Author: Capt. Mark Wisch

Part 1 – The Tanks Even as I’m finishing up this piece in mid-December the deep-water yellows are still biting in several areas along the coast. And additionally, they’re likely to continue to do so given the abnormally warm water remaining along the coast. A short-billed spearfish was just caught on a party boat while fishing the unprecedented December yellowfin and bluefin bites out on the Cortes and Tanner banks. A marlin was hooked on a mackerel on a dropper loop in 130′ of water aboard a ¾-day boat fishing yellows at the Deep Hole above Point Dume and another…

The seasons come and go, each one crafted by the weather and water conditions for that particular year. Some are good — some not so good. But regardless of the final tally to make sure you caught your share you must select an offshore arsenal of top-producing tuna trolling lures that will withstand the test of time. We are inundated with such a vast array of quality gear today that it often seems like there’s too much to choose from. The list of brand names is virtually endless and the amount of colors, sizes and shapes is ridiculous. For me,…

The first seabass I ever hooked at Catalina was in deep water on a flat calm night while anchored on the bait-grounds just below Silver Canyon. I cast out into the full-float that swirled around us and got bit soon after. The headshakes told the tale but it didn’t end well. My poorly tied and untested knot came untied…the curlicue at the end of my line was all the evidence needed. All the other seabass we caught from under the bait ball that night were 40-60 pounds. I was only 14 and got off the boat heartbroken and humbled but…

Stepping out the door at work tonight I spun around, pulled the gates shut, checked again for my keys, snapped the lock and then locked the outer door. Pleasantly absent was the chill breeze of winter. It was replaced by a welcome soft hint of spring with a touch of the balminess that portends a new season and biting fish. I love the optimism at this time of year… made all the more interesting by the big fish starting to show As the weather continues to straighten out and the waters warm from longer days and a higher sun the…

Sunrise on the Sunset by Mark Wisch That was supposed to be the story. .. But in fishing (and in life) things don’t always work out as planned. It was supposed to be about how we got the gear together and headed out on my first trip of the year. About how we would run out to the Sunset at daylight and anchor up on the degrading remnants of the wreck. And about how we would wallop the sculpin and big grumpy sand bass that call it home. But it didn’t quite go like that. Just after starting down the…

Every year about the first of November there’s an obvious and inevitable progression towards winter. The sun is lower, the shadows longer, the water is cooling and an unmistakable chill sends notice that summer is over. It used to be the bulk of the offshore fish were going or gone and it was time to shift gears and get ready to go squiddin’. We’d be breaking down and cleaning up the two-speed tackle. Then knocking the dust off the long rods and re-tying those kelp-cutter rigs. I start to feel the urgent call of those slug yellows, tanker seabass and…

Well-known California captain, writer, speaker and tackle shop owner, Capt. Mark Wisch has been helping anglers catch fish along the West Coast for decades. Mark owns and operates Pacific Edge Tackle and manufactures a complete line of live bait tanks. He also specializes in outfitting sport-fishing boats with electronics and fishing equipment. Here is a compilation of articles from Capt. Mark that walk you through avoiding or fixing some of the most common bait tank issues encountered by private boat owners. Bait Tank Troubles? Part 1 To say the 2014 season was fantastic is a tremendous understatement. Even as I’m finishing…

As a young angler I was fortunate to grow up under the careful tutelage of my good friend and mentor Ed Martin. He was a successful attorney and an extraordinary angler and we caught a lot of fish together. He was an accomplished seaman and many of his skills he learned from his time in the navy and commercial albacore fishing. I am blessed he took the time to pass them on to me. Along with the technical details of boat handling, great insight into our local weather patterns and intense focus on the task at hand there were the…

Over the years of installing, using and conducting seminars about sounders, I’ve heard the same operational questions over and over. So I thought I’d put together a group of the most commonly asked questions to give you a basic overview on how to learn to use a fish finder to find more fish. I reviewed my seminar notes and recalled a few Q and A sessions from on the water and in the store to come up with the following list of the most asked questions. Compiling the list was easy enough. Explaining the material in a way that makes sense…

I always try to spend January 1st on the water. I never tire of the thrill from a bent rod and it’s always all the more fun when it starts off a new season on the first day of a new year. Back in 2015, for whatever reason, it didn’t come to pass. It wasn’t until the 16th before my first fish was caught and all was made right but it was a bit unsettling to have broken our long-standing tradition. Now I certainly can’t complain about the winter fishing last year…it was nothing short of fantastic. Those big yellows…

Zane Grey was a legendary writer of some of the best fishing stories ever written. His “Tales of Southern Rivers”, “Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas” and my all-time favorite “Tales of Swordfish and Tuna” are classics in the truest sense and I’m fortunate to have them share a treasured spot in my library. As with all of his books, I never tire of his brilliant discussions and glowing descriptions from back at the dawn of our sport. Although most of his writings deal with the power, glory and heartbreak of big game fishing all over the world, he also spent…

