Dana Wharf Fish Report: 70-Degree Waters Bring Out Bass

Every week, Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching provides the Dana Point and San Clemente Times a report on the week’s fishing from Captain Brian Woolley, in addition to the weekly fish count.

Here is Captain Woolley’s report for the past week’s action:

The local half-day trips gave us some action this week along the kelp and over the shallow hard bottom spots. Water temperatures were at 70-71 degrees, which definitely helped with the bass fishing. Time of day and water movement played a big part on whether or not we’d get bites. We had bigger live bait this week, and that made things tricker to fly-line. So, the smaller rubber lures paid off big time, like the flukes, and small swim baits caught a lot of fish.

The three-quarter-day trips right now have the guys heading out to find a kelp bed in the mornings, then heading into the beach. Some nice dorado caught by some of our guys this week. They found a small kelp, and it was worth a stop to give it a shot. The Dorado seen last Saturday were in as close as 30 fathoms on a kelp. They didn’t bite, but it speaks to the amount of fish around. After a few hours looking offshore in the morning, we’ve then headed into the beach for bass. Same action below in the three-quarter-day zones. There was action for the guys on the small lures, with some fly-line action on the sardines, but it’s been tough to get bites on it.

For the Fury over at San Clemente and Catalina Islands, they had some bass action at both islands. There were a few yellows in the counts from San Clemente Island along with good action on the bass, barracuda and bonito.

Big bluefin on the high-speed troll for Justine Jensen of Moreno Valley. Capt Todd Mansur had the Boardroom in the zone and has been on the tuna this week. Photo Courtesy of Dana Warf Sportfishing & Whale Watching

Offshore with our 6-pac fleet, the guys fishing bluefin had good catches this week. There were plenty of bites on the high-speed troll with fish from 60 to 200 pounds being caught. I know Todd Mansur on the Boardroom had one over 200 pounds this week on the troll and plenty of other bites on quality fish.

We also wrapped our kids summer camps for the summer. Some fun fishing with these kids. Some first timers and some great young anglers. Good times and fun seeing the kids get into it!