Author: Joe Sarmiento

Sport Boat Fishing Setups – What to Bring? For just about any sportboat trip, including most overnight trips, I bring three setups to cover most of the techniques I might need to use. These sport boat fishing setups are: bass setup (9 ft Teramar, OG brown, rated 15-30, with a Tranx 400), 30 lb. bait setup (Tallus 80H, with Trinidad 16A), and my jig stick (9ft Teramar XH, Tranx 500). If there’s a chance we might rockfish, then I’ll bring either a Lexa 400 or Tranx 500 with all braid and trade out the reel on one of the 2…

Editor’s Note: Local Islands may be the hot ticket this weekend according to Joe’s article below.  Get the scoop. Last week, I gave a seminar to the Challenger’s Angling Club in Monrovia. The topic of the seminar was fishing for white seabass from a sportboat. As it turned out, their trip last weekend was going to be on the Pacific Dawn, out of Ventura. Target of their trip would be white seabass. The full moon was last weekend too. So as I gave the seminar, I got myself worked up to give it a go. They didn’t have any room…

California Fishing Springs Into Action: Last weekend I traveled up to the Bay Area to fish on the California Dawn with owner/operator, Capt. James Smith. They’ve been killing it up there the last couple weeks on halibut and striped bass.  I’ve been looking for a little change of pace, so I road-tripped north and fished their full day trip on Saturday.  On my way home, the plan was to find a beach and try to catch my first red tail perch off the sand.  A full round of California fishing. Come to find out while I was gone that things kind…

For the last month or so, I’ve been hearing chatter about sport boat white sea bass fishing.  I wouldn’t even call it a bite (a nibble maybe?).  Just isolated reports of fish getting taken here and there, mostly on private boats or 6-packs until the latest report of white sea bass. Capt. Jacob Moreno of the Ultra initiated this season’s ghost party for bigger sport boats scoring on this elusive fish. This week though, it was Capt. Tucker McCombs of the Outrider that really kicked things into gear last Sunday (April 15) with full passenger and crew limits on an overnight trip.  Then…

Editor’s Note: Joe Sarmiento recounts a recent fishing trip and explains how the light leadhead and squid rig was the key to most peoples’ success on yellowtail, calicos and more. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of riding aboard Chief Sportfishing for a 2-day trip. Capt. Rick Russell brought the boat up from San Diego to fish our local islands this Spring. Rick added longtime local captain, Tino Valantine to the mix to leverage his years of experience fishing San Clemente and Catalina Islands. We departed from 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro on Friday night and returned to the dock Sunday night. It…

This Week’s SoCal Fishing Report Is No April Fools As I mentioned last week, March was a lousy month for us weekend types.  So with the weather finally straightening out in time for Easter weekend, hopes were high for a bounty of fishing adventure from the Channel Islands rockfish bite to April Fools bluefin (or not!). The week didn’t disappoint! Channel Islands Rockfish Bite… and MORE It used to be that rockfishing in the Channel Islands was a predictably great experience…easy limits of better quality rockfish, and legit opportunities for even the novice angler to limits on lingcod too. Add in shots…

Channel Islands rockfish and Coronado Islands yellowtail highlight this week’s report March has mostly been a bust, especially for the weekend salties, which I am most of the time.  The small windows of opportunity have mostly happened during the work week.  Encouraging, but kind of soul crushing in a way.  Finally this weekend, things are straightening out and there are good opportunities for a variety of sportfishing adventures, from Channel Islands rockfish and lingcod to Coronado Islands yellowtail. April can’t come fast enough! Late Rockfish Opener I finally got mine this week!  If you count Monday’s trip, that made 4 trips…

The first time I heard about the grunion run, I was a freshman in college.  Some upperclassmen mentioned it to a group of us, and I thought they were yanking my chain.  That was before the internet and I couldn’t look it up to verify the veracity of the grunion run.  I never went. I forgot about it and returned home to Seattle after my freshman year.  I didn’t give it another thought until well after I returned to SoCal and it was an activity I could take the kids to see. At that time, our interest was in the grunion…

