Author: Joe Sarmiento

I wrote on Tuesday how the New Seaforth got into some nice bluefin on Monday (April 11th). The next day? It was a case of “Shoulda been here yesterday” for the half day boat out of Seaforth Landing. However, the ¾-day boat, The San Diego, found them…nice ones too! They caught 8 fish up to over 70-pounds. A familiar face in the lineup of successful anglers for the ride was Joe Oyama of San Diego. Joe is a regular on the local San Diego boats and one of the fishiest guys I know. Joe told me he landed the fish…

Stop for a moment and say these words out loud:  HALF DAY TUNA It’s a rare and beautiful thing. Now consider this…what if they were bluefin, up to over 60-pounds, in April, with half of them coming on poppers. Unbelievable? It’s true! I posted the picture of angler Lucas Factor of San Diego on the facebook page yesterday. I had gotten word around lunchtime that the New Seaforth was going to look outside for tuna. Lucas was one of the anglers onboard who successfully scored one of 6 fish boated on Monday afternoon’s ride aboard Seaforth Landing’s half day boat.…

Ceviche…I didn’t care for it until I tried it while visiting the East Cape several years ago. Someone in our party had caught some sierra mackerel and the hotel prepared some of it as ceviche. Paired with crunchy, salty, tortilla chips and cold beer, I discovered I liked it. Over the years, I’ve perfected how I like making it for myself. I like an element of sweet. I like some crunchy texture. Tortilla chips and cold beer are still the way to go though in my mind. Recently, my friend Adrian Cruz told me his favorite ceviche is made with…

Weekend Recap Bluefin Fever We went into the weekend with a lot of anticipation. Midweek, the Pacific Queen went out and got limits of bluefin, setting the table for the many boats headed out Friday night in search of this elusive prey. Saturday’s fishing would not disappoint. Not every boat got limits, but the results were good for the San Diego fleet. There were even some scattered reports from Orange County boats with bluefin of a nicer grade. The fish were seemingly everywhere. The most shockingly great news though came from an unlikely source, three quarter day boat, the San…

Gearing Up for Bluefin I wrote earlier in the week how those bluefin that we’ve been hearing about for several weeks now finally bit. There are several boats lined up to take their shot at them this weekend. One boat, the Pacific Queen, got a jump on the rest of the fleet and left Wednesday night, fishing Thursday. Capt. Gavin Harbour got it done, getting his passengers early limits (2 per angler) of bluefin tuna. The grade of the fish was the same 15-25-pound size that was reported for the Top Gun 80’s trip last weekend. Gavin noted that it…

Bluefin Weekend –  Southern California Sportboat About a month ago, the Pacific Queen brought home the first Southern California sportboat caught bluefin of 2016. Since then, I’ve had a number of captains tell me they’ve seen a volume of fish, they just haven’t wanted to go. You knew that sooner or later they had to bite. Saturday, they bit. On Friday, the Top Gun 80, out of H&M Landing, announced they were going to go looking. Mind you, the Colonet trips are going down the beach, so to commit to look for tuna in March, no matter what dope you have…it…

Does this sound familiar? “Nice fish. Bait?” No man, on the iron! (BIG SMILE) Right? There’s nothing better. First there’s the visual aspect. To see a fish chase your lure before you feel it bite; Its hair raising! Then there’s the skill aspect. With most of the fishing we do, you can almost visualize what’s happening below the surface of the water. You guess about how it goes down, but you never really know. Throwing the surface iron though, all your skill is on full display. Recognizing what is happening on the water, having the ability to translate what you…

Tuna Taco Achiote is a flavoring I was introduced to several years ago while taking a cooking class in Cuernevaca, Mexico. It was the key ingredient in a pork dish called – Cochinita Pibil. Pibil is a slow roasted pork dish that was made famous in the Johnny Depp movie – Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Achiote is a paste that is made from the annatto seed. You use the paste in conjunction with orange juice to make a marinade. While I love cochinita pibil, I’d never thought to use achiote with fish. Never thought of it that is…

