Yellowfin at the beach in Cabo

Dock Totals Apr 1 – Apr 7: 1,729 anglers aboard 73 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 58 bluefin tuna, 63 yellowtail, 5 calico bass, 18 sand bass, 6,363 rockfish, 259 whitefish, 133 lingcod, 114 bonito, 313 sculpin, 188 sanddab, 24 sheephead, 94 bocaccio, 2 halibut, 2 rubberlip seaperch, and 1 bat ray.

Saltwater: The angler count was down from the previous week as the spring break crowds thinned and life eased back to normalcy. Even so, the fishing has been good, and the numbers look solid. Bluefin tuna made an Easter showing and though they are out there the number caught dropped off a bit. Most of the fish caught were in the 25-35-pound class with a few 50- to 80-pound fish in the mix. The water greened up a bit off the Coronado Islands which might explain the drop-off in the yellowtail numbers, but that should change soon with fair conditions expected through the week.

There has been some noteworthy catches this past week, specifically white seabass and yellowfin tuna. No, the warmer-water yellowfin did not show outside Point Loma. They popped up inside, rather, along the beaches in the Cabo San Lucas area. Anglers riding quads along the beach in search of the normal springtime bite of jack crevalle and roosterfish had a surprise: Yellowfin tuna from shore! These weren’t tiny footballs, but respectable fish in the 20-25-pound range.

The "biscuits" showed for the kayak anglers off La Jolla this past weekend. While doing a spot check of the anglers returning to the beach at the end of the Avenida La Playa launch, I ran into an angler named Bee from Sacramento that came down to fish the kelp beds and try catching his first white seabass. After making a few mackerel for bait, Bee elected to slow troll them fly-lined, parallel to the kelp edge in 90 feet of water or so, and the result was a white seabass in the 50-pound range. There were a few others caught that day, along with a handful of yellowtail. Though it was slow because of greenish water and flat currents, and given the number of yaks on the water, you can’t complain about a 50-pound white seabass.

Fish Plants: 4/13, Santee Lakes, CatFish (1,000), 4/16, Jennings, Trout (1,500), 4/18, Dixon, trout (4,000), Poway, trout (1,500)