We had very few boats out today, so the Modersohn family were our highliners here with this barracuda. They caught it inside the mile reef using a sassy shad swim bait. The rock cod were caught with the sassy shad and frozen anchovies on a halibut rig. They saw quite a bit of bird action – pelicans diving, etc.

If you want to have some fun with barracuda, shine up your megabaits, castmasters, crocodiles, shiny weighted jigs, and look for the bird action. Usually you’ll want to stop about 100 feet away from the birds and cast out and let it drift down for about 4 seconds then start cranking back. Barracuda fight hard for a skinny little fish, and are quite fun to catch. They feel like something three times their size. And they’re good eating.

Kurtis got a 14 pound ling on a live sardine at the Santa Cruz mile buoy. We didn’t hear anything else out of Santa Cruz except for some intriguing radio traffic that, in short, sounded a lot like someone might have found Jaws. Not sure what that’s about – maybe Todd at Bayside will have some details.

We’ve still got a ground swell coming in here, so fishing is still a bit challenging. But, there are lots of sardines around to jig up, so if you like sardines it’s a banquet out there.