Report submitted by Andrew Gomez
As many salt water Bass anglers know, the key to zeroing in on that awesome bite it knowing what conditions to look for and how to fish them. And who would know how to find both of those better then anyone? Why none other then Benny Florentino! My SWBA partner (Jeremy Glenn) and I had the chance to fish with Benny on his 22′ Skeeter skiff after winning a 1/2 day trip with him, that he graciously donated at one of the Fibber’s fishing club meetings. The second we won the trip I knew what an amazing learning opportunity we would have being able to fish with one the SWBA’s most accomplished anglers. After a few phone calls and texts Jeremy had set up the time to go on the hunt with Benny in search of some beastly bass. Our morning started off right, beautifully clam seas, warm water temps, as well as solid tidal swings all were indicators of a steller day on the water. We made the run to beautiful Palos Verdes to fish various spots up and down the coast line. Now my personal experience with this specific area had always left me with and empty live well and me scratching my head wondering what I could have done to put more fish on the boat. I fished this same area numerous times and could never manage to get more then just a few small checkers on board, but Benny knew what he was looking for, we were on the search for…conditions! The morning stared off slow, as many of you know the water color and clarity at PV are enough to scare away many fishermen, and have often deterred me from fishing in certain spots, but Benny made a good case for the other factors affecting a fishing area: food, current, and structure. If you can find a place that has all of these then water color would be less of a contributing factor. Starting the morning off in some kelp beds we noticed the lack of current and the fish would have none of what were were throwing at them. So we went north and rolled up to a few shallow water spots, only to pull off a small sand bass and a tiny calico. Jeremy got one oh those “professional backspins” on his reel and once he got it out and started winding when his rod instantly bent over, he managed to pull a nice 8 pound legal Halibut from the bottom. Pretty nice fish for the way things were going at the time. The whole morning was spent fishing the inside of the kelp stringers, then trying the outside in an attempt to find the pattern the fish were on. We got some barracuda, grass bass, but just could not find the calicos. We got into one small flurry on the outside of the kelp in the late morning in one of the windows the sun was able to poke its head out but after that the bite disappeared. Afternoon rolled around and Benny knew of a spot that had produced earlier in the week for him and some other clients, and all the factors were shaping up to produce the same environment for us this day. “1 o’clock” said Benny, “thats when the bite will open up.” So we gunned it to our original first location of the morning to find the conditions were…perfect! Ripping currant, warm water, and laid down kelp. We made our first drift across the spot and no sooner then a few cranks of my reel my waxwing got hammered! Fishing with Benny gave us the awesome chance to use some of Shimano’s newest products, and I was using a Stella 4000 with a new terez waxwing rod. I never fish for calicos with a spinning set up so it was a little awkward for me to say the least but once I got the fish to the boat Benny and I flipped out when we saw all the followers that were swiping at the bait in my fishes mouth. “3…4…5….5 followers!” yelled benny and he scrambled to wind in his bait to toss at the swarming bass. I bounced my calico, which was about a 4 pounder, in the boat and the followers scattered. After the high fives I looked at my watch and, what do you know, it was 1:12pm. The fish were right on time. We kept drifting across the same spot for the rest of the day to see bass boil on Irons, jerk baits, waxwings and spinner baits. The bite stayed solid for about an hour then slowly tapered off as the day went on. Jeremy, Benny and myself all managed to pull some nice fish from this area, and I saw fish crash on baits like I was fishing San Clemente Island. Benny knew what to look for and he found it, I was just glad to be on the boat when he did. Jeremy and I had such a great time talking and fishing with Benny on his boat. I highly recommend Coastal Charters and Benny Florentino for a steller day on the water.

Fishing Report submitted by Steve Bermudes

Just got home from a 4 day Izorline sponsored trip on the Searcher June 30 – July 4
This trip was part of a Let’s Talk Hook-up, Searcher, P-Line photo contest that I won last year 2011
I received all the prizes that were awarded me. With $300 gift card I got a new daiwa saltist 30 two speed from Fishermans Landing at the FHS and with that deal got a free spool fill of spectra and an matching 6 1/2 rod, what a deal. PLine sent me Fluorocarbon top shots well worth $250 and other goodies. as for the 3day Searcher trip I booked an early June trip but it was a no go, so Searcher upgraded me to a four day Izorline trip, so with my Pline topshots and lazerminnows I head out. The sea was windy and ruff good tuna weather I got the only 2 jig fish of the trip on lazerminnows jigs and fluorocarbon leaders were the trick to the bait fish.
Thanks to all

Day 1 of fishing,
Got to the grounds 180 miles s/w Point Loma after 18 hours of high winds and 27 bad hairdos we were ready to play. At about 5am jigs in the water and hunting we will go.

First stop, Art sees a sonar mark and as we head for it and then the sweet sound of HOOKUP and after 75, 20lb to 30lb BFT hit the deck on 30lb FREE Izorline (I tryed 20lb but got bitten off) and 2/0 J hook ( again I tried 3/0 but it didn’t fly) and later others were telling me that 1/0 work better for them. After a hour of that madness Trolllines are back in the water.

Second stop, Same story Art sees a mark and off we go but the Jigs don’t go off so we try to bait them up and it works 25 more BFT go in the hole.
And that was all the action for day one of fishing. Not bad for High winds and rolling seas.

Day 2 of fishing,
Wake up to the Lighter winds it’s 5am and off we go.
Art spots a mark we get closer then jumping fish the bait gets thrown and the fish start to boil everywhere I pick up two on P-Line 4oz LazerMinnows and the rest on bait the stop last about 2hrs and 150bft 30lb to 40lb go into the hole, the rest of the day we troll for two 10lb yellows.

