This is a bit late post but better late than never. I have been silent for quite a long time pursuing other exploits of late but I finally got around to meet up with some old boys at Avalon. This turned out to be a nice mini get together with @Mahigeer and @Jellyfish . My first time to meet Jellyfish in person.
It was great time of sharing our stories and respective presence with some great shore anglers. Fishing wise, it was very interesting too. My plan was to do night fishing for sharks and calicobass. So instead of leaving Long Beach in a wee hour like I usually do, I left home around noon and arrived at Avalon around 3pm. Joining Mahigeer san who were already there, I was to fish evening bites, all night for sharks then morning bites before I take off the island around noon next day. I liked this idea fishing wise but the traffic I had to suffer during my returning leg plus tiredness I had due to lack of sleep lasting a couple of days were some hefty price I had to pay for. In any case, it was a nice and fun trip.
So after I arrived at the mole, I found the weather was nice and water very fishy. Knowing that barracuda was around from some boat fishing reports, I rigged a metal jig with my shorejiggin rod and tossed it far. A big hit was had on the first cast. What came was indeed a nice keeper barracuda!
I thought it would be a giddy fishing day but it turned out to be pretty slow after the initial hit. Occasional small spanish mackerels that was all. Only after sunset, I managed to land another keeper barracuda. 2 hits 2 fish was a good tiding I say.
Night fishing was mostly slow fare too. Earlier the evening, I managed to land some short calico bass like this one. I was using cut fillets of the Spanish mackerel I caught earlier on hi-lo rig with only low loop used. Another heavy rig with wire leader was tossed with cut barracuda chunk.
But mostly silent thing for the entire night. Both Mahigeer san and I dozed off until we heard one strong hit on the shark rig, making the clicker sounded crazy for about 2 seconds. This woke both up and I ran to the rod but it was too late. Both fish and bait was gone. That was only event that was worth to mention for the night. Despite that, I have to say I love the night at the pier. There were no one else fishing, having the entire mole to ourselves. The sound of bait fish jumping around in dark sounded like a heavy rain. Moon lights dancing in reflection on the black water surface.... They certainly have totally different look in the night.
I woke up 5am and started to fish for morning bites. No barracuda is to be seen. No bonito either for the entire trip. It seems that when barracuda shows up, bonito seems to disappear. When I was thinking like that sort of fishing things, something took my metal jig and dashed into kelp. It was rather large fish I could feel on my hand holding my reel. An idea of yellowtail flashed in me as I heard that some locals landed two large yellowtails a day before. But what came up after playing with kelp, the usual bale out and on and out and on and out ...., a nice 18inch calico bass came out!
After the sun rise, I switched to a bait tackle borrowing Mahigeer san's rig and found some halfmoon and opaleye.
This halfmoon was so gigantic that it was going to swallow the annoying boat for us!
Thanks for reading! FN
It was great time of sharing our stories and respective presence with some great shore anglers. Fishing wise, it was very interesting too. My plan was to do night fishing for sharks and calicobass. So instead of leaving Long Beach in a wee hour like I usually do, I left home around noon and arrived at Avalon around 3pm. Joining Mahigeer san who were already there, I was to fish evening bites, all night for sharks then morning bites before I take off the island around noon next day. I liked this idea fishing wise but the traffic I had to suffer during my returning leg plus tiredness I had due to lack of sleep lasting a couple of days were some hefty price I had to pay for. In any case, it was a nice and fun trip.
So after I arrived at the mole, I found the weather was nice and water very fishy. Knowing that barracuda was around from some boat fishing reports, I rigged a metal jig with my shorejiggin rod and tossed it far. A big hit was had on the first cast. What came was indeed a nice keeper barracuda!
I thought it would be a giddy fishing day but it turned out to be pretty slow after the initial hit. Occasional small spanish mackerels that was all. Only after sunset, I managed to land another keeper barracuda. 2 hits 2 fish was a good tiding I say.
Night fishing was mostly slow fare too. Earlier the evening, I managed to land some short calico bass like this one. I was using cut fillets of the Spanish mackerel I caught earlier on hi-lo rig with only low loop used. Another heavy rig with wire leader was tossed with cut barracuda chunk.
But mostly silent thing for the entire night. Both Mahigeer san and I dozed off until we heard one strong hit on the shark rig, making the clicker sounded crazy for about 2 seconds. This woke both up and I ran to the rod but it was too late. Both fish and bait was gone. That was only event that was worth to mention for the night. Despite that, I have to say I love the night at the pier. There were no one else fishing, having the entire mole to ourselves. The sound of bait fish jumping around in dark sounded like a heavy rain. Moon lights dancing in reflection on the black water surface.... They certainly have totally different look in the night.
I woke up 5am and started to fish for morning bites. No barracuda is to be seen. No bonito either for the entire trip. It seems that when barracuda shows up, bonito seems to disappear. When I was thinking like that sort of fishing things, something took my metal jig and dashed into kelp. It was rather large fish I could feel on my hand holding my reel. An idea of yellowtail flashed in me as I heard that some locals landed two large yellowtails a day before. But what came up after playing with kelp, the usual bale out and on and out and on and out ...., a nice 18inch calico bass came out!
After the sun rise, I switched to a bait tackle borrowing Mahigeer san's rig and found some halfmoon and opaleye.
This halfmoon was so gigantic that it was going to swallow the annoying boat for us!
Thanks for reading! FN
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