OC/Los Angeles Report - Local Bassin’ Picks Up, Squid Floating Decent at Catalina By: Daniel Greenberg, reporter for The Log | 2/6/2008   With storm front after storm front passing through the area in recent weeks, fishing has been a little difficult along the South Coast. But in between storms, there has been a decent pick on sand bass, calico bass and sculpin, and there were even reports of a few threshers. The commercial fleet has still been able to make squid just outside the Huntington Beach Pier and on the Flats.   Jackpot – Kevin Kim of Lomita scored the jackpot bonito at Catalina Island while fishing aboard Native Sun.   The water is still in the 54- to 58-degree range and a bit off-color due to the rain runoff, but this hasn’t affected the fishing too much. With all of the bait-sized squid and better weather, there should be a good chance at a seabass bite along the coast. Good areas are Izors Reef, the Newport Pipe and artificial reef areas, off Laguna and the Dana Point Headlands. Izors Reef and Huntington Flats have been kicking out a few sand bass with an occasional calico. For anglers fishing the bottom, the chances of catching a halibut are pretty good since there is a lot of bait in the area. Sculpin fishing has remained good, and a consistent area has been outside the Newport Pipe in 70 to 120 ft. of water. South of Newport Harbor, the high spots and the lobster trap areas have been kicking out some calicos and sand bass on plastic swimbaits. The Dana Point Headlands also has decent bass fishing just north of there along the kelp line and rocky areas and ledges, toward the Ritz Carlton and Salt Creek beach. Shark anglers are still hooking a few threshers. One boat reported catching two threshers outside the Newport Pier along the submarine canyon. The fish were in the 100-lb. range. Off the Laguna Beach hospital 1 to 2 miles off the coast is another area of thresher action. All these fish have been caught by slow-trolled Bait-O-Matics with a mackerel on a downrigger. There was a decent halibut bite in Long Beach Harbor before the storms, but as of report time there has been quite of bit of debris in the harbor. There was a decent pick on sand bass in the Horseshoe Kelp area, with a few calicos. From Palos Verdes to Rocky Point there was a decent pick on calicos, and seabass could show, especially with all the squid. At Catalina, the water has been around 58 degrees, with plenty of bonito on the front of the island, with a few yellowtail and some short seabass caught at the East End. A good area to target bonito is Frog Rock toward Whites Landing, up to Hen Rock and Long Point. This zone in shallow water has kicked out a few halibut as well. The best shot at a legal seabass has been Church Rock to Silver Canyon and spots in between. Squid has been floating well for boats trying to make their own. The squid grounds have been Silver Canyon, Salte Verde and Ben Weston Point, weather permitting. Hoopnetters have had great results as of late because lobsters like to crawl before storm fronts, and it’s usually pretty good after the storm.

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