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December yellowfin biting well – Rockfish over until April
Dorado count very low for 2024 after two record seasons
(left): December yellowfin biting well for these happy anglers while fishing aboard the Independence on their Christmas 5-day run.
(right): San Diego fishing guru John Ho with his jackpot-winning vermilion rockfish caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin half-day trip.
(right): San Diego fishing guru John Ho with his jackpot-winning vermilion rockfish caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin half-day trip.
Dock Totals 12/22 – 12/28: 934 anglers aboard 37 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 2 rock crab, 3931 rockfish, 102 sand bass, 423 sculpin, 4 sheephead, 32 spiny lobster (34 released), and 54 whitefish.
Saltwater: Yellowfin tuna continue to bite well beginning about 300 miles south of the border and on down to the Ridge and other spots outside of Bahia Magdalena. The Independence, Red Rooster III, and other boats working south have done very well on larger than normal yellowfin, with a potential all-tackle record caught this fall by angler Ernest Gill IV while fishing aboard the Excel. Bluefin Have been showing at night along with the yellowfin in the northern half of that stretch. I have yet to hear of any Bluefin action on the Tanner and Cortez banks southwest of San Clemente Island, as that bite usually develops by late winter and into spring. Though the Bluefin are around all year, finding them can be tough, as they will often be feeding deep on squid and hard to spot from the bridge or even spotter planes.
It has been a very slow year for dorado after two outstanding seasons when they came north in big numbers. This past season featured cooler trends, keeping them far to the south and all but absent in the counts for boats fishing the northern half of the Baja Peninsula. That said, with the exceptional and late-developing bite on yellowfin tuna, it seems a bit odd that there have been no dorado in the mix, as they are usually found in the same areas. Long range boats working far south have been catching quality wahoo and larger yellowfin, but very few dorado as well.
As we saw over 30,000 dorado caught in just one four-week period from mid-August to mid-September in 2023, and another “gold rush” of about half that through the same period in 2024, it makes me wonder if there hasn’t been a sizeable dent put in their population. Dorado are fast growing and highly sustainable. The only reason we had so many in the counts was that much of the catch came in US waters, where the limit is ten per angler. (In Mexico, dorado are limited to two per angler.) Most of those fish caught far north of their normal range in 2023 and 2024 were very young and averaged under 12 pounds. Dorado can grow to that size and are ready to spawn by 6 months of age. Their spawning grounds are far south in warm water that holds the Sargasso mats in which their fry hide from predators, so hopefully we will see more within 3-day range this coming summer and fall.
Rockfish are done at all depths until April 1 on the U.S. side of the border, so those who want to catch reds, lingcod, and other groundfish will have to book extended half days to 3-day runs into Mexican waters. Sheephead will also be closed until March, though whitefish are open year round at all depths. Local boats will be focusing on bass, sculpin, bonito, barracuda and the occasional halibut or yellowtail until rockfish opens again in the spring on the shallow side of the 50-fathom line.
As the large Christmas swell abated, surf fishing picked up a bit, with a few croaker, spotfin, and corbina being reported, along with surf perch. Sand crabs are tough to find, so squid strips or artificial lures have been doing the most damage in the surf, with small plastic grubs and Gulp sand worms on a Carolina rig working well for the smaller perch and cast-able stick baits like Lucky Crafts producing the larger units. Corbina and spotfin tend to range into the bays and lagoons to feed on ghost shrimp this time of year, and are generally caught on bait.
Halibut are holding in deeper holes along breakwaters and in bay channels for anglers targeting them. Slow and low fishing with plastics has been the go-to for those fish, though a well weighted live bait will do the trick on drifts during the slack tidal periods, usually during the couple hours during and after the high tide. This is also a good time to shore pound the rip-rap along San Diego Bay for possible shortfin corvina that usually show during the winter/spring months in decent numbers.
In the tapwater: Trout have been biting very well on minijigs and Powerbait in all area lakes that stock. Catfish and good-sized largemouth bass are also active, with the cats stirred up by the trout fishing activity and cruising the edges, while bass are holding deeper off the steeper drop-offs. Though this has been an odd year off the coast for our pelagic targets — considering the larger yellowfin closer to home, no dorado, and a La Niña-like setup — lake fishing has been fairly consistent with previous years. Whether the beach, bay, lake, or offshore, they’re out there so go out and get ‘em!
Here's something you might be interested in.