Yo-Yo Yellows 805 Last September, I fished Anacapa Island on the Gent out of Channel Islands Sportfishing. We were running low on bait and stopped on a kelp paddy to try and make more. I was sitting in the wheelhouse with Capt. Donnie Rowell and we could see tons of life under the paddy. We figured we would make short work of it. Turns out, the paddy was jugged full of these six inch yellowtail. I thought at the time, “There’s going to be good yellowtail fishing here next year.” Fast forward to now. It appears as if those yellows…

Wow, I got back from Puerto Vallarta last Monday, to find out that Capt. Gavin Harbour running the Pacific Queen had scored a bluefin on their Colonet trip, the first bluefin of 2016 for the Southern California sportfishing fleet. Capt. Jeffrey Markland of the Thunderbird had put his customers on a 106 yellowtail! You’re gone a few days and you can miss a lot! And it wasn’t even the opener yet! Rockfishing season opened on Tuesday, March 1st. And then our unofficial fishing season opener, The Fred Hall Show, ran Wednesday, March 2nd through Sunday, March 6th at the Long…

I just had the good fortune of getting to chase giant yellowfin tuna in Puerto Vallarta aboard Maximus Sportfishing with Capt. Keith Denette. I’ve watched several friends post pictures from this trip and have been dying to experience it for myself. It didn’t disappoint. For three days, I got to see and battle these amazing fish and I highly recommend it. When we arrived back in Puerto Vallarta after fishing, I couldn’t help but enable International Data Roaming to post about the trip. One of my friends who wanted to go with me, Nick Mosaquites, hit me up immediately, “Joe, can we…

Well Salties, how are you doing out there? How’s that El Nino hangover feeling? It’s been a stark contrast this year so far versus last year. I was reminded just how much seeing Capt. Jeffrey Markland of Thunderbird Sportfishing post some pics from this time last year. Remember those bluefin? It’s made dealing with the current state of our fishery feel like the longest, dreariest closure in a long time. Personally, I can’t really complain. Colonet was a blast. I’m going to Puerto Vallarta to chase cow tuna with Capt. Keith Denette on the Maximus in a couple weeks. But…

The plan this weekend was to ride the San Diego. Capt. Taro had hooked me up with a pass last time I went out and I figured I better use it since he’s over at Fisherman’s Landing getting his new ride ready. Saturday was supposed to be the San Diego’s first trip of 2016. Going into the weekend, we finally had an extended period of consistent weather, so I had a feeling it was going to bite. I called Seaforth Landing Friday to make my reservation, only to find out the San Diego wasn’t ready to run yet. Well that…

Spicy Tuna Burger People are always asking me, “What do you do with all the fish you catch?” Most of it I end up giving away…my neighbors and my coworkers love me. My freezer is stuffed. My parents drove down from Seattle this summer. I gave my mom a cooler and told her to fill it with all the fish she wanted. She loaded up on tuna, yellowtail, white seabass, and lingcod.  When she was done, about a third of my stash was gone, but within two weeks, I was jugged again. This is really the only time of year that I…

Thoughts on Lure Color “What’s the hot jig right now?” I admit it. I ask. I look at the pics and note what I’m seeing. If you do the same. You’ve probably noticed that “red crab” seems to be the hot jig at Colonet right now. Match the hatch, right? There has been a lot of red tuna crabs in the water down there, so it would only stand to reason that a red crab colored jig would be the right choice for the occasion. There’s more to it than that though. If these fish are truly ‘keyed in’ on…

Oh February…the dog days of the fishing year. Last year at this time, we were enjoying an early season run (or was it a late season extension of the previous year?) run of tuna out at the Tanner and Cortes Banks. I don’t know if anyone has even looked out there anytime recently. I haven’t heard a thing. Other than the 1.5-day trips headed to Punta Colonet (or much longer range), not a lot is going on right now. Most of the boats are in boat work mode, getting ready for the March 1st opener. If you ride local to…