Day 3 Not much wind but an Mexican Seiner has joined us and his helicopter is up in the air and will soon drop its nets to try his luck.
We troll but not much is happening. 1pm our time is up we have 18 hours of calm seas to ride back on.

Highlight for me on this trip, my first longer than 3day and I fished with a new Daiwa STTLD30-2SPD on a 6.6 matching Dawia rod, 6.3 on the high and 3.1 on the low I was kind of hoping to find a 5.1/2.1 but the price was right. This reel performed perfect I used it to fish lures and bait and when I hooked-up I was able to lead the fish back to the boat in high speed and on only one 35lb fish did I have to go into low. I highly recommend this reel Daiwa got this one right and it’s a pretty Blue.
Izorline group was fun to fish with and gave us free Line fills,Hats, t-shirts, hooks and other cool stuff

The boat posted some of it’s pictures But am not in them http://searchersportfishing.smugmug….5710&k=qjz2ghQ

Here’s my short video of the bite on the first day of fishing and of course I’m not in them

Report submitted by Floyd Spangler
The morning was bright and still; it would have been a good morning to go kayaking. Everyone was on time and excited to go – Even Ted and Dan who took the ferry across the bay. As we headed to the bait receiver, Ichiro said we should set up with a dropper loop and small hooks. That meant bottom fishing. At the receiver we picked up a great load of sardines for 40 lb blue fin tuna. As we left the harbor we turned south. We anchored up on some stones just outside a kelp line. As we dropped our baits to the bottom the group started to pick at the various bottom dwellers. After about two hours Joe Cameron, with the help of Tom Hanzus, and a live bait, started to hook barracuda. We fished for them until we were overwhelmed by pelicans; they were eating every bait thrown in the water. The boat moved to another spot, but the current had stopped and so did the fishing. Joe Cameron caught the two best fish of the day. Joe caught a 4lb 6oz barracuda and a sand bass that weighted 2lb 7oz. It was a beautiful day and great time was had by all.

I should have entered the tourney – see attached photo fro Bolsa Chica reef.

We fished Bolsa Chica where I lost my anchor then went to the Flats looking for bass and cuda – very very slow day – not at all like a week ago. I should have stayed at the Bolsa Chica reef – possibly we could have caught a few more of these.
Phil

Outrider June 18 – 19 trip, first trip of the year and everyone is excited about fishing, the white sea bass limit is now 3 fish per day, people are fantasizing about catching 6 white sea bass in 2 days. On June 18th 11 people boarded The Outrider, out of San Pedro. As we start out of the harbor, the captain comes in and gives us the run down of the fishing. He says that he might tell us a story, but he would never lie to you. He said fishing has been very tough the last few days at Catalina Island, and only a few boats have scratched a white sea bass here and there. He told us the water temperature had dropped 3 degrees down to 57 degrees and that there has been no current around the island. So with cold water and no current the fishing conditions are not very good. As we got out of the harbor the wind was blowing a good 10 knots which made for a bumpy ride heading to Catalina Island. We got to the island at about 3 and started fishing. We caught a few small Calico Bass. We moved a few minutes later and fished from 3:30 – 7 around Indian Rock. We fished there for the next 4 hours. Mike Kaneen ended up catching a 2 ½ lb calico bass which was the jackpot fish for the day. Hats off to the cook, we all had a very nice steak, potato and salad for dinner. The cook’s name is Otis, and all the meals that he prepared were very good. Day 2 started out where ended up Day 1. Stopping at various spots here and there we fished all the way around the island. We were fishing kelp stringers for mostly small Calicos a few rock fish and the ever exciting blue perch. Val Handzvous caught a white fish that weighed 1 lb, 1o 0z WOW-WEEE, which ended up being the jack pot for the second day. By the fish count it was not the most exciting fishing trip by any means, but I wanted to say that I truly enjoyed the friendship and fellowship fishing with fellow FIB’ers, which always makes for a great trip. The skipper and crew were very helpful. We are still trying to get the dye from the squid out of our clothes. The total for the trip was 5 white fish, 4 sheepheads, 2 spargo, 1 short halibut, 1 octopus (thanks to Tom Handzvous)
Thank you to everyone who came!
Report by: Rick Chalmers

The following report was submitted by Jayson Quimby
“Team Anchored [Jayson and Ron] rolled out to fish Calicos at Catalina on Saturday 6/16 and put the new 7″ Tenacious wedless baits to the test again. We found much colder water (61-62) than we had 3 weeks ago, and although we did not find the numbers of Calicos we had that day, we changed our approach to the same areas and found better quality! We caught really nice Calicos on the big Kelp Kritter bait, Tenacious Weedless leadheads/swimbaits, MC Slug, Lucky Craft hard baits, spinner baits, and on the surface iron. Some time in the last hour of our session, I landed a really good one. I was fishing the same 3/4oz Tenacious Wedless head I have been using for over 5 trips paired with a 9″ MC Viejos Series swimbait. We nearly lost this Catalina beauty at the boat, but Ron dug out the net and scooped her in – Thanks bro! This big girl bounced between 8 and 9 pounds on the hand scale. The Tenacious Wedless leadheads are total game changers. I almost never lose them, and more importantly, I can fish swimbaits in, through, over, and around all the bad neighborhoods our fishy friends hang in.
Big Fish = 8 pounds -11 ounces.

BIG BAIT = BIG FISH!! Below is a picture of the 3/4 oz. Tenacious Baits Wedless leadhead and the 9 inch MC “Viejos Series” swimbait I used to catch this beautiful fish!