I did this last year, and thought it would be a good thing to do again this year. Generally the boards start to slow down this time of year (not just this one, but all of em) so I think this is a good thread to start. Alright, so basically just recap your 2001. Where did you improve? What did you focus on? What should you have worked on more? What can you do differently next year? Here's mine:

Last year we had that awesome seabass bite in the harbor, but unfortunately some of those unregistered users must be sealions or something, cause they sure found out about it this year. They pretty much ruined the seabass bite this year which really sucked. On the plus side, I got to fish with Larry a few times this year which was really cool. Got to witness first hand the power (or lack thereof :-)) of the calico hunter. I also spent most of my time/money that I'd normally spend on other things, on albacore trips out of san diego. I caught my first yellowtail, albacore and yellowfin this summer. I also did my first multi day trip of 3.5 days last June. I'm glad I got in a good hardcore season on the tuna, cause now I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing as far as tuna fishing, and I won't have to spend 2 or 3 seasons trying to figure out how to catch an albacore. Now I can just plan the trips and go without worrying about trying to figure out stuff. I also spent a bunch of cash on tuna rods, so I've got a pretty good arsenal in case I want to do some more harder core baja or long range trips. I'll only have to fill a couple holes in my arsenal instead of buying everything besides a 20# and 30# stick. I pretty much only need a 50 and 60 to have everything up to 80# covered, so that's cool. Plus, I can always borrow a couple rods if I need em. Now that I feel fairly comfortable with my saltwater gear, next year I'm going to focus on bass gear and inshore gear. I definitely need more freshwater bass rods, and next year I'll probably do the same thing as with my tuna gear, only on the freshwater side. Get everything squared away so that I can start focusing on baits and stuff instead of not having a jig rod, or not having a dropshot rod, etc. I want to just get all that out of the way so I've got enough rods to cover all the bases.

Getting back to fishing, like I said, I spent most of my time chasing those apple cores, and I can't say I regret it. I had some good times driving back and forth to san diego. Even got a comped trip out of it from Capt. Rick on the Holiday (great boat out of Point Loma, btw). The whole atmosphere in SD with the three landings and the boats unloading and loading is just awesome. I like going down there just for that reason, not to mention the fishing. But, I think I've got some of that out of my blood now. It was cool to go down there and check stuff out and learn how to catch tuna and stuff, but now that I know what I'm doing (more or less), I'd like to plan my trips out of SD for yellowfin or bluefin, and albacore trips out of morro bay late in the year. Maybe limit it to 3 partyboat trips next year so I have more money for bass rods...

This year wasn't a total waste for the bass fishing. With my dad working at Cachuma, we got free camping whenever we wanted, so for spring break we brought up the tv and vcr and camped for a week with Brian #2's boat in a slip. That was the most epic rip bait bite at cachuma I've ever been on. It was awesome. Good memories from that week. We also got on a good rat-l-trap bite and a good crankbait bite later on in the year. The pro/teen at the delta was fun, especially since I got paired up with John Lake (who I stayed with at the hotel the night before). That was kinda funny. We coulda caught a few more fish, and I coulda farmed less, but it was still fun. I gained a lot of confidence in a lot of different baits that I didn't fish very much before this year, so that's good. I want to work on fishing deepwater, and jig fishing next year.

I think my rodbuilding was a success. Not only did it save me some money in my accumulation of tuna rods, but some of em look almost tolerable. lol. Nah, most of em came out good, I'm really happy with em. I even built a couple for some homies, and showed Zach how to wrap. I was gonna buy a loom at the fred hall show, but I don't know if I will now that I've got most of my arsenal squared away already. We'll see though. I'd like to do some real, actual weaves.

