Author: Joe Sarmiento

Why is it that people decide to go offshore as their first or only trip of the year? This isn’t some sort of elitist rant.  It’s easy enough to spot “that guy” on the boat.  I don’t harbor animosity about them being there.  What I don’t understand though is this… These trips aren’t cheap.  That salesperson at the tackle store is telling his buddies about all the gear he sold you.  You might’ve even taken a day or two off work.  A lot of time and expense has gone into this trip.  To some extent, “that guy” annoys me. They’re often the…

This last weekend, I was sitting by the stern of Eclipse Sportfishing on the trolling rotation(cedar plug trolling speed).  We had stopped on a couple kelp paddies early in the day that yielded one yellowtail each.  I signed in #15 on the manifest.  By the time it was my turn in the rotation we were into the slowest part of the day, leaving my mind to wander… “I wonder where the cedar plug came from” I asked angler #14. “No idea” he replied.  At which point his buddy walked up and said, “I swear by cedar plugs!  Only lure I pull.…

It’s been a looooong time since I was in school and had a “summer break.” Still, there’s something about this season that screams get away from home and go experience somewhere else.  It’s a time to make memories.  As a teenager, one of my fondest memories was a family vacation to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.  The salmon fishing was incredible!  What put it over the top on the memory meter though, were the bald eagles falling out of the sky to snatch salmon from the water near the boat as orcas fed alongside us in the salmon…

Bonito gets a bad rap.  If you take good care of the fish, it’s delicious. July 4th I fished aboard the Enterprise, 3/4-day boat out of Long Beach Marina.  The bonito were wide open for easy limits of 5.  I ended up distributing several and only taking 2 home (100% more than I usually do!). Still, with a small yellowtail and a nice calico bass as well, it ended up being a lot of fish for me to cook and eat for the week.  With bonito, eating it while it’s still fresh is important.  This recipe was my solution to cooking…

Before I started writing for BD Outdoors, I started my So Cal Salty blog.  Early on, I was faced with a dilemma.  I was comped my very first ride anywhere aboard Gentleman Sportfishing.  I took my son Jake with me.  I really wanted to write a good trip report and hopefully curry favor with the boat/landing and get more rides.  It didn’t end up going that way. What should I do now? What I did not do was post a negative review online.  When I first started the blog, social media was only starting up.  At the time, I worked…

I’ve been talking about it for several weeks now, “Hurry up and get out there!  The bluefin aren’t going to be around forever!” We’ve hit a point now where we may have reached that turning point in the season. Kelp Paddy Fishing During the course of this week, several boats had success finding kelps holding yellowtail(fishing kelp beds tips), with yellowfin in the mix nearby.  I was having this discussion with one of my fishing buddies this week.  It’s not that I think there are and may continue to be bluefin around.  It’s just that with a more consistent fishery…

Kelp Cutter Rig It’s not as much of an issue right now because of the warm water we’ve had during El Nino. The kelp tends to break off when it gets too hot, so there isn’t the thick mat that we’ve seen in years past.  That said, they are called kelp bass, so this rig is still relevant despite the current conditions. I first learned about this rig in my So Cal fishing bible…”The Southern California Angler” by Brandon Hayward.  The idea here is you want to take advantage of the abrasive quality of spectra to aid in pulling out the big bass…

Lately, all the talk has been about the bluefin, but white seabass, aka “ghosts,” are still very much in the mix.  The next several days (including this Father’s Day weekend) are primetime to chase them due to the current moon phase. Great timing by the way; the limit just went up to 3! Of all the fish we catch, the white sea bass may be the most elusive one out there.  Sure, bluefin tuna are notoriously finicky biters, but sea bass are definitely their own form of frustrating.  I know a lot of really salty anglers, and if they have…

This past weekend, I rode aboard Eclipse Sportfishing for a 2.5-day trip.  We departed Thursday night, and returned Sunday morning, so two full fishing days (Friday and Saturday) on the water.  I was one of 18 anglers onboard. As I mentioned in my article last week, my hope was to get a shot at catching one of these big bluefin…preferably on the popper. When Capt. Josh Walton gave the trip briefing, he told us we’d spend Day 1 of the trip down at Colonet.  The idea was to load up on the big yellowtail and abundant rockfish to ensure that everyone…

It was July of last year.  There had been some bigger bluefin taken at that point, but most of them had come on bait (large mackerel for the most part), with the notable exceptions of Jonathan Tamayo’s 120 lb. popper fish on the Producer (pictured above), and those big ones speared by Brian Castleton and Eric Weldele. As opposed to this year’s mega-popper / big bluefin bite.  Smaller poppers, like the Yo Zuri Sashimi popper were the weapon of choice wreaking havoc on smaller grade yellowfin tuna. The Commander had just moved down from Long Beach to San Diego for the…

I woke up “late” Sunday morning.  It was all of 6:30 am or so when I rolled over and checked my phone.  Someone tagged me on a post.  Usually this means someone is trying to sell a trip and they want more eyeballs (I hate that) on their post.  What a nice surprise, a buddy just wanted to make sure I saw this video (warning – some salty language) shared by Capt. Gavin Harbour of Pacific Queen Sportfishing. The video was actually taken by pinhead Daniel Montoya.  Daniel is on the upper deck of the Queen and you see Gavin hooking…

When this current El Nino cycle first started in 2014, there was a lot of speculation as to what we might see over the course of that year. I remember talking to Capt. Frank Ursitti, owner of the Ranger 85 & Constitution and now the General Manager at H&M Landing. Frank was telling me how back in the El Nino of the early 80’s, he was running the 3/4-day boat the Estrella out of CISCO’s.  On one memorable trip, they caught 4 dorado by the Anacapa Arch! As El Nino actually unfolded, we were surprised and amazed by each new occurrence…early…

