How to Catch California Barracuda off Dana Point
There is a sound you learn to love on the back of a Dana Wharf boat in the summer. It is the drag screaming on a half-dozen reels at once, followed by the captain calling out “hookup, hookup” over the rail. Nine times out of ten in July, that chaos is a school of barracuda that just crashed our jigs. They are long, mean, and full of teeth, and pound for pound they will test your reflexes more than almost anything else we catch close to home. California barracuda are one of the most underrated targets in our whole sportfishing lineup. They are aggressive, they school up thick, and they hit a surface jig like they are mad at it. They are also the perfect fish to learn on, because the technique that catches them is the same technique that…
The Light-Tackle Rockets: How to Target Bonito out of Dana Point
They vibrate like a jackhammer, run like a tuna, and fight harder than fish three times their size. The Pacific Bonito is the unsung hero of the Southern California coast. Often called “little tuna,” Bonito are pelagic schoolers that invade the waters off Dana Point when the currents warm up. For anglers aboard…