Inshore Dana Point - Yellowfin, Yellowtail, and Dorado

[Bill H.]

Saturday my son and I had a late start out of Dana, about 9:30 or so. Went down the coast and found smaller bluefin jumping all around but couldn’t get anything to bite. We were throwing jigs, poppers, slow trolling and fly lining sardines, etc. There was so much life, with whales, dolphins, birds, and tuna all around.

We headed out to the 267 but found much less life out there. There were a few sport fishers out there who could probably find the paddies better than us. We trolled our way back into the original area and hooked up on a yellowfin. Not huge but decent and nice to get rid of the skunk! Not long after we found a small paddy where we fly lined sardines and got a small yellowtail and a bull dorado.

On a side note, we drifted off the paddy and were repositioning when the Helena sport fisher was coming towards us. Before they reached us, my son hooked up on the yellowtail and we could hear the captain telling the passengers that they were going to move on and leave the paddy to us. That was extremely polite of the captain. Thanks Helena!

Overall, not a huge catch but one yellowtail, one yellowfin, and one dorado made for an awesome day with my son.

 

[Tunahead]

TRICECTA? Hell yes. Fun times with your son for sure. Great read.
Great report and pics.

 

[Shewillbemine]

Dude that is 1 million times better than most!

 

[Baja Belk]

That's a solid US dodo!

 

[Wild West]

Fun day of fishing to be sure! Nice dodo!

 

[locvetter]

Good to commend the sport boat skipper!

 

[Dan Salazar]

Calvin the skipper on the Hilana is truly a quality person

 

[Bill H.]

TRICECTA? Hell yes. Fun times with your son for sure. Great read.
Great report and pics.

Thank you!

 

[Bill H.]

Solid catch man. Well done

Thanks!

 

[Bill H.]

Solid catch man. Well done.

 

[Jerkmyquest]

few years back the patriot came in on a paddy i was fishing and after greeting his passengers i pushed off his stern not too to get hit probably should have ordered a hamburger, great for you and your son

 

[popx5]

Props to the Helena…. I’m sure that good karma paid off for them later.

 

[neversink2]

Nice grade of fish. Thanks for the report.

 

[katchfish]

Dana Wharf Sportfishing, class act...

 

[BlackRose]

Awesome report. How far offshore were you when you caught all those fish?

 

[Bill H.]

4 to 6 miles.

 

[acefuture]

Is your hull light blue? I was in the Cabo 226 out of Dana when you guys pulled up to that foamer with all the birds and porpoises. We did almost the same as you but came home empty handed. Nice work!

 

[Ahkhuang]

Awesome job Great trio of fish! Thanks for the pics and report.

 

[Bill H.]

Is your hull light blue? I was in the Cabo 226 out of Dana when you guys pulled up to that foamer with all the birds and porpoises. We did almost the same as you but came home empty handed. Nice work!

Thanks, and yes, that was us. We saw you guys out there. You'll get them next time.

 

[Bill H.]

Awesome job Great trio of fish! Thanks for the pics and report.

Thanks!

 

[splashy77]

F'k yea dad!

 

[Tunaslam]

Way to go guys, sensational day!

 

[SavageSon]

Impressive hat trick

 

[aidang4]

Seems like an awesome day, consider yourself lucky for the sport boat not invading in!!! Killer report and well done!

 

[Sandydog]

Fished out of Dana Wharf on Tuesday aboard the Sum Fun. Normally their half-day boat, but being used for occasional full-day trips. I saw they pulled the Dana Pride off of whale watch duty and ran a full day trip with it on Wednesday, probably in response to increased fishing demand. (When I dropped by on Monday to ask for tackle recommendations, two people in front of me both inquired about full-day trips.)

Our day was pretty much the same as your report. Started off very slow with about an hour between paddies and each paddy stop producing 0-2 fish for the entire boat. Then according to the captain, a private boater invited us onto a paddy that they'd found. That made our day, with our final tally being about 2 fish per rod, with a 40 lb bluefin taking jackpot. So what goes around comes around. Captain made sure to remind us as we were leaving that it was all possible due to the generosity of the private boater (apparently their boat didn't have a name).

We were in the area between the 267 and 209. If you look at the water temps on tempbreak.com, you can see there's a band of slightly-warmer water right in there.