Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Yellowtail on the surface in San Quintin
Three double-digit bass in two days at Jennings dock
Reds, lingcod, bocaccio and a yellowtail from Blackfin Sportfishing out of Ensenada
Totals Feb. 16-22:
653 anglers aboard 32 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 79 bocaccio, 2 calico bass, 14 halibut, 19 lingcod, 60 rock crab, 980 rockfish, 160 sand bass, 613 sanddab, 508 sculpin, 1 sheephead, 21 spiny lobster (60 released), and 419 whitefish.
Saltwater: Boats fished local nearshore water for sculpin, sand bass, and whitefish; those heading south into Mexican water did very well on rockfish and lingcod.
The Tribute and Pacific Voyager, fishing 1.5-day to 3-day runs south, have been reporting solid lingcod catches off Colinet along with lots of vermilion rockfish, while a little further south and just outside of 1.5-day range, operations running out of San Quintin have been whacking yellowtail mostly on surface irons as the fish are up and feeding. There is sign of lots of bluefin tuna outside of San Martin Island in the 20 to 40-pound range, but as of yet, they have not been reacting to bait or lures. I will be watching to see if that develops, as it is within the 2 to 3-day range.
Boats out of Ensenada have been getting a couple yellowtail while mostly catching rockfish, lingcod, barracuda, and bocaccio, but the majority of yellowtail activity begins further south. As you get down toward the mid-peninsula Pacific side, yellowtail and a smattering of yellowfin tuna are showing up on the high spots within 10 miles of the beach. All of this points to possible early season yellowtail in our local water, but the lack of sardine off Southern California might be a negative factor. We’ve plenty of anchovy, as witnessed at the bait receivers, but sardines seem to draw the forktails better.
Of course, with all the anchovy and cooler conditions, talk of albacore is floating around on social media fishing sites. I see this every year, but in my opinion, albacore have established their pattern over the past 20 years, so if you do want some longfin, it would be best to head north toward the Washington/Oregon border in July or so.
Lingcod caught off Colinet while fishing aboard the Tribute during their 1.5-day outing.
Best odds of getting albacore in San Diego is at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, as small commercial operations running 600 to 700 miles due west of Point Loma do find occasional biters when trolling jigs between stops out there. They sell them fresh off the boat at the market on Saturdays if they get any, usually around $4 per pound whole or $12 for filets.
Looking further south and into the Sea of Cortez, you see marlin, yellowfin tuna, and wahoo continue as the main targets for boats working the areas off Bahia Magdalena down to the Los Cabos area. Once up around La Paz, yellowtail and sierra have been chewing, with excellent catches of 20 to 40-pound yellowtail reported off of Espiritu Santos Island for those heading out from the launches in town, as well as near Cerralvo Island for those heading out of Ensenada de Los Muertos.
The great yellowtail action continues as you go north, with good action reported out of Loreto, Mulege, and Bahia de Los Angeles. The main thing affecting anglers in those areas right now is winter north winds, so best to plan around the weather predictions if heading south to the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula.
The Wednesday Halibut Derby outing aboard the Dolphin produced well, with 14 keepers caught and 10 shorts released. The largest caught on that trip was 27 pounds. Oddly, that fish chased a tube bait to the surface before committing, so several folks witnessed a rare surface bite by a large halibut right in San Diego Bay.
I have caught a few that have bitten on the surface, but to be fair, I was fishing in the shallows, so the fish only had to rise a few feet to smack the lure. That fish caught on the Dolphin came up from around 30 feet, so that is truly a remarkable thing to see. Perch have been biting well on the beaches, but most are on the small side. As we get closer to their spawning time, we should see the average size increase a bit. The usual suspects; sand crabs and plastic grubs fished on a Carolina rig have been the most productive for the perch. There have been some scattered reports of decent halibut in the surf, but most of that has been further north on Orange County beaches.
Freshwater: Trout, catfish, and some decent pre-spawn largemouth bass have been the main catches in San Diego area lakes this past week, which is usual for this time of year. One standout is that Lake Jennings reported three double-digit largemouth bass caught in just two days as they begin staging to spawn. Those fish ranged from 10 to 12 pounds.
