I don't typically post reports but I haven't seen a recent Coronado Islands report as of late so figured this might help others.
Fished on the Mission Belle on Tuesday (11/28) for a 3/4 day Islands trip with 12 anglers on board.
Short Version: Endless bonitos, some rockfish, a few calico bass. Very good fishing to be had at the Islands.
Long Version:
Picked up some prime 3-5" sardines at the barge. While the crew was loading up, I was messing around throwing a Coltsniper jerkbait and got bit, the fish immediately swam down and got me into the weeds pretty good. I thought it would be another jig lost but I was able to wrestle the fish out of there and came up a nice calico.
Made our way to Islands in semi-rough seas. We started at Pukey Point and started looking around North Island for nada. Made our way towards South Island and one of the trollers went off so we started chumming. Went up to the bow and started throwing a Megabait and got bumped the first three cast but no connection.. Finally connected and landed and nice size bonito. It was wide open for at least 45 minutes on good size bonitos. They ate anything and everything and I caught all of my fish on surface irons, megabaits, and a couple on a jerkbait. Kept 4 bonitos and threw back the rest/shook them off the jig once they got close to the boat.
The captain wanted to move on and look for bigger gamefish like yellowtail and the bluefin tuna that seem to stick around late this season. We got to a spot the captain said some bluefins have been hanging around and started chumming. Saw several big boils on the bait but no hookups on yellowtail nor bft. Picked off some more bonitos and a few calicos.
We then headed south of the Islands to fish a few spots for rockfish. Every drop produced some type of rockfish and/or whitefish. I was using a megabait tipped with squid and got bit pretty well. Released all my fish except 1 good size rockfish.
We then headed back towards the Islands to take one more look at the spot where the BFT has been spotted but nada. The Captain made the dreaded but expected announcement that we were out of fishing time and had to head back. Overall, a great day of fishing and I can't say enough good things about the Mission Belle. Fishy boat, fishy captain and great crew.
Fished on the Mission Belle on Tuesday (11/28) for a 3/4 day Islands trip with 12 anglers on board.
Short Version: Endless bonitos, some rockfish, a few calico bass. Very good fishing to be had at the Islands.
Long Version:
Picked up some prime 3-5" sardines at the barge. While the crew was loading up, I was messing around throwing a Coltsniper jerkbait and got bit, the fish immediately swam down and got me into the weeds pretty good. I thought it would be another jig lost but I was able to wrestle the fish out of there and came up a nice calico.
Made our way to Islands in semi-rough seas. We started at Pukey Point and started looking around North Island for nada. Made our way towards South Island and one of the trollers went off so we started chumming. Went up to the bow and started throwing a Megabait and got bumped the first three cast but no connection.. Finally connected and landed and nice size bonito. It was wide open for at least 45 minutes on good size bonitos. They ate anything and everything and I caught all of my fish on surface irons, megabaits, and a couple on a jerkbait. Kept 4 bonitos and threw back the rest/shook them off the jig once they got close to the boat.
The captain wanted to move on and look for bigger gamefish like yellowtail and the bluefin tuna that seem to stick around late this season. We got to a spot the captain said some bluefins have been hanging around and started chumming. Saw several big boils on the bait but no hookups on yellowtail nor bft. Picked off some more bonitos and a few calicos.
We then headed south of the Islands to fish a few spots for rockfish. Every drop produced some type of rockfish and/or whitefish. I was using a megabait tipped with squid and got bit pretty well. Released all my fish except 1 good size rockfish.
We then headed back towards the Islands to take one more look at the spot where the BFT has been spotted but nada. The Captain made the dreaded but expected announcement that we were out of fishing time and had to head back. Overall, a great day of fishing and I can't say enough good things about the Mission Belle. Fishy boat, fishy captain and great crew.
