Intrepid Sportfishing

The Intrepid had to cut their five-day charter short a day due to approaching Hilary, but had ‘epic fishing’ on quality bluefin tuna to 185-pounds, along with nice grade yellowtail and even some rockfish in the hold.

Dock Totals 8/13 – 8/19: 4614 anglers aboard 204 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 18 barracuda, 4250 bluefin tuna (up to 250 pounds), 85 bocaccio, 101 bonito, 572 calico bass, 548 dorado, 4 halibut, 17 lingcod, 2 mako shark, 16 perch, 5894 rockfish, 2 rock sole, 278 sand bass, 101 sculpin, 146 sheephead, 1 striped marlin, 1 white croaker, 427 whitefish, 335 yellowfin tuna, and 715 yellowtail.

Saltwater: This year has been a much different sort of year for our nearshore and offshore fisheries than 2022, at least so far. About this time last year, boats were scoring dorado and yellowtail in huge numbers, and much of that north of the border. Just when the dorado began to show in numbers this year, they dropped like a rock in the counts — from over 2000 for the week previous to 548 caught this past week. The yellowfin tuna count went up, but it’s still just a fraction of the ‘normal’ August catch. Yellowtail held at a steady but slowish pace, while the persistent bluefin numbers nearly doubled and rockfish tripled. Go figure; but remember that there is no figuring these fish. 

Now, as I am writing this report a couple dozen miles away from the disintegrating Hilary’s passing eye, I am wondering if the fast-moving storm will have any effect at all on the catch next week. Often, hurricanes will churn warmer water deeper into the water column and inspire more tropical species to move along with them. The warmed deeper currents tend to move pole-ward, or north in our latitude. If a hurricane’s path is northbound, then we might see more dorado, yellowfin, and maybe a few marlin and wahoo a bit closer to San Diego than normal. Normal. Again, that word. What is normal anymore? It seems that sometimes, the most normal thing about the fisheries is their unpredictability on any given week, El Niño year or not.

That hurricanes push warmer water deeper, and are themselves created in warm water of 80 degrees or more, does not mean they always leave the surface temps warmer in their wake. Hurricanes will actually cool the surface temps for a while until the sun comes out again and warms the upper water column. With warmer water deeper, and given a few days of sunshine and light winds, average temperatures throughout the water column will generally rise a few days or a week after the passing of a major storm. But predicting an effect on the fishery is still a guess, as there are too many variables for the average layman weather-watcher to make an accurate analysis. 

Hilary didn’t have much of a chance of hitting north of the Vizcaino Peninsula as a category 4 storm. Once she entered the 72-degree water off the coast of the mid-peninsula, she dropped substantially, from a Category 4 to a Category 1, and as of this writing is a tropical storm dropping steady rain with little wind off San Quintin. This has all happened in less than 36-hours. From off Los Cabos as a major monster of a storm to a dwindling but very widespread and wet rain event off north Baja. That’s not to say she didn’t cause damage along the way: on the contrary, there has been a lot of coastal flooding and wind damage along the Vizcaino coast, and on the Sea of Cortez side, flash floods have been very bad with at least one life lost in Santa Rosalia. 

In spite of the tendency for San Diegans to scoff at northbound hurricanes, they are as unpredictable as our fishing has been of late. Thankfully, the cool water trends along Baja took a lot of the teeth out of this storm; it could have been much worse.

That said, by the time this report goes to print, Hilary will be done and gone, and we should see if she had much effect on the Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) off the coast of northern Baja and southern California, — and how that might affect the fishing going forward. It is early in the hurricane season for the eastern Pacific, and the warming trend should continue. With dorado reported caught as far north as Oregon and a striped marlin in the counts here, it seems semi-tropical pelagic species aren’t off the menu just yet. As with Kay last year, Hilary’s northbound path was well within the predictions 48 hours ahead of her passing. That warmer average water temps will bring more and stronger hurricanes is a given, but the path a hurricane takes can vary from storm to storm, as Hilary’s predecessor Fernanda did what the majority of hurricanes do in this part of the world; move north out of the tropics then make a left turn toward Hawaii.

The sportfishing fleet took notice, and a few boats out on longer runs cut their trips short, while others canceled Sunday and Monday outings to allow the worst of the weather to pass. I am looking at a marine vessel live chart right now, and the Baja coast from mid-peninsula out a couple hundred miles and up to just south of San Diego looks eerily empty, except for the military vessels that moved out of San Diego Bay to deeper water where they can better ride a storm out if they need to. Here’s hoping the fishing only gets better in Hilary’s wake. They’re out there, so go get ‘em!