Every week, Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching provides the Dana Point and San Clemente Times a report on the week’s fishing from Captain Brian Woolley, in addition to the weekly fish count.
Here is Captain Woolley’s report for the past week’s action:
Another really fun week of fishing for us.
Locally, the half-day scene is still on the bass and coastal program. Water stayed warm between 70-72 degrees. Fly-lined sardines and dropper-looped baits got the job done for our anglers. No big standout fish this week in this zone but staying busy for sure.
Offshore, oh man, it’s been some phenomenal dorado fishing. This fish has been in easy range of our three-quarter and all day trips. Some very solid fish counts this week in this stuff.
We’re catching this fish on kelps and in big open-water schools. The dorado spots in the open water have been on big bait balls of anchovy, foamer spots and breezers, and we’re setting up on this fish by getting over it the same way you’d set up on a spot of tuna or yellows. You either hang a handful and move on to the next spot, or it comes to the corner and wants to really bite. Same deal with the kelps.
Same scenario with the kelps. Roll up on a kelp with some loose jumpers and puddling fish, and if it wants to bite, it’s been very good. There seems to be no shortage of fish. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like this dorado is just everywhere, but the amount we’re seeing in areas with the bait in it, water temperatures, etc. has been amazing. Fly-lined sardines on a 25-pound setup has been the way to go.
Also, stating to see the yellowfin moving into our zone in a few areas. As more moves in, we’re hoping to have this in play as well. The Fury had some yellowfin in his counts this week, but he was down the beach a bit and out of our 5-5 all day and three-quarter-day range.
Out in bluefin zone, there’s still some shots for the small boat fleet. The LexSea fished out there a couple days this week and had some nice fish 100Lbers on the flyers.
Here are the latest fish counts from Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching:
Sept. 1 – 5 boats, 102 anglers: 209 dorado, 6 yellow fin tuna, 16 sculpin, 1 sand bass, 2 bass released
Aug. 31 – 6 boats, 133 anglers: 186 dorado, 6 sculpin, 1 halfmoon perch, 10 sand dab, 5 bass released
Aug. 30 – 3 boats, 76 anglers: 50 dorado, 11 sheephead, 3 rockfish, 1 whitefish, 18 bass released
Aug. 29 – 7 boats, 119 anglers: 773 dorado, 8 yellowtail, 2 bluefin tuna, 88 whitefish, 28 calico bass, 21 sheephead, 2 bonito, 1 sand bass, 1 sculpin, 16 bass released
Aug. 28 – 12 boats, 311 anglers: 382 dorado, 7 calico bass, 7 sand bass, 2 sculpin, 2 croaker, 1 bonito, 1 whitefish, 327 bass released
Aug. 27 – 13 boats, 261 anglers: 841 dorado, 21 calico bass, 4 whitefish, 3 sheephead, 1 sand bass, 1 bonito, 1 halibut, 1 treefish, 1 sanddab, 1 triggerfish, 1 blue perch, 150 bass released
Aug. 26 – 9 boats, 184 anglers: 545 dorado, 3 bluefin tuna, 10 calico bass, 45 bass released
Aug. 25 – 9 boats, 218 anglers: 350 dorado, 1 yellowtail, 2 bonito, 34 calico bass, 4 sand bass, 344 bass released
Beautiful yellowfin tuna and they are all remarkable in size! It must be fun to go out and catch that kind of haul during a fishing trip