Just checked last year's recap, and I put together my top 3 trips. Let's see if I can remember the top 3 from this year. The best trip would have to have been the Holiday trip with Brian #2, Daniel and Daniel's dad. That's when I caught my yellowfin, and like 4 or 5 albies and handed Brian his first albie. That was a super fun trip, and Brian puked in the morning so we got to make fun of him for that. Second best trip, hmmmm, might have to be that spring break camping trip. Lots of campsite antics (don't hold more than 20 matches to the side of a coal starter. They explode.) as well as good fishin. Number three trip I think would be that halibut tournament with Larry. That was cool cause I got that 23lber which ended up being big fish, and we caught a lot of fish that day. It's also funny to hear Larry try to explain how he trying to gaff his own halibut, and then missing and losing the fish is my fault. LMAO. That was a big fish, but it didn't matter cause he ended up winning anyway. The 3.5 day would have to go in there somewhere, but I think it's in it's own league. The first day or two sucked cause I couldn't get bit and I was still trying to figure out what the deal was (see rob about this dillemma), but once I figured it out it was really fun. I knocked the $hit out of em on the slide. I also got 2 yellows which are making their way to the top of my favorite fish list. I got one on 15# on the 900XL that whooped my ass. Another one dove into a kelp paddy on 25#, but I got him out ok. Man, those things are fun. Seeing freeswimmers around the boat was insane. Same with the albies. Ok, I'm done rambling I think. Let's hear how your year went!
-Brian

Hey Brian,
Glad you brought up this post again this year. This has been a great year. I got my kayak back in February and have been able to go fishing almost every weekend. I missed a couple of good bites in my area such as the BKR halibut bite and the MDR seabass bite which by the way dwarfed the Rocky Point bite last year from what I have read. The halibut never really materialized for me in shallow water this summer but I did catch a few legals and a mess of shorts. One fish that did show up however was the WSB. I can remeber everyone out chasing Threshers and I practically had the bite all to myself. Every cast was either a calico, sandy or WSB with a few misc fish like cabezon. It took me two months but I finally got a legal (30") on a 6" green sardine. My first time albie fishing was a success, however it was so early in the season we didn't get many big ones. Then there's the Bonita fishing in King Harbor which is still WFO. I just started my winter break so I have like two weeks to make a few more trips to remember
Tommy

Ok, heres what i can pull out from my notes. For me, this was a year of firsts, i caught more new brands of fish this year then i have in the past. My list goes as follows:
-Calico Bass- Huntington Rigs with OOzacGT, early July
-Sand Bass- Same trip as above
-Ray- St. George Island Florida, at "The Cut", Mid August
-Speckled Sea Trout- St. George Island, at cut as well
-Ray- Yet again at the cut.
-Sand Shark- St. George offshore while grouper fishing
-Ruby Lipped Snapper- Offshore Florida
-First stream fish of any species.
-Rock Bass- Stream in Franklin North Carolina, mid Aug.
-Chub- Same as above
-Jig and Craw LM bass- Private pond outside of Atlanta Georgia on a plantation. Mid Aug.
-Senko fish!- My local ponds, and i cant stop catching them on the senko either (Thats right Fish Chris! LOL)
-Albi- Not exactly my first, but it was my first time actually reeling in the whole thing unlike when i was in 5th grade!
-Fly Fish- First fish caught at my local ponds on a dry grasshopper fly. It was a big bluegill that smacked the crap outa the fly.
-SteelHead- Whale Rock Resovoir- Mine was small, but my friend got a few 15 to 17 inchers.
-Crappie- I caught countless crappie at my little ponds i fish in town. Got em on mini jigs up to about 10"'s


-BIGGEST FISH- 43# Albi, Sardine, 50 Miles off Vandenburg AFT, Pacific Queen, 10/29/01. I got a 40,41,43#er on the trip, and felt good about that because i didnt have my flylining down. Had i known how to fly line, i could have had 10 or so like some other people did, but no hard feelings over here. Next time! This was the best bite of the year according to Sam on the PQ, with 2 60#ers caught. It was WFO till we had to leave, and most were 35#'s and up!! Im hooked on them pelagics now! I will post a picture in a little bit, when i get it back from the scanner.
-Biggest Bluegill- i landed 3 bluegill that were each 12"'s on memorial day from shore, i was pretty stoked, they fight hard on UL gear!


And my rod wrapping has taken off as well, i made my first rod in april or may with the help of Pete, and now im on my 7th or so, not too bad considering i dont have a power wrapper and a ton of time to wrap. Sold a few to friends, but been able to make a little profit on a few. Ask OOzacGT, he knows i can wrap a good rod and learn fast. I am planning on getting a power wrapper pretty soon i hope, and then can do some faster work. My latest project is an 8 foot shikari for throwing the big trout plugs, MAN CORK IS $$$ these days!! Good times!

