Author: Erik Landesfeind

Well, it looks like I fell flat on my face last week when I predicted that the Channel Island yellowtail bite would improve going into the full moon. In fact, it seems like those fish disappeared at almost the exact moment I hit Ctrl+S after finishing the article. Oh well, I guess that’s the way things go. The good news is that the yellows did bite in several other locations over the weekend, but with the heavy winds we’ve experienced the last few days we’re going to have to wait and see if they’ll bite again this weekend. Over the…

Big Yellows Bite With the fishing year starting out a little more normally than most of us had hoped, the question on many people’s minds is whether or not the party is over. While it’s too soon to say whether or not the post El Nino hangover has kicked in, one thing is for certain, things are definitely different this year. But as this week’s reports show, different doesn’t necessarily mean bad, it just means different. Remember all of those big yellows that were biting along the coast from Long Beach to Oceanside last year? Well, it looks like at…

While messy, fish blood is probably the easiest thing to clean off your boat. When fresh it’s as simple as just blasting it with your wash down hose and if you do let it dry it’s nothing that a little soap and some elbow grease can’t fix. But no matter how hard you work to keep your boat clean, over the course of a season, it’s going to get some scuffs and scrapes that normal cleaning just won’t remove. The good news is that there’s a very inexpensive product available that will tackle just about any cleaning job on your…

Turns out that this week’s column is going to be another one of those good news and bad news reports. The good news is that rockfish are back open and they’re biting well, the bad news is that we’ve got a serious storm system rolling in Saturday night. The potentially worse news for anglers is that this is supposed to be the beginning of a very stormy March, but the forecasters have been so far off this year that I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get any rain at all. If you’re planning on fishing this weekend, I’d highly…

One of the things that we as Californian hunters and fishermen love to do is lament the fact that we’re constantly being pushed around by the enviro’s who are running this state. Between the MLPA, fishing and hunting restrictions, ammo bans, and all of the other things that those in power keep throwing our way, they are sending a clear message that outdoorsmen and women are a minority that they’d like to see eliminated. Up until recently, the last line of defense against having a lot more anti-hunting and fishing things shoved down our throats were a couple of people…

SoCal Yellowtail Bite and More As I mentioned last week, consistent weather is the key to good wintertime fishing and with another week of warm temperatures in the books, the fishing remains good and will probably get better over the weekend. While there haven’t been any major shakes on the yellowtail front, other than some new fish moving into the Santa Monica Bay, the cumulative effect of this stable weather is being experienced by everyone who’s been fishing. Unless we get a month of heavy storms, like the forecasters keep threatening but not delivering, I think that the fishing may…

Bass and Yellowtail Bite We’re coming off a little shot of weather as I write this on Thursday morning, but if this winter’s previous storms are any indicator, it shouldn’t have much effect on the fishing once things straighten back out. With water temperatures averaging between 59 and 61 along the coast, it appears that all of our hot weather didn’t due much to warm the water but it did make for a couple weeks of stable temperatures. Water stability is a key to good fishing at any time of year, but it’s felt the most during the winter months.…

Pacific Coast Sportfishing is hosting its 7th Annual Tackle, Boat, and Travel show on February 19th through 21st at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Not only is this year’s show going to be the biggest one yet, they’ve added an additional day to squeeze in more seminars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvdSmSNZ6Dg#t=19 If you’ve never attended the show, it’s packed with saltwater specific vendors and products that cover everything from inshore to big game fishing. This year’s seminars will cover everything from spotted bay to bluefin tuna and wahoo, so make sure and check the calendar to see what day’s you’ll want to attend. Friday’s…

Bass and Yellowtail Report I have no idea what El Nino has in store for the coming months, but for now I’m happy to have summertime weather in the middle of February; and it looks like the fish are too. I’m sure that there are fish biting in more places than I’m going to be talking about in this report, but it’s that time of year where there’s a definite lack of fishing coverage in most areas. So, let’s take a look at what people have been catching this week. Starting way up north, the calico bass are biting well…

After what ended up being one of the biggest wind events on the water that I can remember seeing in quite some time, I’d be lying if I said that I had any hope of the water temperatures rebounding before the next storm. It basically looked like that storm was going to be the first nail in the coffin for our hopes of another year of exceptional fishing. The good news is that it looks like I might have been wrong. I spoke with my friend Captain James Sloan on Thursday morning after he sent me a picture of a…

Repair Soft Plastic Lures Anyone who’s been in a hot bass bite knows just how quickly a few big calicos or sand bass can destroy a swimbait. While burning through a bag of swimbaits is fun while you’re fishing, it’s not so fun when you burn through a wallet full of cash when replacing those baits after the trip. The good news is that soft plastic swimbaits are surprisingly easy to repair and while they might not look quite as good as new, they’ll work just fine on your next trip. You’re going to need some very basic tools including;…

We’ve been lucky enough to have stable weather the last couple of weeks and the fish have been biting as a result. The bad news is that there is some serious wind forecast for Saturday afternoon and Sunday, so if you’re planning to fish this weekend, I’d shoot for Saturday morning. Let’s take a look at what’s biting this week. The yellowtail are biting in several areas along the coast, but the most consistent scores are coming from down south. The best fishing this week was aboard the 1 1/2-day trips that made the run down to Colonet over the…

