(left): A nice wahoo caught while aboard the Excel 8-day trip that featured fantastic fishing for wahoo, yellowtail, and tuna.
(right): Eduardo Cataño with a keeper halibut caught while fishing from the beach near the Boca of Bahia San Quintin.

Dock Totals 7/14– 7/20: 4675 anglers aboard 195 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 40 barracuda, 1045 bluefin tuna (up to 220 pounds), 3 bonito, 3 cabezon, 2285 calico bass, 55 dorado, 11 halibut, 8 lingcod, 1471 rockfish, 140 sand bass, 355 sanddab, 42 sculpin, 81 sheephead, 75 triggerfish, 264 whitefish, 2 white seabass, 5 yellowfin tuna, and 3998 yellowtail.

Saltwater: The bluefin count dropped a bit from the week previous; the fish seem to be heading north as warmer water moves in from the south. They are still out there in the areas near the Corner, but with the hot yellowtail bite within 25 to 40 miles of Point Loma around offshore banks including the 371 and 425, as well as drifting kelp paddies and at the Coronado Islands, fewer boats are committing 60 or more miles to find the bluefin. 

There have been reports of good numbers of bluefin north and west of where the fleet has been concentrated, not unlike the past couple summers when they moved up the line and out toward San Clemente Island and the Cortez and Tanner Banks. We shall see, but as they are still being caught to over 200 pounds and with the exploding yellowtail bite, both much closer to home, I doubt we will see to many boats commit to the 100-plus mile trip out west to San Clemente or further to the banks west-southwest of the Island.

Yellowtail counts over the past three weeks for the full-day to 3-day fleet have exploded, going from just over 400 to within two fish of 4000 so far this month. This has also been the case for panga operations running out of the coastal towns on the Pacific side of the peninsula. Even further down, where long range boats concentrate on more tropical species such as wahoo and yellowfin tuna, yellowtail have been in the mix. The Excel, on their annual Tuna Rodeo eight-day trip and just outside Bahia Asuncion at the time of this writing, is reporting that fishing is "fantastic, with yellowtail, tuna, and wahoo all making a showing."

Along the Vizcaino Peninsula in Baja Sur, yellowtail generally begin showing around the end of July. The cool water trend along that coast from Punta Eugenia near Guerrero Negro down to La Bocana at San Ignacio Lagoon typically has seasons a couple months behind that of San Diego to El Rosario. As of right now, yellowtail are being caught all along Baja’s upper two-thirds from the Coronado Islands to the Vizcaino coast. 

Garcia’s and others out of San Quintin have been slaying them just outside on the 15 Bank and near Isla San Martin. Blackfin and others out of Ensenada are reporting easy limits of both yellowtail and barracuda. Pangeros working out of towns far south along the Vizcaino, including Bahia Asuncion and Bahia Tortugas, are also reporting an uptick of yellowtail. The fish, in general, have moved up in the water column and are now being caught more consistently on fly-lined bait and surface irons as opposed to the deep drop technique.

Calico bass continue to outnumber rockfish, though the latter has been targeted a bit more as folks limit early on yellowtail near the banks. More dorado have also been caught, but they have yet to go wide open as they did during the past two summers (and into the fall). There is still plenty of time for that situation to develop closer to home this year, and I expect we will see those numbers go up, even if not as dramatically as they did in 2022 or even the lesser northern surge in 2023. 

From shore, halibut have been showing very well along the beaches of the northern Baja coast. From the playas at Tijuana south to El Rosario, shore anglers have been catching good numbers of flatfish from the beaches in deeper trenches to off the rocks where sand slots are interspersed between reefs. There hasn’t been the normal plethora of bait and bird activity along that stretch, but it has been picking up lately. Most of the halibut caught have been spawning, with most females full of roe. They are biting well on lures such as Lucky Craft jerkbaits and the old standard Krokodile spoons. A local friend here in San Quintin, Eduardo Cataño of Cataño Sport Fishing, caught eighteen halibut from 20 to 30 inches long in a few hours while targeting the steeper slopes along the bay mouth casting from shore. That is some excellent flatfish fishing! Wherever you wet your line, they’re out there, so go get ‘em!