Author: Joe Sarmiento

The title of this week’s article comes from a statement uttered by Capt. Ryan Bostian of the San Diego last Wednesday (October 9th). Here is the full statement: 45 passengers, 225 yellowfin tuna, and 50 skipjack tuna. The entire fleet had blood running out the scuppers. Best fishing of the season is happening right now. Don’t miss out. If you went out offshore this past week, in all likelihood, you came home with a limit of nicer-grade yellowfin tuna.  This was happening on all lengths of trips.  If you were on one of the all-day boats (like the San Diego),…

If you missed Part I, you’ll find it HERE. So a quick note about the care of our fish.  Capt. Joel Prieto Jr. had a big Yeti cooler strapped onto the back of the boat.  Inside he mixed a slurry of ice and saltwater in order to keep our fish in prime condition during our fishing day.  We were instructed to bring our own freezer bags, and after Joel cut our fish, they were bagged and returned to the cooler.  Once we arrived back at the launch area, Orchid was there to meet us with icy coolers to take our…

I’ve lived in Southern California now for about 2 decades.  I’ve been to different parts of Mexico, both via water and on land.  But for my various land-based fishing trips…Acapulco, Cabo/East Cape, Puerto Vallarta…I’ve always flown in. I’ve heard all about various fishing destinations in Northern and Central Baja, but have always been afraid to drive in…at least on my own. So when my friend, Orchid Martinez (above) invited me on one of her convoy trips to Bahia de Los Angeles, I was very excited to go.  Orchid is the owner/operator of Baja Fishing Convoys.  She organizes various trips into…

Last week, I was back in Seattle visiting mom.  I was only in town for a few days, but of course, I had to check out the scene from my favorite spot – Dash Point Pier on the south end of Puget Sound.  At this point in the year, the pink and king salmon had already come and gone.  The anglers were targeting silver salmon (aka coho).  I went Wednesday (Sept. 18) and one angler told me that the morning had been really slow.  He’d only seen two fish and wasn’t able to hook up.  I gave it a go…

I have a confession to make…I’m not exactly a super fan of offshore fishing.  Don’t get me wrong.  Who doesn’t love the thrill of a getting bit by a tuna and feeling that strength of them ripping off line from your spool?  That helpless feeling that you experience at times wondering if you’re going to have enough line, will your connections hold, will your leader stay intact, was the hook placement good, will it hold long enough to get the fish to gaff…it’s all thrilling stuff! What I hate is the process of getting to that point. More often than…

I mentioned in my article last week how there was a nice little pop of seabass up in the 805 over Labor Day Weekend.  The draw was too much for me not to want to give it a go, so I drove up early Wednesday morning (Sept. 4) to ride with Capt. Shawn Steward on the Aloha Spirit out of Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard. Shawn is to seabass as Capt. Ryan Bostian of the San Diego is to yellowtail.  He’s the guy.  But this wasn’t one of those trips where the bite is hot and you need to drop what…

Happy Labor Day!  I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Monday off.  Hopefully, you got out on the water. Everyone is talking tuna right now, and it was another good week outside.  Yellowfin tuna are biting with a decent sprinkle of bluefin and dorado in the mix.  Pretty well documented what’s happening out there right now, so I wanted to take things in a different direction and see if anything else cool was going on out there. Half-Day San Diego Saturday (August 31st), I fished an “extended halfie” with my buddy John Anjard (right), on his skiff just off the beach…

Hello Salties.  I’m back in SoCal.  It was great being up in Seattle and having the opportunity to catch salmon off the pier.  I say opportunity, because although I hooked my fair share of fish…let’s just say I brought new meaning to the term “farmed salmon.”  To be fair it wasn’t totally my fault.  The combination of having to use barbless hooks (to be able to release the native fish) and the challenge of not having a deckhand (or “dockhand” in this case) to be there at my side ready to put the fish on the pier made things extremely…

I’m hoping people got out offshore this last week because it was pretty epic. I reported last week that there was some good sign of yellowfin. These fish had been noticeably absent since June, then abruptly they exploded back on the scene this last week. Mixed in were some of the catchable size bluefin, paddy yellowtail, and even a smattering of dorado. It was a welcome change to the big bluefin or bust kind of fishing that had typified what was happening outside. Trips from the full day range out of San Diego to multiple day trips were all getting…

The big story of last week was the big bluefin.  Multiple boats got fish in the super-cow stratosphere which is pretty dang exciting.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I won’t rehash it too much because my colleague, Erik Landesfeind, covered it well in his Friday article. As far as the big bluefin go, I just want to give a little love to Capt. Paul Fischer, owner/operator of the Outer Limits.  Paul got this lucky angler on what I am sure is the fish of his life last week.  The monster (right) tipped the scale at 330 pounds!  Super MOO!…

It had been a while since I’d been on the boat. The last time was on Mother’s Day. That trip was a roller coaster ride of emotions. I found out about my father’s passing, yet I felt he was smiling down on me when at the end of the trip I somehow ended up winning the jackpot. I’ve tried to get back on since. Capt. Jeff Walker has had a pretty decent run finding yellowtail. Between the boat being full or chartered up, and my own schedule interfering with fishing, I just haven’t had a chance to get back. That…

I’ve written about it a fair bit on these pages about how much I love corbina fishing at the beach.  I love the challenge of getting them to bite.  I love the thrill when they do bite and rip out line on a wild run.  Plus, it takes a fair amount of skill to land a bigger one when the fish and the waves are working against your goal of doing so.  All these reasons are why I will gladly spend hours and walk miles on the sand for a handful of opportunities to experience all that this kind of…