Overall its been a great fishing year for me, ive caught lots of fish, wrapped lots of rods, learned a lot, met a ton of people, got new connections with people with boats, found about 7 ponds, etc. My next goal is to get out and spank some halibut, and i think i can manage that, because my buddy has a boat and loves to hali fish out of morro bay. Go out there and have a good fishing year in 02!!

Edit- The dashes should make the list a little easier to read.

For me, it was a year of bad YT fishing out of DP, after a couple of banner years. No dodos, either. But I got my best ever WSB and albie, got a few YFT, (another bunk year out of Dana), big forks at Clemente, fun tuna in Cabo, big LMB, and got stoked on fishing bass tourneys. Hopefully Santa is bringing me a teen sized bass and a marlin this year. I would like to bait a broadbill, but I know that would send Rudolf and co. into the drink, so I won't push it. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

It would be nearly impossible to top 2000 - I had such a great year. 2001 was not better but different. I got a late start this year because of the cold weather but still managed to have a good year. It started in April while float tubing off Goleta for halibut. I had yet to catch a halibut in 2001 when a 43" 50+ lb. Giant Seabass inhaled my swimbait - boy was that fun and for the first salty fish of 2001 - thank God I hadn't forgotten how to fight a big fish on light gear! That experience is permanently etched in my brain. A few weeks later I got my first legal seabass from the tube not near the harbor. Just off U.C.S.B. in the cove. Had some simply amazing trips around Goleta with plenty of days of catching and releasing multiple legal halibut. I only managed to squeeze in one albacore trip this year but it turned into the first "wide open" bite I've ever been in. Lots of fun grabbing the 12 and 15 lb. rods and slamming the albies. Preceeding that day was a phenomenal day of calico fishing in Ensenada - plenty of 20+ inch fish - all on the plastic. My last trip was fishing with Larry Heron - a "slow" day for Larry was a blast for me - I can't wait to go out again. I'm so glad to learn that there can be some excellent fishing in the winter months here in SB. To top the year off I got a great X-mas present from Fishco!

Of course my best catch of the year was my son.

http://www.leapinbass.com/photo/photos/2001/011208b3.jpg

Well, I had two new years resolutions last year. The good news is that only one of them will have to carry over to next year - my goal of getting a dorado off my kayak in CA waters. Yeah, it's a long shot, but I gotta try. Never really saw the opening this year so I didn't give it a shot.

My other resolution was to get a thresher off the kayak. I thought I blew it the first T-shark hookup I had. We'd launched early and worked La Jolla Canyon 'til around 10 am. One of my buddies had hooked up and fought a thresher for abo 30 min before it broke off soon after jumping right over the bow of another buddy's kayak (that was interesting). We headed for the kelp to see if any white seabass were around and I figured I should take my 100# shark leader off if I wanted a white. I took the leader off and dropped a bait back. As I'm letting line out, this tail comes up and splashes on my bait... T-SHARK!!! I let him eat, then set the hook hoping the circle hook would do its job and find its way to the corner of the fish's mouth. It didn't. After a couple seconds of screaming drag, my line went limp. Doh!

But I got another chance the following weekend. I was out by myself and was about to head back to shore after trolling all morning for nothing, but decided I'd swing by the canyon again before heading in. I got lucky and was bit by a T-shark. The fish was about 8' long and an estimated 70 pounds. It was released after a 40 min fight on 20# line.

A couple months later, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a 2.5 day kayak fishing trip at San Clemente Island. On that trip of a lifetime, I caught the calico of a lifetime (mine at least) - a solid boiler rock 8 pounder. Though the fishing was a little slow, the beauty of the island and the awesome calicos made it my favorite trip of the year.

The YT and WSB bites off LJ never really materialzed this year. Poor bait conditions combined with cool, funky water conditions just weren't right for the fish.

The San Diego Rod and Reel club was holding a "Big Fish Tournament" in August. I figured, what the hell, it'd be cool to fish from a kayak and compete against a bunch of guys fishing from $50,000+ boats. So I paddled out about 7 nautical miles from La Jolla that day looking for Threshers and/or Marlin. Had I hooked one, I'm not sure how I would have landed it, let alone gotten it back to shore. But I figured I'd worry about that after I was hooked up. Well, I didn't find the threshers or the marlin (although the tourney winning marlin was caught just a few miles NE of where I turned back toward shore!), but I did find a 50# mako (kinda scary hooking it from a kayak) and a kelp paddie 6.5 miles out holding a bunch of molas and some yellows. Pulled a 10# yellow off that paddie and headed in. Now I know I can at least get out to dorado territory. The hard part is finding the paddie. Next summer......

