Lure Colors

every time I look at a lure wall in a store I too spend most of my time looking over what I feel are the best color baits. What I've learned over the years is that color is over rated. I feel that the presentation of a lure is much more important than it's color. If you can get a fish to think your lure is a live and a real fish then it really doesn't matter what color it is. As most of you know I like to fish with a MM7 Magic Metal Jig when I have barracuda around my boat and often I hooked so many fish on that jig that they start to eat the paint off the lure. What i've found is when I get my jig to swim just right it doesn't matter what color it is, fish will eat it.

Last spring I was on my skiff and the barries where down swell from me, I tossed out a MM7 in a mackerel pattern and I hooked fish after fish, after the while half the jig didn't have any paint on it, but the fish still ate it. as I said color is not that important, it's all about the action and how you make your jig swim.

Recent e-mails

Over the past few weeks I've been getting phone calls and e-mails from viewers all around the country. Today I got two calls from NY and yesterday one from FL. I guess because my main TV markets are here in CA I forget that people watch my program all over the country and a few places out side of the USA too. It's always nice to hear from my viewers.

First off thank you all for watching my program and if you'd like to keep up with everything that we are doing you can sign up for our free newsletter on my website at www.sport-fishing.com. Also on my website are all of our fishing trips for 2010. Each trip is filmed for broadcast for my program, if you've never been on one of my trips please go on-line and sign up today.

I'll also be at the Fred Hall Fishing Show next week week in Long Beach, CA if you're coming to the show, make sure to stop by our booth and say hi!

Dan's blog more informaion about using bucktails

Here's a little more insight on why I like fishing with B-52 bucktail jigs.

More About B-52 Bucktails

I talk a little more about why I like to fish with B-52 Bucktails.

Face Book

if you'd like to stay in touch with everything we are doing with both my weekly television program and my youth foundation make sure to join our fan pages on Face Book. You should also sign up for our free newsletter on my website at www.sport-fishing.com.

Last Night

Last night two friends and I went lobster fishing, normally I know that's not huge news, but two days ago a large storm had come though southern CA and the weatherman was saying that there would be no wind and no rain and he said the waves would be 3-5 feet.

We got these a little late, my friend Greg and I towed my boat and Caesar met us at the boat ramp, just because he lives in that part of town. As we were leaving the dock two boats where heading back in. The skipper of one of the boats told us the water was very rough and that they had taken two large waves over the bow, they felt lucky to get back in safe. They suggested we put my boat back on the trailer and try it another day. We thought we'd poke our head out side and just see how bad it really was. it was around 7:30 by the time we cleared the breakwater and the guys were right, it was rough, wet and keeping cold fast. We drove about a half mile out and then I turned the boat around, but when I turned the boat back I was able to get a good look at the seas thanks to the millions of lights along the Los Angeles area. I felt it was safe to at least give it a try, so I turned the boat around and headed back toward the fishing grounds. We did hit a few large waves, but I just cut back my speed and all was well. I was surprised to see we where the only boat on the reef. We worked hard, battling both high seas and wind. After three hours of lobster fishing we only had two legal size lobsters and nine crabs for the three of us. Now the seas had gone from 4-5 feet to 5-7, with a few ten footers mixed in and it also started to rain. Now it was time to call it a night.

Fishing in the dark is always a challenge, but adding big seas, wind, and rain made things even worst. The hard part was that I just couldn't see the waves as they came in and I didn't want to have the boat sideways just incase a large wave came in. I stayed on the wheel most of the night, keeping us pointed into the waves as much as I could. ending the night with so few bugs was a disappointment, but the most important part of going fishing is to return back safely and we did that. I guess the safe thing would of been to just put the boat back on the trailer and drove home, but as they say the boat wasn't built to sit on the trailer and I love to go fishing, even in the rain with strong winds and high seas, it's just what people like us like to do.

Dan Hernandez blog on B-52 Bucktails

Fishing for bonita

Here's a little video blog for you about fishing for bonita with Magic Metal Jigs.

How-to use Magic Metal Jigs

Last Night Lobster Fishing, Again

Last night was a perfect night to go lobster fishing. two of my fishing buddies and I took my Skeeter bay Boat to Marina del Rey for a night of lobster fishing. The weather was perfect and I fished all night in a t-shirt and short pants. On our first pull of the night we had a legal lobster. We were not a lone as there were already five boats on the spot I wanted to fish, so we spent most of the night fishing in the mud away for all the rock piles, but for us it didn't seem to matter, the lobsters were moving all night long.

One thing we did different last night was that we only used fresh bait and I think that really made the difference for us, we had mackerel, bonita and salmon heads that we had bought at an Asian sea food market. Besides the 14 legal lobsters, we also almost limited out on nice size crabs too. 14 lobsters for three people is not limits, but for us it was awesome, that was the most legal lobsters I have ever taken in one night.

If you have never been lobster fishing I really suggest you give it a try. the season ends in mid March, so get out there soon and try it.

Just a reminder if you'd like to come out on one of my fishing charters, you can sign up now, all of my 2010 trips are now posted on my website at www.sport-fishing.com.

Fishing Charters

Our 2010 fishing charters are now all posted on our website. This year we have a bunch a of different trips, local all day trips, local island trips and some travel tips too. Again we will be heading up north to the Bay area fishing out of Emeryville. This will be the fifth year in row we have been up there and every trip seems to just as awesome as the year before. Our one travel trip will be back to the East Cape in June.

