San Quintin yellowtail have been biting very well between blows, with lots of limits caught from the local pinnacle banks.

Dock Totals 1/7 – 1/13: 229 anglers aboard 13 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 60 bonito, 7 calico bass, 3 croaker, 2 halibut, 1 lingcod, 29 lobster (51 released), 25 perch, 141 rockfish, 127 sand bass, 140 sculpin, 17 sheephead, 66 whitefish, and 1 yellowtail.

Saltwater: I’ve been totaling boat trips, angler numbers, and fish counts each week for nearly ten years, and this past week had the lowest overall numbers that I can remember. This was mainly due to the large swells pushed by a series of fronts coming during a king tide period, combined with the usual boat maintenance and Coast Guard certification all boats need and often address during the off season. Still, the local runs that did get out did well. 

Usually, rockfish top the numbers of species caught, as it is a broad category of species and while the rockfish fishery is closed from January 1 until April for Southern California waters, boats typically run to the Mexico side of the border during that period to load up on them. Last week, weather did not permit much of that, but the Daiwa Pacific out of H&M Landing did make it to the grounds in our southern neighbor’s waters with 16 anglers aboard on Thursday, returning to the docks from their ¾-day run with 141 rockfish, 17 sheephead, 1 halibut, and 1 lingcod. So, the fish are still biting; it’s getting there that’s the tricky part.

Most of the boats fishing locally focused on sand bass, sculpin, and whitefish, and did well on those species. The Premier is running their usual morning and afternoon half-day trips, and on Saturday, while on the sand bass grounds off Point Loma, angler Rob Tressler, fishing for sand bass with a tube bait, hooked and landed a rarity for half-day fishing: a 40-pound “homeguard” yellowtail. What makes that catch extra special is that 2023 was the slowest year for yellowtail for the fleet in many years. Normally, we see good numbers of the powerful jacks, but with many boats focusing on the outstanding bluefin fishing further offshore, yellowtail that are normally caught along the northern coast of Baja got a bit of a break in pressure. 

An illustration of that 2023 trend can be found in the annual totals of yellows over the past two years. The top landing for yellowtail caught in 2023 was Seaforth, with 6206 caught, while the top landing in 2022 was H&M with 39064 yellowtail boated. Conversely, the top landing counts for bluefin tuna were H&M in 2023 with 21925 and Fisherman’s 2022 count of 14184. If you factor in the limits of each species at 2 each per angler per day for bluefin in Mexico and US waters, and 5 and 10 fish, respectively, for yellowtail, you can see a huge difference. 

What are the expectations for each species in 2024? Well, with bluefin still out there — as demonstrated by the seiner fleet — as long as the fleet can get to them, they should continue to top the counts going forward. Should. Fishing is fishing, and the one constant is change. Yellowtail are already biting in good numbers, especially for January, down the coast within 1.5-day range of the fleet, and boats running down to the high spots off of northern Baja should do very well. 

The operators out of San Quintin, for instance, had a heyday on yellowtail in the 10- to 20-pound class on the yoyo irons and knife jigs, with all reporting early limits. K&M, Pedro’s, Garcia’s, Jaime’s, Tito’s, Tiburon... all of them got out on Saturday with good conditions during a break in the seasonal winds, and their clients were rewarded with exceptional fishing, limiting early enough to then focus on rockfish and lingcod to top off their sacks. The filet guy at the ramp was very busy, expertly cutting the fish and bagging fresh filets, while a bevy of gulls and pelicans awaited and scuffled over the scraps. Both Ensenada and San Quintin are great fishing destinations for those driving down for a panga ride out as opposed to a large sportfishing vessel. It’s both within reach and an economical alternative, and you can also enjoy comfy hotel digs, choices of food from street tacos to fine dining, and a daily run out for about the same price or less — depending on the number of anglers per boat — as a sport boat targeting the area. 

As the US boats have to, by agreement, cede ground to the local operators, driving down and hiring a boat from a 23-foot panga at around $300 to a fully-fitted Parker at around $600 per day might be a better alternative when targeting the pinnacle banks where the fish congregate. On the other hand, the larger sportboats, usually running about $400 per day per angler, can handle tougher conditions that can be common in the winter/spring in the area. So, planning by weather is key. Websites with accurate forecasts, like Windy.com, can help anglers with that decision. The caveat there is booking in advance. When the fishing is hot, awaiting a forecast might leave you without a ride, as when the fishing is good, both San Diego-based sportboats and Mexican operators fill their slots quickly. They’re out there, so go get ‘em!