Look for halibut behind the grunion

Inshore: La Jolla is still going off for the kayakers on a good 20- to 30- pound grade yellowtail and occasional white seabass to over 60 pounds, when weather permits. Bluefin tuna and a few yellowfin in the mix are providing the ½- and ¾-day boats with an option other than their normal rockfish and sculpin trips for this time of year. Halibut are showing well behind the grunion spawns in the sandy cuts between the reef rocks just outside the surf line to 60 feet of water. Barracuda are showing up just off the kelp beds at La Jolla and Point Loma with a lot of legals over 28 inches and a few ‘log-sized’ fish to over 36 inches in the mix.

Outside: Stiff winds driving a healthy bump on the outside kept most of the overnight or longer trips along the coast or at home. That said, the schools of bluefin tuna are being found close enough to the coast that even the ½ day boats have a chance at them, as did the New Seaforth on an afternoon trip April 11th that boated 6. Spotter planes have sighted large schools of bluefin off the coast from just a couple miles out to the 60 Mile Bank. Yellowtail are chewing on the surface iron when found from San Clemente to midway down the Baja peninsula’s Pacific coast.

4/10 – 4/16 Dock Totals: 1,405 anglers aboard 66 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 293 bluefin tuna, 4 yellowfin tuna, 642 yellowtail, 74 calico bass, 44 sand bass, 1,975 rockfish, 16 lingcod, 476 sculpin, 15 bonito, 41 sanddab, 170 barracuda, 1 halfmoon, 3 sheephead, 2 whitefish, 22 mackerel, 2 bocaccio and 6 halibut.

Freshwater: With the surface temps going upwards of 60 degrees at most San Diego county lakes, the trout are moving deeper in the water column and finding the cool spots in the shade. Largemouth bass are feeding well in their springtime mode with an average of 4 to 5 fish per angler at Lower Otay and El Capitan. This year has produced some real big stocked trout as again in the news is word of a new lake record – a monster 17 pound rainbow trout caught at Lake Jennings. The fish was caught in the Siesta Cove area by angler David Corrales on a mini jig. the Siesta Cove area of the lake.

Scheduled fish plants (lbs): 4/20 Dixon, trout (4500); Wohlford, trout (1500); 4/26 Cuyamaca, trout (1100); 4/27 Poway, trout (1500)