It doesn't matter if you want to do a local trip or go offshore for tuna or travel south to Baja for marlin and dorado, we have a trip for you, please remember all of our trips are filmed for broadcast on my weekly television fishing program, so don't wait any longer and sign up today.

As far as my youth foundation goes, all our lake events at set for this year, so please just visit my youth foundation website at www.danskids.org and save all the dates for this year's events. if you'd like to help us out we still need a few people to work out foundation booth for the Fred Hall Show the first week of March, if you have time to help out please call Monica in or office at 562-865-3764.

Fresh Bait

One thing that I have learned about lobster fishing is that you need to have fresh bait. The times that I have tried to use old bait that I had in my freezer, I just didn't have that much luck. So if you are planning to go out there this weekend, make sure you either buy fresh mackerel or go fishing for mackerel the day before you go lobster fishing. I would not head out lobster fishing without having my bait first. Also I've been told that giant squid works great for bait for lobsters, I do not know this first hand , but several lobster fishing experts have told me so. One other fact that I learned my last time out was that you don't need to wait for it to be totally dark before you start checking your hoops. on the last trip we set out hoops about forty minutes before dark and just was the sun was setting we checked them and we already had lobsters in them. They key is just go out there and do it, you can't catch and lobsters sitting at home.

Time to go is now!

Now that the rain has stopped for a while, now would be a great time to go lobster fishing and if you plan it right you should be able to do a combo lobster and giant squid trip at the same time.

The reason I say now is a great time to go is that I've been told for years by the experts that lobster like to move around a lot after a storm, each storm kick out a lot of fresh food for them, so now would be a great time to go. Just check the weather reports and make sure the surf isn't too high and then go out there and have some fun. Lobster fishing will be over next month so get out there and do it now.

Rain!!!

With all this rain today it's hard to think about fishing so let me give you an update of what we are up to here at Sport Fishing. This week the guys are editing new programs, in the next week or two you'll see a great show we filmed up in Canada last year. We landed some nice size salmon, big lings and not so large halibut, but if you have always wanted to try Canada, this location is awesome. I'm hoping we can do a group there again next year, for this year our only travel trip is to Mexico and if things improve I might add a trip to Costa Rica in the fall.

I see a lot of you liked the video clip of the great white shark I posted yesterday, already around 300 people have viewed it on you tube.

The other thing we are working on this week is filming new tackle box segments and new video blogs. I wasn't sure how you all would like the video blogs, but enough of you have told me you liked them that I plan to do more of them.

last I just want to remind you that all our fishing charters for this year are posted on my website, sign soon if you want to join us out on the water this year.

Great White Shark Attack!

you're going to like this video clip, Larry filmed it a few years back on one of our 5 day tuna fishing trips.

New Charters

I've been getting e-mails asking when we will have out list of 2010 fishing charters posted. They are all up and posted on my website at www.sport-fishing.com. If you want to join us and be there as we film my television program you need to sign up right away. After we go to the Fred Hall Shows next month a lot of our trip will sell out, so if you really want to be on the water with us, sign up today!

If you have any question about any of the trips or what fishing tackle you'll need, please call Larry our charter master at 562-221-1278 for all the details.

It's Friday!

It's raining here in LA today so i guess I will not be out on the water today. Most of my day will be spent in meetings and editing a new program today. Look for new shows airing within the next two weeks. Some of the shows we filmed in Canada and at the Channel Islands. A few of you gave me your ideas of what you'd like to see in an mobile app for fishing, please keep sending me your ideas.

Make sure to watch tomorrow broadcast of my TV show, we land some really big tuna tomorrow morning on TV.

Trout Fishing

I'm not a huge trout fisherman, but the other day one of my friends asked me to join him for a few hours of fishing at Santa Ann River Lakes. James really like to fish this place and for me it was my first ever there to fish.

I tell you there is nothing like local knowledge when it comes to fishing. James has been here many times. I thought his leaders where very short and i asked him why they were and he told me that the fish it this lake stay close to bottom and that was why he was fishing with a very short 4-6 inch leader, I of course was using a longer 24' leader and needless to say, I watched as James landed two nice trout. The bait he used was white power bait that he said he's girlfriend had bought for him.

I'm not sure when, but i'll be back at the lake with James again soon and you can bet i'll be fishing with a much shorter leader too.

James Mac Donald grew up in Long beach and still lives there, he told me as a kid he grew up watching my TV program with his dad. Today James is a starting pitcher with the LA Dodgers!

Ventura County Fishing Club

Last night I was the gust speaker for the Ventura County Fishing Club. First off i'd like to thank everyone who showed up to listen to me. This was the fourth time I have spoken to this club and again last night I had a great time. Around 70 members showed up to listen to me. Most of my talk was about things you can do to catch more fish, I also talked a little about the work I do with my youth foundation. It's always fun to talk about fishing and it's always nice to spend time with people who love to fish too.

I went Lobster Fishing

With all the options I talked about, I ended up going lobster fishing over the weekend. To my surprise I was the only boat in the whole area. There were four of us on my 24 foot bay boat. We went to Santa Monica Bay like I said I would, we launched out of Marina de Rey.

Everything went as planned except the lobsters took longer to find. on our second hoop net we had our first legal lobster of the night, but it took us an hour to find the next one. One of the problems was the bait we used, some of it was two years old and it was all dried out. Next trip I'll make sure to use fresh bait. We ended the night with 8 legal's and twice as many crabs.

Tonight I'll be in Ventura, speaking to a local fishing club up there, i'll see you all tomorrow.