Royal Polaris Sportfishing

Plenty of big yellowfin tuna for anglers aboard the long-range fleet, including several over 200 pounds, like this fine fish caught aboard the Royal Polaris.

Dock Totals 2/5– 2/18: 808 anglers aboard 46 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past two weeks caught 1 blacksmith, 27 calico bass (103 released), 43 halfmoon, 1 halibut, 3 lingcod, 30 spiny lobster (162 released), 5 rock crab, 1,662 rockfish, 314 sand bass, 559 sculpin, 4 spider crab, 3 triggerfish, and 123 whitefish.

Saltwater: As we enter the middle of the ‘slow’ season here in southern California, rockfish just south of the border, along with sculpin and sand bass north of the border, are making up the meat of the fish counts for the ½-day to 3-day fleet. Conditions further offshore have kept boats close to home, resulting in fewer lingcod from the less-visited reefs, and no reports over the past two weeks of any fleet-caught yellowtail that occasionally show off northern Baja for the overnight and 1.5-day trips. For that, a trip to Ensenada or San Quintin might be better, as the pangas can get out and back in a hurry in the smaller weather windows that often go with winter fishing.

As this time of year there are more anglers hitting the trade shows than taking boat rides, the angler counts are pretty low even when the weather is decent. One change that may happen at any point is the sneaky bluefin tuna. As I have said before, they are always out there somewhere. This past week, I have seen a couple photos of schooling bluefin taken from the air over the Catalina channel. If a window of opportunity opens and reports of private boaters finding and catching some of those tuna, we will see overnight and 1.5-day boats loading up and heading out there. Until that happens, and other than a few yellowtail that may show for boats heading to the Coronado Islands and points south, expect the counts to mostly reflect sculpin, rockfish, and sand bass for the coming weeks.

For the shore-pounders fishing from the sand and rocks, the winter bite has been good for barred surfperch in the surf, and halibut and spotted bay bass have been biting well in the bays. As we are heading into the first grunion runs of the season, I expect the action in the surf to improve as gamefish move in with the spawning silversides. My best halibut caught from the beach was at night off Dog Beach in Ocean Beach a few decades ago. I casted a grunion out on a Carolina rig and was on in minutes. The result was a 36” California halibut that was just under 20 pounds. Not only halibut follow those grunion to the beach; large shovelnose sand sharks, or ‘guitaras’, along with leopard shark, larger croaker, shortfin corvina, and even occasional white seabass will feed at night within casting distance when the grunion slide up onto the beach to deposit their eggs.

The 2023 grunion runs are open to anglers in March, then closed for April through June, and will be open again in July. Grunion may only be taken by hand, no nets or other devices may be used nor can you dig holes to trap them. A California state fishing license with an ocean enhancement stamp is required by anyone 16 or older to take them. The first seasonal closure for grunion was April-June in 1927 due to decreasing populations over previous years. That closure was reduced to two months, April and May, after the population rebounded by 1947. The closure was again extended from April through June in 2022 to better protect grunion during their peak spawning period. A bag and possession limit of 30 fish was also established last year.

Grunion runs typically occur over a 4-day period during the highest monthly tides, usually around two hours before until one hour after midnight. The second and third night during each run are usually better nights for sighting or collecting grunion. In March, those expected runs on San Diego beaches will be March 7-10, and March 21-24. As the extended closure and 30-fish limit is due to declining populations, another tip is to avoid taking females while they are laying. Letting the little fish do their thing first allows for more fertilized eggs that will hatch during the next high tide phase, which in turn helps with conservation of the species.

Grunion makes an excellent bait, even if frozen. I will usually collect a few and freeze them to take out on the kayak if I have a chance to hit a run, but I have not fished from the beach behind a run in a long time. Every year though, when grunion season comes around, I remember that big halibut flopping on Dog Beach in the beam of the flashlight and I wonder if anyone is out there casting into the surf behind the shoals of spawning silversides.

Though this is the off-season in local waters, long range boats working out of San Diego off the southern tip of Baja have been doing very well while enjoying much nicer weather and conditions. Yellowfin tuna and wahoo are making up the majority of their catch, with some of those yellowfin going over 300-pounds, including one ‘supercow’ at 353-pounds reported caught aboard the Royal Polaris. Those long-range trips are usually booked up by now. Folks do cancel for whatever reason, so keep checking if wanting to hop on a two-week trip for big tuna. For the rest of us up here in chilly Southern California, hopefully the weather will lay down enough for boats to go find those big bluefin swimming somewhere out there off our coast.

They’re out there, so go get ‘em!

Notable catches:

2/5 - The New Seaforth 1/2-day AM trip returned to the dock with 221 rockfish caught by 45 anglers aboard.

2/9 – 6 hoop-netters raised 67 spiny lobsters while aboard the Jig Strike ½-day Twilight run, with 8 of those raised keepers and 59 released.

2/10 – The Premier called in from their AM ½-day border run with limits of 209 rockfish and 1 lingcod for the 21 anglers aboard.

2/12 – 21 anglers aboard the Dolphin ½-day AM trip caught 42 sand bass and 11 sculpin while fishing the flats off Imperial Beach.

2/16 – Light load success for just 8 anglers aboard the Premier ¾-day trip south, with limits of 80 rockfish caught for the day.

Fish Plants: 2/23 – Lake Poway, trout, (1,500), 2/24 – Santee Lakes, lakes 3&6, trout (1,500), 2/26 - Lake Wohlford, trout (2,000), 3/6 – Lake Jennings, trout (1,500)