FISHING / DAN STANTON : Popular Twilight Trips Scheduled to Begin Friday

Twilight fishing trips will begin at all South Bay sportfishing landings on Friday.

Traditionally, the trips start on Memorial Day weekend and run through Labor Day.

The popular trips will depart at 6 p.m. daily and return by midnight. Most of the boats have installed new lighting.

The boats will target migrating sand bass. Anglers can frequently catch their limit of sand bass on the twilight trips.

During trips last year anglers caught a variety of fish, including calico bass, barracuda and sand bass.

The 22nd Street Landing’s Monte Carlo and Long Beach Sportfishing’s Southern Cal made sand bass scouting runs last weekend and reported that the fish have arrived.

Anglers aboard both boats caught more than 100 sand bass and also landed some barracuda.

Steve Persiado of Long Beach caught a nine-pound calico bass. Charles Underwood of San Pedro landed a 6 1/2-pound sand bass.

Two L.A. Harbor Sportfishing boats, the Topgun and the Pacifica, returned with 71 white seabass after fishing off Catalina Island. They set out lights and caught squid for bait. Captains Bob Taft and Guy Ashley said they caught just enough squid to bring out a wide-open bite. After the anglers ran out of squid, they used jigs.

Several other South Bay day boats also returned with limits of white seabass after fishing off the island.

Local update--Last weekend a school of barracuda chased bait into Los Angeles Harbor near the Annie B Barge, but only three fish were caught because anglers were not rigged for surface action.

Deckhand David Lane said the fish were moving rapidly past the barge and out of the harbor.

Barracuda and calico bass were in good supply at Horseshoe Kelp last week and some yellowtail were also caught.

Sonny Bennett of Marina del Rey was drifting in his skiff in Santa Monica Bay and caught two halibut that weighed 25 and 15 pounds.

Bennett said he used live anchovies with a halibut rig to catch his two halibut.

Carl Rubenstien of Gardena, fishing off the King Harbor rocks, hooked a small mackerel. As he was reeling it in, a thrasher shark slashed the mackerel. Rubenstien set the hook, reeled in and released the small shark, which was estimated to be 15 pounds.

Rosie Cadman of the Avalon weigh station says surface fishing has improved in the past week.

Chris Knott of Avalon, aboard his boat Bill Collect, was only five minutes outside of Avalon when he pulled a 35-pound white seabass from a bed of floating kelp.

Jack Patterson of the tuna club, aboard his boat Dread Naught, weighed in a 32 1/2-pound yellowtail.

South Bay Catches--Tsutomu Tanaka of West Los Angeles, aboard the Crest off Catalina, caught the whopper of the week--a 40-pound white seabass.

Tony Winicki of Mar Vista, aboard the Spitfire at Twin Roads, caught a 31-pound halibut.

Gordon Mills of Wilmington, aboard the Hitless Miss at Horseshoe Kelp, caught a 27 1/2-pound yellowtail.

Arnie Trujillo of West Los Angeles, aboard the Topgun off Catalina, caught a 29-pound white seabass.

Leo Lebrand of Lomita, aboard the Monte Carlo at Horseshoe Kelp, caught a 22 1/2-pound white seabass.