Amid Great Fishing the Taxman Cometh – Great Whites Take Their Cut at Guadalupe

Dock Totals 8/1 – 8/7: 4,882 anglers aboard 215 trips out of San Diego landings this past week caught 120 barracuda, 1,921 (up from302) bluefin tuna (up to 138 pounds), 85 bonito, 1,387 calico bass (910 released), 240 dorado, 1 escolar, 4 halibut, 10 lingcod, 3,614 rockfish, 54 sand bass, 65 sculpin, 180 sheephead, 2 skipjack tuna, 1 white croaker, 374 whitefish, 1 white seabass, 275 yellowfin tuna, and 2,600 yellowtail. (Down from 9,534)

Saltwater: Bluefin tuna counts were back up as they started biting in the daylight again after the passing of the full ‘buck’ moon on July 24th. During the brightest phases of the moon, bluefin tuna tend to feed better at night, which can be frustrating for full day boats trying to target them during daylight hours. When this is the case, boats will often leave a spot of finicky tuna and chase yellowtail and dorado while the sun is up, which also partially accounts for the nearly seven thousand fewer yellowtail caught this past week than the previous week. Bluefin aren’t usually around in good numbers for as long as yellowtail through the summer/fall season, so when they are near and start biting well, the fleet will focus their efforts on tuna.

Yellowfin tuna and dorado are showing in the same areas as the bluefin, but the latter is still encouraging most of the oohs and aahs at the landing during offloading due to their size. So far, summer fishing in the grounds from nearshore to 50 miles has been excellent, even if a few boats reported a ‘skunk’ trip due to trying to tempt bluefin into biting. Often, when this happens, the captain will change up targeted species and leave a non-productive school. Sometimes, a captain might ask the anglers to vote if they wish to keep trying or would rather look elsewhere. It is hard to leave a spot when you see multitudes of fish up to and over 100 pounds even when they have ‘lockjaw’ and do not care for the anglers’ offerings. This can be downright upsetting. Usually, for that reason, the captain makes the call on whether to stay or go find another spot of fish.

Seeing big fish that are not biting is not the only heartbreaking occurrence in sportfishing. A fish breaking off after a long battle might bring tears from even the burliest of men, but as some say, “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all”. Another sad fishing moment is when a ‘tax collector’ takes its cut. Sea lions are the inshore tax collectors, as they will come along and grab a yellowtail after it is worn down from the battle and easy for the crafty mammal to catch. Sea lions can show up just about anywhere; usually assumed as a coastal nuisance to anglers they can range far out to sea. I have seen sea lions as far offshore as the aptly named 60 Mile Bank taking a few of the smaller tuna we were catching on that trip. That said, the tax collectors that take the biggest bite are the great white sharks at Guadalupe Island.

Guadalupe Island is the most remote island to the San Diego fleet at 150 miles off the Baja coast and 260 miles south of Point Loma. Guadalupe is one large island surrounded by eleven protruding islets, and in the late summer through the fall, the island is a favorite fishing area for long-range fishing trips of 5 days or longer. There, anglers can catch yellowfin tuna to over 100 pounds and large yellowtail in the 30-to-50-pound range. The main disadvantage to fishing Guadalupe is the large community of great white sharks in the area. Influenced by the California Current that runs north to south, the island is a haven for the Guadalupe fur seal. The seals were hunted to near extinction during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by the late 19th century, a U.S. venture loaded the island with as many as 35,000 goats raised for wool and meat. Once nearly covered in white pine and cedar, lumber and goat operations decimated the island which was left a barren desert landscape. Now protected and owned by Mexico, it is the destination of white shark cage-diving and sportfishing trips out of San Diego and Ensenada.

This past week, while on their annual six-day Ballast Point sponsored trip, the Excel fished around Guadalupe with good results on large-grade yellowfin tuna, but the taxman made his appearance; they lost several tuna, or big chunks of them, to the toothy predators that will hang around and under the boat awaiting another tasty treat the anglers so willingly reel toward them. Often, when a shark bites a tuna, the angler is left with the head and maybe a bit more. When not served up as sushi, these parts are saved to toss back to the sharks to keep them busy while trying to land a whole unbitten fish.

Fish Plants: None this week