Author: Joe Sarmiento

Sharing Sportfishing Advice I was getting my haircut a couple of weeks ago. The gal who cuts my hair is named Stefania. “Joe, is it ok if I have my husband contact you?” Stef asked me. Ummm sure, what’s up? “He has a group of friends and wants a recommendation of where to go fishing.” Ahh ok. Absolutely. Does this happen to you? It happens to me all the time. My first response is always, “Tell me about your group.” The reason I ask is for that information is that every trip is not for every angler. Sure, everyone wants…

The primary rig of choice for the majority of trips you will go on right now is a flyline rig. Whether you are paddy hopping off Dana, down at the 302, or fishing for yellowtail up in the 805 area; fishing 30-pound on a flyline setup is going to be your meat and potatoes presentation. My standard rig has been the Shimano Tallus 80H (rated 50-100-pound Power Pro), with a 2-speed Avet MXL. The MXL has 300-yards of 65-pound braid on it and then I topshot it with 30-pound mono. Sometimes I may even use 40-pound mono. My initial setup…

Unusual Labor Day Weekend Fish Report…Even For El Nino Yellowtail, yellowfin, bluefin, dorado…the bite just kept going this weekend. Bluefin kind of made a “comeback” if you will with several boats getting on these prized fish again. They weren’t the monsters of earlier in the season, but there were a lot of nice grade 30 to 50-pound models. A few events really grabbed the spotlight  from this past weekend. Free Gaffed Dodo! I was coming home from chasing yellowtail on the Island Spirit out of Ventura Sportfishing. Among other things, we saw a marlin jumper near Anacapa on that trip.…

Yellowtail? Bluefin? Yellowfin? Dorado? Check. Check. Check. Check. No doubt it’s been a fantastic year. As we head into Fall, the season doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon. I don’t think that anybody who’s reading this column is going to stop fishing just because they’ve checked off the “standard” pelagic species off their list for the year. There’s always a quest for bigger one or a higher degree of difficulty. Cracking the century mark on a tuna would be sweet…or getting that trophy fish on the popper. Admit it though, when El Nino is all said and done,…

We’re pretty deep into the season at this point. The kids are back in school. The “official” end of summer, Labor Day Weekend, is upon us. Setting aside the Cortez/Tanner bluefin bite in January and February (which felt more like the end of 2014), we’ve been catching tuna now since May. Three solid months of pelagics and it just keeps going. The scene is changing though. For one thing, it’s very up and down. One day the boats are all limiting out. We all get excited. “Oh yeah, it’s really getting going now!” Then the next day the bite falls…

SoCal Fishing Reports I’ve been harping for months now to look ahead in your calendar, get your buddies together and book your trip. The season has been in full swing for awhile now and if you didn’t plan ahead, you were on the sidelines for the weekend looking for a ride. I don’t know if it’s the kids mostly being back in school now, or people saving up for the long Labor Day Weekend, but if you want to get out this weekend, there are rides available. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Down south, from Orange County…

I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t grow up here in SoCal. I grew up in Washington State, but I’ve also had the opportunity to fish around the country and even internationally.  From this experience, I’ve gathered some thoughts on the bait situation. The fishing scene we have here in Southern California with the vast fleet of open party fishing boats and live bait operations is very unique. Nowhere else in the world does the recreational angler have the vast array of choices and luxury of live bait that we enjoy here. Back home in Washington, they do have some open party…

Last year’s offshore fishing, Year One of our El Nino, was pretty amazing. I think it turned a lot of people on to our sport. Like anything else, there’s a good and bad side to that happening. I’m not one of these old timers or regulars that decries the presence of “newbies” on “our” boat. I welcome the newcomers to our sport. It’s good for the growth and health of sportfishing. I can deal with them doing things incorrectly, as long as they come with an attitude of wanting to learn and being open to coaching. I know it can…

Sportboat Fishing Report Sunday morning, Captain Jeffrey Markland of Thunderbird Sportfishing stated in frustration, “This is the year of the skiff.” He was still getting over a tough Day 1 of a 2.5 day charter that saw his boat struggle to get bit, while the radio chatter among the skiffs was jubilant. That afternoon, Captain Steve Kugler of Commander Sportfishing was lamenting the previous day’s trip and contemplating a career change. On the tuna front, Saturday’s report mostly sucked for the sporties. I want to make two comments. Number one, the fact that these two captains would be second guessing…

Tell me if this sounds familiar…either you are the one asking it, or someone is asking it of you…”What’s the best way to catch [insert name of fish here]. While there are accepted conventions of ways to catch certain fish, for the most part there really needs to be an addendum to the question. What should be asked is “What is the best way to catch [insert fish name] NOW?” Let me give you an example, you get on a boat, say it’s one of the local ½ day or ¾ day boats fishing the area between Long Beach and…

