By Capt. Robby Barradale
Hello Fellow Fisherpeople! The Labor Day weekend has passed, the kids are back in school, and summer is technically over but don’t put away those fishing rods just yet. With shorter days and cooling waters we are anticipating an action-packed fall run of migrating species that will be actively feeding before the chill of winter sets in. Our local waters are teeming with forage fish such as bunker (both adult and peanut size), spearing, and rainfish and will soon be joined by mullet and sandeels. This abundance of baitfish is like a giant buffet being laid out for the predatory fish to feast on and hopefully some of the top predators (humans) will be in the right time and place to take advantage.
The fluke are gathering in the channels preparing for their journey to the continental shelf and with the season closing on September 26. I recommend that you try for a nice catch of the tasty flatties soon. Striped bass are dining on sandworms and live eels drifted during the hours of darkness, ravenous bluefish are beginning to mercilessly pounce on bait schools, bonito and albacore have been spotted streaking across the ocean surface, and canyon tuna fishing is becoming more consistent. All signs point to a fantastic fall and we expect all of these fisheries to improve drastically in the coming weeks. Anchoring on deepwater wrecks continues to produce good catches of ling and cod with some fat winter flounder and pollock spicing the catch as a bonus and this fisher y should continue until ice forces the boats to shut down for the winter.
Capt. Joe Hagen and I, along with our ladies, joined Capt. Dan on the Mariner Thursday evening for the final “Anchor Jam” of the season. We enjoyed calm seas, some nice blues music provided by “Stringbean,” a few cocktails, and a beautiful sunset which all added up to a cool trip. The Mariner will continue to do 3-hour afternoon tours and sunset cruises, but I’ll miss “Anchor Jam”.
Our last few evening trips on the MiJo II in generally lousy. Drifting conditions were filled with action from short fluke but we didn’t find many keepers. I received a few encouraging bluefish reports and I am looking forward to putting the chum on the boat and pursuing these tough battling demons across the high seas. Pound for pound, I believe bluefish are the hardest fighting fish available in our area. They have speed, pull hard, jump, and if you are not careful they will even try to take a bite out of you when you unhook them. Blues are nasty, but fun!
See you her next week, till then, Hook ‘Em Up!
