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Bluefin off Baja still finicky
Season opens for ‘goat hunting’
A set of jaws from a modest 8-pound sheephead
Dock Totals 2/23 – 3/1: 571 anglers aboard 24 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 79 bocaccio, 7 calico bass, 23 halibut (to 28-pounds), 210 lingcod, 12 rock crab, 505 rockfish, 374 sand bass, 137 sanddab, 453 sculpin, 4 sheephead, 18 spiny lobster (31 released), and 198 whitefish.
A solid male California sheephead caught aboard the Dolphin during their half-day outing on March 1.
Saltwater: As we roll into March, yellowtail, rockfish, and lingcod continue to bite well just south of the border, while locally, sand bass, whitefish, sculpin, and some decent halibut are hitting the decks. All signs look good for bluefin to the south within a couple days range of Point Loma, but so far, the fish spotted have not been biting. That, given the unpredictable nature of the species, can change before I finish writing this report.
Let’s hope it does, as this is the slow season bent more to the trade show circuit and dock work as folks ready for the upcoming spring and summer. Lobster hoop-net trips have been reporting a decent ratio of two or three-to-one legal to shorts, plus some tasty rock crab.
That season will close on midnight of Wednesday, March 19, so be sure to get some drops in while you can. As always, check the regulations and comply before going out, as a cheap meal could turn to an expensive lesson. In California, the fine for illegally taking lobster can be up to $1,000, plus jail time.
Sheephead is back open in California waters as of March 1 after being closed since the first of the year. One of my favorite inshore species, the California sheephead is an interesting study. They are an aggressive breeder, with males guarding and fighting off any advances toward their chosen mate by other males. Their jaws are very powerful, with sturdy teeth strong enough to crack tough shell. Their meat is white and flakey but will also break down in soups and stews to a chowder consistency, and due to their diet of mostly shellfish, sheephead has a ‘crabby’ flavor.
A mouth to respect. This male sheephead over two-feet long caught in Bahia Asunción has an impressive set of teeth made for crushing.
Often called goats in the angling community due to the bulbous heads and goat-like appearance of the males, California sheephead are found from Monterey Bay to the end of the kelp zone off Baja. Though most are caught in or adjacent to kelp forests, they can be caught in depths to 450 feet or so. Some of the largest sheephead I caught were in about 150 to 200 feet, and miles from where there was any kelp. Sheephead love lobster, and along with urchins, mollusks and crabs, that makes up the majority of their diet.
When I lived in Bahia Asunción about midway down the Baja peninsula on the Pacific side, I would often paddle out during commercial lobster season and find the trap buoys. There I would fish for sheephead, bouncing a flashy deep-drop type jig, weighted plastic, or a shrimp for bait to target them. As the traps loaded up with lobster, the sheephead would come to the scent, often picking at the protruding legs and antennae.
For the co-op lobster crews who sell their lobsters whole and alive, a missing leg or antenna meant a lesser price per kilo, as their main market is Asia and the buyers pay a hefty price per kilo for whole uninjured lobsters, many of which are shipped alive. I would always get at least a couple decent males, and often, a couple free lobsters that were missing parts back at the ramp from the lobster guys as a reward for my vigilencia’as a cazador de cabras, or goat hunter.
California sheephead are all born as females. Only a fraction, depending on resources and population, will turn male. Female sheephead are a solid reddish-orange tint while males are distinctly red and black; their heads and tails are black, and the midriffs of their bodies are red. This transformation can vary in time, as there is no set age for when a female morphs to a male.
Yellowtail, bonito, calico bass, and a pair of lobsterpot-robbing goats caught by kayak in Baja.
Sheephead feed in daylight hours. During the night, they move into rocky shelter of crevasses and caves then wrap themselves in a secreted mucus. This is to keep their scent from wafting through the currents to potential predators, a security technique.
As they can be territorial, sheephead are subject to overfishing. Thus, the protective limits and size restrictions in our fishery began in 2002. The minimum size limit for recreational California sheephead is 12 inches total length, and the daily bag limit is two fish.
