Where have the sand crabs gone?

Inshore: With a bump on top and a bit of a breeze most of the week, the ½- and ¾-day boats stayed a bit closer to home. There are good yellowtail marks all over La Jolla near the bottom as the fish hang close to the pelagic crab still carpeting the floor of most inshore fisheries. Every now and again, a flurry of action hits the surface with yellows, bonito, and barracuda slashing at the plethora of mackerel just off the kelp edge and over the canyon. The mackerel have also attracted some toothy ones; a few thresher sharks have been caught or hooked by kayakers this past week and many more sighted within a couple miles of the coast. There were a lot more legal halibut caught this week inshore as they seem to be lurking near the grunion just outside the surf zone.

Outside: Windy conditions and a driving swell offshore kept most overnight and 1.5 day boats closer to the Baja coast looking for breezing yellowtail and rockfish along the cool water zone from Punta Banda south to El Rosario. In spite of the early action on bluefin tuna off Colonet and out to the 60 mile bank over the past month, only one tuna, a yellowfin, was caught this week. The passenger loads were a lot lighter and anglers willing to fish the chop had plenty of elbow room and good counts on yellowtail, lingcod and rockfish.

4/24–4/30 Dock Totals: 1,403 anglers aboard 68 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 1 yellowfin tuna, 764 yellowtail, 52 calico bass, 58 sand bass, 2,944 rockfish, 13 lingcod, 461 sculpin, 347 bonito, 63 barracuda, 1 halfmoon, 10 sheephead, 150 whitefish, 196 mackerel, 102 bocaccio, 25 blacksmith, 20 halibut, 3 cabezon and 1 rubberlip seaperch.

From the beach: Over the past couple years we’ve seen a few anomalies hitting the shore: strange little jellyfish, and tuna crabs so thick that the rocks near the water that the birds normally “paint” white have a pink tinge to them. There are even seahorses washing up now. The surf perch, croaker, and corbina fishing is going to be a little tougher for those venturing out planning on using sand crabs; their population has been drastically declining along the coast. This spring and summer, I suggest taking clams, squid or shrimp along just in case the crabs aren’t at your favorite stretch of beach.

Scheduled fish plants (lbs): 5/10 Cuyamaca, trout (1000)