Fishing 200 miles south of San Diego

The peaks of the volcanoes emerge from the fog that blankets the shallow upper San Quintín Bay outside my window. I hear the geese, the first of the brants that spend winters here, honking in the small false bay on the opposite side of the main channel, but they are hidden from view in the gray. This November morning the air is still and it is coastal Central California coolish, though I am about 200 miles south of San Diego.

I have been fishing this area for about 22 months, mostly by kayak and at the boca, or bay mouth, six miles to the south of where I am today on the eastern edge of the bay about a mile south of the Old Mill. There at the boca I have had success. I have landed a 48-inch halibut over 40 pounds; a white seabass at 55 pounds, and a yellowtail, all by kayak in the bay. I caught a spotted bay bass near four pounds and have had days of a half-dozen 18- to 30-inch halibut and countless sand bass in the 12-to-18-inch range.

I haven’t taken the kayak to San Martin Island or out to the high spots; those trips require a mothership and though there are sportfishing operations here that will do that for a great price, I’m on the poor side to pull it off solo, and my fishing partner here is busy farming. The day I caught the big halibut we passed each other on the road in; he on his way with his family to fish and camp at the boca, me heading home with a big grin. He promptly more than doubled my fish with a 108-pound black seabass.