Catfish stocking ending for 2016, trout season gearing up

Inshore: There are still schools of bonito inshore along with yellowtail and lots of pacific mackerel for bait. An occasional halibut is coming from between the reefs and still mostly out in deeper water or in the channels in the bays. If bay-fishing for halibut, check in the shade under the bridges in the deepest holes as they like the cooler water. Sheephead, lingcod, whitefish and rockfish continue to dominate the inshore counts and are biting well on the local bumps. Hoop-netters are doing well from the piers, kayaks and open-party boat trips targeting lobster and are getting a decent legal-to-short ratio average of 1 out of 5. Calico bass are still biting decent off the jetties for the land-based anglers, though most of the inshore boats are fishing rockfish.

Outside: ¾-day boats are still targeting yellowtail and yellowfin tuna along with the rest of the 1 to 2.5 day range boats. Some of the yellowfin tuna have been in the larger 50 pound grade while a good percent of the yellowtail are in that ‘firecracker’ size of 5 to 15 pounds. A few larger model bluefin tuna are still within 2.5 day range. Further down the line on the Baja coast, the midrange 5 to 8 day boats (as well as the local pangeros) are doing very good on large grade yellowtail, dorado and wahoo just outside while inshore fishing is still good for calico bass where there is kelp. White seabass are cruising the central Baja coastline in 30 to 80 feet of water and big reds, whitefish and lingcod are biting well, given current conditions, on the inshore banks at a depth of 120 to 300feet.

10/9 – 10/15 Dock Totals: 2927 anglers aboard 149 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 24 dorado, 216 bluefin tuna, 1,291 yellowfin tuna, 14 skipjack tuna, 3,759 yellowtail, 93 calico bass, 26 sand bass, 4,343 rockfish, 19 lingcod, 746 bonito, 1 barracuda, 88 sheephead, 135 whitefish, 2 rubberlip seaperch, 105 mackerel, 81 sanddab, 4 halibut, 1 mako shark, 4 red rock crab and 41 California spiny lobster.

Fish Plants: No more catfish plants for 2016. 10/25 Cuyamaca, trout (1,200)