Late June 2014 White Seabass (aka the Ghost) Hunt

Yup, I admit, I've been lazy and been procrastinating to update my blog with my offshore fishing trips and surf fishing sessions this year.  So I'll try my best to catch up.  This year  has been truly  a phenomenal year for fishing in our waters.  Can't resist going on trips when you always see the awesome fishing reports coming from anglers.  In late June I was fortunate to get an invite from the Dillon Street Tuna Club on a 2-day trip to hunt for the elusive White Seabass (WSB) on-board the Fortune.  As always, WSB fishing is a hit and miss affair.  So it's good to have an open mind and prepare yourself either to get skunked, or if the stars aligned, get into a hot bite.  The last time I got into a WSB bite was back in 2001.  Yup, ages ago!  Just shows you why anglers call them "ghost."

On this trip I was able to test the new Shimano Butterfly Flat Fall jig.  I picked up a couple in squid pattern for this trip.  All I can say is this jig is very effective and will catch fish.  Surely a jig to add into your arsenal.  

On the first morning of the trip, things didn't look good, as we didn't get any live squid to come up the night before.  We had some live squid on-board but not much, and the WSB was also a no-show.  On the second night, the squid finally came up in full force when we put out the underwater flood lights out.  We had more than enough live squid to last us for the remainder of the trip.  The captain also decided to move to another island, and we all agreed.  At gray light the following day, we were in position and ready to go get some!  The captain started metering fish on his fishfinder, and in a drop of a hat, we were on one of the best WSB bite I've experienced.  One full hour of non-stop hookups.  I was pinning on a live squid on the flat fall jig and dropping it.  A couple of yoyos, and I was  hooked up.  Everyone was hooked up!  Total chaos! After the hour had passed, the bite switch turned off, and they were gone, like ghosts.  We moved around and started fishing for other deep dwellers like lingcod.  To sum it up, this was another awesome trip to add to the books.  It was indeed a pleasure to  share the rail again with my friends from Dillon Street Tuna Club, ("Fish or Die").  Many thanks to Captain Bruce and the crew of the Fortune.  One of the best sportfishing op in SoCal!

Thanks for reading, and hope you liked my report.   Hit the "Join this site" button to subscribe to my blog and keep up with my fishing adventures. Fish on bros!