Author: Erik Landesfeind

SoCal Scene Reports After last week’s windy weather, it seemed like we’d dodged a bullet when the tuna, yellowtail, wahoo and marlin continued to bite when the weather improved on Friday. But after only a couple days of decent weather, a larger wind storm blew through and absolutely hammered the coast. The good news is that after a couple days of calm weather it looks like we may have dodged that season ending bullet one more time. There hasn’t really been much fishing coverage over the last few days, so let’s take a look at what was happening before the…

SoCal Fishing Reports One of the advantages of not having a real winter in the last couple years is that the ocean is not only warm on the surface, down deep as well. In a normal year, the SST might read 75-degrees, but that might only be the top foot of the water and it could be 10 degrees colder 10-feet down. This year, that warm water extends much deeper and that is what’s going to protect our water temps, and the fishing, from westerly winds. There have been more than a few days of lousy weather in the last…

Going to be keeping things short this week because the weather has sucked and very few people have been fishing. At the time of this writing (on Thursday morning), the only non-rockfish report that’s come in is the 100 yellowtail the Malihini caught at the Coronado Islands on Wednesday. But a lack of reports doesn’t mean the fish won’t be back on the bite once the weather straightens out. With calm seas and offshore winds forecast for the weekend, lets take a look at your fishing options. Starting up north, I just spoke to my friend Captain Larry Heron of…

Fall Fishing Last week’s slow fishing certainly isn’t going to be improved by the wind that blew this week across our local waters. But with Santa Ana winds forecast for the weekend, conditions should improve. So, without further adieu, let’s take a look at what’s biting in Southern California. Starting to the north, the Channel Islands were most heavily hit by this week’s wind, but the fish were biting before the blow. Yellowtail have been biting at the islands, as well as along parts of the Ventura County coast. These fish should still be biting when the weather gets back…

Saltwater Bass Fishing If you were to ask 100 saltwater bass fishermen to name the single most versatile lure in their tackle box, 95 of them would probably tell you that it’s a swimbait. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? After all, you can use swimbaits to target spotted bay bass, calico bass and sand bass. And by adjusting the size of the bait and lead-head, you can fish them at multiple depths. You can also use different styles of lead-heads that allow you to fish them in kelp, eelgrass or rocks. It’s an extremely versatile bait to say the least. The…

Boat Cleaning Tips While everyone loves to get the boat bloody while offshore fishing, no one that I’ve ever met enjoys getting the boat un-bloody after a successful day on the water. The good news is that by choosing the right tools and cleaning products you can cut down on the amount of elbow grease required to get you boat looking good at the end of the day. The more work you put into cleaning the boat during the day, the less you’ll have to do when it’s back on the trailer. Whenever I’m fishing offshore, I’ll carry a soft…

Wahoo Bite This has been the first off week of fishing we’ve had in quite some time. While I don’t particularly like it, I really doubt that this is the beginning of the end of our offshore season. It’s more than likely just a byproduct of weather among other things. Let’s take a look at what’s happening. First off, the tuna fishing is as slow as it’s been in months and the reason for this is two-fold. First off, there aren’t a lot of tuna on the beach right now and the ones that are around are small and not…

I never thought that I’d be reporting on a legitimate wahoo bite in Southern California waters, but it’s actually happening. While still not a sure thing, the chances of a fisherman going out and catching a wahoo are the absolute best they’ve ever been. Better yet, if you’re lucky enough to find the right zone, there’s a chance that you’ll catch multiple fish. Over the last week, there’s been boats that landed two, three, four and as many as six fish per day. With fish exceeding 80-pounds being caught, private boaters looking to get in on the wahoo action are…

I’ve been hearing some grumbling about how the tuna fishing has been “off” the last couple weeks. I’ve also heard people comment that the small tuna and quantity of dry paddies is indicating that the offshore end is near. While that certainly might be a possibility, I believe that we have yet to witness the last of this season’s possibilities. Unprecedented is a word that I’ve thrown around a lot this year and if things keep going the way they are, I’m probably going to be repeating it for the next couple months. Take for example the marlin bite that…

The full moon has been bringing surprises all year long, but last weekend’s lunar phase was definitely a stand out. Things started out on Friday when the big yellowtail bit at the oil rigs. Captain Ryan Parker, who runs the Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing, reported that it was the best yellowtail fishing he’d ever seen. Though the bite only lasted a day, that morning his anglers landed over 100 big yellows out of countless hook ups. As the weekend wore on, more and more reports of wahoo came in and it wasn’t the one fish here, one…

How To Set a Marlin Trolling Spread A few weeks ago, I fished the Balboa Angling Club’s Master Angler Billfish Tournament aboard the Good Karma. My job on the boat was to work the cockpit and tend to the trolling spread during our three days of fishing. Never having fished a marlin tournament, I had no idea what to expect, but I figured if I paid attention and listened I’d pick things up pretty quickly. That plan pretty much went south within the first few minutes of trolling. Despite having three guys working the cockpit, I was caught momentarily alone…