December yellowfin biting well – Rockfish over until April
Dorado count very low for 2024 after two record seasons
December yellowfin biting well – Rockfish over until April
Dorado count very low for 2024 after two record seasons
(left): December yellowfin biting well for these happy anglers while fishing aboard the Independence on their Christmas 5-day run.
(right): San Diego fishing guru John Ho with his jackpot-winning vermilion rockfish caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin half-day trip.
(right): San Diego fishing guru John Ho with his jackpot-winning vermilion rockfish caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin half-day trip.
Dock Totals 12/22 – 12/28: 934 anglers aboard 37 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 2 rock crab, 3931 rockfish, 102 sand bass, 423 sculpin, 4 sheephead, 32 spiny lobster (34 released), and 54 whitefish.
Saltwater: Yellowfin tuna continue to bite well beginning about 300 miles south of the border and on down to the Ridge and other spots outside of Bahia Magdalena. The Independence, Red Rooster III, and other boats working south have done very well on larger than normal yellowfin, with a potential all-tackle record caught this fall by angler Ernest Gill IV while fishing aboard the Excel. Bluefin Have been showing at night along with the yellowfin in the northern half of that stretch. I have yet to hear of any Bluefin action on the Tanner and Cortez banks southwest of San Clemente Island, as that bite usually develops by late winter and into spring. Though the Bluefin are around all year, finding them can be tough, as they will often be feeding deep on squid and hard to spot from the bridge or even spotter planes.
It has been a very slow year for dorado after two outstanding seasons when they came north in big numbers. This past season featured cooler trends, keeping them far to the south and all but absent in the counts for boats fishing the northern half of the Baja Peninsula. That said, with the exceptional and late-developing bite on yellowfin tuna, it seems a bit odd that there have been no dorado in the mix, as they are usually found in the same areas. Long range boats working far south have been catching quality wahoo and larger yellowfin, but very few dorado as well.
As we saw over 30,000 dorado caught in just one four-week period from mid-August to mid-September in 2023, and another “gold rush” of about half that through the same period in 2024, it makes me wonder if there hasn’t been a sizeable dent put in their population. Dorado are fast growing and highly sustainable. The only reason we had so many in the counts was that much of the catch came in US waters, where the limit is ten per angler. (In Mexico, dorado are limited to two per angler.) Most of those fish caught far north of their normal range in 2023 and 2024 were very young and averaged under 12 pounds. Dorado can grow to that size and are ready to spawn by 6 months of age. Their spawning grounds are far south in warm water that holds the Sargasso mats in which their fry hide from predators, so hopefully we will see more within 3-day range this coming summer and fall.
Rockfish are done at all depths until April 1 on the U.S. side of the border, so those who want to catch reds, lingcod, and other groundfish will have to book extended half days to 3-day runs into Mexican waters. Sheephead will also be closed until March, though whitefish are open year round at all depths. Local boats will be focusing on bass, sculpin, bonito, barracuda and the occasional halibut or yellowtail until rockfish opens again in the spring on the shallow side of the 50-fathom line.
As the large Christmas swell abated, surf fishing picked up a bit, with a few croaker, spotfin, and corbina being reported, along with surf perch. Sand crabs are tough to find, so squid strips or artificial lures have been doing the most damage in the surf, with small plastic grubs and Gulp sand worms on a Carolina rig working well for the smaller perch and cast-able stick baits like Lucky Crafts producing the larger units. Corbina and spotfin tend to range into the bays and lagoons to feed on ghost shrimp this time of year, and are generally caught on bait.
Halibut are holding in deeper holes along breakwaters and in bay channels for anglers targeting them. Slow and low fishing with plastics has been the go-to for those fish, though a well weighted live bait will do the trick on drifts during the slack tidal periods, usually during the couple hours during and after the high tide. This is also a good time to shore pound the rip-rap along San Diego Bay for possible shortfin corvina that usually show during the winter/spring months in decent numbers.
In the tapwater: Trout have been biting very well on minijigs and Powerbait in all area lakes that stock. Catfish and good-sized largemouth bass are also active, with the cats stirred up by the trout fishing activity and cruising the edges, while bass are holding deeper off the steeper drop-offs. Though this has been an odd year off the coast for our pelagic targets — considering the larger yellowfin closer to home, no dorado, and a La Niña-like setup — lake fishing has been fairly consistent with previous years. Whether the beach, bay, lake, or offshore, they’re out there so go out and get ‘em!
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