Larger yellows, smaller blues, and smokin’ bonito

The yellowtail bite slowed down substantially as over 500 of the 702 yellows caught this past week were caught last Sunday. That said, the average size went up to a more normal 15 to 20 pounds as the schools of small 2- to 3 year-old 8- to 10-pound fish seem to have mostly moved on. As that yellowtail bite waned a bit, the bluefin tuna turned on a little and doubled in the counts. Mostly, the smaller yellowtail have been offshore and caught by the boats looking for the foaming boils of bluefin tuna. The larger grade yellowtail have come from just off the kelp, the Coronado Islands, and the "rock pile," a coastal structure just to the south of the islands. Conversely, the larger bluefin have been caught closer to home, still many in that 50- to 100-pound range, while smaller units in the mid-20s have been showing good south toward the 60 Mile Bank. When the bluefin are boiling on bait, they are eating just about anything from surface irons, poppers and large swimbaits to a simple fly-lined sardine. Flat falls and the old tried and true blue and chrome yoyo iron are also doing well.

The calico bass are biting well when the kelp is up, even though the counts don’t reflect that as most of the boats that normally work the kelp edge are chasing tuna. Bonito have started showing up in schools offshore and also went up dramatically in the counts. Many anglers view bonito as fun, but not all that good as table fare: Do not overlook them in your diet. If kept fresh on ice and prepared well, they are excellent eating.

My favorite way to prepare bonito is in the smoker. As the flesh is not as dense as that of yellowtail, you can get away with a shorter brine (presoak for smoking) of 12 hours or so as opposed to the usual 24-hour soak. My brine recipe for bonito is simple:

• 1 cup sea salt or kosher salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup of honey
• 10 oz bottle of soy sauce

Add enough water to make about a gallon of brine, including ingredients. Warm the brine and stir until blended well. Once blended well, cool the brine to room temperature. Now, just cut the filets into half to palm-sized pieces and place in a bowl, cover with brine and let it soak in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Remove and place in smoker and cook until desired texture. I like to pull some early while still moist for salads and leave some go until almost jerky. Add glaze occasionally from brine, if desired, but it’s not really necessary.

At 170 degrees, smoke time will be about 6 to 8 hours. If adding any peppercorn or other spices, I like to wait until most of the juices are out of the flesh so it doesn’t just rain down and wash the spices off the fillets in the lower racks.

Dock Totals 4/16 – 4/22:

2217 anglers aboard 87 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 326 bluefin tuna, 702 yellowtail, 5 calico bass, 24 sand bass, 2,968 rockfish, 551 sanddab, 2 lingcod, 393 bonito, 444 sculpin, 4 sheephead, 1 Spanish jack, 2 bocaccio, 25 mackerel and 24 whitefish.

Top performing boats of the week

4/23: The Old Glory took 30 anglers out on a 1.5 day run and reported 127 yellowtail and 1 bluefin tuna caught.

4/18: 28 anglers aboard the San Diego ¾ day run put 54 bluefin tuna in the hold. 30 bluefin tuna, limits, were caught by 15 anglers aboard the Liberty on a ¾ day run. The Chubasco II reported good bottom-fishing for the 17 anglers aboard their ½ trip with 2 sheephead and 131 rockfish in the gunnysacks. The Pacific Queen again limited out on bluefin tuna with 60 fish for the 30 anglers aboard their overnight trip.

4/17: 16 anglers aboard the Pacific Queen accounted for 2 yellowtail and limits of 32 bluefin tuna on an overnight run.

Fish Plants: No plants scheduled this week.