They are open to shore-based anglers year-round, and to boaters from March 1 to December 31.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Bluefin off Baja still finicky
Season opens for ‘goat hunting’
Bluefin off Baja still finicky
Season opens for ‘goat hunting’
A set of jaws from a modest 8-pound sheephead
Dock Totals 2/23 – 3/1: 571 anglers aboard 24 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 79 bocaccio, 7 calico bass, 23 halibut (to 28-pounds), 210 lingcod, 12 rock crab, 505 rockfish, 374 sand bass, 137 sanddab, 453 sculpin, 4 sheephead, 18 spiny lobster (31 released), and 198 whitefish.
A solid male California sheephead caught aboard the Dolphin during their half-day outing on March 1.
Saltwater: As we roll into March, yellowtail, rockfish, and lingcod continue to bite well just south of the border, while locally, sand bass, whitefish, sculpin, and some decent halibut are hitting the decks. All signs look good for bluefin to the south within a couple days range of Point Loma, but so far, the fish spotted have not been biting. That, given the unpredictable nature of the species, can change before I finish writing this report.
Let’s hope it does, as this is the slow season bent more to the trade show circuit and dock work as folks ready for the upcoming spring and summer. Lobster hoop-net trips have been reporting a decent ratio of two or three-to-one legal to shorts, plus some tasty rock crab.
That season will close on midnight of Wednesday, March 19, so be sure to get some drops in while you can. As always, check the regulations and comply before going out, as a cheap meal could turn to an expensive lesson. In California, the fine for illegally taking lobster can be up to $1,000, plus jail time.
Sheephead is back open in California waters as of March 1 after being closed since the first of the year. One of my favorite inshore species, the California sheephead is an interesting study. They are an aggressive breeder, with males guarding and fighting off any advances toward their chosen mate by other males. Their jaws are very powerful, with sturdy teeth strong enough to crack tough shell. Their meat is white and flakey but will also break down in soups and stews to a chowder consistency, and due to their diet of mostly shellfish, sheephead has a ‘crabby’ flavor.
A mouth to respect. This male sheephead over two-feet long caught in Bahia Asunción has an impressive set of teeth made for crushing.
Often called goats in the angling community due to the bulbous heads and goat-like appearance of the males, California sheephead are found from Monterey Bay to the end of the kelp zone off Baja. Though most are caught in or adjacent to kelp forests, they can be caught in depths to 450 feet or so. Some of the largest sheephead I caught were in about 150 to 200 feet, and miles from where there was any kelp. Sheephead love lobster, and along with urchins, mollusks and crabs, that makes up the majority of their diet.
When I lived in Bahia Asunción about midway down the Baja peninsula on the Pacific side, I would often paddle out during commercial lobster season and find the trap buoys. There I would fish for sheephead, bouncing a flashy deep-drop type jig, weighted plastic, or a shrimp for bait to target them. As the traps loaded up with lobster, the sheephead would come to the scent, often picking at the protruding legs and antennae.
For the co-op lobster crews who sell their lobsters whole and alive, a missing leg or antenna meant a lesser price per kilo, as their main market is Asia and the buyers pay a hefty price per kilo for whole uninjured lobsters, many of which are shipped alive. I would always get at least a couple decent males, and often, a couple free lobsters that were missing parts back at the ramp from the lobster guys as a reward for my vigilencia’as a cazador de cabras, or goat hunter.
California sheephead are all born as females. Only a fraction, depending on resources and population, will turn male. Female sheephead are a solid reddish-orange tint while males are distinctly red and black; their heads and tails are black, and the midriffs of their bodies are red. This transformation can vary in time, as there is no set age for when a female morphs to a male.
Yellowtail, bonito, calico bass, and a pair of lobsterpot-robbing goats caught by kayak in Baja.
Sheephead feed in daylight hours. During the night, they move into rocky shelter of crevasses and caves then wrap themselves in a secreted mucus. This is to keep their scent from wafting through the currents to potential predators, a security technique.
As they can be territorial, sheephead are subject to overfishing. Thus, the protective limits and size restrictions in our fishery began in 2002. The minimum size limit for recreational California sheephead is 12 inches total length, and the daily bag limit is two fish.
They are open to shore-based anglers year-round, and to boaters from March 1 to December 31.