Tues., Jan. 15 – no San Diego boats left their slips

Dock Totals Jan 13 – Jan 19: 595 anglers aboard 32 half day to three day trips out of San Diego landings this past week caught 42 yellowtail, 15 bonito, 77 calico bass, 519 sand bass, 6 halibut, 677 rockfish, 1 lingcod, 1 sheephead, 399 sculpin, 36 blacksmith perch, 48 rubberlip seaperch, 25 halfmoon perch, 2 blue perch, 2 sargo, and 68 spiny lobster (271 released)

Saltwater: A week of tough conditions that brought high winds, rain, and big surf didn’t keep all the boats from running, except for Tuesday when no sportfishing boats on the entire West Coast left their slips. When the San Diego boats did get out, they were mostly half-day runs that fared well on rockfish, sculpin, and bass. Sand bass continued to bite on the flats for the anglers fishing sardines on the dropper loop or plastics on a heavy enough lead head to keep it down in the current. Sculpin were biting on squid, while the rockfish were biting bait and jigs fished deep. Halibut showed well for the Dolphin on their Wednesday outing, with 4 keepers out of the 18 caught.

Further down the line off the Baja coast near Colonet, the Vagabond did well just before the front came through, reporting 205 rockfish, 41 yellowtail, and 4 bonito for the 25 anglers aboard their 1.5-day trip. As the weather passes, more 1.5-day trips will test that bite to see if it is still going on. South of the effects of the front it has been windy off the mid-peninsula, but the pangeros making it out through the wind-capped four- to six-foot west swell were getting limits of yellowtail along with good numbers of rockfish and whitefish. As the water cools, there were even reports of a few rare wintertime dorado near Bahia Asunción.

Given the time of year and the more like normal California winter weather, fishing has been good when conditions allow. Hoop-netting in the bay channels has been good when the current hasn’t been ripping. The Alicia and the Jig Strike reported good hooping. The Alicia’s 10 passengers got 121 bugs (30 keepers), and the Jig Strike's 10 passengers pulled in 18 keepers out of the 101 lobster raised.

Fish Plants: 1/25, Santee lakes, trout (1,000), 1/28, Jennings, trout (1,500)