Some other highlights...
- Won a new kayak in a kayak fishing tourney in SD.
- Made the best of some slow albacore fishing trips, landing at least 3 times the per-rod average of albies on both trips.
- Wrapped a bunch of rods and scored some sweet deals on them too by getting Lamiglas blem blanks.

In all it wasn't a bad year despite the slow summer season.

Resolutions for next year?
- MUST do some Baja trips with the kayak.
- Still gotta get that CA dodo on the kayak.
- Hook (land?) a marlin from the 'yak.

Happy holidays to all.

TL,
Adam

- caught my biggest largemouth bass 12.6 pounds
- caught my first three largemouth bass over 10 pounds
- caught my first bass on frogs and learned the technique
- got into my first great rip bait bite for bass
- gained solid confidence in crankbaits for bass
- gained solid confidence in buzzbaits for bass
- learned a lot about mega trout baits with mixed success
- caught my biggest smallmouth bass 3.4 pounds
- caught my first white seabass
- caught my biggest halibut, and first from a kickboat
- took my kickboat out in the salt for the first time
- spent my first serious season on the beach for striped bass
- caught my biggest striped bass about 18 pounds

I started off the year with an ill-fated attempt at some wild trout and steelhead (and a reminder that I CAN'T FLYFISH). I also did some bass fishing during that time with very mixed (mostly bad actually) results.

In March there was the legendary prespawn madness big bass bite at Coyote. I got into the tail end of it. A day or two after the full moon in early March I got my biggest bass ever, a 12.6 pounder. Coyote stayed alright through March. In early April I had some (2?) real good days at Lexington throwing rip baits.

Next was a kinda dead stretch (I think I got some trout at Stevens Creek on kastmasters) until the shad fishing started. Shad was good, as always, this year, but it didn't last as long as it did last year. Pretty much over by the second week of June. Not that I can complain, I had a 100 fish day. (I also remembered that I CAN'T FLYFISH)

July is beach season. I had a lot of time that month for stripers. I think I fished about every other day at the beach and still missed most the good runs. Despite some really bad luck I got in to a couple good runs.

August started with the annual trip to Clear Lake. I had my worst showing ever this year. I did manage to save face with a great last day, but otherwise I sucked big time. Around that time I took my kickboat to New Brighton beach 3-4 times. First few times I got into some nice halibut action and the last trip produced some short WSB.

September through November I pretty much spent exclusively at Coyote beating the water to a froth trying to catch another 10 pounder. I hit every number on the way up, with two 9 pounders, but never got that 10 this fall. Frog bite was good. And I had some great nights. Actually was a lot of fun even without the double digit fish I wanted. I did get a few decent delta striper trips in, too. But never anything over 3 pounds.

In late November the legendary prewinter Lexington bite materialized for 2-3 weeks before some early storms wiped out the lake and cut it all off short. Under perfect conditions, I decided to give Coyote another shot and was blessed with two 10 pounders the night of Nov 30. I tried for the next few weeks to duplicate it, but never did much. I had been claiming all year that whenever Lexington turned on I'd be fishing Coyote. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE BUT DIDN'T.

Finally Late December brings me to the newly opened Quarry Lakes. This is the first time I've targeted smallies on purpose and so far it's been a blast.

One thing that I've learned about 10+ pound bass this year. There's nothing like being in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME. Not much technical skill went into catching those bass. Just good planning and recognizing good big bass conditions.

Another interesting thing I learned: I you fish with a bass lure long enough, you're going to catch some fish on it. No matter the lure. This led me to some odd fishing trips this year. Like throwing a frog or trout plug for hours without a bite. And not being seriously disappointed or surprised at the lack of bites. Somehow I don't much feel the urge to switch lures until I find one they're biting. And I'm not really sure if this is a good or a bad thing. And when I finally get bit on this lure that I've been throwing for 3 hours I don't know if I'm on to a bite or that the inevitable has just happened. Am I doing something wrong if I'm not getting bit?