Fish Report And the beat goes on… There is good fishing to be had at all lengths of trips for just about any landing you care to go to. The bigger issue these days is just getting on a boat. If you don’t plan ahead, just getting on a halfie isn’t a sure thing these days. I wasn’t originally planning on fishing this weekend, but had an opportunity last minute on Saturday. I tried to get on the Southern Cal to get in on the yellows that are biting local on the 150 spot between Long Beach and Catalina and…

Prior to this year, my hope was to catch a 50-pound or greater tuna within 2-day range. A fish of that size, given the grade of fish we’d been seeing the last few years would be a nice catch. So when I caught a 60-pound bluefin in May on the Eclipse, I was pretty excited about the achievement. A few days later, my buddy Gabe Flores, cracked the century mark onboard the Thunderbird. Since then, things have really started to accelerate in terms of the grade of fish getting pulled over the rail as anglers have geared up to fight these…

My Tuesday articles are normally a recap on what is getting caught out there. Right now, because of this year’s El Nino conditions, it’s mostly about heading offshore in search of pelagic species like yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, yellowtail and dorado. I got to go on an overnight trip on the Amigo this week out of Ventura Sportfishing. I chose six rod and reel combos for this trip. Why do you need so many rods? You don’t! Although I could argue that I used all six and was glad to have each one, here is a streamlined version of the…

My colleague, Erik Landesfeind, wrote a great article on Friday. The gist of it was that as a group, Southern California anglers have gotten a little spoiled here in “Year Two” of El Nino. To illustrate his point, Erik talked about an unnamed angler complaining about “only catching one bluefin” just a few miles from home. How quickly we forget that only a couple years ago, we were collectively bemoaning how Mexico shut us down from fishing the pens and calling for government intervention to resolve this international dispute. So while the counts have dropped off somewhat, Erik encouraged us…

Monday, July 13th, I received the above picture from Capt. Brian Castleton of the New Seaforth, half day boat out of Seaforth Sportfishing. Brian (left) and his friend Eric Weldele are pictured with 181 and 183-pound bluefin tunas respectively. Both fish broke the previous record of 173.3, just set in June, by Aaron Shook. I posted the picture on the So Cal Salties Facebook page and it literally blew up my page. At last check, over 43,000 people saw the post because of all the likes and shares. Immediately, I knew this was a story I wanted to tell. Brian…

In Friday’s article, I mentioned how there were some boats that had some good hits during the week. A lot of you went out over the weekend to get in on the action. For the most part it was good, but maybe fell a little short of the expectation built by the counts of the week. Let’s try to keep in mind some perspective. It’s still just the beginning of July. I still saw some really encouraging things happening offshore and am very bullish about where this season is headed. The boats have yet to post huge numbers, but the…

As I was putting this article together, a steady stream of reports was coming across my desk. For weeks, captains were telling me they were seeing the fish. I saw it myself on my 2.5 day trip a couple weeks ago. Problem was the fish just didn’t want to go. Well it finally happened…fishing offshore blew up this week! On Wednesday, the Top Gun 80 limited on yellowfin tuna, while also picking up 20 dodos and 40 yellowtail on just the first day of a 3.5 day trip. Thursday, there was a morning report from the Eclipse. Capt. Mark Gillette…

Well, that was a pretty solid weekend of fishing. On a personal front, despite the threat of weather, my trip on the Pacific Islander was not cancelled. We made it out. Unfortunately, once we got to the hunting grounds, our captain’s options were severely limited as we hid in the lee of the island due to the oncoming weather from the north. We had a short window to fish seabass early morning for nothing, but managed a good day of bottom fishing. On a professional note though, what I recommended you should do with your fishing weekend, pretty much came…

Like anything else, time and money are key factors. If time and money weren’t a factor, you wouldn’t be reading this article and be on a long-range boat or some exotic fishing destination. Right? But you’re not. Like most of you, I have to work during the week. These Friday articles will be about where I would choose to spend my time and money, so let’s get to it. Where are you fishing Salty? I’m going out for my first shot at the ghosts this year, Saturday night aboard the Pacific Islander. The problem is, if at this point of…

Sportboat Fishing Reports Summer fishing is in full swing. The top gamefish caught in Southern California – yellowtail, bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, white seabass, halibut are all in play. Which fish is on your wish list right now, the sportboat fishing reports will guide where you want to go fishing. For yellowtail, ground zero has been the 150 spot in the channel between Long Beach and Catalina. For most of June, it has produced big numbers of yellowtail for sportboats converging from Marina del Rey to Newport. Over the weekend though, the fish appear to have finally succumbed to all…

Hello BD’ers! I’m very excited to be writing for you. BD Outdoors has asked me to write a twice weekly column aimed at those of us who fish with the sportboat fleet of Southern California. I am one of you. I came here to Southern California awhile back (longer than I care to admit). I grew up in the Seattle, Washington area and fished the southern end of Puget Sound for rockfish, flounder, perch, and occasionally salmon. When I came here, I was one of those once or twice a year guys. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago, I decided…