Punta Colonet, roughly 112 miles south of San Diego, is the fishing destination of choice right now. I had the good fortune to fish a 1.5-day trip this last weekend with Eclipse Sportfishing there. Fishing with us in the same general area was The Chief and the Pacific Queen. I’ve been excited about the trip for months now. Last year’s trip was a highlight in a year of highlight fishing. As a result, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I needed to bring. I took a really heavy bag. The trip was a success, despite the weather…

Fishing Must-Haves This is kind of a weird time of the year for those of us who spend our leisure time aboard the sportfishing fleet of Southern California. There are the traditional things…the old season just ended and a new one begins. We’re in the rockfish closure. Most of the boats aren’t even running as they do their annual maintenance. And if you can get out there, weather will be a factor; Wind, swells, rain, cold, turned over water…welcome to winter fishing. Just be glad you don’t live in the Midwest and you’re drilling a hole on a frozen lake!…

White seabass…the elusive ghost. Of all the major gamefish we fish for here in Southern California, white seabass is that one fish that seems to elude even the saltiest anglers we know. The problem is that even in a good seabass year, it’s hard (especially in a sportboat scenario) to target this fish. One of the really frustrating things about white seabass is that even when conditions are perfect for the sporties to target them (a squid spawn primarily), there are times when they just won’t bite. Other times, it’s so easy, it seems like they just want to die.…

Fishing Options I posted the following question on the Facebook page this week… 4 Calico Bass 10 Sand Bass 6 Mackerel 2 Bonito 161 Sculpin 1 Perch – any guesses what this count represents? There were several responses, none of them correct. The answer? That count represented the entire sportboat count for this last Tuesday, January 5th for four boats. To be fair, we got pounded by the predicted El Nino winter storms this week. Sometimes though, I think casual anglers believe that the count above represents what “closure fishing” always looks like. Absolutely not! You need to adjust your…

Colonet On Fire My Colonet experience for 2015 was aboard Eclipse Sportfishing. I had intended to go in 2014, but the trip was cancelled due to weather. Despite years of anticipation going into the 2015 trip, it exceeded my expectations. My only desire was to have the opportunity to catch a 20-pound lingcod. I came close, finding a late teen hitchhiker on a 2-pound red. The story of the trip though was a morning spent wrestling deep water yellowtails on heavy iron. Even in what turned out to be a historically great year of fishing, January’s Colonet trip ranked as…

Sportboat Reports Things have been undeniably slow these last few weeks. I was supposed to go out weekend before last to the outer Channel Islands, but my trip got cancelled due to weather. It’s already a light schedule for the boats right now with a lot of crews taking their holiday breaks or putting time in the yard for annual maintenance. Most of the salty kind of action has been on the long range boats. My buddy Ray Souza is currently on a fiver aboard the Shogun with Capt. Aaron Barnhill. He scored his personal best yellowfin so far (taped…

It’s easy to get caught up during this time of year and lose sight of what’s really important. It’s the people that are close to you…family and friends and just the people you meet. It’s a time to be thankful for what we have. No matter what you may be going through, someone else has it worse. I was in a rough spot at the time I wrote this post. I am so thankful things are much better now. No matter the issues I may be having with my ex, I go to sleep knowing my children are safe. I…

Squid Bait I did something on Sunday that I hadn’t done all year. No, I’m not talking about going to the mall. In this crazy year where I went wahoo fishing for the first time (not wahoo catching, but wahoo fishing), I’m not talking about something exotic brought on by El Nino. Nope, what I did used to be a pretty normal part of a lot of trips. Normal enough that I keep the required tackle for it in my tackle bag at all times. What did I do you ask? Squid jigging. Remember that? I posted the above picture…