Author: Joe Sarmiento

In last week’s article, I mentioned how I was considering taking a day off from work and getting in on this hot white sea bass bite.  It’s not the kind of decision I take lightly. Two years ago I had my best ever year on white sea bass.  I caught 6 fish at 3 different islands.  Those catches included my first ever on a jig (on the Oceanside 95 at San Clemente), and a new personal best 62 (on the Fortune at Catalina).  Then last year…nada.  There were some trips that got cancelled due to weather conditions (lots of wind),…

In last week’s article, I wrote how there were signs that the season was starting to heat up.  One of those signals was that the Old Glory had limits on bluefin last weekend, the first non-long-range boat in the fleet to hit this year.  Their success spurred other boats to get off the dock this weekend looking for them.  Quite a few found their intended target.  The Old Glory led the charge with 26 on a day-and-a-half trip returning Sunday morning (right). Many of the captains reported that the numbers caught weren’t representative of the opportunity available. Lots of fish…

Happy to say I got in a good amount of fishing last week.  Midweek, I got in a couple sessions off the sand.  Saturday, I got on an overnight out of Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard.  Here’s how it went… All About That Bait Week before last, I got a hot tip on where to make sand crabs. It’s still early in the year for them, but if you can get them, there are fish hungry to eat them.  Since I was given the spot by someone, I’m not going to burn it and post it here.  What I will…

The bluefin bit over the weekend…APRIL FOOLS! Welcome to April Salties.  I actually heard over the weekend that some were spotted off the backside of Cat.  I have no doubt those fish are still around, but as of yet no one is really looking for them, much less targeting them.  Give it time.  The season is just getting started. Yo-Yo Yellowtail Continues The best gamefish action is still happening south of the border on the full day rides from San Diego.  The San Diego (where I fished last weekend) had a rough go on the yellowtail this weekend, but…

I mentioned last week that I was thinking about heading down to San Diego since the full day boats had experienced some success catching yellowtail.  Then we had some weather and the boats went offline.  In the day previous to this latest storm, the yellows didn’t want to bite.  I was still inclined to head down, but by Friday the reservations were really light, despite the weather forecast being more than fishable.  I was concerned they might not get off the dock.  My buddy John Anjard had just fished on the half day boat the New Seaforth and said the…

Happy to say I am back home in Southern California.  I got in late Thursday night. One of the first things on the agenda…get back on the water! I mentioned in the Leopard Sharks post how I’d been looking to get on the City of Long Beach.  The attraction at the time I mentioned it, was that they had been enjoying some good bass fishing prior to the rockfish opener.  Still wanted to check in on this boat, but naturally their program has changed post-opener.  Kicker to my interest was that Capt. Ryan Parker had reported seeing some yellows pop-up…

SoCal Fishing Ready To Rockfish – Southern California Fishing Forum Hello Salties.  I’m up here in Seattle helping my parents through some stuff.  I should be back home by this weekend and I can finally get in my season opener.  I did a little fishing up here yesterday (Sunday) off the public pier at Dash Point (above).  I brought a very limited amount of tackle with me, so I just casted and dragged a shrimp tail on a short dropper. When I got there around 2pm, it was a slack tide condition, and nothing was happening.  I talked to a…

The fishing season never really closes here in Southern California.  That’s never been more true than the last few years when the bluefin bit through the winter months.  This year though, things felt like they had finally gotten back to “normal”.  The so-called off season months of January and February offered the typical sportboat fishing fare.  On the local scene, half-day boats caught sculpin to fill the sacks, while leadhead and squid bass fishing offered a greater angling challenge to round out those trips.  There was a little bit of halibut fishing going on.  But for any sort of consistent…

When I got out on the New Del Mar a couple weeks back, my buddy Tim Shiau, a crewmember on another boat, told me they had a really good day bass fishing on the City of Long Beach.  I wanted to try a change of venue this weekend and get out with them, but they didn’t get off the dock.  It’s one of those unfortunate things, that happens during this slower time of year.  That will all change come March 1st, but it left me looking for another option to get a salty fix. I decided to put some time in…

We’re officially at the halfway point in the month and two weeks away from the season opener – Friday, March 1st. All by itself, that’s reason enough for celebration.  A majority of the boats right now are doing their annual maintenance in preparation for the opener.  Other than the sculpin and bass half-day trips I last talked about, and the Colonet trips that I’ve written about too, there’s more anticipation than action right now amongst So Cal anglers. That will change in a major way come March 1st These are the 3 things I’m most excited about for this coming…

When my kids were younger and I was just starting to fish regularly on the sport boats, we rode a lot of half day trips together on the New Del Mar. Everything was new back then.  I was just learning to tie a dropper loop.  It would take a while before I understood how to tie one specifically for a sculpin rig.  Rigging up a high dropper for yellowtail or white seabass had yet to be introduced to me. I was reminded of those days this weekend when I got on the New Del Mar to ride the Saturday afternoon…

Welcome to February.  Not much to report on this week. Last weekend there were some good hits for the boats going down to Colonet.  The Pacific Queen (above) and the New Lo An both got big scores.  Unfortunately, most of the trips for this weekend got cancelled due to weather.  Hopefully, the boats can reacquire these fish when they get back down there. My buddy and Seeker pro-staffer, Nick Lam (right), was on the New Lo An.  Interestingly, he told me the fish were responding better to bait (dropper loop sardine) than the jig this trip.  He caught the first…