Nico

Nico, you scored!! Congrats! Hope everyone has a great 2002!

My best catch of 2001? ....

My 2001 518 DVX RANGER!

That 8-14 at the Delta BASS wasn't bad either!

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Alright, lets see how my year went.I don't think I can compare to some of the years you guys had, but I think I did ok. My biggest accomplishment was probably catching some legal halibut from my kayak. I was really happy with the ones I got and I gained alot of confidence in fishing for them. I feel like I got good enough fishing swimbaits and fastracs that come next spring I should be able to smoke 'em. I probably won't change much next year, although I am going to expirement with putting scents on the swimbaits and using better colors. I've already started stocking up some good ones to get ready. I also want to try fishing some other places like Avila and cayucous. A trip to Santa Barbara would be cool too.
In the freshwater department, I kind of slacked off. I was in my saltwater phase all summer and didn't start chasing the bass until fall. I had some decent trips to Lopez and then I got bit by the trout plug bug. I am really getting into this big bait thing. I have yet to get a bass on one, but the follows i've gotten keep me coming back for more. In the coming months i'm going to hit Margarita hard and hopefully pull out some good fish.
Another highlight of my year was fishing the bassntubes tournament. Even though the fishing sucked I had a great time, and second place wasn't bad. I hope I can fish a few of these tournaments next year.
So that was my year, hopefully next year I will do better. There's still a few days left though, I might be off to Santa margarita saturday to top it off.-Phil

I'm sure I'll miss a lot of stuff, but I want to try something new, and keep my post sorta short.

During 2001 I...
- started freshwater bass fishing
- caught my biggest bass to date ( LM around 11# )
- caught my biggest floattube bass ( 2 weeks ago at SD Bay, 6# sandy )
- starting wrapping rods, did 12 between April and Nov.
- amassed a decent tackle collection, thus teaching my wife the term
"tackle ho".
- Held 1st place all year in the floattuber.com tourneys, only to
finish 4th due to a bad day at Newport.
- thinking I had my 5 fish in the basket(only 4 in reality), I tossed
a fish worth $160 back.
- caught rockcod and legal halibut on Zipperworms.
- discovered feakbaits like saltwater too.
- biggest albie I've boated ( 30# + ).
- stopped working on boats after 5 years of amazing experiences.
- fished less, but caught more than ever before.

Can't wait to see what next year brings.

Amish Ed
You Can't Catch it again if
it's Dead!

Amish Ed
You can't catch it again if it's dead!

It sure is hard to cover an entire year! This year was great, lots of fun trips and learning experiences. Here are my highlights, I'm sure I will forget at least half of the good trips.

-Finishing 2nd in the WONdering region with my partner John Lake was way up on the list. We fished hard and had some great trips.
-Catching a 24.56lb limit at Clear Lake with John which included two 5's and a 7 that we caught in the last 45 minutes of the tourney.
-The first day of the Tri-States north team championship where we had 21lbs in the boat in the first hour of the tourney on swimbaits.
-Fishing by myself and driving a bassboat for the first time at Santa Margarita for a WON team tourney and being proud to catch a limit.
-The shallow crankbait bite we got on at the Delta to take 3rd in a tourney with a nice 21lb bag.
-Learning a lot from John about bass fishing and watching him catch some very nice kicker fish in tourneys.
-Never getting skunked in a tournament this year.
-Catching smallies on rip baits at Berryessa, man that was a blast.
-Learning how to sight fish finally and catching some nice fish including a 6-3 at Chabot and a 7-14 at San Pablo.
-Losing two fish over 10 at Chabot in one day was not on the list!
-Going calico bass fishing with Larry Heron and learning some of his most excellent techniques.
-Getting sponsored by Big Hammer / Assalt / Fishco Mfg.
-Catching a legal halibut and seabass at Goleta Beach with Brian, Pete, and Mike. That was a great tubing trip.
-Fishing all over the state and for all sorts of different fish species.
-Applying saltwater techniques to freshwater and vice versa
-I have really enjoyed all the great posts and reports this year on the website. I like the site more now than I ever have.

