Sport Fishing USA — January 2018

SPORTFISHINGMAG.COM 47

FINDING WEEDS
Some days, weeds can be difficult for boating
anglers to spot, particularly when large patches
are scarce and an overcast sky or glare reduces
color contrast. Choppy seas complicate the
search. On any day, elevation helps — a big reason
many fishing boats are equipped with towers.
Slowing the boat speed can also help, giving
your eyes more time to scan the surface. Many
anglers troll lures and/or rigged baits at about
7 knots while on the hunt. Captains encourage
all crew members to stay on the lookout — the
more eyes the better.
A set of quality binoculars, such as the
Steiner Marine 7x50 (about $300), helps in spot-
ting weeds at a distance. In California, many

boating anglers have turned to gyroscopically

stabilized binoculars, such as the Fraser Optics

14x40 Stedi-Eye Mariner-S (about $5,100).

Other anglers opt for the more affordable

Fujinon 14x40 TS1440 Techno-Stabi stabilized

binoculars (about $1,300).

Once you find some weeds, a stealthy approach

can pay dividends, says Capt. Barry Brightenburg,

of Always an Adventure charters in San Diego,

California. “I like to first slow-troll a couple of

live baits in a wide circle around the paddy,”

Brightenburg explains. “I slowly spiral inward

toward the kelp on the second or third circle.”

By taking it slow rather than rushing in at a

relatively high throttle setting, the boat tends to

blend with the environment and is less likely

to  spook any fish, he contends. Brightenburg

likes to shut down on the lee or down-current

side of the weeds and then drift away, with live

baits placed fairly far behind the boat, while

chumming with liveys and chunks. “If there’s

mahi or tuna under the paddy, sometimes they

will swim to the boat and stay with it as if it were

a paddy itself,” he adds.

FINICKY FEEDERS

Some days, fish under a weed patch get finicky

and refuse to bite most lures or baits. “Often,

mahi get keyed in on small baitfish like 1-inch

minnows under the weeds,” Thomas says. “They

get their minds set on one thing and ignore

everything else.”

One reason mahi and even tuna might settle

in on these baits is because such forage is easy

to  digest, Sepulveda ventures to guess. “I have

dissected mahi stomachs full of minnow slurry,”

he reveals.

When small baits are abundant, mahi and tuna

can gorge themselves to obtain calories almost

instantly, as opposed to larger baits that require

more time and energy to digest, Sepulveda

conjectures. Also, when forage abounds and the

fish are full, they are less likely to eat.

Though fly-fishermen might be able to match

the hatch with 1-inch minnow replicas, other

anglers motor away in frustration. Yet it’s worth-

while to circle back on these weed patches later

in the day.

Off Southern California, for example, mahi

often ramp up feeding at different times of the

day. “They will go from nothing to wide open in

an instant,” Sepulveda observes. It’s what SoCal

anglers call a “time-of-day thing.”

Whether the golden-brown algae is kelp or

sargassum, paddies, patches and lines of floating

weeds rank among the most consistently

productive offshore hot spots. Understanding

more about the biology of this natural flotsam

can make you a more successful angler.

I like to first

slow-troll

a couple of

live baits

in a wide

circle around

the paddy.

I slowly

spiral inward

toward the

kelp on the

second or

third circle.