Big bump keeps the boats in and the numbers down

Inshore: Rockfish continue to dominate the local catch on bumpy seas. Not a lot of folks venturing out, but those ½ day and ¾ day boats that do are finding good action on the bottom for sheephead, whitefish, bocaccio, and sculpin. Calico bass are biting well when the current sets up right to fish the kelp edge and sand bass are stacked up when found on the flats, especially off Imperial Beach in 60-80 feet of water. Though no schooling tuna or yellowtail close enough and too rough outside for extended ¾ day runs, a couple home-guard yellowtail and the occasional white seabass are finding their way into the local count.

Outside: The big NW swell kept a lot of the overnight and longer boats at the dock this past week. Friday’s high winds kept everyone on terra firma. The Condor made it out Wednesday the 9th with 26 anglers aboard an overnight trip and scored 58 yellowfin tuna; the only tuna caught out of a San Diego Sportfishing landing within 4-day range since Sunday the 6th. The long-range boats operating in Baja Sur and the banks below there are reporting several yellowfin tuna over 200 pounds caught and good wahoo action on the way back up off Bahia Magdalena and the high spots south of Cedros..

12/6 - 12/12 Dock Totals: (1,314) 530 anglers aboard 34 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught (1036)189 yellowfin tuna, 1 bluefin tuna, (148) 4 yellowtail, 50 skipjack tuna, 79 calico bass, 42 sand bass, 1,501 rockfish, 25 sheephead, 106 bonito, 10 whitefish, 3 lingcod, 1 barracuda, 53 bocaccio, 1 white seabass, 100 mackerel, 2 halibut, 2 red rock crab and 27 spiny lobster.

Freshwater: Several local lakes will be loading up for the trout season with plants from the CA DFW this week. Lake Cuyamaca is stocked year round every other week or so and will plant some 14,000 pounds of rainbows from December 22 through June 21, 2016, including 4,000 pounds of trophy-sized fish. Cuyamaca holds the record for the largest trout caught in San Diego county lakes, with a 17.5 pound rainbow hauled in this past March by angler Lukasz Szczedanek.

Scheduled trout plants (lbs): 12/18/15, Santee Lakes (800); 12/19/15, Wohlford (N/A); 12/20/15, Cuyamaca, Diamond Valley, Miramar, Murray, Lindo, Morena and Skinner (500 ea); 12/22/15 Cuyamaca (1100, including 500 lbs of trophy trout)