While I did not get in as much angling as I would have liked, I did have a couple of personal bests this year. My 41 inch halibut in late summer was a capper. My 7 lb corbina (state record size, had I known) may have been the corbina of my lifetime. I started out the year with a goal of a legal halibut from the surf. Perhaps in 2002...

Here is a recap of my first angling year in Santa Barbara after years of fishing on the East Coast and in NorCal. Here is what I have learned or think that I have learned about salt and freshwater fishing here this year. If locals contradict anything that I write viewers should accept the opinion of the locals because So Cal fishing is new to me and I could be wrong about many things.

1. The female halibut are the bigger ones in the catch and they are more likely to be offshore. So the ratio of short to legal halibut is likely greater for the yaking and tubing anglers than for those in boats in 70+ feet of water. (I am talking about offshore SB, not the Islands). The bigger sandies and calicos also seem to be in the 35 to 100 foot depths.

2. Skates, rays, and sharks are more numerous fishing east of the SB Harbor than west. I try to avoid them when bass are near the bottom by fishing west or straight out.

3. Smelly Jelly has little respect as a swimbait smear in SoCal, even among those that use smears. There are other great smears, but Smelly Jelly stays on longest. Someone complained that he did not like Smelly Jelly because he could not get it all off of his hands after washing them. I consider this to be an endorsement, not a complaint.

4. I read in the Kovach saltwater fishing book that SoCal anglers have been slow to try bucktail jigs in the ocean, and I have found this to be true. In spite of great success in the NorCal salt with white bucktail jigs, and some success here the few times I tried it, I too am becoming addicted to swimbaits.

5. If sandies are at or near the bottom, so fishing the fall is not much of an issue,they will take a much heavier leadhead ( with the appropriate length swimbait) than the usual 1/2 - 1.5 oz. I do not know yet if this is true of calicos, which are more selective.

6. In the opinion of many in SoCal, trout only means bass food. I am almost ashamed to talk about trout fishing here, especially about planted trout, because many SoCal anglers think trout fishing is a joke. However, I have caught holdover planted trout that fight very well. I use ultra light glass rods and micro spinning reels with 2 to 4 lb test line. I do not know much about SoCal trout plants, but sometimes (not often)in NorCal the private plants (not DFG) would consist of exceptionally strong trout. I once had a limit of such newly planted trout,in a city lake, that made very long fast runs and jumped 5 or 6 times.

7. I have found that limits of c&r smallmouth can be caught in the SY River in the fall and winter, weather and Gibraltor releases permitting.

8. There are many very knowledgeable anglers on this cite who are very generous with their information. They contribute very much to whatever success I have been having. I no longer check any of my other bookmarked angling sites because they all have a greater ratio of junk/quality posts. Looking at this site daily is a great pleasure. Thank you.

Tight lines, but not tight lips.

Happy New Year

#6 made me LMAO. har har.

I had a feeling that Brian would enjoy my comment about trout as only bass food (cormorants like trout too). Seriously, I grant that most 1/4 - 1/2 lb DFG newly planted trout fight like a wet noodle (but are less tasty). However, again I say don't knock fishing deeper for 3 - 7 lb holdover trout. I have caught such trout that fought as well as steelhead that I have caught of the same size, and, on the other hand, I have caught 1/4 lb steelhead that did not fight much harder than a comparable planter trout.

I wonder if some of the anglers who disparage trout fishing are among those who wait (usually in vain), as I do, for a decent salmon run off SB. Am I wrong, but aren't most of our ocean salmon actually plants (hatchery fish)?

All fishing is great. Lets get the Condor to do a mullet charter!

#4 is clutch!


Fished the Megabait hair jig in the salt, wrecked the sandies, got some nice checkerboards, and one nice tail- brought back memories of beiing a deckhand as a kid and watching a guy absolutely wreck the tails on a bomber jig, haven't left home without them since. Hair jigs are a great tool.

Bassnet, thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think that I was alone at this site praising hair jigs.

In norcal salt I had much better success when the jig's "tentacles" were bucktail than when they were rubber, and when they were white instead of another color. How about you in socal salt?

Now that I think about it, the jig I was fishing was made by Spro, not Megabait- just straight white hair, I used a straight white spinnerbait trailer on an all white jig most of the time.

http://www.spro.com/p_prime_buck.htm