Lobster done, white seabass limit, and Fred is back in town.

Dock Totals Mar 11 – Mar 17: 1,186 anglers aboard 54 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 9 yellowtail, 9 calico bass, 30 sand bass, 3,770 rockfish, 874 whitefish, 19 lingcod, 24 bonito, 1 halibut, 254 sculpin, 177 sanddab, 34 sheephead, 114 bocaccio, 5 brown smooth-hound shark, 20 lizardfish, 1 rubberlip seaperch, 3 spider crab, and 24 spiny lobster.

Saltwater: The offshore fishing is mirroring the action from this time last year as far as pelagic species are concerned. Yellowtail are biting well when found and the bluefin tuna have all but disappeared from the counts. Weather in early spring can keep the boats closer to home and since rockfish season is open again, the temptation to go find tuna on bumpy seas is not as driving as it might be. The big bluefin vanished in the late winter and started showing in the counts by the end of March in 2017, so we’ll soon see if that pattern holds.

This week, Thursday through Sunday, the Fred Hall Show will be at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The Del Mar show claims the title of San Diego’s largest fishing, boating and outdoor recreation event.

Yellowtail fishing at the Coronado Islands and along the northern Baja coast has been good when the weather holds, though as weekly cold fronts pass through, fewer boats are getting out and targeting them, or spending the time looking when the bottom-fishing has been excellent.

Those targeting sand bass and halibut are doing well, especially in areas out to 60 feet of water or less along the sandy-bottomed stretches paralleling beaches around the grunion run times. During the actual runs, fishing from shore with a live or fresh-dead bait on a Carolina rig casted just outside the surf line can result in some good halibut and shovelnose action.

There are many activities that are included with the price of admission, including product demos and seminars, the popular Ultimate Air Dog performance, the kid’s fish free trout pond, and for the hunters -archery and air gun ranges.

Lobster season is over as of March 21st for commercial and recreational anglers. White seabass take (normally 3 fish longer than 28”) is limited to ONE fish at least 28 inches in overall length from March 15 through June 15, in waters from Point Conception south to the International Border

Fish Plants: 3/25 – Skinner, trout (TBD), Jennings, trout (TBD), 3/28 – Dixon, trout (1,500)