Author: Erik Landesfeind

Well, the 4th of July weekend is behind us and the unofficial offshore fishing season has officially begun in Southern California. So what does that mean to us as fishermen? Not a whole lot actually. Other than the sport boats being a little more crowded and the line at the bait receiver being a little longer on weekend mornings; there really isn’t any difference. The good news is that when Labor Day weekend rolls around in a couple months, the summertime fishermen will go back to whatever they do the rest of the year and leave the fall fishing to…

The San Diego tuna season officially kicked into high gear this past week with both sport boats and private boaters getting in on the action. With fish spread from just outside the Coronado Islands to almost 100 miles south, there are enough fish staged below us to keep rods bent for the next few months. As an added bonus, there is also a decent volume of fish already in U.S. waters. The first I heard of the local fish was when my friend John Curry called to let me know he’d run over a school of breaking yellowfin on his…

Though far from being wide open, the tuna bite is getting better by the day for boats fishing out of San Diego landings. Recent trips on the Pacific Voyager and the Tribute, which were on 2-day trips this week, had a good mix of yellowfin, yellowtail and bluefin. The biggest being a 100-pound class fish on the Pacific Voyager. While these reports sound pretty similar to the reports we’ve been getting for the past month, there is one big difference; the fish are being caught a lot closer to home. Yesterday, the Tribute caught 50 mixed fish less than 60…

Fishing Anchovy It’s been a long time since any of us has had to fish with anchovies as bait. In fact, it’s been so long that a lot of the younger guys have never had to do it. Well, a lot has changed since the late 80’s when my go to finesse combo for tuna was a Penn Squidder 145 with a plastic spool full of 20-pound mono matched with a Sabre 800. While the return of the anchovy still requires the same finesse, today’s tackle is going to make it a whole lot easier to not just fish the…

The word on the tuna scene south of San Diego is that there are a lot of fish being seen but they just aren’t biting. Several boats ran 1 1/2-day trips over the weekend and scored just a handful of tuna to go along with scratchy yellowtail fishing on kelp paddies. I’m not exactly sure why the fish didn’t bite over the weekend, but I’d venture a guess that Friday night’s full moon had something to do with it. If it was due to the lunar cycle, we can look for this bite to improve in the coming days. The…

As they do most years, the Channel Islands are beginning to kick out their spring stock of white seabass, halibut and yellowtail. If you’ve been thinking about heading out to take advantage of the bite, here is a list of the tackle you’ll want to bring and the things you’ll need to know before booking your trip. The regularly fished Channel Islands include Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. These islands vary in distance from the dock and not all trips have the time to run to the farther destinations. So, when booking a trip it’s important to pay…

More wind over the weekend kept most boats from venturing offshore in search of tuna, but those that made it out managed to catch a few bluefin to go along with decent yellowtail fishing on kelp paddies. The good news is that the bite is picking back up with the Shogun finding a school of willing bluefin on Tuesday that resulted in daily limits. Another boat that got into the bluefin this week was the Pacific Voyager who scored fish to 111 pounds on their 2-day trip. With the weather coming down and fishable conditions forecast for the weekend, I’m…

Windy conditions offshore have put a bit of a damper on the tuna bite south of San Diego, but the white seabass have stepped in to keep anglers busy. The on again, off again, bite that had been happening at the Channel Islands turned on in a big way last week, with boats scoring limits at multiple islands. This is particularly good news for weekend anglers as it will spread out the fleet and give everyone a little more room to fish. Most of the seabass are in the 12-15 pound class, but there have been some bigger fish (including…

Here it is the last weekend in May and the fish are biting like it’s the middle of July. It’s impossible to say if the fishing will continue to get better or return to normal in the coming weeks. But one thing is for certain, this weekend would be a great time to get out and fish; so let’s take a look at what’s biting. The Channel Island’s seabass and halibut bite has petered out a bit over the last week and as of Wednesday there were only four seabass caught by boats fishing out of Ventura County landings. The…

Early season tuna catches in previous weeks, coupled with reports of more fish moving into range, had captains excited about the prospects for the 2 1/2 day trips scheduled to run out of San Diego over the long weekend. But no one was prepared for just how good the fishing was going to be. Boats that departed on Saturday night began reporting good fishing as early as Saturday morning. It started with the Shogun reporting wide open fishing on bluefin to 100 pounds. Then the Condor reported metering 30 fathoms of tuna under the boat as they made their way…

Fishing got really good along the Southern California coast before the little bit of weather that came through earlier this week. In fact, there are so many things biting in so many places that I’m going to have trouble squeezing them all into this week’s column. So, with the weather back to normal, let’s take a look at what’s biting. The Channel Islands, or more particularly Anacapa Island, continue to kick out seabass, yellowtail and big halibut for sport boats fishing live squid. The bite has been extremely current and tide dependant, so once the morning window closes, it stays…

The big news this week is the yellowtail that were caught off kelp paddies in US waters. The Eclipse was the first boat to find these 6-10 pound fish on a paddy just four miles from the point. Fish were also caught by the Helena out of Dana Wharf, so it looks like there are already fishing making their way up the coast. With good weather forecast for the weekend, I’d imagine that there is going to be quite a bit of boat pressure in our local offshore waters, so if you’re planning a trip, head out early and try…

