Newport Harbor

My brother and I tubed Newport Harbor last weekend. Launched around 10:30 and fished until 4. We found a beach to launch and fished the back end of the harbor. It was a full moon so very large tidal swing, we arrived around slack high and fished until slack low. Bite was alright at first in our usual spot, we hooked around 8 fish and landed 6, all spotties. Also had a ton of mackerel in the harbor. We would finish our cast in the channel and burn the bait back to the tube, and a wolf pack of macks would get our bait. We brought in 3 and had several more rip off our swimbait tails. We moved on to some new water and the bite slowed down a lot. No fish for about an hour, only 1 or 2 short bites. We crossed the channel and I felt a soft little bite and reeled into a short little halibut, my first one out of Newport Harbor. We reached another one of our better spots and scratched out 2 spotties within 15 minutes before heading in.

We mostly fished docks and pilings but also tried to find some structure in the channel. There was also a ton of algae in the water which made fishing a little more difficult. All the bass were caught keitech swing impact fat 3.3" swimbaits in baitfish patterns, and also had a few bites on the hookup baits 1/4 chovy, including a big fish that pulled drag and broke off in the pilings. We fished 20 and 30 lb braid with 10 lb mono leader. Grade in Newport is never really that great, most fish were average around 11-12" and one chunky 13" spottie. Halibut was around 11-12. All fished were released. Bite wasn't the best, and the current was ripping pretty hard. But, still scratched out a few bass and had a pretty fun day.

Nice report and sounds like a good time. I got to wonder what burns drag on 20 or 30 pound braid in the harbors.   

Thanks for sharing.

"I got to wonder what burns drag on 20 or 30 pound braid in the harbors".  

Jerdon ... Ive had large rays rip line off my reels in the harbors while pulling me around in circles and pulling me for a ride. Ski-ishing! lol

SP Dan     <"))><

I was there a few years back with my buddy. We hooked a juvenile great white in the harbor....thing was 5 feet long, only saw it for a second.

Just kidding...we did get broken off in there though probably by a big ray....the thing just ran and ran. We rented a skiff to fish for 2 days and trying to decide if any sharks other than lepoards made their way back up in there.

Great report, thanks! And welcome to the forum!

Yeah it is a little overkill, but braid is pretty thin so it works. That setup doubles as a calico setup when I fish the kelp, so that's why I fish heavier braid on it. Still gets bit if I use a leader though.

I targeted rays in there twice and got 2. Not very big only around 10-20 lbs but they can really pull. Stripped off drag on my Avet lol. That would be a fun ride in a tube but i don't know how I'd land one.

With my last Ray in LAB I slowly kicked it over to the beach, got off my tube and stood on the sand with my flippers on my feet and I got a clear visual on the Ray in approx 3-ft of water.

The 4-ft wide spanned Ray had suddenly woke-up, it must have suddenly realized what I was up to and it did a fast 180 deg turn at full speed towards the deeper waters and .... POP!! I almost had it landed!

In the surf my PB is a ray with a 58" wide span.

WARNING: STAY CLEAR OF IT'S BARB ON IT'S TAIL!!
They can puncture your tube and or worse your leg and pull you with it's barb if it sticks you just right.
That's what Jeremy Wade discovered in one of his "River Monsters" episodes.
Lil' rays won't pull you if barbed BUT if you get barbed ... it could ruin your day.
I've heard that soaking the wound in a pale of vinegar helps to remove the nasty venom.

This one time I was surf fishing at El Porto and I landed a small ray with an approx 20" wing span, I secured it against the sand with my high top water boots (over my neoprene sock-foot waders) in order to stabilize the ray and to remove my Lucky Craft 110 lure from it when I felt this jack-hammer action against my ankle! He was in full defense mode and was making every effort with it's thorn to hurt me! Needless to say .... the treble hook was removed and both the ray and the angler escaped the encounter safely with little or no harm.  


SP Dan     <"))><

I'm pretty careful with the tail, don't want to be on the business end of that thing. I always heard to pour as hot water as you can take on the wound to remove the venom. The problem for me is that I usually fish areas with docks that go against a sea wall, so there's not many sandy beaches to land them on. It would get pretty interesting trying to land that out of my tube...