(left): A decent dorado picked up during a Sea Adventure 80 trip this week may signal a change in the fishery.
(right): Some quality yellowtail fishing aboard the Excel Family and Kids Adventure 3-day trip.

Dock Totals 7/7– 7/13: 4704 anglers aboard 186 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 25 barracuda, 1880 bluefin tuna (up to 260 pounds), 421 bonito, 3 cabezon, 4104 calico bass, 2 croaker, 12 dorado, 8 halibut, 3 lingcod, 3 mako shark, 1087 rockfish, 135 sand bass, 22 sanddab, 138 sculpin, 73 sheephead, 130 whitefish, 14 white seabass, 2 yellowfin tuna, and 1725 yellowtail.

Saltwater: The couple yellowfin in the counts from this past week do not tell the whole story. Apparently, there are quite a few of them moving up the line as the offshore water warms, as witnessed by one private yacht about 40 miles south of Ensenada and 20 miles offshore that ran into a feeding school. Captain Shawn Morgan of the Wild N Sac reported a feeding frenzy while running the boat up from Cabo to Dana Point this week. They stopped and put 20 yellowfin on the boat in short order then continued on their way.

It would stand to reason that we should begin seeing many more yellowfin tuna in the coming weeks caught on the boats working down the coast of the northern third of the Baja peninsula. Another sign of the shifting fishery is dorado showing in the same area, some within 100 miles of Point Loma. Will there be another run of dorado north into US waters as happened the last couple summers? We will have to wait and see. In spite of the cooler water offshore earlier this year, it has begun to turn and warmer water pelagics are moving in. In 2022, from mid-August to mid-September, the half-day to 3-day boats working out of San Diego landings alone put over 30,000 dorado on the deck. 

That was certainly a standout year, and to my memory, more dorado in a four-week period than I have ever heard of that far north. Part of the reason for such a high number is that much of those dorado caught were in US waters where the limit for is ten fish per angler per day. South of the border, the limit is two dorado per angler per day, and multiday trips can only keep three days limits.

Yellowtail numbers exploded this past week as well, with fish coming off of paddies offshore, the Coronado Islands, and along the coastal high spots. There is good yellowtail action out west, too, as the Excel is currently out by San Clemente Island, and have posted solid results on yellowtail during their Family and Kids Adventure 3-day trip with many fish over 20-pounds caught. Still awaiting word on if any bluefin in the area, though it would stand to reason they are out there, as well as around the Tanner and Cortez banks to the southwest of the island.

With so much bluefin action closer to home, especially that many of the fish caught are over 200-pounds, there hasn’t been much word from those outer banks that lie 100 to 120-miles west of Point Loma. In past years, that is where much of the late summer and fall action has been found on the larger models, usually by kite or balloon fishing during the day using flying fish or artificials like Yummy Flyers.

This method can be fun, with one rod set up to the kite directly, and the angler’s line clipped to the balloon with a release clip. This way, the bait can be skipped across the surface to entice a bite, and when bit, the clip will release as it would on an outrigger and the kite or balloon can be wound in and reset for another angler while the fish is being fought by the previous. This method, if the only way to get the fish to bite, can be tedious on a boat with a couple dozen anglers aboard as it is hard to manage more than two or three at a time.

Conversely, most of the action this year has been during the night on deep drop jigs and ‘tuna bombs’, which are basically a large 8 to 16-ounce torpedo weight with some color or a skirt and rigged with large assist hooks. Unlike kiting or ballooning a bait or artificial lure, the whole boatload of anglers can be hooked up at once, with the crews scurrying to untangle wrapped fish and gaff those ready to be brought aboard. With some fish so large as to require three or even four gaffs, deckhands will rarely have time to take a break when the bite is hot. Trust me, it might seem an easy job if out during slow fishing, the deck crews do earn their money when the bite is on. 

Calico bass are still chewing well off the kelp edges, and with all that action, rockfish are still getting a breather from pressure. The number of bass caught and kept is still about half of the total, and as I do not tally fish released (unless standout catches like giant seabass, marlin, or swordfish), the calico counts have been very impressive. So much so one begins to wonder about their population health. Apparently, it is pretty good but with mixed or lacking information. Sport fishing and commercial operations contribute to the research that is used to set size and catch limits. The last adjustment to bass regulations was the increase of legal size from twelve to fourteen inches in 2013. Wherever you wet your line, they’re out there, so go get ‘em!