Quote from: jrodda on August 25, 2026, 08:15:04 PMValiant effort! Hope it was a least a nice time with friends. The yellowtail zone in Long Beach is pretty ridiculous right now. And the bait situation has been poor all summer, cattle boats get what few sardine are available and small boats get scraps.

What charter company was that? I have talked shop with one of the few charter captains in there a number of times at Charkbait.

Bowline Sport Fishing, he's a buddy of mine 

First a Cow Hoof and now a Banana Peel, you need a better security 

I assume you kept them for Bat Bait  ??

Yeah, I can't really post the photos as they would definitely be attacked online.  As for the yellows, I'm sure they are still there but where is the question.  The bait is the toughest thing.  All of my fish have been on the artificials which is quite amazing in its own right, but I would have tripled my Yellow count with real live bait.

Tim, you may be out there when they start to snap again, so don't go by recent reports.  Day by day bites are totally the norm this year.  I'd definitely try to troll some big Rapalas if you can't find any good bait.  5 mph about 50 yards behind the boat will give you a good shot.  If you meter bait then fish that area since there is not much bait out there.  The gamefish will be close by.

Ouch.... that's a tough one. Sounds like you guys did everything right and just ended up on the wrong side of the fish gods that day (did you pour out some beer in homage to the fish gods that morning?). Between the bait shortage, the armada sitting on the yellows, and running 75 miles south only to find lockjaw fish, that's about as expensive a boat ride as they come.  Bait has been really hard to come by the past month or two.

Honestly, I'd rather burn a lot less fuel and take my chances with The Cyclops out of La Jolla too. With your track record, I wouldn't be surprised if you put together a better report locally than the entire fleet did offshore.

Good luck with Cheez on Friday. Hopefully the next report includes bent rods, bloody decks, and a fish story worth every penny this trip wasn't! Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Interesting trip! Must be a nice break from the donkey yellows wearing out your shoulders.

Valiant effort! Hope it was a least a nice time with friends. The yellowtail zone in Long Beach is pretty ridiculous right now. And the bait situation has been poor all summer, cattle boats get what few sardine are available and small boats get scraps.

What charter company was that? I have talked shop with one of the few charter captains in there a number of times at Charkbait.

 My buddy that I fish with in Mammoth and Bishop wanted me to set up a Charter for 4 of us, so I arranged it out of Huntington Harbor. $2800 for a full day, $700 a piece, oh well.

Launched at 5:30 am, so I had to leave my house at 2:30am to be there in time Headed out of the harbor only to learn there was no bait to be had anywhere   Finally found micro Anchovies in Newport We got to where the Yellows were and there was at least 50 boats stacked up like Cord Wood !!! We trolled for a bit and never metered anything so we headed off shore....75 miles South and 30 miles out. We found tons of Dolphin but no other life   Finally found a huge school of something at 150' but they were not biting either.

Beautiful flat calm seas and warm weather along with an expensive boat ride, got back to the Harbor at 6:30 pm, gave a nice tip and made my way back home at 8:30pm. Long day and had fun with my buddies but now I want to take The Cyclops out to LJ and try my luck locally

Cheez is coming out Thursday and we will fish Friday, hope to have a report this weekend 

Nice way to mix it up

What's with the fish, did the bite die off in LJ ??

Heading out in a few days but my luck hasn't been good. I'll explain in another post 

You got up, got wet and got bit, nice move towards Bass Thumb   

I'll actually finish this later.  Just know we stayed away from the crowd and worked the area hard.  What we thought was a 40-50 pound yellow grabbing the rapala turned out to be a 50# BSB!!!!  I was in shock, but my buddy was super stoked as it was his biggest game fish in California!  He's caught 30# flatheads out here and lots of 20-30 pound fish, but weirdly enough, never broken the 50# mark since he doesn't Bat Ray fish.  LOL

I have the pictures, but will leave them out of the AI spotlight.

Long story short and we caught a big BSB, a few halibut and a bass on the 7" deep diving Rapalas.  Totally never would have expected that, but I'll take the strange day over the usual any time!