Author: Joe Sarmiento

Fish Frying Basics I told you the story of how I kind of lost my way with fishing.  After that trip back home to Seattle and Jake was pushing me to take him out to fish, we kind of became regulars at the Venice Beach Pier.  We got to be friendly with the homeless guys we started recognizing out there.  We’d bring extra bottles of water and give them one when we’d come out to fish.  If we ever needed to leave our poles for a while, we could count on our gear still being there when we got…

What I’m Looking Forward To I tend to be a glass half full kind of person.  The highlight of the weekend was a baker’s dozen of yellowtail caught in Santa Monica Bay on Sunday morning aboard the Redondo Special and New Del Mar.  Lots of the boats are offline doing their annual maintenance and hopefully a little upgrading along the way (looking forward to what the Thunderbird has in store).  Of the stalwart boats left doing regular trips, high wind and swell pretty much killed the rest of the week.  Hey, it’s December. December yellowtail in the grand scheme is still pretty…

So Cal Salty Celebrates Yesterday was the fifth anniversary since I started the So Cal Salty blog. About eight years ago, I took my kids, Jacob and Juliana, to visit their grandparents (my parents) in Seattle. I grew up fishing a lot back home, but I lost my way during college, and starting a career, and starting a family. At the time I took the kids home to visit, I was a once a year type fishing guy. While we were up there, my dad suggested we take Jake to a trout farm. Great idea. Jake had a blast at…

Sportboat Reports I personally love rockfishing, but as Capt. John Corzel told me when I rode the Spitfire on Saturday, “If there aren’t yellows, no one wants to come out.” The previous Sunday they managed to mix in a white seabass and halibut with the rockfish which got me excited to check it out. The highlight of our trip was a few legal calicos and a handful of lings and sheephead fishing off Malibu. It was a nice day spent with friends and enjoyable nonetheless. As expected, the best rockfishing was on the 805 boats. You can expect limit style…

Crazy December Yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, skipjack tuna, striped marlin, opah, yellowtail, white seabass, halibut, calico bass, sand bass, spiny lobster, bonito, lingcod, rockfish, sheephead…these are all fish that have been caught or reported seen by the sportboat fleet here in Southern California this week. By the way, it is now officially winter. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that we aren’t talking about multi-day trips deep into Mexican waters. These fish are all “locals.” On Tuesday, December 1st, the San Diego posted Mexican limits (5) of yellowfin tuna. DECEMBER 1st!?!?! I’m not really sure what to make of…

After two seasons of ridiculous, almost non-stop exotic action that we’ve had, fishing for rockfish now may seem boring. Bait and wait on a double dropper seems so pedestrian when compared to throwing surface iron for yellows or poppers for tuna. Yet here we are in November and for most of SoCal (with the exception of San Diego), that is where us salty anglers find ourselves. I’m not much into the double dropper either. Rather than put away my gear though, I’m still out on the water. I’m putting in my time because in just over month, we won’t even…

Local Tuna Friday last week, I speculated that we might be seeing the re-bite of the tuna migrating back south. I can’t confirm that what we’re seeing now is the result of these fish returning south, but wow…what a weekend! They bit and they bit big, with several boats notching U.S. limits (10 per angler) or close to them of yellowfin tuna. The bite was close enough to the San Diego landings that even a half-day boat found a way to get into the action. The San Diego, who kicked off this latest round of tuna action with their score…

Is This the Re-bite One of the things we observed over the course of the season was how the tuna bite migrated north as the season wore on. It started with the San Diego boats. It got good and stayed good for a long time off the O.C. It made its way up by Santa Barbara Island and into the 805. Then late in the season, there were even reports of tuna caught off the shores of Santa Cruz (Northern California). Well, as Sir Isaac Newton once said, “What goes up, must come down.” Isaac wasn’t referring to migrating tuna…

Sportboat Weekend Wrap Up A bunch of boats ventured to the outer banks (Tanner/Cortez) this weekend on 1.5-day trips. The hope was that there might be tuna out there and they found them. Unfortunately, getting them to go was another story. Most of the boats that made the trip did report some catches of yellowfin tuna. The Pacific Queen even managed to find 4 bluefin tuna. Crewmember Austin Moss told me the fish were only about 15-pounds, but bluefin in November? Can’t complain about that, can we? The big winner on the sportboat tuna derby this weekend though was far…

Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11th is Veteran’s Day. My work offers the day as an optional floating holiday and I’m taking it. My plan is to take my own advice and go south and fish on the San Diego. Normally, that boat would be loaded the way they’ve been doing, but because of the passport requirement, it’s going to a light load. They had a count on Sunday that was highlighted by 130 yellowtail, 2 halibut and a wahoo! There was a really cool story behind the angler, Amado Quintanilla, who caught wahoo (above, 2nd from right), that was shared by…

It’s been a matter of some debate in the various Internet forums I participate in this week. I mentioned in the last couple articles how most of the boats have transitioned to rockfishing. It’s not that there aren’t pelagic species around. Yesterday, San Diego regular Elmer Mun and another lucky angler scored wahoos at the Coronado Islands while yellowtail fishing. There were not anyt tuna in yesterday’s count, but there are boats fishing this weekend in search of them. In an absolute sense, the season isn’t over. However, as Capt. Jeffrey Markland of the Thunderbird told me, “When 40 boats…

SoCal Sportboat Report For myself and other salty types who’ve had our fill of chasing tuna, dorado and the elusive wahoo, we’ve been ready for a change of pace. I’ve held back talking about it too much though because there were still anglers wanting to go out and experience El Nino and experience catching these offshore species. Boats were willing to accommodate their wishes and continued to look offshore. After weeks of declining numbers and grade of tuna being caught, boats started to cutback to weekend only schedules, start their annual maintenance, or just take a break from the almost…