Offshore Reports I get the feeling that I’m starting to sound like a broken record once again, but with this year’s consistently good fishing, it’s hard not to. Not much new this week, except for a couple of blue marlin catches. The bigger of the two was a 650+ pound beast that was the second biggest marlin ever weighed in San Diego. Along with the opportunities for giant marlin, there are still plenty of wahoo being caught in San Diego and Orange County waters. Several boats this year have gotten bit by doubles on big wahoo and a few have…

SoCal Wahoo Tips It’s official, there are enough wahoo in our local waters for fishermen to target them. While it’s still going to take quite a bit of luck to be at the right place at the right time, there are some things you can do to stack the odds in your favor. Like pretty much everyone reading this, I have zero experience in targeting wahoo from my own boat, so I reached out to some captains for advice. Captain Steve Lassley may be best known for his domination of the marlin tournament circuit, but he’s got a good handle…

Fishing Binoculars I recently had a conversation with a friend who was debating whether or not it was worth his while to invest in a pair of binoculars. While he understood the advantages of having them, he didn’t feel that he spent enough time fishing offshore to justify the cost. He was right, a good pair of binos aren’t cheap. But when you consider that a good pair will last you a lifetime, the per trip cost becomes pretty insignificant. If you’re unfamiliar with marine optics, there are three basic types of binoculars. These are standard marine grade binos, digitally…

Nice Blue Marlin So just how weird is this year getting? Well on Saturday afternoon I was on a boat fishing within a mile of Anacapa Island and we had a striped marlin hooked up. Four more marlin were milling around the boat looking for mackerel to eat. Not weird enough? How about the Helena leaving Dana Point this morning to avoid the potential tsunami surge and coming back with two jumbo wahoo? Or what about BD member Travis (Slice of Life) who hooked and landed a blue and striped marlin 20 miles out of San Diego over the weekend? Yup,…

Weekend Fishing Options With Labor Day, and the unofficial end of summer, officially behind us, it’s time for those of us who don’t only fish between the first and last three day weekends of summer to take advantage of the great fishing options currently available. But don’t assume the launch ramps and bait lines will have completely disappeared. I think that while the kids going back to school should cut down on the crowds, it won’t eliminate them entirely, so you’ll still need to make smart choices as to where to fish this weekend. My first suggestion would be to…

Dorado Bite is Hot The big news this week is that things are changing on the offshore scene. There’s been an influx of smaller yellowfin, mixed with skipjack, into the waters around San Diego. These fish are scattered from Mexican waters up into Orange County and if you manage to get on the right bunch they’ll eat the paint off the boat. While most of these fish are small (under 10-pounds) there are some better ones in the mix. The same areas that have been producing the hot tuna fishing have also been kicking out lots of dorado. The dorado…

SoCal Scene Fishing Reports This is shaping up to be one of those good news – bad news, kind of weeks. The good news is that the offshore fishing remains good. The bad news is that its going to be windy on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday in most offshore areas. Add to that a full moon, actually a super moon, on Saturday night and the big tide swings might make for some strong currents. If those currents happen to be running into the swell, even the wind-free coastal areas might be a sloppy mess. Rather than continue to…

Fish Report – Get Out There Well, it’s been another good week in a year of incredible fishing. Down south the yellowfin have begun to bite in earnest for boats lucky enough to find the right schools. Meanwhile on the beach the yellowtail fishing is as good as it’s ever been, or at least the best that anyone can remember. And finally, there is a legitimate striped marlin bite happening in northern LA County. Despite the varied and widespread fishing opportunities, the hottest topic of discussion on our message boards this week has been the complaint threads about the harassment…

Despite the variety of offshore fishing scenarios you might encounter on any given day on the water, all of the techniques you’ll employ will fall into one of three categories. The categories include trolling, live bait fishing and cast and retrieve lure fishing. I covered the rods and reels you’ll need for each of these in a previous article. Now let’s take a look at the tackle that you’ll want to bring along to use with those combos Trolling Tackle While there are countless trolling lures on the market, there are only four basic styles you’ll need for offshore fishing…

SoCal Fish Report Things have been changing so quickly over the last month that reporting what happened over the weekend is pretty much old news by Friday morning. That being said, there are some long term patterns in play this year, so even old news can give you an idea of which direction to look if you’ve been paying attention to what the fish have been doing over the course of the summer. While I certainly don’t have room to fully extrapolate on my theory regarding these patterns here, I will share some observations when applicable. The bluefin started biting…

Installing SeaDek Padding Step by Step Durable and shock absorbent, SeaDek pads are a clean-looking way to add traction to the deck of your boat while reducing the fatigue you’ll feel after a long fishing day. In this tutorial, Erik Landesfeind breaks down the steps that he and his boat partner Matt Kotch took when custom ordering and installing SeaDek on their boat. The first step to installing SeaDek The first step in installing Seadek on your boat is to order a template kit from the Seadek.com. When ordering the kit, you’ll get to choose some color swatches to test…