People often ask me, “Why do you love fishing so much?”  There are so many positive contributions to my life that I get out of fishing… Food, fun, friendship is a quick way to describe it. This is a topic that I often think about though, and I’ve been meaning to write about it for awhile. Fishing Life Cycle I think the motivations are different for different people.  In my mind, a lot of it has to do with where you are in your fishing life cycle. Looking back to when I first started fishing the sportboats here in Southern…

I had a chance to ride the San Diego with Capt. Cameron Cribben on Saturday this weekend.  I had a successful day by all accounts.  I got bit 4 times, and landed 3 yellows (bonered the 4th, smh), all on surface iron.  There are few things as thrilling as throwing surface iron, putting it with intention into the middle of boiling fish, watching your jig get chased then get eaten.  It’s definitely a highlight activity for our fishery. When the day was done, I posted the above picture on my personal facebook page and captioned it, “Tough day.  35 fish…

I’m fairly certain that if you read my column that you are well aware that there is a big white seabass bite currently going.  It started to hit last week, and has for the most part stayed steady, if not accelerated through the week.  The re-emergence of squid has sparked what is likely the best opportunity we may have this year on the elusive “ghost” as sportboat anglers.  It’s not that they go away.  It’s a very healthy fishery.  The squid just makes them easier to target and well…just gets them biting. Since we haven’t really had a good bite in…

Weekend Fishing Reports In December, I celebrated 5 years of writing my So Cal Salty blog.  It’s hard to believe that writing SCS has gotten me to the point where I get to write for you here on BD Outdoors today. Someone who’s been a huge influence, both in terms of fishing and writing, is Brandon Hayward.  Brandon challenged me to monetize what I’ve built.  I won’t be starting a charter business like him anytime soon, but some of my buddies have half jokingly said I should start a tip line.  Tip line you ask? If you like listening to sports…

For the majority of the year so far, the hot pockets of activity have been at the far ends of the Southern California bight. Either it’s been the yellowtail/white seabass action around the Channel Islands to the north, or the yellowtail/bluefin tuna bites going on around San Diego and points south. In the middle, Clemente, Catalina, Nic, SBI, or along the beach, there really hasn’t been much happening…so far. There has been a fairly consistent bite at the islands for smallish yellowtail.  A big fish is just edging into the double digits though…fun on the bass rod type of fish.…

I’ve been talking about the yellowtail and bluefin tuna bites going on for the San Diego based boats for several weeks now.  This last weekend, I had the opportunity to view and experience the proceedings firsthand aboard Eclipse Sportfishing. When I posted my article Friday morning, the hope was we’d get into some yellowtail early, then have time to look outside for those elusive bluefin tuna.  Friday night we departed from Seaforth Landing on a 1.5-day trip.  Capt. Josh Walton told us we’d head down the beach and start our day looking looking for yellows.  Hopefully they’d want to play,…

It could be a little wet out there, but don’t let that stop you from going out.  Here are some ideas if you want to get out San Diego The yellowtail bite has been pretty good for the 3/4 day boats fishing around the Coronado’s this week.  What’s even better about this bite says Capt. Ryan Bostian of the the San Diego, “Pretty cool when you can fish a surface iron all day and catch a yellowtail or a 40-60-pound bluefin.”  Sign me up! Two of my BD bosses were out this week, Ali Hussainy and Jason Hayashi.  Jason confirmed what Ryan…

Sportboat Roundup We left things on Friday with a lot of uncertainty heading into the weekend.  The winds blew, the red crabs were ever present…it just looked kind of bleak.  We were finally looking at a bit of a weather window for the weekend and I urged you all to go fishing.  Those that did were mostly rewarded for the effort as our sportfishing fleet did what they’re good at and found fish for you to pull on. Here are the highlights… Offshore Bluefin Yes, they are still around and from what I’m hearing, there is a pretty large spread…

I’ve been searching for a topic to write about today. The weather mostly shut down the sportboat activity this week. So “just write about what’s going on” wasn’t working. Then I started making my way around to the various captains I chat with, “What are your plans for fishing this weekend?” Pretty consistent reply this week, “I’m not sure.” No one’s been out lately because of the weather, so they need to look around and see what’s up. If the captains aren’t sure about the fishing, what should you as the angler do? Make your plans, and just go fishing!…

February 2014…I rode on the San Diego with a few buddies. Normal year, yellows hadn’t shown up yet. We felt like we were getting over by going rockfishing in Mexican water during the U.S. closure. I pulled up a nice red and it coughed out a red crab. “That’s a good sign” the deckhand stated. “Those are red tuna crabs.” Red tuna crabs…who knew? From Wikipedia… Pleuroncodes planipes lives on the continental shelf west of Mexico, and is unusual among members of the Galatheidae in that it lives in shallow water. It is usually found only south-west of San Diego, but in warmer years, its range may extend northwards into California.…

I was on one of the fishing forums the other day when an angler posed the question – “What 3 setups would take out right now?” I have a hard time narrowing down to 3 setups for any given trip, much less 3 setups to hold up for anywhere in our fishery. There are some very different bites going on right now. So I’ll try to give you 3 setups for 2 of the hot bites happening right now. 805 Setups There’s a little bit of a seabass bite going on in the Channel Islands. Pictured above are the 6…

Last week we were very excited about the prospect of big bluefin tuna close to home. Seaforth’s half-day boat, the New Seaforth, and the ¾-day boat, the San Diego, both hit on bluefin tuna early last week. The excitement from earlier in the week was blown away as strong winds ended up canceling a bunch of trips later in the week. After the wind had mostly passed, it seems like a lot of boats and anglers focused on going to Day At The Docks in San Diego instead of going fishing. For the few boats that went out to try…