Fish the late afternoon around the full moon

Inshore: The ½- and ¾-day boats backed off the calicos this past week, after posting over 5000 caught per week twice in a row. The inshore runs mostly caught rockfish as the bonito and barracuda numbers fell off as the full moon developed. Though yellowtail are still showing at the Coronados, many of the ¾-day boats are heading outside as the yellowfin and bluefin tuna continue to pass through the area within range. Sheephead and whitefish are still biting well on shrimp and squid strips for those anglers targeting them.

Outside: The yellowfin tuna and yellowtail continue to dominate the offshore counts as the bluefin tuna are being caught in ones and twos. Dorado fell off dramatically this past week from 1200 to under 200, which might be due to the full moon phase. When there is a lot of bait around and the moon is full, some pelagic will feed through the night and be fat and stubbornly tight-lipped by daybreak when the anglers show up on the scene. I like to fish the 1.5 day and longer trips during full moons as the tuna tend to bite better in the late afternoon when the ¾ and overnight boats are already long gone.

8/14 – 8/20 Dock Totals: 5294 anglers aboard 236 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 163 dorado, 97 bluefin tuna, 4,217 yellowfin tuna, 1 skipjack tuna, 3,230 yellowtail, 1,016 calico bass, 28 sand bass, 2,947 rockfish, 16 lingcod, 34 sculpin, 563 bonito, 43 barracuda, 123 sheephead, 5 halibut, 2 white seabass, 2 halfmoon, 101 sanddab, 76 whitefish, 1 rubberlip seaperch, 6 bocaccio and 1 striped marlin (released)

Notable: The Governor’s Cup Fishing Tournament stop-off in San Quintin brought hundreds of entrants and spectators to the Old Mill this past Friday and Saturday as the anglers fought a big tide swing and stiff northwest winds to try and get a big fish to the scales. The winning catch was a solid 53.5 pound white seabass caught by San Quintin resident Cliff Vine aboard the Slaptail captained by Juan Cook of San Quintin Bay Sportfishing. The big ‘buscuit’ stood out among the rest of the competitors catches in tough conditions. A few yellowtail, lingcod and red rounded out the contenders, but the seabass doubled the next heaviest catch.

Fish Plants: 8/26 Santee Lakes, catfish (1000), 8/29 Jennings, catfish (2000)