It seems like I’ve spent a good part of the last month talking about wind. Every week I’ve been forced to write about either the wind that’s currently blowing, the wind that recently blew or the wind that’s going to be blowing in the next few days. I understand that it’s all just part of the spring weather cycle, but I’m getting pretty tired of it; especially because every time the wind doesn’t blow for a few days, the fishing is pretty damned good. So, with the weather finally calming down this morning (Thursday), following a couple days of strong…

For most private boaters, fishing for yellowtail consists of heading out to a spot, like the Coronado Islands, finding the fleet and then posting up and waiting for a bite. Sadly, this technique almost always leads to a painfully slow day of fishing. Too make matters worse, the more boats that join the fleet, the less chance there is of anyone getting anything other than frustrated. Anyone that has spent any time fishing yellowtail has seen this vicious cycle play out time and time again. It starts with a single boat finding a school of biting fish and going to…

This has definitely been a strange week weather-wise. Santa Ana winds in April, temperatures in the 90’s along the beach and wind gusts recorded over 100 MPH in San Diego County have made for a few interesting days. More interesting is the fact that this unseasonably hot weather has brought with it some unseasonably hot fishing. With the weather predicted to get back to normal by Thursday night, this weekend could well be the best fishing weekend so far this year. So, let’s take a look at what’s biting. Sport boats, like the Island Spirit out of Ventura Sportfishing, have…

With the wind forecast to blow like hell this weekend, it looks like we’re going to get a chance to test the validity of the statements I made in the beginning of last week’s column. In case you missed it, I believe that every day of warm weather we can string together at this time of year builds up the ocean’s ability to rebound after wind events. So, with several weeks of mostly stable weather leading up to this weekends wind event, I’m fairly confident that the fishing will snap right back when the weather comes down. Guess we’ll have…

Wind is the biggest factor in deciding how the fishing is going to be at this time of year and every day we go without a significant blow, is a step in the right direction. Over the last couple weeks we’ve taken quite a few of these steps and the longer we can go without any wind, the quicker the fishing will rebound when the wind finally does blow again. It’s that simple. And with good weather forecast throughout the weekend, you can expect the fishing to be at least as good as it’s been all week and maybe better.…

Judging by the reports that have been coming in over the last few days it looks like the bite has almost completely recuperated from last week’s winds. The surface temps are still a little lower than they were a couple weeks ago, but the forecast is calling for stable weather through the weekend so the fishing should continue to improve. So let’s take a look at what bit, what’s biting and what might bite this coming weekend. My friend Ron Ballanti of Cousins Tackle fished Santa Rosa Island on Sunday and reported excellent fishing for lingcod and rockfish on Kustom…

On an August afternoon in 2009, SWBA tournament director Eric Bent was fishing tight to the beach at Point Fermin when a set wave came in and flipped his 1988 15 foot Boston Whaler. Luckily Bent was unharmed and the boat was recovered; but his prized boat was a complete loss. Rather than replace the boat, Bent decided to enlist the help of his father in rebuilding it. And after five years of tinkering, Jerry and Eric recently launched the rebuilt boat. “The boat took longer than anticipated to finish, but I wanted things to be done just right, so…

There’s really not much to report in the way of fishing this week as the wind has been blowing almost non-stop since Sunday. While the weather is looking better for the weekend, the water is going to be rolled over in most area and surface temps will be a lot lower than they were before the wind. This cooling is going to have a significant effect on surface fishing, but shouldn’t hamper the rockfish bite. So, if you’re planning to fish this weekend, rockfish are your best bet. Despite the bad weather, I’m excited about this being Grand Prix weekend…

Pacific Coast Sportfishing is hosting its 5th Annual Tackle, Boat, and Travel show on April 5th and 6th at the Orange County Fairgrounds. This year’s vendor line up promises to be the best yet; with more boats, more tackle, and more travel destinations than ever. If you’ve never attended the show, it’s packed with saltwater specific vendors and products that cover everything from inshore to big game fishing. As usual the show will have multiple seminars each day and as the headliner, they are flying in the world famous swordfish team “Booby Trap” for a two part seminar series that…

At the time of this writing (Wednesday morning), there’s a weather system rolling through Southern California. Along with it bringing scattered showers, the National Weather Service is calling for winds as high as 20 knots in the coastal waters today and tomorrow. While the weather is expected to come down by the weekend, it’s anyone’s guess as to what effect the wind will have on water temps and the post storm fishing. So while I wouldn’t automatically assume any of these fish will still be biting by the weekend, here’s what was happening before the storm. The Channel Islands continue…

This being the first day of spring, we can finally start referring to the great fishing we’ve had the last few weeks as a springtime bite. This may not seem all that important, but late winter bites always have me a little nervous because they tend to stop suddenly at the slightest hint of wind or water temp changes. Springtime bites on the other hand seem to be a little more resilient and will usually bounce back after conditions change. But regardless of which season it falls under, the fish are definitely biting this week. Starting to the north, the…

The Coronado Islands already kicked out a teaser late winter yellowtail bite this year, but the real bite has yet to happen. With spring rapidly approaching it’s time put new line on your reels and dust off those jigs because the yellowtail will be biting before you know it. If you’re new to yellowtail fishing, or just looking to expand your arsenal, here is the tackle you’ll need to battle these hard fighting jacks. There are three rod and reel combos that will cover every situation you’ll encounter while targeting springtime yellowtail regardless of where they’re biting. It’s important to…