Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3824 Nov 8-22 | Page 18

16 Nov 8 - 22, 2019, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 24 What’s Happening • What’s New What’s Hot! Sponsered by: Madame Lure Swim Baits, What’s the Fuss All About? Last year a fellow female angler, Amy DeLong, who works at Patriot Sportfishing, introduced me to swimbaits made by Madame Lure out of Newbury Park, California. She picked some up at the Fred Hall show and shared some of them with me. I liked what I was using and ordered some more baits to test out. Well, I soon discovered I wasn’t the only one who liked these baits, the fish did too. Time and again I was catching fish, nice grade rockcod and lingcod on their baits. What is different? A few things stood out to me, the length of the body. It wasn’t too long, therefore I wasn’t getting short bit, with the fish just biting the back half of the lure and not getting hooked. Secondly, the swim, when I put these baits in the water and move them back and forth, they have great action, the tail moves rapidly just what I wanted to see. Lastly, the material, these swim baits stand up to multiple uses and don’t split off the hooks like some other bodies I have used. So, what do I catch on these baits? Bigger grades of the species I am targeting. My favorite colors lately have been the Mackerel Green and the White. The smaller swimbaits have been much more successful this season so far, I have been using the 3.5” and the 5.5” consistently. Recently, I caught my personal best Lingcod on the 5.5” Mackerel. Lately, the bite has been very slow along the California Central Coast, with so many baitfish in the water. Using a realistic swimbait that is the right size has been key to catching. The most consistent success I have had is with the 3.5 Mackerel Green on a 2oz lead head. Catching quality grade Reds and Gophers time and again. Want to try these baits? Order them at MadameLure.com or give the owners a call at (805) 499-5838. Fish on! Another Shark aboard the Flying Fish Amy Wellenkamp shows off a beautiful fish she caught using a Madame Lure Swim Bait. Photo courtesy of Amy Wellenkamp. By Amy Wellenkamp Will there be another shark? Last year my uncle, Bill Woods, and I fished together on the Flying Fish out of Avila Beach. It was an incredible trip as he caught a Thresher Shark. The first Thresher caught on this fishing vessel. These are not a typical catch for the Central Cost. To say it was an exciting trip is an understatement. So, this year we planned another trip, aboard the same boat. We were hoping for another exotic species, or at least something big to brag about when we got home. This was a Saturday trip and the majority of the anglers this day were fishing double dropper loop with shrimp flies and using squid as bait. The perfect rockfish and lingcod bait for catching your limit. We started the day fishing at 170 feet. The conditions were great and there wasn’t much drift. The swells were 5 to 7 feet at 8 seconds. With the water being clear and the conditions improving throughout the day it looked to be very favorable fishing conditions. However, the fish were not cooperating. They didn’t even really care about the squid on the shrimp flies. There were so many little baitfish in the water they had other easy options for a quick bite and were full. I tried so many different lures while I was on the hunt for what was going to catch their attention. At first I tried jigs. A few different sizes and even a little 4 oz. Nothing, not even the little guys were interested. Then I moved onto one of my new favorite lures, Madame Lure 3.5” Mackerel Green. The most successful color for me lately, attached to a 2oz lead head this little lure takes its time traveling through the water column, perfect. Pretty soon I was hooked into my biggest fish of the day, a nice fat red, the fight was a fun one as I was using a bass rod at the time, a Phenix M1. Fairly soon after this catch there was a bunch of commotion up the rail on the port side of the boat, someone was on a really big fish. There were too many anglers for me to get a clear view, however, when the deckhands rushed to the stern with a Soupfin Shark on two gaffs, then I knew, yes, there would be another shark today. John Graves of Coalinga, a retired United States Marine and Vietnam Veteran, on the boat that day, with his family, to celebrate his birthday. I asked John what the experience was like catching the shark, he said he was fishing off the bottom with the shrimp flies and John Graves of Coalinga, a the shark hit his lure really hard. He was taking his time bringing it up and realized it was a bigger fish and called for help from the retired United States Marine deck hands and captain. He said the deck hands started yelling at people to get out of the way. It was very exciting. and Vietnam Veteran, holds up Captain Brad Cano, of Morro Bay, said he first thought it was a Halibut. The fish would take short runs and there was a lot of a nice Soupfin Shark. Photo by Amy Wellenkamp. weight. They had John’s drag set really light and it was a slow reel to the boat. Crew members Weston Rhoades and Ryan Bower were ready and waiting and gaffed it to bring it on board before it sank down. This is the biggest kept species caught so far this year for all of the boats out of Patriot Sportfishing. On a side note, Mr. Graves also caught a 6 pound Ocean Whitefish and won the jackpot as sharks are not included in the jackpot on this boat. What a birthday celebration that was! The Best SUP for Fishing! More Stable Because It’s Wider. More Portable Because It’s Infl atable. 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