Catfish, some very good size up to 11 pounds or so, have been feeding on cut mackerel and shrimp, while the best methods for trout continue to be Powerbait or minijigs. The bass have been biting best on plastics such as Robo worms on the dropshot worked slow along the steeper edges near spawning flats.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Yellowtail on the surface in San Quintin
Three double-digit bass in two days at Jennings dock
Yellowtail on the surface in San Quintin
Three double-digit bass in two days at Jennings dock
Reds, lingcod, bocaccio and a yellowtail from Blackfin Sportfishing out of Ensenada
Totals Feb. 16-22:
653 anglers aboard 32 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 79 bocaccio, 2 calico bass, 14 halibut, 19 lingcod, 60 rock crab, 980 rockfish, 160 sand bass, 613 sanddab, 508 sculpin, 1 sheephead, 21 spiny lobster (60 released), and 419 whitefish.
Saltwater: Boats fished local nearshore water for sculpin, sand bass, and whitefish; those heading south into Mexican water did very well on rockfish and lingcod.
The Tribute and Pacific Voyager, fishing 1.5-day to 3-day runs south, have been reporting solid lingcod catches off Colinet along with lots of vermilion rockfish, while a little further south and just outside of 1.5-day range, operations running out of San Quintin have been whacking yellowtail mostly on surface irons as the fish are up and feeding. There is sign of lots of bluefin tuna outside of San Martin Island in the 20 to 40-pound range, but as of yet, they have not been reacting to bait or lures. I will be watching to see if that develops, as it is within the 2 to 3-day range.
Boats out of Ensenada have been getting a couple yellowtail while mostly catching rockfish, lingcod, barracuda, and bocaccio, but the majority of yellowtail activity begins further south. As you get down toward the mid-peninsula Pacific side, yellowtail and a smattering of yellowfin tuna are showing up on the high spots within 10 miles of the beach. All of this points to possible early season yellowtail in our local water, but the lack of sardine off Southern California might be a negative factor. We’ve plenty of anchovy, as witnessed at the bait receivers, but sardines seem to draw the forktails better.
Of course, with all the anchovy and cooler conditions, talk of albacore is floating around on social media fishing sites. I see this every year, but in my opinion, albacore have established their pattern over the past 20 years, so if you do want some longfin, it would be best to head north toward the Washington/Oregon border in July or so.
Lingcod caught off Colinet while fishing aboard the Tribute during their 1.5-day outing.
Best odds of getting albacore in San Diego is at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, as small commercial operations running 600 to 700 miles due west of Point Loma do find occasional biters when trolling jigs between stops out there. They sell them fresh off the boat at the market on Saturdays if they get any, usually around $4 per pound whole or $12 for filets.
Looking further south and into the Sea of Cortez, you see marlin, yellowfin tuna, and wahoo continue as the main targets for boats working the areas off Bahia Magdalena down to the Los Cabos area. Once up around La Paz, yellowtail and sierra have been chewing, with excellent catches of 20 to 40-pound yellowtail reported off of Espiritu Santos Island for those heading out from the launches in town, as well as near Cerralvo Island for those heading out of Ensenada de Los Muertos.
The great yellowtail action continues as you go north, with good action reported out of Loreto, Mulege, and Bahia de Los Angeles. The main thing affecting anglers in those areas right now is winter north winds, so best to plan around the weather predictions if heading south to the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula.
The Wednesday Halibut Derby outing aboard the Dolphin produced well, with 14 keepers caught and 10 shorts released. The largest caught on that trip was 27 pounds. Oddly, that fish chased a tube bait to the surface before committing, so several folks witnessed a rare surface bite by a large halibut right in San Diego Bay.
I have caught a few that have bitten on the surface, but to be fair, I was fishing in the shallows, so the fish only had to rise a few feet to smack the lure. That fish caught on the Dolphin came up from around 30 feet, so that is truly a remarkable thing to see. Perch have been biting well on the beaches, but most are on the small side. As we get closer to their spawning time, we should see the average size increase a bit. The usual suspects; sand crabs and plastic grubs fished on a Carolina rig have been the most productive for the perch. There have been some scattered reports of decent halibut in the surf, but most of that has been further north on Orange County beaches.
Freshwater: Trout, catfish, and some decent pre-spawn largemouth bass have been the main catches in San Diego area lakes this past week, which is usual for this time of year. One standout is that Lake Jennings reported three double-digit largemouth bass caught in just two days as they begin staging to spawn. Those fish ranged from 10 to 12 pounds.
Catfish, some very good size up to 11 pounds or so, have been feeding on cut mackerel and shrimp, while the best methods for trout continue to be Powerbait or minijigs. The bass have been biting best on plastics such as Robo worms on the dropshot worked slow along the steeper edges near spawning flats.