Thanks here's my report as of 8/28 Saturday - I found that the end of the Cabrillo Mole they have daily "large" item storage spaces where you check in your fishing rods for $7. That combine with the lockers for $1 per access made for a convenient one day trip that allowed me to go sightseeing and also fish.
We did the submarine tour that took u to Lover's Cove and saw so many huge opaleye, calico, and some other kind of fish with stripes (it didn't look familiar to me but had the body of a perch). I thought for sure I'd be able to catch one of those huge fish.
I started fishing around 4PM and the conditions were perfect. Water temp was 72 degrees and outside was 80 degrees and low wind. Calm water and I didn't see any kelp on the top of the water.
I fished 2 rods - one 6 1/2 ft rod with float set up on size 8 hook then switched to dropper loop with only one hook after no success (since there was no kelp on the top I think the fish were lower in the water) and another 7 ft rod with dropper look single hook with size 1 circle hook.
I used green peas for the smaller rod (2-3 peas on the hook) and market shrimp for the larger rod.
I'll experienced the same things that others have been saying in that as soon as I cast out (I was casting on left corner and straight down since I lost 3 rigs when I cast out with even a slight "boost" in my cast) I got bites. So in that way I was constantly having to watch 2 rods and this realistically made to neglect my shrimp rod although I got the most "furious" tugs on this one. These fish were truly "gansta" because they were experts at stealing my bait. I even threaded my shrimp after the fist handful of casts and still, the thievery would not stop (it just took a minute longer for the fish to eat my bait).
So the outcome was that on my smaller rod I caught 4 smaller calico and 1 female sheephead (the sheephead catch was also undersized but fun since it was around 8-10 inches and also especially fun since my family walked up to me in the midst of me catching the fish and since the Catalina Express crowd was there waiting for their boat with nothing to do all the attention was on my fish
).
I noticed another group of fishermen (we were the only ones on the Mole during this time from 4PM - 7:30PM) brought lures with small slip floats and although they weren't casting far, they managed to catch some huge barracuda - one that was probably 3 feet). I noticed boils nearby in castable range but again I didn't have the equipment so I was a bit frustrated that I lost that opportunity. I didn't see any bonito caught that day.
All in all a fun day with family and fishing especially since it was my first time fishing at the island.