Amberjack Tales Any time I travel to somewhere near water there’s always this desire to get out there to see what’s biting. And when it’s warm saltwater, then urge can be almost overwhelming like it was on a recent trip to Cancun. When we first planned the dates and made the arrangements the fishing aspect was pushed to the back-burner as there was so much other stuff already on the schedule. But once we were there and it turned out our last full day was free a little recon highlighted the fact some good “junk fishing” was within reach. My…

Wahoo Tips Almost every Saturday morning for more than 22 years I’ve done the private boaters report on the world famous “Let’s Talk Hookup” radio show on 1090 AM. Pete Gray and co-host Rick Maxa do a fantastic job and I’m honored to have been a small part of the show for all these years. I’ve got a lot of latitude in my segment to cover whatever’s biting but before I start the actual report I usually do a short intro as to existing local conditions. This past week I had made the comment that by mid-October we’re usually facing…

What a Drag! One of the most important but often underutilized components of “good gear” is the drag on your reel. Now I get that most anglers have a basic concept of what it is and how it works and that’s fine for fishing the local stuff. But this year’s different; the amount of big stuff around is staggering and likely to continue to build through the coming months. The seasoned, savvy pros will be checking and double checking to make sure their tackle is ready and drags are properly set to do battle with the super-sized tuna we have…

If you’ve ever fished on a Mexican ponga you may have noticed the essence of simplicity as far as bait pumps are concerned. The tank itself is the bilge area between the seats. The pump is the ponga captain who uses a scoop made from a bleach jug to bail out the old water and refresh with some from right over the side. No shafts to break, no electrical to corrode, no frustrating airlocks; the setup is about as trouble free as it gets. For the rest of us it gets a bit more complicated. When I first started fooling…

Bait Tank Troubles In the first part of this series I outlined a few ways to add more bait capacity to your rig. There are many ways to accomplish the goal; add a bait bag, plumb in a separate tank on the swim step, mount a new tank in the center of the cockpit or swap out a smaller one to replace it with more. You can cut out an existing east coast style well and drop in something more suited to our west coast fishing or rip out an entire rotted bulkhead console with a sink, freezer and tackle…

The corner of the store with my line-winding bench is a working hangout for me. It’s complete with my essential tools-of-the-trade, two winders, the necessary spools of mono and spectra and my custom made “Bimini Twister”. On the walls there is a framed map of our offshore waters, a signed Guy Harvey print and a few of my favorite pictures that are soon to be joined with some new ones from a recent, classic adventure. A fan moves the warm sultry summer air, classic rock plays on the radio and a beat-up old stool serves nicely when I want to…

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to tour the new Cousins rod building facility right around the corner from my shop in Huntington Beach. In addition to creating their stunning new line of rods the cousins, Bill Buchanan and Wade Cunningham, are also resurrecting the Sevenstrand lure business that once produced the vast majority of marlin lures and skirts sold here on the West coast and beyond. During the course of my visit I was looking at some new jigs in Wade’s office and one in particular caught my attention, the modern version of a venerable classic, the…

I was on a charter on the Dreamer and visiting with Capt Allyn Watson, the undisputed master at fishing Catalina seabass. The conversation inevitably turned to catching and keeping squid in our tanks and when we got to how much is enough he quipped in classic Watson form “Too much is never enough”. Truer words were never spoken…if your bait system is up to the task. Yet so many of the boats I look at are woefully unprepared to even begin to come close to performing at peak capacity. So let’s take a closer look at a few of the…

Over the years I’ve seen some absolutely amazing bait tank installations. On the plus side there have been custom tank projects done by extraordinary craftsmen using the finest materials and shooting for perfection with cost as no object. To the opposite end of the spectrum there have been homemade wonders created from just about every container imaginable with a hodge-podge of plumbing that is often marginal and sometimes downright dangerous to the watertight integrity of the hull. Although the vast majority of installations fall somewhere in between the two extremes, I prefer the former over the other scenario. A properly…

As Steve Lassley and I walked up the side of the 60-foot Hatteras Bad Company and stepped out on the forward deck, we nearly crashed due to a heavy coat of solid ice. There’s something wrong with this picture! This is Southern California. It’s supposed to be warm and balmy, but freezing cold temps had settled in to make an interesting start to my bow tank installation. Steve and I had met on the boat only a few days previously to plan the installation. Their other boat, a 60-foot Viking, had sold suddenly so there was a mad rush to…

Over the years I’ve been very lucky to witness many beautiful sunrises at sea, and I never tire of the sight nor the promise of another day on the water. The one you see in this photo was especially sweet as we’ve been able to get out so few times so far this season — hopefully that will change soon. Coming out of the harbor and turning up the coast, we started fishing in 22 fathoms out in front of Manhattan Beach, with the meter on and the sonar searching out the bait concentrations that have been holding big schools…