Almost twenty years ago, Bo Scanlon was just getting started in his commercial fishing career.  Bo plies his trade as a commercial fisherman out of Oceanside, CA.   You may recognize his name.  I wrote about Bo in September of 2017 when he caught a 265-pound yellowfin tuna.  That fish was eventually certified as a California state record.  Back then he used to commercially fish mako sharks a lot at Catalina Island.  On one memorable occasion, he managed to catch a 700-pound fish (right).  Since then, Bo has dreamed about catching a grander (1000-pounds), or maybe even a record.  The…

Last week I reported that The San Diego was going to change up from their offshore program and head back to the Coronado Islands fishing yellowtail for Monday and Tuesday’s runs. They ended up staying the week at the islands. Over the course of the week, they posted progressively better Coronado Island yellowtail fishing counts, but Saturday the dam broke open. For Saturday’s run (July 13), they posted a count of 246 yellowtail for 52 anglers…close to the Mexican limits of 5 per angler. The San Diego was far from the only boat in on the party. The other full…

Had a buddy, Tony Caira, hit me up during the week last week, “Hey man, I’ve got the weekend free, let’s go fishing!” He wanted to go offshore. Although I was happy to kickoff on my first offshore trip last weekend, what I observed over the course of the week was a deterioration of the offshore bite out of San Diego. The boats reported seeing a lot of fish, but it was getting harder and harder to find a willing school to bite. The difficulty in the offshore bite led Capt. Ryan Bostian of the San Diego to announce yesterday,…

I got back from Seattle on Wednesday last week and I was jonesing to get salty. I had a meeting Friday morning in Carlsbad, so given what’s been happening offshore it only made sense to drive another hour south and fish on the San Diego this weekend. I was hoping to get on an at least an overnight trip, but summer offshore fishing is already in full swing. You’re going to have do a little planning ahead at this point. The boat the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing Landing was already close to selling out for the weekend by…

SAC spotter plane photo I’d managed to talk myself into going after bluefin this week, despite my misgivings about doing it in the month of June. The reports I’ve been seeing from the boats seemed to all tell the same story, there’s a lot of fish around and with a little luck you could find a willing school to bite. Unfortunately, I had to fly back up to Seattle (family stuff) and I wasn’t able to get out. I’ve continued to monitor the bite though and I’ve only seen more things to encourage me to get out offshore upon my…

There’s a certain stigma to rent rods. Be honest. When you see someone with a rented rod and reel setup, you make a mental note to avoid them. Am I right? It’s a fair assumption. If you are renting a rod, you probably don’t get out a lot. We all want to maximize our time on the water. Why waste time getting in tangles with a newbie? Those things being said, we all probably have a story or two about the rent rodder that got lucky. I remember the first time I witnessed the power of the rent rod. I…

I’ve written about it a little on here (ex. Hunting Big Beans).  My primary fishing pursuit since I got back from Seattle has been on the sand.  Aside from the fact that the fishing itself has been very productive, I love how surf fishing allows you to take a free few hours and provides a fishing opportunity that can present serious challenges and thrills.  Last week, I put a good amount of time on the sand and was rewarded by accomplishing one of my big fishing goals for the year – sight fishing a corbina. It’s a good thing I…

Hello Salties.  I’m happy to say I’m back in SoCal.  Thanks for all the support these last few weeks.  It’s been an emotional ride and I truly appreciate it. Quick Seattle fishing update.  I did a lot of pier fishing.  In odd numbered years, the pink salmon run and a few had already been caught at some of the northern piers of Puget Sound.  My parents’ place is on South Puget Sound, so I wanted to be out there if the salmon happened to roll through.  Too early.  During my pier fishing though, I put a kid, Zion, on his…

You may remember that I caught my first corbina of the year early last month.  In the following weeks, I had managed some multi-fish days, but the fish were smallish.  I felt like I was in a rut and was looking for a new challenge. I decided to scout out some new beach.  I went back to an old stretch of sand where I had experienced some epic beach-based fishing a couple Fall seasons ago. It’s a decision that I’ve quietly been enjoying for a few weeks now. Along with a change of venue, I had to find a new…

Sunday morning my dad, Jose Sarmiento, died.  I hope you’ll indulge me and let me tell you a few memorable fishing stories about this man. The pier pictured above is in Redondo Beach, WA.  That’s where I first started fishing. It was a short drive from my parents’ house in Des Moines where I grew up.  It started out with Zebco rod and reel combos and eventually progressed to old PENN rods and reels.  After many outings where the majority of our time was spent with him untangling my birdnested line, we settled into a routine.  We’d go at low…

Last week, I talked about how 3 of our most prized gamefish: yellowtail, bluefin tuna and white seabass were all in play. Let’s get this out of the way early…I totally whiffed on seabass. If you bought a ticket and headed up north, I’m sorry.  That’s how it goes with the ghost.  There were a fish or two here and there.  The Aloha Spirit got 2 on Thursday (right), but the big bite, be it outer islands or within full day boat range, didn’t happen last week. This is the reason why when it was good, I dropped what I…

People often ask me questions like, “I’m planning to go fishing this weekend.  Where are you or would you be going?” The answer is almost always, “It depends.” What’s important to you?  Do you want to just catch fish?  Best chance at game fish?  Target a specific game fish? As I was starting to think about what to write this week, I found myself thinking, “Name your game fish and go!”  It was pretty ridiculous at the beginning of last week.  Even though the moonphase wasn’t right, the seabass were still biting at Santa Rosa.  If you wanted to get…