Fishing Newport Harbor
 

I was thinking of yak fishing around the bait barge soon. I vaguely recall some reports about this general area and how the fishing can be decent. I'm more concerned with the traffic there, however. Does it get pretty crazy on the weekend? If I were to stay in the "center" between the jetties, would I be safe from the in and out traffic that I'm expecting to see? Also, I was going to try my go to 3" big hammer swim baits with some sort of scent. Think that'll work ok?

They've pulled out the bait barge recently. It will be back in April

I fished on the last day the baitbarge was around last weekend. Undersized bass and mackerel next to the barge, and something raked a mackerel I put out for halibut. Just past the breakwater, bonito and mackerel were eating coltsnipers on almost every cast. Nothing touched the live mackerel out there.

Good luck!

Edit to say that most boaters are considerate in the harbor but always be on the lookout. I prefer to fish the sides...

X1 on what everyone else said. If the barge is there, the fishing can be good. Cuda, bass, macs, etc. Supposedly someone got a yellowtail there last summer. One bad thing is that there are lots of dogs and they love the easy pickings of a hooked fish.

3" big hammers with Pro Cure or Hot sauce work well. Had pretty good luck drop shotting zoom flukes too. We usually launch from coast guard station and just trolling a lucky craft or other crankbait out to the barge or beyond always produces something.

Thanks for the advice guys. I ended up going there with a friend this Sunday. We got there around 7:30 so it was already "late" morning. My 3" bighammer with scent got maybe a nibble or two, but that was it! I switched to cut up macs and shrimp, and got small nibbles EVERYTIME, but ended up skunking. My friend used his sabiki rig and caught like a dozen macs, however. He was happy because he likes using cut up mac as bait in other bays and places we frequent. you were right... bait barge was gone. I saw a handful of other yakkers out there too.