Left- “Some shots at nighttime bluefin to go along with great yellowtail fishing and some Dorado.” -Tribute Sportfishing
Right- Avid angler Tracy Hartman with a solid spotted bay bass caught by float tube.

Dock Totals 8/27 – 9/2: 4614 anglers aboard 206 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 1 barracuda, 1061 bluefin tuna (up to 180 pounds), 53 bocaccio, 91 bonito, 734 calico bass, 6942 dorado, 3 halibut, 7 lingcod, 4046 rockfish, 1 rock sole, 117 sand bass, 53 sanddab, 93 sculpin, 191 sheephead, 3 skipjack tuna, 50 spotted sand bass, 95 whitefish, 1 white seabass, 668 yellowfin tuna, and 876 yellowtail.

Saltwater: During a once in a blue moon week, the angler count jumped back up to near the seasonal weekly average after Hilary caused a lull in boat traffic for a day or two in her wake. Full moon weeks can be iffy, or outrageous. Some things are somewhat predictable, like the number of dorado caught rose drastically while bluefin tuna numbers waned. Full moon fishing for bluefin can often favor boats fishing in the dark hours, while dorado, a fast-growing voracious feeder, tend to light up any time you find them. So less daytime bluefin tuna caught equals less in the overall count. That gave boats working between sunrise and sunset more time to focus on dorado, and with plenty of them outside of Mexican waters where the limit is 2-fish-per-angler, lots of ten-fish limits hit the decks of full-day to three-day trips. 

With close to seven thousand caught, the past week was reminiscent of some of the outstanding fishing we had this time last year when a previously unheard of 30,054 dorado were caught in just four weeks by sportboats out of San Diego. Still, variables come into play for captains’ planning of when and where to target what. Every trip can be a new adventure when searching for biters if slow, or just more of the same when a bite continues to be excellent in a specific area. 

The Jig Strike, for example, ran south on an overnight run into Mexican waters for mixed-bag tuna, yellowtail, and dorado possibilities on Friday, September 1, and had a slow go on all but dorado, of which they caught Mexican limits of 2 per the 15 anglers aboard and returned to the dock with just the 30 dorado. So, on the next trip out, with another load of 15 anglers, they fished outside of Mexican waters and came home with US limits of 150 dorado and 1 bluefin tuna. Not that catching Mexican limits of dorado is ‘unsuccessful’, successful fishing is always about adjustments to conditions and the fishery. 

In adjusting to the fishery, often it is following known patterns of targeted species through the season, such as the boats heading west toward San Clemente Island and further to the Tanner/Cortez area for bluefin tuna. In other cases, it is the fishery’s regulations. The new allowance begun in April of this year of deeper rockfish access to 600’ is also taken into account, as will be the closure of rockfish from 300-feet in depth and shoreward coming on September 16. Coupled, the species’ movements and new regulations have given us counts we used to not see a lot of; varied pelagic and endemic species one might think would be caught on different trips, such as the Poseidon, returning on September 3 with a catch of 480 dorado, 50 rockfish, 8 bluefin tuna, 4 yellowtail, and 2 yellowfin tuna for 24 anglers aboard a 2.5-day run. 

I thought I’d try something new myself after the full moon. Well, maybe not ‘new’ as I have done it before. I’ll just call it a ‘once in a blue moon’ thing. I normally do not launch from a spot that will be hard to either get to or out of considering the day’s tides. The launch point here at the Boca in San Quintin Bay can be such a spot on big tide swings. On a high tide of over six feet above mean tide, the road through the sloughs fills up so much that one time heading back home, baitfish were skipping through the water to escape my tires as I rolled along. So, I prefer to take the beach route on the hardpacked sand during a lower tide, given I have rusted out four Jeeps before this one I drive now. Not to mention, the fish bite better going into slack tides in a bay mouth that can roil like a river current when tides are big and fast. But, on hearing of a lot of bonito on the high tide feeding in the Boca, I decided to time a trip out and back on the beach when the tide was around 3 feet, and fish the seven hours of rise, high slack and fall. If I needed to leave much sooner, I would have to burn a lot more fuel chewing through softer sand than when recently wet, or take the slough road and drive through a mile or so of saltwater. 

Still, the thought that ‘there might be yellowtail or white seabass in with the bonito feeding on the plethora of bait’ during the high tide drove me to drive out and launch at the point on a tide I would normally avoid. The last yellowtail I caught from the bay mouth on the kayak was just such a day, as was the day I caught a 55-pound white seabass. And as long as I would be there during the midday slack, I might just have some decent halibut fishing when the current slowed and changed direction. But no, no yellowtail, no white seabass, no halibut caught. And as I was committed for a seven-hour outing, it was a long one. I caught plenty of bonito early, but casting at surface feeders was tough as the water was weedy. 

After a bit of up-and down fishing on the drift for halibut and not a bite, I paddled over to the eelgrass at the west edge of the channel, picked my way through the floating weeds, and caught another grip of impressive spotted bay bass. It’s all about adjustment, and though I didn’t find what I was originally seeking, I love catching spotted bay bass, especially when a good size. They do not get very big, and often in San Diego or Mission Bays, my average spotted bay bass was well under a pound. But even small, they are hard fighters. Here in San Quintin Bay, I don’t know if it is the massive amount of varied prey for them from shrimp and crabs to finfish, or that there is so much natural structure in the channels and eelgrass edges, but my average spotted bay bass caught here is around 2 to 3 pounds. As the world Record spotted bay bass is just 4 pounds, 15 ounces, I am sure there is a record in San Quintin Bay. Though there are lots of smaller spotties in San Diego and Mission Bays, there are some larger ones lurking in those bays, too.

Spotted bay bass, in my opinion, fight the hardest of the three common basses in our area; sand bass tend to twist their way up and will leave your line a mess, and while their early pull is heavy, they tend to go into pirouette mode after a few feet. Calico bass are more aggressive upright fighters, and tussle all the way back to the kayak. But spotted bay bass, they pull very hard with little give, and if fishing sand bass or calicos and you get a 3-pound spotty, you'd maybe think it was a 6-pound calico, but in no way would you confuse the fight with that of a sand bass. Spotties for the win! And their meat reflects their strength - more firm and suitable table fare, also my opinion, than the other two basses.