd Street Landing will be one boat in the fleet keeping active there. He is upping the game on his popular halibut tournament, with new prize sponsors adding some great prizes to the options.

As for those dabs, the Ahra Ahn out of Long Beach Sportfishing has already run a few trips and the rewards have been good, with anglers putting on 150 or more dabs each. If you’re looking for an inexpensive option to put a lot of great eating fish on the table, dabs are definitely it.

As for whitefish and sculpin, the local LA/LB feet has been scoring close to limits and sculpin seem to be a given as well.

With all the fresh squid available there’s a good chance we’ll see some solid winter bass action on the lead-head and jig-n-squid, especially for those willing to fish after dark.