I had family come to visit over the holidays, and they decided to spend some time at Avalon. Naturally I planned to fish.
I arrived around 5:40 pm, and immediately began fishing the Mole using slabs of mackerel on dropper loops. That moonlit night was beautiful. I caught a ~ 20" horn shark, a 20" calico, and a 10" calico, and missed a couple fish. I fished until 8 pm, then headed to my hotel room.
The next morning, I headed down to the Mole at 5 am and began fishing the same rigs as last night. While the baits soaked, I cast jigs and feathers for bonito. I got another horn shark on the bait rod, this one was around ~30". No love on the bonito or mackerel. I continued fishing at the Mole until 12pm, and I managed to catch a 17" sand bass, two whitefish and the usual small perch. However, I saw large schools of what I think were sargo (they had a single narrow dark band around the midsection) that refused to bite any baits. I also saw what I thought was initially a small bat ray, as all I saw at first was a pair of flapping fins. However, once the fish came close to the pier, I realized it was a monstrous sheephead - easily 25+ lbs. I moved to the GPP and began fishing for opaleye. I managed to catch two opaleye, a 15" calico, and one 12.5" sheephead, with many more shorts and lost fish. I took the 3:50 pm boat home.
While I was cleaning the fish, I found what appears to be a section of rockfish skin inside the larger calico's stomach. Given the size of the scales on it, it was from a good sized vermilion or copper. Interesting to see where scraps thrown off sportfishing boats end up.
I arrived around 5:40 pm, and immediately began fishing the Mole using slabs of mackerel on dropper loops. That moonlit night was beautiful. I caught a ~ 20" horn shark, a 20" calico, and a 10" calico, and missed a couple fish. I fished until 8 pm, then headed to my hotel room.
The next morning, I headed down to the Mole at 5 am and began fishing the same rigs as last night. While the baits soaked, I cast jigs and feathers for bonito. I got another horn shark on the bait rod, this one was around ~30". No love on the bonito or mackerel. I continued fishing at the Mole until 12pm, and I managed to catch a 17" sand bass, two whitefish and the usual small perch. However, I saw large schools of what I think were sargo (they had a single narrow dark band around the midsection) that refused to bite any baits. I also saw what I thought was initially a small bat ray, as all I saw at first was a pair of flapping fins. However, once the fish came close to the pier, I realized it was a monstrous sheephead - easily 25+ lbs. I moved to the GPP and began fishing for opaleye. I managed to catch two opaleye, a 15" calico, and one 12.5" sheephead, with many more shorts and lost fish. I took the 3:50 pm boat home.
While I was cleaning the fish, I found what appears to be a section of rockfish skin inside the larger calico's stomach. Given the size of the scales on it, it was from a good sized vermilion or copper. Interesting to see where scraps thrown off sportfishing boats end up.