Rockfish Tips | Rockfish Fishing Techniques I’m heading up to Santa Barbara this weekend. I’ve only fished up there a few times ever and only once was on a boat. I’ve heard good things though about the operation at SEA Landing, so I’m excited to ride with them. I posted on the So Cal Salties Facebook page that I would be riding the Stardust on Sunday and one person commented that they might have forgotten how to rockfish because they hadn’t all year. It’s been that kind of a year this year. There was a trip last year on the Pacific…

Sportboat Fishing Reports Some really good fishing out there this weekend. Friday afternoon I was sitting in my office checking out my Facebook feed at lunch. I was pleased to find them biting pretty well on the morning halfie for my local boat, the New Del Mar. Capt. Danny Ericson found 30 really nice grade yellows in the morning for the anglers onboard, along with wide open skippies. While I looked longingly out at Santa Monica Bay from my company breakroom, they picked up another 12 on their afternoon ride. Boat traffic knocked down the bite a little, but the…

I’ve got to be honest, this week the fishing slowed down a bit out there. There is still some great fishing action to be had. We’re still seeing a wahoo almost every day. Yellowfin tuna are around in reasonable range. There are opportunities for yellowtail. It’s just not full speed like it has been. You might need to go longer and work harder, but they’re around. If chasing pelagics has lost some of its allure for you, it’s great to see the local action includes some bass and rockfishing these days. For those of us who are out regardless of…

This weekend I had the great fortune to go on a 2.5 day trip to fish San Martin Island aboard Eclipse Sportfishing. The trip centered on yo-yo and dropper loop yellows and a smattering of bottom grabbers. Really fun fishing, but not like any of the fishing we’ve been doing lately. Now I’m no Salty-damus. I’ve just been at this long enough to see a familiar pattern developing which brings me to prediction #1… The Coronados Will Rise Again This isn’t even a prediction anymore because a quick check of the weekend’s fish counts while I was down at San…

Longing for Rockfishing I was talking to my buddy Mike yesterday. Mike and I are co-hosting a trip this weekend…2.5 days on the Eclipse heading south to San Martin Island. Mike was telling me how he was thinking about heading up north to Morro Bay. To do what I asked? “Crab and rockfish trip.” I’m so down. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the heck out of El Nino. I caught my personal best tuna this year, a 60-pound bluefin on a 5am to 5pm trip! (right) That was four and a half months ago. Since then, it’s been a…

Weekend Outlook Confession time again…I chased a count yesterday. I was sitting at work Wednesday afternoon and was so excited to see one of my favorite boats/crews, Enterprise Sportfishing out of Long Beach Marina, score not one, but TWO wahoo (above). Let’s think about that for a moment. Here you have a fish that typically one must travel 8-10 days on a long range sportboat this time of year to catch. Cost for such a trip would be maybe $2500 to as much as $4000 to have that kind of opportunity. And here you have a local boat you can…

Weekend Reports So where’d we leave this? On Friday, one of my suggestions, under the heading of Budget Big Game, in my Thinking Outside the Box post was to troll for wahoo or marlin on a ¾-day boat out of the Long Beach / San Pedro area. I had heard reports from some of the crews and I knew it was inevitable it was going to pop soon. It didn’t take long. Freedom Sportfishing out of 22nd Street Landing was returning home from an overnight trip Friday night. They had already called in their count. The trip was over. Only…

SoCal Sportboats Last weekend I was looking ahead to where I might fish this weekend. I’d spent the last few trips up north, fishing out of CISCO’s and Ventura Sportfishing. As I watched Wahoo Weekend unfold, I knew I wanted to head south for this weekend. I was pleased to actually find spots available on some SoCal sportboats and will be riding the Eclipse Saturday night, fishing Sunday. The boat got 4 wahoo Tuesday on just an overnight trip, so there’s a very legit chance of encountering wahoo this weekend. Hopefully, my ticket gets punched. Stay tuned. It’s slowing down ever so…

Wahoo Tips & Rigs I have a confession…I’ve never caught a wahoo. I’ve never gone long range. I fished the East Cape a few summers ago and they said come back in fall if I wanted to get one. So I’m as new to wahoo fishing as you probably are. Like you, I’ve been watching the pictures coming from the boats…seeing the one every other week, turn into daily, and morph into what we saw develop this weekend. It was the weekend that more than one person has referred to as – Wahoo Weekend. What I do have going for me…

Offshore Reports and Tips When I wrote the article earlier this week (Entitlement, Expectation, & Education), there was a line in there that was a comment Capt. Alex Edwards of the Constitution had given me from one of his recent clients, “I don’t want to catch anymore yellowfin. Can we catch something else?” I used the comment as an example of the sense of entitlement I’m hearing from some of the El Nino anglers out on the boats these days. It got me thinking though…what if that were me? The fishing has been so good at times recently that it…

Fishing Education Monday last week, when I took my buddy Howard fishing on the Gentleman, I needed to run an errand when I was done. The previous week, I rode the Island Spirit and left my hook binder on the boat. Deckboss Jake Holder recovered it for me and left it with the landing folks for me to pickup. When we got to Ventura Sportfishing’s landing office, Ed Guyette was at the counter on the phone. Ed was talking to someone who wanted to schedule a trip. I picked up from the conversation that what this person was looking for…

Weekend Fishing Reports When I started this position, the idea was the Tuesday articles would be recaps of the weekend’s fishing reports. The Friday articles would give you some ideas on where to go fishing on the weekend.   This plan kind of went out the door pretty quickly as this crazy season has progressed. As the season developed, it got to the point where if you didn’t already have a ticket heading into the weekend, you were listening to fishing radio, watching fishing tv, and wishing you were on the water. Now that we’ve officially entered the fall season, I…