Blue marlin making a splash

Inshore: The 1/2 boats have started concentrating more on the up and down fishing for rockfish, whitefish, sheephead and an occasional lingcod or halibut. Sand bass and calico bass are slowing down a bit while the yellowtail are still popping up here and there off the kelp edges. Barracuda and bonito are still around, though their numbers are dropping a bit. Spiny lobster season is now open and the boats taking hoop-netters out are scoring well on legal-sized bugs.

Outside: The yellowfin tuna numbers continue to drop a little, though equal to the past weeks when compared to the number of anglers fishing for them. The number of anglers fishing out of San Diego landings has dropped approximately 500 per week the last two weeks. There are a lot of football-sized tuna inside with the larger variety coming from further offshore. Dorado counts are sliding back to a more realistic total. Even so, the beautiful and acrobatic fish are still being caught with regularity. Blue marlin have been showing up north of the border and not far offshore: a private boater on a 17’ Ranger bass boat caught a 315-pounder within 10 miles of Mission Bay.

10/4 – 10/10 Dock Totals: 4,134 anglers aboard 187 boats out of San Diego landings caught 9,317 yellowfin tuna, 10 bluefin tuna, 1,342 yellowtail, 1,180 dorado, 1,164 skipjack tuna, 201 calico bass, 147 sand bass, 6 barracuda, 1,741 rockfish, 84 sheephead, 4 rubberlip seaperch, 3 halibut, 327 bonito, 60 whitefish, 10 wahoo, 6 lingcod, 3 red rock crab and 179 spiny lobster. Notably, 5 blue marlin were caught and released aboard the Top Gun 80 3-day trip.

Freshwater: It’s the same old routine in the tap water. 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. Santee Lakes has been consistently stocked with channel catfish through the summer/fall. Their next plant is on 10/16 of 1,000 pounds.