By Zach Cavanagh
Weather cooled down the water temperature and sent anglers into deeper water on recent Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching expeditions.
In his weekly report, Captain Brian Woolley said that water temperature dropped to 55-56 degrees this week, which is a nine-degree drop from last week. The weather and the wind dropped things down, but even a little sunshine could bring the things back up and reheat the surface bass action.
Half-day trips saw mostly sand bass, whitefish and sheephead in the haul. Three-quarter-day trips went deeper to pull up the bottom fish. Woolley said the consistency and quality on those trips has been good, even if boats are having to drift to get some bites. Rockfish and sculpin have come up on those counts.
On the overnight trips, the Fury returned to San Clemente Island. The island has seen some solid rockfish catches, and the overnights took advantage with a quality haul. Yellowtail slowed down a little, but they were still found in the counts. Starting in June, the Fury will be begin 1 ½-day trips for those interested in longer excursions.
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Here are the latest fish counts out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching:
May 29 – 7 boats, 138 anglers: 61 yellowtail, 35 bonito, 66 calico bass, 2 sand bass, 65 sculpin, 10 sheephead, 17 whitefish, 124 rockfish, 137 vermilion rockfish, 1 bocaccio, 20 sand dabs, 110 bass released.
May 28 – 4 boats, 101 anglers: 22 calico bass, 14 sculpin, 15 sheephead, 33 whitefish, 67 rockfish, 114 vermilion rockfish, 18 bocaccio, 1 barracuda, 1 halibut, 8 blue perch, 51 bass released.
May 27 – 5 boats, 129 anglers: 1 sand bass, 78 sculpin, 10 sheephead, 162 whitefish, 140 rockfish, 75 vermilion rockfish, 12 bocaccio, 1 halibut, 21 bass released.
May 26 – 6 boats, 156 anglers: 2 yellowtail, 1 bonito, 1 calico bass, 75 sculpin, 7 sheephead, 76 whitefish, 208 rockfish, 74 vermilion rockfish, 3 bocaccio, 60 sanddab, 61 bass released.
May 25 – 9 boats, 287 anglers: 5 calico bass, 4 sand bass, 158 sculpin, 5 sheephead, 162 whitefish, 258 rockfish, 260 vermilion rockfish, 36 bocaccio, 2 lingcod, 121 bass released.
May 24 – 5 boats, 94 anglers: 7 calico bass, 3 sand bass, 20 sculpin, 9 whitefish, 36 rockfish, 133 vermilion rockfish, 50 bocaccio, 50 bass released.
Zach Cavanagh
Zach Cavanagh is the sports editor for Picket Fence Media. Zach is a California Journalism Award winner and has covered sports in Orange County since 2013. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @ZachCav and follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SouthOCSports.
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