Spotted Bay Bass – It’s What’s for Dinner

Dock Totals 12/3 – 12/9: 364 anglers aboard 21 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 8 barracuda (released), 4 black seabass (released), 158 bluefin tuna, 1 cabezon (released), 14 calico bass, 2 halfmoon, 10 lobster (31 released), 6 rock crab, 1965 rockfish, 38 sand bass, 12 sculpin, 36 sheephead, and 42 whitefish.

Saltwater: Along the beaches, surf perch have been biting well on plastics, bait, and spoons while halibut and corbina action has slowed substantially. In the bays, however, halibut have been biting very well on plastics, crank baits, and live bait. Most fish caught have been shorts — under the required 22-inch minimum length — but there have been a few nice legals to maybe 30 inches reported. Working the outside or deeper edge of eelgrass and along channels has been the ticket for those targeting the halibut. Along the bay riprap rocks (where accessible), anglers have been getting mixed results on shortfin corvina and spotted bay bass. Most of that shortfin action is on heavier, more castable stick baits like Lucky Craft’s 110 Flash Minnow, but I have also found success on shortfin with many lures more traditionally fished in fresh water, such as smaller Rapalas and even Rat’l Traps. A slow steady retrieve over the top of the eelgrass on the high tides of five feet or higher (and especially during gray light hours) is optimal, though fishing the channel side of the eelgrass on the low tide will also get results.

As for spotted bay bass, this is the time of year when finding a structure and presenting a lure along the structure in a vertical drop will get results on the bigger fish. It can be great fun to sidle in (where allowed) on a kayak or even in a float tube on our warmer winter days. I have plucked quite a few, again, on freshwater lures most commonly fished for largemouth bass. For spotties, my go-to when fishing pilings in the winter is a ½- to ¾-ounce skirted bait with a spinner or flasher, as they just seem to draw those big ones out from under the docks and along the pilings where they seem to prefer to hang, while smaller spotted bay bass can be found in good numbers in the eelgrass holes, depressions, and especially clam beds like the ones just outside the anchorage at Glorietta Bay along the Coronado Bridge. So, it can be a choice of hunting the pilings for hogs or the clam beds for big numbers, but in my experience, I haven’t found many hog spotted bay bass hanging out with the little ones, nor many little ones hanging out with the hogs.

Of the three bass caught in our area — barred sand bass, calico bass, and spotted bay bass — spotties are my favorite table fare. Though they are fairly closely related, each bass has a different texture while their natural flavor is similar. Calico is the most delicate, with a clarity to the filets, and if you like your meat moist, it cooks up well for tacos and also makes a great ceviche. Sand bass has a firmer but drier consistency, and while it’s good in ceviche (isn’t everything?), I prefer that drier meat in my tacos. It’s just my opinion here, as taste is subjective, but spotted bay bass not only fight harder, but have a firmer, more grouper-like texture to their meat.

Since they live in bays for the most part, spotties can be a little more prone to pollution or heavy metals, so the best eating size is from the minimum limit of 14 inches to 16 inches or so. That said, as they usually inhabit the mid-water column, heavy metal build-up is not as much of a concern as it is with the bottom-dwelling rays and such. Also, our bays are deep and flush well with the tides, and most fish tested from either bay are fine to eat. Heavy metals tend to sink into the benthic mud, and that is why it is more often found in the species that live mostly in the bottom foot of water. Halibut can be an exception to that, since even though they spend most of their time on the bottom, their prey is mainly finfish swimming higher in the water column — as opposed to rays, which blow ghost shrimp and clams out of the muck to munch.

The Tribute and San Diego are finishing up annual maintenance at the docks in LA Harbor, and will be back online in 2024.

Half day boats the New Seaforth and the Dolphin have been fishing deep and limiting on rockfish nearly every outing, while the Polaris Supreme, one of the few boats still chasing tuna, has had good success on bluefin outside on their 2-day runs. Most of these fish have been in the 20-40-pound range with a few larger tuna in the mix. At this time of year, every year, many of the normal mid-range 1.5-day to 3-day boats are in the dock or drydock for annual maintenance and Coast Guard certifications. Thus, angler counts are low, though the fish counts reflect very good fish for those getting out there.

Long-range boats are working far south off southern Baja in the normal zones for wintertime yellowfin, wahoo, and grouper, while most reports from the mid-peninsula are coming in from the local Mexican operations from Erendria to La Bocana. Working north to south, rockfish, bonito, whitefish and a few yellowtail are being caught in the Ensenada area south to around San Quintin, where more yellowtail are showing in the mix. The further south from there one goes, the better the yellowtail bite, until once past Bahia Asuncion or so, where yellowfin tuna and wahoo begin to show more on the high spots from the Polaris Bank, Alijos Rocks, and the Ridge outside of Bahia Magdalena. In the Cabo San Lucas area and around to La Paz, dorado has been the main catch, along with yellowfin tuna and striped marlin offshore, while inshore fishing for roosterfish and sierra has been very good. Wherever you are and however you like your tacos (everybody likes tacos, right?), they’re out there, so go get ‘em!