There are seiners around, but they've been moving more than fishing. Scientist Ed Everett at IATTC measures sport-caught tuna at the docks and said the seiners so far have been catching small fish of 25 to 40 pounds for the pens and farms only. It’s hard to believe they can feed it for two or three years and still turn a profit.
There are three year classes of bluefin, with scattered albacore among them. A few fish to 97 pounds have come in recently. The albies are few so far. They're also fair-sized, mostly 20 to 30 pounds.
Water's still cool, about 64 or less up this way. In the BFT area it's almost a degree warmer, and the fish are on the north side of an edge, feeding on bait there, explained American Angler skipper Brian Kiyohara. The water's off-color but the fish don't seem to care. They're taking live sardines, stealthily fished, and some small mackerel.
Bluefin have been reported as far north as San Diego, but no one has made a notable catch to this point, until this morning, when Red Rooster III reported being on some fish, decking some, at one-day or day and a half range.
Shortfin don't respond well to trolled skirted jigs, so some boats aren't even pulling jigs as they look. More schools have been located at the surface than by electronic metering, but they're being found both ways. This morning on Let’s Talk Hookup, Condor owner-operator Scott Meisel remarked that the sign he looks for is a good solid meter mark.
No guarantees, but it's likely the tuna schools will move northeast toward San Diego over the next two to four weeks. Hopefully, longfin will show in even greater numbers.
Good News For Short Trips
Skipper Kevin Osborne docked Intrepid at Pt. Loma Sportfishing June 25 after an eight-day trip with 18 anglers. He had more good news about nearby bluefin.
“Our best bluefin bite was on 30-pounders for a half day, about 150 miles down,” he told dock reporter Bill Roecker. “Those fish acted right. We saw one school of albacore there but they wouldn’t bite. There were no other boats fishing there. Last night I metered bluefin from 120 miles up to 90 miles.
“We had one good day for yellowtail at Alijos,” he continued, “and we got a few off Alijos Bank. We ended up with limits of yellowtail, and we got some good ones off paddies between The Rocks and Punta Eugenia. There’s a lot of paddies out there!”
Les Harrell of Mesa, AZ won first place for a 37.6-pound yellowtail. He caught it with a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Owner Super Mutu hook on 40-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon. He said he used 60-pound Izorline spectra on an Avet SX reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6460 H rod.
Will Doyle of Ventura won second place for his 36.4-pound yellow, and Gary Nakamura of Oxnard won third place for a 35.6-pound yellowtail.
His longest trip before was three days, so this trip was a great one for 13-year-old Cole Chavira of Carlsbad. He caught bluefin and yellowtail and large sheephead. Cole said he plays quarterback on the football team for Santa Fe Christian School in Solana Beach, and he also plays Lacrosse. He’s been fishing with his father William Chavira since he was three years old. The biggest fish he’s caught so far was a 50-pound dorado near La Paz. If he gets out again this summer he might beat that mark with a bluefin.
‘Gunning For ‘Tails“The fishing here at Cedros was a little slow for us this morning,” wrote Bruce Smith for the Shogun June 24, “but the afternoon perked up quite a bit for us. Most of the fishing, right now, is be done by drifting and using heavy yo-yo jigs down near the bottom. Salas 6X Jr. jigs are working well in scrambled egg or blue and white tied to your favorite 40-pound outfit. Get them down near the bottom and wind 'em back fast is the for sure way to get bit in these conditions. The weather is great, we all were happy to be wearing shorts all day.”
