A slow day at San Clemente was accented by a few notable fish and a few big ones that got away!
Started fishing at 7:30AM. Bait bite was more active than my last few trips out to the OC Piers. Very steady bite with a smaller sabiki on smelt, salema, and a few perfectly sized anchovies.
I rotated between fishing a small sabiki for bait, a carolina dig dangled a few cranks up on off the bottom and two hi lo rigs: one with smaller hooks (6 and 8) and one bigger hooks (1 and 3/0).
Caught a small white sea bass fishing a tiny smelt on the dangling carolina rig.
Caught a decent size short kelp bass, a short sheephead, and small leopard shark on the bigger hook hi lo. This was on my long casting surf rod (Daiwa Emcast 11 foot with Shimano Baitrunner 8000) and a 4 oz weight.
Now for the drama. I got three really big bites on the long casting bigger hook rod. The first was a mystery fish that ran me into the rocks. The second happed while I was in the bathroom. As I was coming back the guy I asked to watch my rod said by Baitrunner went off and when we set the hook the fish nearly pulled the rod out of his hands before snapping the leader at the hook.
Finally I had the Baitrunner go off again while I was there and I was able to set the hook and feel a big pull. This was the hardest fighting fish I have ever caught. It ran north causing me to run with it to the north corner of the end of the pier. Then it turned and ran under the pier and I was able to find an angle to keep it from wrapping the line around the pilings. When I got it to the base of the pier, I saw that it was a big fat leopard shark that was by estimation between 5-6 feet long. As someone was lower a net to help land the fish, it shook its head and snapped by 30lb leader at the hook. Disappointing to not get a closer interaction with such a powerful fish but I was not planning to keep the fish and I did experience the thrill and challenge of fighting it all the way to the end of the pier.
There was a very good size sheephead ~19" caught, a good size bat ray caught on a sabiki, a 20" white sea bass and a smattering of black perch caught by other anglers. There was a small group of bigger mackerel that were chasing bait in the morning and a couple anglers were able to sight fish boils and catch a few.
Overall not a bad day but I had to fish all the way until 3PM to get the more exciting action and my most interesting bites were all in the later half of the day.
Started fishing at 7:30AM. Bait bite was more active than my last few trips out to the OC Piers. Very steady bite with a smaller sabiki on smelt, salema, and a few perfectly sized anchovies.
I rotated between fishing a small sabiki for bait, a carolina dig dangled a few cranks up on off the bottom and two hi lo rigs: one with smaller hooks (6 and 8) and one bigger hooks (1 and 3/0).
Caught a small white sea bass fishing a tiny smelt on the dangling carolina rig.
Caught a decent size short kelp bass, a short sheephead, and small leopard shark on the bigger hook hi lo. This was on my long casting surf rod (Daiwa Emcast 11 foot with Shimano Baitrunner 8000) and a 4 oz weight.
Now for the drama. I got three really big bites on the long casting bigger hook rod. The first was a mystery fish that ran me into the rocks. The second happed while I was in the bathroom. As I was coming back the guy I asked to watch my rod said by Baitrunner went off and when we set the hook the fish nearly pulled the rod out of his hands before snapping the leader at the hook.
Finally I had the Baitrunner go off again while I was there and I was able to set the hook and feel a big pull. This was the hardest fighting fish I have ever caught. It ran north causing me to run with it to the north corner of the end of the pier. Then it turned and ran under the pier and I was able to find an angle to keep it from wrapping the line around the pilings. When I got it to the base of the pier, I saw that it was a big fat leopard shark that was by estimation between 5-6 feet long. As someone was lower a net to help land the fish, it shook its head and snapped by 30lb leader at the hook. Disappointing to not get a closer interaction with such a powerful fish but I was not planning to keep the fish and I did experience the thrill and challenge of fighting it all the way to the end of the pier.
There was a very good size sheephead ~19" caught, a good size bat ray caught on a sabiki, a 20" white sea bass and a smattering of black perch caught by other anglers. There was a small group of bigger mackerel that were chasing bait in the morning and a couple anglers were able to sight fish boils and catch a few.
Overall not a bad day but I had to fish all the way until 3PM to get the more exciting action and my most interesting bites were all in the later half of the day.
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