Offshore Yellows Start Snapping, Local San Diego Action Hot

The Log Newspaper – Irvine,CA,USA
The barracuda bite has been excellent off the north San Diego County coast
with bird schools outside Encinitas, Leucadia and Carlsbad providing
some big …

The bite along the San Diego County coast and at the Coronado Islands is starting to really hit its stride as the surface fishing season is making up for its late start in both the quantity and quality of the fish that are biting. When you add a developing offshore kelp paddy bite and some good fishing out at San Clemente Island, the overall picture appears bright.

Some of the most exciting news has come from the offshore fishing grounds as Capt. Chris Randel of Indian out of H&M Landing reported a good count of yellowtail on a recent offshore exploratory trip. Randel’s 24 anglers put up the best offshore count of this young season when they caught 36 yellowtail and 15 bonito. What was also encouraging was that Randel reported that Holiday out of Point Loma Sportfishing was out fishing the same area on the same day and had seven anglers with 12 yellowtail and a bunch of bonito.

Randel found the action while fishing around and about the Inner Bank outside Ensenada. He reported finding four kelp paddies that produced fish in this zone while fishing between 57 and 71 miles, 168 to 171 degrees from Point Loma. Randel’s next offshore open party exploratory trip is a 2-day trip set for Memorial Day weekend on May 27 and 28.

The surface fishing at the Coronado Islands has been very good for a mixture of big bonito, barracuda, calico bass and yellowtail. A good percentage of the bonito have been up in the 6- to 10-lb. class, and the yellowtail have generally been ranging in size from 8 to 20 lbs.

Most of the fishing at the Coronados has been done on the anchor. Sardines, surface iron and yo-yo iron have all been producing well. The fish have been spread out and have been caught at a lot of the traditional spots at the islands. Some of the best areas have been the Rockpile, South Kelp, the north end of South Island and the Middle Grounds.

Shamus Okeefe reported fishing at the Middle Grounds on a recent trip for a catch that was highlighted by six yellowtail and included a lot of bonito and barracuda. Their smallest yellowtail was around 14 lbs., and the rest were up between 20 and 22 lbs.

Dee Van Horne and her husband, Peter, of Onefourthree also fished a recent trip at the Middle Grounds, and they made a catch that included two yellowtail and an 8-lb. bonito. Van Horne reported catching a 13.5-lb. yellowtail on her new Butterfly Jig outfit while using a pink color Butterfly Jig. Her husband caught the other yellowtail on a sardine and it weighed 9.5 lbs.

Jim Daniells reported about fishing a recent trip to the Coronados with John Lee aboard Lee’s boat Bottom Line and Capt. Patrick Kinsey at the helm. They fished the South Kelp and caught lots of big bonito and barracuda and also got into a good white seabass bite. They caught three white seabass out of eight hook-ups. Two of the white seabass were in the 10- to 12-lb. class and the third was a 40-pounder. Daniells said they lost a second 40-lb.-class fish at the boat.

The fishing along the San Diego County coast has picked up in a big way with lots of barracuda biting and a number of yellowtail starting to show. The barracuda bite has been excellent off the north San Diego County coast with bird schools outside Encinitas, Leucadia and Carlsbad providing some big log-sized fish.

Capt. Joe Cacciola of Sea Star out of Helgren’s Sportfishing reported that most of the barries have been 4- to 8-lb. logs. Sardines and surface iron were reported to be working well for the barracuda. Cacciola also mentioned that there were some large white seabass mixed in with the barracuda.

There are reports coming in of improved surface fishing for boats that are fishing the upper end of La Jolla. There had been some red tide water at La Jolla, but the new report is that some clean green water has moved in to replace the red tide overnight and that there are improving numbers of calico bass, barracuda and yellowtail active along the edges of the kelp beds.

Thresher shark fishing has been very good at spots up and down the coast with some very big sharks caught that have been getting up into the 300- to 400-lb. class. Some productive areas have been La Jolla, Torrey Pines, Carlsbad, San Onofre and South Laguna.

Bob Vanian is the voice and researcher of the San Diego-based fish report telephone-hotline service 976-BITE in the 619 area code. 976-BITE fishing information is also available at www.976bite.com. Additionally, Vanian’s reports can be heard each week on Sunday mornings at around 8:20 a.m. on the Let’s Talk Hookup radio show on “The Mighty 1090.” He welcomes your fish reports at (619) 226-8218.