We’re in for another wet one heading into this weekend.  That will make it every weekend this month.  I never thought I’d be jonesing this hard to go rockfishing.  I’m holding onto the hope that when I wake up Saturday morning at San Nicolas Island aboard Eldorado Sportfishing it will be clear and fishable…assuming we make it off the dock.  Wish me luck. Assuming we do get out, I like the prospects of the trip. Every other trip they’ve been catching (or at least had shots at) yellowtail.  They have live squid and you know how it is…good things can…

I went to the show on Opening Day (Wednesday) on a quest to find some new and interesting things to write about, setup a trip or two, restock on consumable stuff (jigs, plastic, hooks, line etc.) and just soak it all in. Over the years, my perspective on the show has changed.  The first year I went, I went fanboy on Brandon Hayward and had him sign my copy of The Southern California Angler (right – out-of-print but pick it up if you can find it).  I was a little more product-deal focused back then.  Still, it was thrilling to…

I should’ve been on my way to Oxnard last night.  I was home instead.  I was really looking forward to getting out and fishing for lingcod.  I gave a seminar last week at the SoCal Sportfishing Club meeting.  The discussion was all about targeting lings, and I got myself all fired up to go fish for them.  I was going to go on the Pacific Islander’s first shallow water ling trip of the year, but unfortunately the trip was cancelled due to weather. Oh well… At least I’ve got my day trip on Saturday to Catalina with my buddy, Capt. Bob Beyer on…

Less than a week away salties All bets are off once the fleet gets back out there in force. Until then, I’ve been finding ways to scratch that itch.  The last couple weeks, I’ve talked a lot about fishing for structure oriented bass.  The other fishing related endeavor I’ve been focused on is catching a legal halibut off the beach. California Halibut Fishing Tips I’ve been on this quest since sometime last year. The one you see above is the closest I’ve gotten so far.  I found it Saturday morning off a Southern California beach(san diego halibut fishing spots). It may have…

Last week I posted what I thought was a pretty innocuous how-to article. Who knew it would create so much commentary and controversy! You’ll recall we were talking about the Knocker Rig (right) as an intentional rigging to take advantage of the sound and vibration created to attract the attention of our target species…in this case, structure oriented bass. After I posted the article, a reader tagged her friend to share the information with him. His response was… “Sh*t.  That’s the Marina Del Rey twilight rig !!!!  Been around a long time!!! Some one else taking credit for this !!!! A$$hole” First…

Not gonna lie…it’s been a slow week. Welcome to normal! It’s not normal to be catching bluefin tuna and paddy yellows in the winter.  Same thing catching half-day yellows. What’s normal is sculpin and bass and mix in a trigger fish.  If you’re lucky, you might score a halibut.  That’s normal winter sportboat fishing in Southern California.  Those are my buddies, Gene Patterson and John Anjard (top), on the half day boat, Dolphin Sportfishing, out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego. To me, that’s not a bad thing.  I’ve been on a few sculpin and sand bass trips this year.  I…

You’ll remember that last week, I was preparing to go on a 1.5-day trip on the Pacific Queen.  At the time I wrote my post, What I’m Bringing & Why, it was still unclear what direction we would go.  Would we go offshore targeting bluefin?  Or would we go down the beach and fish yellows and rockfish off Punta Colonet? Captain Gavin Harbour made a game time decision to head down the beach.  And as you can see from the smiling faces of anglers Nick Lam and Steve Kohatsu, Gavin made the right call.  Final boat tally was 71 yellowtail,…

I’ve got my long awaited Pacific Queen trip (sponsored by AFTCO) going out this Friday night.  It is a 1.5-day trip.  Now typically, at that range, in January, the game plan would be simple… yo-yo yellowtails and rockfishing. Here’s the issue, last week the boats fishing at that length of trip were catching bluefin tuna from 20 to 150+-pounds.  Then as I mentioned last week, a winter storm blew in and now the game plan for this weekend is up in the air. Listed below is some sportboat tackle advice for Colonet – what I plan to bring and why.  You may not agree with…