I posted this video the other morning from the trip last weekend. The video itself doesn’t even have any fish in it, just a few guys totally bent on the bow of the boat during that big hit we had in the morning. What’s interesting though is you can hear Capt. Gavin Harbour talking on the intercom… “Drop your jig 250-300-feet, wind up about halfway and drop it back down.” We had drifted away from the structure, but the school stayed with us.  It sounds easy enough to drop your jig down X number of feet, but unless you are…

Punta Colonet Queen Trip – Punta Colonet Fishing Friday night I boarded the Pacific Queen out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego.  I was heading out on a 1.5 day trip bound for Punta Colonet…a little over a 100-miles south, just off the coast of Northern Baja Mexico.  Leading our trip was Capt. Gavin Harbour. I’ve come to really admire Gavin’s prowess when it comes to these Punta Colonet trips, so I was excited about getting out with them again. The next morning, we got into the zone around 7:30 am and started looking around.  It was really foggy, but I…

First sponsored trip of the year heading out next week. One week from today, I’ll be aboard the Pacific Queen for a day and half trip (punta colonet)sponsored by 187 Jigs.  A lot of folks have been asking me what I plan to bring.  I thought it was a pretty easy question based on how it’s gone the last several years. This last Sunday though, the New Lo-An returned from a trip down the Mexican coast. The count they posted was 67 yellowtail, 48 whitefish, and 115 vermilion rockfish for 23 anglers. Not bad, right?  Their Facebook post of the trip added a…

SoCal Anglers 2019 Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all enjoyed a happy and safe holiday season.  Welcome to 2019. Rockfishing is officially closed until March 1st, so I figured I’d be writing about sculpin and bass trips…maybe reprise the Knocker Rig, aka the MDR Twilight Rig (don’t want to reprise that controversy again).  I was hoping that something might be happening with the halibut drift trips, or that some boats had gone down to Colonet and scored. What I didn’t anticipate was talking about local yellowtail and bluefin! Local Yellows I caught a nasty flu just before Christmas.  I went into…

Well that’s it.  Yesterday I was out on Stardust Sportfishing out of Sea Landing in Santa Barbara for what is most likely my final trip of 2018.  I haven’t been up in the 805 a lot this year.  Not that there wasn’t some good fishing happening in our northern waters this year, but due to various conditions on the water (mostly high winds) I had a personal record of FIVE trips getting cancelled up there this year! I was looking forward to getting out for one last trip, but it was looking pretty dicey at the beginning of the week.  A big…

If this picture doesn’t melt your heart, check your pulse!  It was taken this week aboard the Coral Sea, out of Sea Landing in Santa Barbara.  The weather was great. Local fishing has largely been a bottom oriented affair.  With the kids going on Christmas break, it’s the perfect time to get them off their various electronic devices and get them out on the water. Even if you regularly get out on the water yourself, it might not be immediately apparent what (if anything) you should do differently when bringing a kid out on the water.  These tips will help…

Haven’t gotten out much lately… Between last week’s wind, and this week’s rainy conditions, I haven’t been that motivated to get out on a boat.  But just because you don’t go, it doesn’t mean that itch can go on without scratching it somehow. When you are afflicted as we are, that addiction needs to get fed. Some buddies have been encouraging me to take up trout fishing.  I actually have a couple appropriate rods if I ever take them up on the invite.  For me though, in times like these, my go to is the sand or jetty. Thus it…

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, we had a Santa Ana wind condition that contributed to ideal conditions on the water for successful bluefin fishing at Cortes Bank. At the same time, the fish were finally biting bait and biting a reasonable line class, affording anglers what I said at the time might have been the best opportunity for catching these fish all year.  I urged you all to get out while the getting was good. Then the wind hit… Some boats have gotten out here and there, but many have cancelled their trips recently.  I feel fortunate to have gotten out…

Best Fall Fishing Destinations – Two Trips I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Sitting here in my post-foodfest coma and just found out my trip tonight, the would be 6th annual Ling-a-palooza (sponsored by Lingcodjigs.com) aboard the Pacific Islander has been cancelled due to high winds out there on the water. Hearing that a lot of trips are getting cancelled up and down the whole coast. I guess this is the first big blow of winter. Good thing I got out earlier in the week. Here’s what I saw out there… San Nic on the Eldorado As you…

There was a time when tuna in November was some weird El Nino driven anomaly.  That’s no longer the case.  This week provided another bountiful tuna harvest for anglers that got out on the water hunting them.  Even an 805 boat, the Amigo out of Ventura Sportfishing got in on the action this week on a 2 day trip (right). The only thing slightly different this year from the last few is the presence of some nicer grade yellowfin sprinkled in with the bluefin. I’m convinced at this point the presence of these fish has nothing to do with El…

The bluefin bit really well this week… I said in my article last week, “now is looking like it might be the best opportunity of the year.”  If you were lucky enough to get out over the weekend, or during this work week, you were rewarded with biting bluefin.  It wasn’t easy.  Hook to land ratios, at least what I’ve heard, are still tough.  One friend of mine, very fishy guy who I won’t embarrass here, said he went 1 for 8 this week.  Clearly you’d like to do better…but EIGHT bites. There were a lot of the 50-70-pound fish getting…

November Fishing Report Welcome to November.  October was a pretty great month.  Definitely some cool stuff still going on, but it’s changing.  Here’s a rundown of what’s going on now… HALF DAY HERO! If you’ve been keeping up, you know I’ve been telling you to get out and fish local.  In my opinion, it’s always a great option and there’s always a chance something great might happen. Lightning struck yesterday for Sylvia Gaytan of Los Angeles (top). Sylvia’s son Jonathan convinced her to go out for the afternoon halfie yesterday out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing.  In the car ride over, she…