Dorado (aka mahi-mahi or dolphin fish)

Weekly Fish Report

½ Day - ¾ Day: Yellowtail are the main focus inshore and rightfully so as the numbers are way up just off the kelp edge. The barracuda bite came on strong by the end of the week and a few white seabass are making the private boat and kayak counts, though only 1 was reported last week from the sportboat fleet. The yellowfin tuna are still close and taunting the ½ and ¾ day boats away from the kelp edge and out into open water.

1 Day to 2.5 Day: The bluefin bite has slowed a bit and the yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and dorado have taken over as the main offshore attraction. The dorado (AKA Mahi-mahi) counts are way up as the fast-growing, voracious and beautiful fish invade our warmer-than-normal offshore waters. The yellowtail counts have jumped way up and have overtaken the yellowfin tuna counts. A few wahoo and a couple of rarely caught opah hit the deck last week.

July 19-25 Dock Totals: 8,223 anglers aboard 284 boats out of San Diego landings caught 4,440 yellowfin tuna, 156 bluefin tuna, 5,721 yellowtail, 3,153 dorado, 363 rockfish, 31 skipjack tuna, 1 white seabass, 857 calico bass, 735 sand bass, 2 lingcod, 1,291 barracuda, 3 sheephead, 11 halibut, 20 mackerel, 6 bonito, 8 sculpin, 1 rubberlip seaperch, 3 wahoo and 3 opah. Notable releases were several giant (black) seabass and a striped marlin.

Freshwater: A study from NASA has concluded that California has missed out on a year’s worth of rain since 2012. The result is very low lake levels and concentrated fishing. California experiences multi-year drought periods followed by periods where rainfall can vary by 30 percent annually. Those wet and dry years typically cancel each other out. Though the fishing in the San Diego area tap-water is good overall, a wet year or two will raise reservoir levels and scatter the fishing until the stocks rebuild from the concentrated pressure in area lakes, some of which are at 5% of capacity.

Whale Report: There are still lots of blue whales in the area, with many sightings of cows with calves in the mix. Expect to see large pods of common dolphin offshore and a few bottlenose dolphin inshore as well. The great fishing and large amount of bait in the water has made for a lively summer season as large tuna boils and occasional predatory sharks, including a couple of rare for the area hammerheads, have been sighted.

Fish Plants: No plants scheduled this week.