gvanzant
04-05-2002, 05:00 PM
My next magazine article assignment is fishing the Long Beach Breakwater at night. Knowing this Bobby Lienau of Big Fish Tackle Store set up a trip last Tues. night. An armada of Dan Hernandez, Barney Kelleher, myself. my buddy Mike Lewis and Jack Sowell plus two other guys, I didn't know, charged the breakwater. We were in three different boats and Mike and I were lucky to be with Jack. Jack has been fishing the breakwater for 40 years and I have been fishing it forever. We threw swim baits for 3 hours, loading them with "stink" every 10 minutes or so. Jacks' boat is a twenty foot Hydra Sport equipped with a bow trolling motor which kept us in perfect casting position to the rocks. Yes, everything was perfect but we caught mostly nothing. The fish really had lockjaw. We finally caught some small sandbass around Pier J only after placing Dans' squid strips on the swim baits. Jack got the jackpot with a sandie that easily topped 8 pounds. I haven't given up on the story, there will be another time. Besides I got to fish with the Guru of the breakwater...Jack Sowell! Not many can say that. Also I feel a little different about Dans' pickled squid, they saved our butt. <br><br>George Van Zant<br><A HREF="http://www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm " target="_new">http://www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm </A><br>