Last week, I was talking about how the standard winter fishing fare was in play…sculpin, bass, and halibut were available along most of our coast for the fishing weekend.  Notable exceptions were the hot yellowtail bite on the half day boats in San Diego, and the fact that bluefin were still in play. Over the course of this week, the same species were in play, just not necessarily in the same locales and/or the same means of catching. Yellowtail Flip Flop As mild as winters typically are here in Southern California, the season always seems to rear up and find a way to remind us…

I know a lot of anglers that kind of shut down in the winter.  They may have switched gears into hunting.  Others switch to freshwater.  For some, winter fishing doesn’t offer enough excitement, so gear is put away. I’m not that guy.  I fish year round. Winter fishing for me is characterized by a trip or two down the Mexican coast to get my fix on yoyo yellowtail and rockfishing during our closure months. A couple years back, I did the Puerto Vallarta deal to chase cow yellowfin tuna. My buddy, Denny Kaneoka (right), returned this week from a trip on the…

Happy New Year Salties! I hope everyone enjoyed some time off and had a chance to reset over the holidays (fishing odyssey).  I ended up having to go into the office for a day, but otherwise I had a nice long break.  Along with some good family time, I got to fish…A LOT. San Nicolas Island on the Eldo Usually come December, I’m chasing sheephead for my Top 10 list.  The Eldorado to San Nic run in December is kind of the ace up my sleeve when it comes to scoring That Damn Fish.  The added bonus is that the…

Next week, a lot of articles you’ll be reading and shows you might be watching will be year-end wrap ups.  This will be my final report until after the New Year, but instead of a Best Of or 2017 in Review, I wanted to give you some food for thought over the holidays. I think a lot of people set fish related goals for themselves.  One of mine for this year was to get a local bluefin over 100-pounds.  My buddy Nick Lam (pictured top with Capt. Paul Fischer of the Outer Limits) and a lot of other folks got their fish…

Rockfish & Chill Trip Report I mentioned in last week’s post I was going to do a local 3/4-day trip on the Spitfire last Sunday with a bunch of friends of mine.  It was a successful trip.  Going in, I was excited about the prospect of big reds.  This notion was created by a picture I saw from the previous week.  It was galley cook, Mike Bibeau (above), and a massive 9lb-6oz. vermilion rockfish. As it turned out, Capt. John Corzell told me that those big reds only wanted live squid.  We had live sardines and cut frozen squid (at least…

Anyone down for one last 2017 rockfish and chill trip? A fishy friend of mine, Jessica Cano (right), posed this question yesterday. I thought it was a clever twist on the famous “Netflix and chill?” question. The holidays are rapidly approaching and before you know it, it will be 2018.  That means there are only a few weeks left in our rockfish season. Sure, you can fish in Mexican waters in January and February.  Shameless plug, I’ve got a So Cal Salty Colonet trip on the Pacific Queen January 26th.  I’ll remind you that you need to get your passport to go on those Colonet…

You know how facebook pops up your “memories” from previous posts on that particular day last year(s) ago?  I got one this week showing me with my friend Mike Abenoja.  It was 3 years ago.  We fished Dockweiler and it was wide open on surf perch.  I looked at that pic and thought to myself… That was the last time I caught a surf perch Other than a couple weeks this summer when the corbina bite was epic, surf fishing has been pretty dismal for the last 3 years or so.  The decline of surf fishing has paralleled the onset of…

I hope everyone had a nice long Thanksgiving weekend.  Hopefully, some of you enjoyed some fresh tuna, lobster or other SoCal seafood delicacies! After Thursday’s food fest, I headed up to Oxnard on Friday for an overnight trip aboard the Pacific Islander out of Channel Islands Sportfishing.  The occasion was the 5th annual So Cal Salty Ling-a-palooza trip, sponsored by Lingcodjigs.com. Owner/operator Capt. Steve Virtue (right) is who taught me how to target lingcod using big swimbaits.  Since learning how, my enjoyment level on these trips has leveled up far beyond how most people perceive rockfishing. This annual trip has served…