Angler count low, yellowfin count high

Inshore: The inshore fishing was very good this last week with lots of elbow room, to boot. A little bumpy weather kept the angler count down and I believe it’s the first week since springtime that the fleet sent out less than 100 boats. Still, the bass and sheephead are biting well in the kelp for the ½ day boats while the ¾ day runs out to the 9 Mile Bank and the Coronados are giving up some nice reds, whitefish and lingcod. An occasional yellowtail and some bonito are showing up in the counts for those inshore trips. Sanddab are biting well for the ½ day run out of Oceanside on the flats. There were only a couple lobster trips this week, but the take versus shorts was real good at about 1 legal out of every 4 caught.

Outside: Overnight and 1.5 day boats are all focused on the great yellowfin tuna action offshore from the 302 and all the way up to San Clemente Island and Tanner Bank. These fish are showing up under working birds and/or feeding dolphin and are running in the larger variety for this far north; about 40-60 pounds. Down the Pacific coast of Baja, yellowtail showed real well this week for the crews out of San Quintin all the way down to Asuncion. Wahoo and striped marlin are in the mix with yellowfin tuna off Bahia Magdelena around the East Cape to Bahia de los Muertos and La Paz, where there are also a lot of dorado from 10 pounds up to some decent bulls in the 30-40 pound range. Some very large roosterfish were reported caught in the northern Sea of Cortez at Gonzaga Bay by a kayak group out of San Diego. Gonzaga Bay used to be a grueling 18 hour or longer trip from San Diego, but since the road has been paved all the way through and out past Coco’s Corner, it is about a 6 or 7 hour trip through Tecate and San Felipe and well worth it for anyone wanting to find remote natural beauty and turquoise water close to home. As long as the wind isn’t blowing hard, it is a kayak angler’s paradise, with seasonal sierra, roosterfish and yellowtail, year-round grouper and spotted cabrilla all close to the beach.

10/23 – 10/29 Dock Totals: 1601 anglers aboard 85 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 1 mako shark, 1 white seabass, 20 bluefin tuna, 1,662 yellowfin tuna, 270 yellowtail, 75 calico bass, 17 sand bass, 3,171 rockfish, 15 lingcod, 51 bonito, 68 sheephead, 83 whitefish, 1 petrale sole, 195 sanddab 1 rubberlip seaperch, 200 mackerel, 6 bocaccio, 1 halibut, 1 red rock crab and 34 California spiny lobster.

Fish Plants: 11/8 Cuyamaca, trout (1,200)