On The Water Reader Report

By Rick Redlich

Here’s the ticket to great yellowtail catches!  Get yourself a Stinger.   I’ve fished the waters and the islands of the Southern California Bight for 50 years.  For the last 25 years, I’ve employed one method of fishing almost exclusively.  I yo-yo a Stinger lure straight up and down just off the ocean’s bottom.  My one exception to this method of fishing would be if we had squid for live bait.  I’ve even used a small 2 oz. Stinger to make squid for bait when they are abundantly spawning out at one of the Channel Islands.

I had a very sad experience fishing one day last fall when I snagged the bottom and I finally lost my last 2 oz. Stinger.  Luhr-Jensen had stopped making and marketing them a couple of years ago.  My fishing buddies and I continued to nurse along our dwindling supplies by reconditioning, from time to time, what few we had remaining.  Thankfully, my charitable fishing buddies came up with a couple of more Stingers from their tackle boxes to keep me going a little while longer.

Now speaking “thankfully,” my Thanksgiving came very early this year (June).  My best fishing pal had discovered through the grapevine that the Stingers were now back on the market. The only thing that I would ever consider to be better news than that, was that I won the Super Lotto!  I immediately contacted them and placed my order:  http://www.deepstinger.com/index.html I am so happy!

Let me impress two facts upon you.  Number #1: I am old and I have a lot of experience fishing.  Number #2: The Stinger fishing lure is a well kept secret and is the most under-rated fishing lure.  I have caught everything on them: halibut, calico and sand bass, barracuda, white seabass, yellowtail, albacore, all varieties of rockfish, sheepshead, lingcod, white fish, and even giant black seabass.  I almost always use a 2 oz. or 3 oz. white lure.  We have found them to consistently outfish livebait. You will outfish your fishing buddies and you will catch bigger fish too.

This Spring so far the weather and the water conditions here in Southern California have greatly reduced our time on the water.  I’ve only managed 3 trips since the beginning of March when the rockfish closures ended.  I’ve been out twice in May and once in June.  Each time I’ve caught a nice fish on my favorite lure, a 2 oz. white Stinger:  An 18 lb. halibut; a 17 lb. yellowtail; and on our most recent trip, June 21st, an approx. 45 lb. yellowtail!  (The fish broke our 50 lb. scale) My friend also caught a big yellow on that trip too.

A funny side light to share regarding my friend’s big yellowtail.  He was yo-yoing a 3 oz. Stinger near the bottom when a school of huge sized yellowtails boiled approx.  50′ off our starboard side. My friend put his pole, with the Stinger on it, in a rod holder and grabbed another pole to cast out to the boiling fish.  He had no sooner started to retrieve his cast surface lure when the pole he had just placed in the rod holder went off.  His Stinger was just dangling there unattended and it was hooked up to a huge yellowtail!  I nailed my yellowtail by my tried and true method, yo-yoing my Stinger just above the sea floor.

An additional piece of timely information to add here:  I just spoke with a friend of mine who very recently returned from an albacore trip on a party boat out of San Diego.  He caught 7 – 20 lb.+  albies, all on a 4 1/2 oz. nickel green Stinger, by dropping his Stinger back on the slide.  He said he was hit almost every drop.

The secret is out.  The Stinger is back!  The rest is up to you.

Good fishing!

Rick Redlich