Big cats and the yellowtail blues

Dock Totals 10/8 – 10/14: 3066 anglers aboard 137 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 3513 bluefin tuna (up to 240 pounds), 5 bonito, 156 calico bass, 757 dorado, 2 halibut, 56 lobster (127 released), 104 perch, 41 rock crab, 1499 rockfish, 106 sand bass, 1083 sculpin, 101 sheephead, 3 skipjack tuna, 1 spider crab, 233 whitefish,1 white seabass, 1101 yellowfin tuna, and 171 yellowtail.

Saltwater: Anglers are still whacking away at bluefin tuna as we progress into fall, and as the limit on either side of the international line is two-fish-per, over 3000 caught is impressive, considering the number of anglers out on the grounds targeting them. With a lot of sardine along the coast in the California Current, many of the fish caught have been nearer the coast; the proximity allows more to be caught than during years when the majority are found out near the Cortez and Tanner banks, 100 miles or so west of San Diego.

At this point, with many bluefin caught from just off Punta Banda to outside San Quintin off the Baja coast earlier this year, most of those being caught now are about 50 miles west-northwest of Point Loma and about 20 miles this side of San Clemente Island. Yellowfin tuna are biting more toward the south, but boats are still getting them, along with bluefin and dorado, making for a good mixed bag of pelagic species for this time of year within two-day range.

Rockfish numbers continue to climb since the change in depth to 300 to 600 feet as more anglers are tuning their gear for deeper water. Again, no lingcod in that range, so any of those caught will usually be from Mexican waters where all depths are still open. That's why we've had none in the count this past week, as most boats heading south are concentrating on surface action. Inshore action for the half-day fleet has been mostly sculpin, sand bass, and calico bass. A couple keeper halibut, and a really nice white seabass hit the deck this past week on half-day boats, so the inshore scene close to home is not all just "taco-fishing" for bass and sculpin.

Yellowtail continue to be sluggish, as they have been for most of the season, with numbers through the summer way below the average compared to most years. Some of that may have to do with boats working more outside to take advantage of the bluefin bite, but still, I am used to seeing several hundred to a few thousand caught through the season rather than a hundred or so per week. For instance, H&M Landing has reported just 4642 yellowtail caught thus far as we near the end of the year, whereas in 2022, they reported 39,064 yellowtail caught for the calendar year. Yellowtail fishing has been very good further down Baja than usual, so, for the many San Diego anglers who favor catching them, it’s either head south or suffer the "yellowtail blues."

Really, that trend has held true for all landings this season; we've had fewer of each of the targeted pelagic, or migrating, species caught this year than last, with the exception of rockfish and bluefin tuna. With two and a half months left in 2023, we may catch up on some of the endemic species numbers like calico and sand bass in our inshore waters, but for the most part, 2023 has been mostly about the bluefin and access to deeper water rockfish.

The winner for the largest catfish caught over Stockzilla weekend at Santee Lakes, Phat Khaleck, with her 9-pound, 8-ounce channel catfish.

Freshwater: As we near the end of catfish season and look forward to the beginning of trout plants in our lower altitude county lakes, the "whiskerfish" seem to be biting well. Santee Lakes held their annual Stockzilla event over the weekend of October 7-8, and angler Phat Khaleck reeled in a whopper 9-pound, 8-ounce channel catfish while soaking a chunk of mackerel for bait. The catch earned her a prize worth $250, and a Daiwa BG 2500 spinning reel mounted on a Daiwa Tatula XT rod! Way to go, Phat!

Catfish — both channel cats and blue cats — are biting well on mackerel at all lakes where present, and this is the time of year for some of the best catfish action in our neck of the woods. Most lakes are wrapping up the season stocking of catfish, but trout plants typically do not begin until the water cools in December, and there are still plenty of whiskers in the water, some of them quite large; Lake Jennings reported a 53-pound blue catfish caught on September 30 on mackerel from the T-Dock.

Largemouth bass fishing has been hit-and-miss, but still decent for those targeting them in shallows so far this fall as the bite slows into a deeper winter mode. Panfish, mostly red ear sunfish, have been biting well along the shoreline of most lakes on mini jigs, and especially nightcrawlers and meal worms. As the water temps are still ranging in the mid-70s for most county lakes, the action should continue to favor those anglers targeting catfish in the evening and panfish throughout the day. All in all, it’s been just another outstandingly fishy week for San Diego. They’re out there, so go get ‘em!