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24 June 22 - July 6 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 14
Morgan had a hot rod during his June 1 live bait adventure aboard the California Dawn , landing a limit of stripers and a husky California halibut !
Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff .
It seemed like I cranked the reel forever without the fish running or rising . Adam our deckhand and Captain James Smith were at my side . I could tell they thought my drag was set too loose , but when trying to land a big halibut I ’ d rather have too little drag as opposed to too much .
When the fish finally appeared in front
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of the California Dawn ’ s bow , it wasn ’ t the 30 pounder I ’ ve been looking for , but it was still a very nice fish weighing about 15 pounds .
Adam made a smooth scoop with the net and into the box the fish went . We ’ d only been drifting for about an hour and I already had a nice keeper halibut in the box , the 28 Fish Sniffer readers that joined me were laughing and having a good time and the striper action hadn ’ t even kicked into gear yet . It was going to be a memorable day !
When I ’ d picked the June 1 date for the Cal Kellogg School of fishing event back in January , I wasn ’ t thinking about halibut . I picked out a day with large tides thinking of stripers .
Often the first series of large June tides feature great striper action in San Francisco Bay . The Cal Dawn had scored
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full limits of bass for two straight days leading up to our trip , so we were feeling pretty good about our chances .
“ We ’ ll scratch away at halibut and bass here on the flats for a few hours ,” James told me . “ The striper bite won ’ t get going on the rocks off Alcatraz until about 11 o ’ clock .”
Just as James predicted we picked up a halibut here and a schoolie bass there for much of the morning . When we noticed that a small fleet was starting to form on the reef just north of Alcatraz , we knew it was time to make a move .
It always amazes me how quickly a striper bite in the bay can go from slow to wide open based on the tide and this day was a great example of that .
On our first pass over the reef , a couple bass were hooked and landed . The next pass we got a few more and then the bite red lined . On the third pass , we had 11 stripers hooked up at the same time and within an hour we were done with 64 keeper bass ranging from 20 inches to about 11 pounds in the box . Everyone on the boat would be taking home a sack of tasty striper fillets .
With our bass business settled we bounced around for the rest of the day
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GONE FISHING continued from page 1
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sampling the halibut action at Paradise Cay , California City and the Berkeley Flats . We released a bunch of keeper stripers , undersize halibut and a shaker white sea bass , while rounding up a sprinkling of keeper halibut despite the strong tidal flow .
I had a hot hand landing a total of four keeper halibut and six keeper size bass . When I landed my 15 pound halibut there was no way I thought the fish would be big enough to earn me the jackpot , but lady luck was with me and I walked off the boat with the big fish money deep inside my pocket .
Since it was a Cal Kellogg School of fishing event I passed out prizes in the form of rods and reels throughout the day . Our total score for the trip was 64 stripers , 16 keeper halibut and we landed and released another 25 or 30 fish . All in all , over 100 total fish came over the rail .
Any day I spend on the water with a group of Fish Sniffer readers is special , but the great action we experienced on June 1 made the trip extra special for everyone involved . And of course , the California Dawn ’ s friendly crew and Chef Marc ’ s tasty creations only added to the boat ’ s awesome vibe .
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Visalia 1650 West Visalia Parkway ( 559 ) 308-7100
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