Reel maintenance used to be easy when I didn’t have a lot of tackle. Back then, if one of my reels stopped working or needed line, I’d simply take it off the rod and into the local tackle shop for repair or re-spooling before my next trip. But as I got into tournament fishing and added more and more reels to my arsenal things got a little confusing. On any given trip, my fishing partner Matt Kotch would likely start some version of the following conversation. “Hey, this (insert reel model here) is messed up. It (won’t go into gear,…

After some heavy rains early this month the weather has dried up in SoCal the last few weeks and the fishing has improved. I’m not sure if anyone actually knows why the forecast rain hasn’t come but I read an interesting article about El Nino online the other day. According to the author (a weather expert who’s name I can’t remember), the El Nino we are experiencing is so strong that it’s actually pushing the storm track north of Southern California. I’m not sure if he has any idea of what he’s talking about, but if he is correct, we…

Hunting Yellows For the first time in a few years, the middle of winter is finally starting to feel like the middle of winter. While our state can certainly use a break from the endless summer we’ve experienced the last few years, it’s not so fun for us fishermen. Despite the iffy weather and slow overall fishing, there are still some fish to be caught if you’re willing to go out and look around. With rockfish closed for the next couple months there’s not much happening in Santa Barbara or Ventura Counties but the Gentleman out of CISCO’s is running…

While it may not be raining at the time that you read this, you can be confident that it’s probably going to start again soon. This week’s back to back to back storms have kept everyone off the water and with more rain forecast for Saturday, things aren’t looking good. It’s still too early to be sure, but it looks like next week might be wet as well. Before the rain, the fishing was actually pretty good. The yellows were still biting along the deep water spots along the coast. The squid had started to show up on the beach…

While the big news this week was the excellent rockfish bite happening just about everywhere along the coast, there’s not much use in covering it as by the time you read this, rockfish will be closed and will remain that way until March. If you’re a private boater that targets rockfish, I’d recommend picking up a descending device before the fishery reopens. You can pick one up here. I’ve had a homemade one on the boat for a year now and got my first chance to use it the other day when Matt caught a nice cowcod while we were…

It seems like every time I’ve sat down to write my column in the last month, we’ve been in the middle of a weather event that would likely effect the fishing; and this week is no different. Looking out of my office window on this Tuesday morning, I see grey skies, rain and a freshening breeze. The NOAA forecast says that the wind will continue to blow the next couple days and only stop long enough for some rain on Christmas before blowing again on Saturday morning. So rather than focus on where to fish this weekend, I’d like to…

The weather forecasters got it right over the weekend as Friday and Sunday were both windy days. They were also correct in predicting that we were forecast for a cold week. The good news is that the fish are biting despite the wind and cold. The bad news is that your fishing options are somewhat more limited than they were a couple weeks ago. The rockfish bite in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties has been excellent this week. The Coral Sea out of Santa Barbara had limits of big lingcod and lots of quality rockfish on Tuesday’s 3/4 day trip. They’ve…

Fishing Sunglasses I remember the first pair of sunglasses I bought. They were some Ray Ban Wayfarers that I bought as a teenager in a failed attempt to look cool. Aside from not giving me the Tom Cruise in Risky Business swagger I’d aspired to, they didn’t do much except keep the sun out of my eyes when I was fishing. Eventually I gave up on trying to look stylish (like that was ever going to happen) and got myself a pair of Hobie polarized sunglasses, which at that time in the very early 90’s were the height of technology.…

Most anglers already know that whether you’re targeting early season yellowtail along the coast or chasing fast moving schools of summer tuna, following the birds is a great way to find fish. But the mistake that many anglers make is to not look any further into it than, “hey there’s a bird school, let’s stop and fish!” While this method certainly works, it does rely a bit too much on luck for my taste. After all, how are you going to repeat an action that lead to you catching fish if you don’t fully understand the action you took? Let’s…

I’m going to keep this week’s report short, because by the time you read it conditions will have definitely changed. As of Thursday morning, there is a major wind event forecast to roll through on Friday and after a day to recuperate on Saturday, we’re going to get hit even harder on Sunday night and into Monday. So, if you’re planning on fishing this weekend, I ask that you pay very close attention to the weather forecast before leaving the dock. The yellowfin tuna bit this week for boaters fishing out of San Diego. Several sportboats had good scores of…

Much earlier this year, I was having a conversation with my friend John Curry about just how long the 2015 offshore fishing season might last. At the time, I half jokingly told him that the way things were going, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were catching tuna on Thanksgiving. Well, what seemed like a long shot prognostication six months ago now looks like just another underestimation of this year’s fishing potential. John and I didn’t end up fishing on Thanksgiving, but we did run out of San Diego a couple days later with our buddy Gerry Mahieu and the…

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, we are on the back end of yet another storm system that didn’t seem to linger long enough to derail the fishing. With calm weather forecast throughout the weekend, whatever minor damage it did to the fishing should be repaired in the next couple days. So for those of you looking to get in on some Black Friday fishing action or are planning trips over the weekend, things are looking good. So, let’s take a look at what’s biting. The rockfish bite at the Channel Islands continues to be good. The best fishing…