BY Merit McCrea
NEWPORT BEACH – It was good, then it got better. The chatter among the Newport legends started Saturday the 21st. First it was Donny Brockman “Sand bass are biting in the mud the last 3 days” “limits fishing for 3 boats that fished them.” “They’re in the mud, big volume.” Mike Thompson responds with something that cannot be repeated. Brockman sends across a photo of the meter with solid worms across the screen.
Then Aaron Graham on the Native Sun, 22nd Street Landing has posted a photo of a tote full on huge sand bass. Not just barely squeekers from 14 to 15 inches but big ones. Donny, “Freelance is already limited out today with 50 people.” More banter, Thompson back and forth but nothing safely repeated here.
Then by Monday the 23rd it was Louie Zimm, He’d found them chasing anchovies out in 20 fathoms of water on the flats just above the border with Mexico too, more big ones. More photos of meter screens filled with fish, anchovies with sand bass all over them. Says mostly 16 inches but a few under 14 inches as well, lots of bait schools. SAC President Ken Franke was on that string and wanted to know if the area of fish extended on both sides of the border but Zimm hadn’t crossed.
Throughout the following week the counts and reports continued to roll in, San Diego, Dana Wharf, Newport, Long Beach and San Pedro, the sandies were on ever flats anchovy zone along the coast. There was video of Mike Morrison on the bait boat in Long Beach Harbor with big anchovies everywhere, in the tanks, still in the sack over the side, swimming around on deck, the report was they made a swing trying to get just a piece of the school, still managed way too much in the net and let out 90% and still had more in there that they could load.
Baby brown pelicans swarmed over the corks and were stuffing themselves inside and outside the net.
But all week still no word of the sand bass arriving into Santa Monica Bay yet. Some years back in the day of the big bites, they just never got that far north out in the mud. Others they hit there and kept on coming, even out onto the flats in front of the mighty Santa Clara River, the next big bait producer up the line.
Then today (Sunday the 29th) it happened. The New Del Mar had 200 big sand bass on their afternoon run. They had loaded on the sculpin during the AM run
.
It’s amazing but that’s the way of the sand bass. Big volume just shows up all of a sudden after years of being a minor contributor to the recreational catch. It goes on for a few years while the combination of lots of anchovies and warmer inshore waters persists. Then it dwindles, maybe surges back, dwindles as conditions don’t line up for a while.
The big bites of the early 2000 kind of ended when those giant squid showed up – everything kind of ended and pickings were slim for almost a decade on all fronts after they came through – 2005 through 2014 were some rough years.
But now it’s game on. Local fishing at it’s finest. Time to take the kids out for some success on the water, smash a few anchovies and jamb them on the hook sideways and still get bit. Fish your home-made lure that “should work” but never did and see it perform like a champ on something besides rockfish out at San Miguel Island.
The fleet has been fishing to the new 4-fish sand bass sub-limit since June 1 and any day now that’s what the regs will read. If you’re a first timer, bringing home your own catch and enjoying it with friends and family alongside home-grown veggies is an awesome treat not to be missed in this day and age.
If you’re out on the water twice weekly you might consider letting more than that night’s dinner swim back. Save that freezer space for something that requires a gaff to land.
As for gear and terminal tackle, ask a crewman, but basically any 15- to 20-pound rig is great, spinners for kids and newbies, low-pro conventional for more experienced anglers. Swim baits are a plus, maybe a jig stick in case barracuda show if you’re into the iron.
Number 2 live bait hooks are standard for anchovies. Fishing that with a ½-ounce slider or pinch-on sinker is good, although sometimes sticking with a dropper loop rig works better. Dropper loop weight preference depends on current and the fish.
People talk about fly-lining anchovies but nobody actually did that. It was all 1/2-ounce pinch-on or rubber core sinkers and a #2 live bait hook fishing anchovies on 15-pound.