Wahoo, the 65 mph meal

Inshore: No change here, except a couple wahoo being picked up on ¾ day trips. ½ day boats are fishing in tight for calico and sand bass, rockfish, sheephead and a few yellowtail while a good number of the ¾ day boats are fishing a little further out and looking for tuna and dorado. Much of the yellowtail just off the coast are small fish from 3 to 5 pounds. Release of these smaller fish is encouraged.

Outside: Yellowfin tuna counts are down a third from the previous week. Wahoo continue to surprise the occasional boat with 45 of the speedsters hitting the dock. When feeding, wahoo can reach speeds up to 65 miles per hour. Rare catch of the week is an escolar, otherwise known as the snake mackerel or walu walu in Hawaii. The tuna-like escolar are normally caught in tropical waters, have very oily flesh and may cause stomach problems when consumed.

9/27 – 10/3 Dock Totals: 4,740 anglers aboard 191 boats out of San Diego landings caught 10,685 yellowfin tuna, 34 bluefin tuna, 1,821 yellowtail, 1,687 dorado, 1,622 skipjack tuna, 1 escolar, 492 calico bass, 161 sand bass, 22 barracuda, 857 rockfish, 32 sheephead, 1 cabezon, 7 rubberlip seaperch, 3 halibut, 455 bonito, 11 whitefish, 1 shortbill spearfish, 45 wahoo, 1 blue marlin and 4 bigeye tuna.

Freshwater: Bass are following their usual fall pattern of eating a little lower in the water column with drop-shot plastics and medium to deep running crank-baits working best. Sunfish and catfish are very active in the gray hours just after sunrise and before sunset. Try nightcrawlers for the shellcrackers and mackerel for the cats.

Whale watch: On the heels of a record gray whale season this past spring, the blue whale season for folks getting out on a whale-watch cruise in San Diego waters has been equally rewarding. Whale watch operators are reporting sightings on over 98% of their trips along with a wide variety of sea life including hammerhead sharks and schools of breaching tuna.