Steve Carson

"Just returned from a 3-dayer onboard the Vagabond, and although I was the only one prepared, SPJ(slow pitch jigging) got plenty of attention, and not only was 450-500 feet easy to attain, and the amazing quality vermilion [red] rockfish like this one were eye openers for many aboard."

Dock Totals 5/28– 6/3: 3466 anglers aboard 126 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past two weeks caught 24 barracuda, 620 bluefin tuna (up to 200 pounds), 9 bonito, 1 cabezon, 491 calico bass, 3 halibut, 15 lingcod, 1 mako shark, 1 perch, 7202 rockfish, 74 sand bass, 202 sanddab, 78 sculpin, 181 sheephead, 6 Spanish jack, 6 treefish, 690 whitefish, and 274 yellowtail.

Saltwater: Between tough conditions and tight-lipped fish, the counts of both bluefin and yellowtail dropped this past week, though all signs are good going forward, and the average size of bluefin is getting larger, with many fish caught over 100-pounds. Boats are working hard to get the pelagics to bite once on them, and many schools are metered in the normal high spots from the Corner on down to Finger Bank off Ensenada, where pangeros are also finding limited success and switching to targeting rockfish, lingcod, and bass when the yellowtail and bluefin bite slows.

Given the availability of deeper water rockfish to 600 feet in depth this season, and the off- and on-again bluefin and yellowtail, the numbers and size of rockfish has increased dramatically. Still, cowcod are a no-catch species and dwell more so in water deeper than 300-feet, which is why that depth limit was set over a decade ago in the first place. This year’s increase was due to the improving health of the cowcod population, but they are still off the menu. This brings up the importance of descender rigs, especially with the new trend of heavy knife jigs and ‘slow pitch jigging’, or SPJ, for those big deepwater reds.

Fish caught and hauled up from the depths quickly will bloat with air due to the atmospheric change of pressure, and if released, they need a little help getting back down. A descender rig is a weighted device that, once clipped to the fish, will take the fish back down to the bottom where the clip is released by simply pulling up on the line. This helps ensure a higher rate of survival for protected or unwanted fish, and all sportfishing boats targeting rockfish will have descender rigs available for that reason. If heading out on a private boat to target rockfish, especially in the deeper zones, please include a descender rig or two in your tackle box.

Working south along Baja’s Pacific coast, conditions have been frustratingly windy — more along the northern half of the peninsula, where usually, I can get at least a day or two per week in late spring of “kayak-friendly” weather. So far, the water has been coolish and warming very slowly, which might explain the finicky pelagic bite for the San Diego boats working the area. And the season has allowed for only a few kayak outings since mid-April in the area south of Ensenada to Punta Baja near El Rosario. Inshore fishing on down the coast south of El Rosario to the Vizcaino Peninsula has been its normal slow for this time of year, as that zone typically runs about three months behind the seasons in San Diego.

Once you get to Todos Santos in Baja Sur, past Cabo and up into the Sea of Cortez, it has been a different story. They have had a great start of the season, with inshore fishing producing many yellowtail caught from the beaches outside of La Paz, and quite a few big dorado and wahoo already showing outside of Bahia de los Muertos and the high spots near Cerralvo Island. In the northern Cortez, anglers are enjoying great yellowtail, cabrilla, and grouper fishing in Bahia de Los Angeles and Bahia de San Luis Gonzaga. There, the normal winter and spring blows have been less than average with many nice calm mornings, which is typical when the wind is howling on the Pacific side.

Action in the surf seems to be getting better in Southern California as well, with a lot of larger barred surf perch caught from the beaches on mini plastics and sand crabs, and decent land-based halibut from both the beach and in the bays on live bait and lures. Spotted bay bass are warming up for those targeting them with plastics, while shortfin corvina are beginning to eat crankbaits along the rocky edges of San Diego Bay. The season is still young, and though those finicky bluefin and stubborn yellowtail within 1.5-day range seem to have not gotten the message quite yet, it is still looking like it will be another amazing year for the entire saltwater angling community — from the shore-pounders working the local beaches to the long-range fleet’s multi-day trips to points south.

They’re out there, so go get ‘em!