Been periodically checking out the pier last 2 months since seeing posts of tiny Bonito at Huntington, Newport and the Wedge, nothing until finally connecting last week.
I always monitor all around from sinks for bait activity. Conditions looked good with decent volume of top smelt hugging the piers and passing sardine balls, but was not seeing any B-sign on various lures.
8/27 - 4p (2.5 hrs)
Finally last Tue evening stopped at the pier and it was pretty empty but good conditions so started tossing splasher, very slow with occasional blowup when I find a willing school. A few of the evening Sabiki crew were picking off 3 to 6 at a time per usual. I got no love on CD-10 or kroc, picked off 5 on splasher with a lot of missed strikes.
8/29 - 9:30a (3 hrs)
Tried the early bite, avoiding the EARLY masses, pier was mostly empty, Lots of top smelt walled up against the pier. Bonito there bombing the bait, not hitting splasher or kroc. Saw a lot of bait attacks inside the trash cans and worked the bait wall with kroc picking off a few with a lot of school fallow ups. Went back to end and finally picked off e few around noon on splasher. 5 in the cooler, 2 back to fight another day.
Interesting big dolphin pod moving FAST with a boat along side them
9/5 - 10a (4 hrs)
Another early day to keep cool with 100+ temps inland OC. Pier mostly empty again, good amount of smelt spread out, not packed in close, with sardine balls passing through.
Lots of life with many dolphin pods casually cruising around, some VERY close to pier, and large pelican flocks. Slow fishing with a strike every 30 min on splasher. If it was a single it was a miss, a school it ended up a double catch. Casted right into boils with no love, lots of bonito strafing the smelt straight down. Finally a consistent bite seemed to open up around 12:30, but it was just 1 biting school that hung around for about 10 min and left. Back to the slow bite.
One guy was using live smelt on slider for nothing.
Very few mackerel being caught by the mackerel anglers
I always monitor all around from sinks for bait activity. Conditions looked good with decent volume of top smelt hugging the piers and passing sardine balls, but was not seeing any B-sign on various lures.
8/27 - 4p (2.5 hrs)
Finally last Tue evening stopped at the pier and it was pretty empty but good conditions so started tossing splasher, very slow with occasional blowup when I find a willing school. A few of the evening Sabiki crew were picking off 3 to 6 at a time per usual. I got no love on CD-10 or kroc, picked off 5 on splasher with a lot of missed strikes.
8/29 - 9:30a (3 hrs)
Tried the early bite, avoiding the EARLY masses, pier was mostly empty, Lots of top smelt walled up against the pier. Bonito there bombing the bait, not hitting splasher or kroc. Saw a lot of bait attacks inside the trash cans and worked the bait wall with kroc picking off a few with a lot of school fallow ups. Went back to end and finally picked off e few around noon on splasher. 5 in the cooler, 2 back to fight another day.
Interesting big dolphin pod moving FAST with a boat along side them
9/5 - 10a (4 hrs)
Another early day to keep cool with 100+ temps inland OC. Pier mostly empty again, good amount of smelt spread out, not packed in close, with sardine balls passing through.
Lots of life with many dolphin pods casually cruising around, some VERY close to pier, and large pelican flocks. Slow fishing with a strike every 30 min on splasher. If it was a single it was a miss, a school it ended up a double catch. Casted right into boils with no love, lots of bonito strafing the smelt straight down. Finally a consistent bite seemed to open up around 12:30, but it was just 1 biting school that hung around for about 10 min and left. Back to the slow bite.
One guy was using live smelt on slider for nothing.
Very few mackerel being caught by the mackerel anglers
