One of those fish that would not give up

Inshore: With the water temp just below 60 degrees and rockfishing closed in U.S. waters until March 1, the local boats have been concentrating their efforts toward sculpin and sand bass. A few flurries of yellowtail action popped up off Mission Beach and La Jolla midweek. Only a few were caught, but they were hitting the surface iron summertime-style which is pretty neat for January and water temps less than 60 degrees. The ¾ day rockfish trips south of the border are doing very well on reds, vermillion rockfish and lingcod and the occasional yellowtail. Calico bass are eating the plastics when the current allows for fishing alongside the kelp strands or "pot-holing" between them.

Outside: The big tuna are working the long range anglers and crews hard down at the Hurricane Bank. Once the knots are tied right, the drags are set to the line perfectly and the bait is in the water, all one can do is hope they can turn a big fish around. Sometimes, the fish wins anyhow, in spite of thousands of dollars invested on gear and the ride. I thought I’d share this report from January 5 by Bill Cavanaugh aboard the Intrepid:

“Late in the afternoon, Dale Lethcoe hooked a monster that would not stop. As his outfit got spooled, we dumped his rod and reel over the side with a backup, dumped that back up over the side with another back-up, and dumped a second back-up over the side so we had three outfits in the water, all spooled. At this point we pulled the anchor and chased the fish. About an hour and a half later we had the fish at color, one more half circle and we had the fish at gaff. The fish made one last direction change, chaffed the 100# fluorocarbon, and it broke off. Right there. About 2 feet from gaff. It was a heartbreaking loss. I estimate that fish to be in the mid-200-pound range. Everyone did their part. No mistakes were made. It was just one of those fish that would not give up.”

Now, that’s fishing!

Dock Totals 1/1 – 1/7: 658 anglers aboard 40 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 10 yellowtail, 26 calico bass, 283 sand bass, 2 bonito, 802 rockfish, 1 sheephead, 5 sanddab, 19 rubberlip seaperch, 58 halfmoon, 1 whitefish, 14 lingcod, 5 halibut, 807 sculpin, 1 finescale triggerfish and 2 mackerel.

Fish Plants: 1/14 Santee Lakes, trout (Total TBA. Includes special tagged fish up to 12 pounds)