Offshore Dorado close to home in OC 8/7/22

[enfish]

Got a chance to get out with my dad on Sunday. We launched from Dana Point at a more than gentlemanly time of 9:30am. Picked up a half scoop of somewhat large sardines and we were on our way.

We drove down the beach a couple miles before turning offshore on a line a couple miles below the 267 to get off the beaten path. Water temp at the beach was 63° but warmed up quickly a few miles out.

At 10 miles out, we started to see life. Lots of jumping molas and birds working the area. So we put out the trollers… pink jet head and zucchini broom tail Zuker… our tried and true dorado jigs…

Trolled about 10 minutes before we found our one and only paddy for the day. Stopped short of it, reeled the trollers in and watched dorado jumping all around the paddy.

First pass, instant double hookup on the big sardines. One fish spit the hook on its second jump, but the other one ended up being dinner. Its stomach was full of 2 inch anchovies.

After that, they were done biting for us. They’d chase baits and sniff chunks, but wouldn’t commit. A couple other boats showed up and the 3 of us all worked the paddy very nicely taking our turns slow trolling up wind and drifting past. Each of the other boats landed 1 fish for their efforts.

There were a couple spots of puddling yellowfin that popped up close to the paddy, which we checked out, but they didn’t want anything to do with what we had to offer. They were chasing those micro-chovies.

We gave up and called it a day about 2:00 and the boat was back on the trailer at 2:45. Not a bad 4.5 hours of fishing.

 

[Deadlift500]

Thanks for the report

 

[Sailing La Reina]

Fresh Mahi for dinner. Yum.

 

[makostorm]

thanks for the report, sounds like a killer day
did you mean "jumping mahi"?

 

[pacificscout]

Cool report.
Fun fishing with Dad.

 

[Phat Matt]

Were you on the Grady White?
If so ... that was me and my son on the Parker.
Nice work

 

[enfish]

Were you on the Grady White?
If so ... that was me and my son on the Parker.
Nice work

That was us. Nice talking with you out there!

 

[oniedab]

A good trick on Dorado is to leave the first fish on the hook and let him swim around until you get the second fish going. This works well when their are a school of them. They like following the one hooked fish and wait for him to spit his guts. Chum around him and it usually gets them going. Pretty fish!

 

[lowprofile]

thanks for the report, sounds like a killer day
did you mean "jumping mahi"?

Molas jump and make huge splashes.

All the paddies from Carlsbad south were empty yesterday. I didn’t find any off oside but glad to hear the mahi didn’t stray far

 

[enfish]

A good trick on Dorado is to leave the first fish on the hook and let him swim around until you get the second fish going. This works well when their are a school of them. They like following the one hooked fish and wait for him to spit his guts. Chum around him and it usually gets them going. Pretty fish!

Yep, unfortunately that wasn't happening yesterday. The hooked fish didn't have any followers and we were soaking baits the entire time it was hooked. Eventually you have to put a gaff in it... especially fishing 20 lb test and not knowing where and how it was hooked.

Maybe the rest of the fish followed the one that spit the hook, but over the few hours we were there, the school swam right up to the boat multiple times and would sniff our baits before swimming away. If we had a spear gun, it would have been easy limits.

There's a ton of the 2-3 inch anchovy out there, and the dorado was stuffed full of them in its stomach. My guess is they just aren't that hungry and we were lucky to get a reaction bite.

 

[enfish]

thanks for the report, sounds like a killer day
did you mean "jumping mahi"?

Nope, jumping mola. I kept seeing huge silver things in the distance coming out of the water and making huge splashes. They were always too far away to tell what they were. But when we were on the paddy, there was a big one, about 4 or 5 foot diameter, hanging out down deep. Right as we were about to leave, it breached right next to the paddy and landed partially on top of it.

 

[makostorm]

learn something new everyday! I thought they were just lazy floaters

 

[Blackfish]

learn something new everyday! I thought they were just lazy floaters

The babies love to jump.

 

[91mar709]

That's a beauty

 

[Rabid Fish]

If we had a spear gun, it would have been easy limits.

don't be so sure, last time I was out (about a week ago) the divers I was putting in said fish were unusually wary for patty fish (which are normally suicidal) and even when they are suicidal, in my experience you shoot one or two off a patty and it's over.

 

[jiggingking]

Impressive amounts of fish this year !!!