In case you haven’t checked the weather report lately, it’s been windy as hell on the water this week. The wind storm is forecast to blow itself out by the weekend, but with sustained winds exceeding 20 knots on Thursday and Friday, I’m not sure how pretty the fishing picture is going to be once it stops. That being said, the fish aren’t going anywhere and should resume biting once conditions straighten out.
The big news over the weekend was the good bluefin fishing below San Clemente Island. On Saturday every sport boat from the full day trips through the long-range fleet were stacked up hull to hull with at least fifty private boats in a mile square area. While most of the boats had excellent fishing in the dark on flat falls and sinker rigs, the bad news for the private boats was that by morning the bite had slowed to a very slow pick.
I happened to be on one of the private boats that fished out there, but rather than join the giant gang bang, I followed the water temperature and bait schools a few miles inside the fleet and ended up finding biting fish that we could have to ourselves. My friend Jonathon Medrano was out on his boat that day too and must have followed the same thought process because he pulled up in the exact same zone a few minutes after we did.
The fish showed a lot better than they bit for the first couple hours and we put two fish on the boat before the action petered out. Jonathon ended up finding some fish to the west of us that wouldn’t bite either but once we got up there we saw fish even farther west and those came up foaming for easy limits on 20-30-pound fish in the next few minutes. As usual, the fish readily bit the Rapala Subwalk 15 as well as poppers and small hardbaits. When we left them, the fish had slid far enough west that they were along the frontside of the island.
Over the last couple trips, we’ve been seeing bigger bluefin mixed in with the smaller breezers but they haven’t been willing to bite a surface lure. A couple weeks ago we got a big one to turn and follow a Subwalk and on Saturday Jonathon got one to bump his popper but didn’t hook it. I’m not sure why that is, but those same bigger fish are biting well for the guys fishing deep at night and also the boats drifting on schools during the day. I’m hoping that pattern changes soon.
In other news, there are still a lot of yellowtail swimming around at San Clemente Island but they haven’t been biting all that well. Captain Jeff Markland on the Thunderbird out of Davey’s Locker had a hundred fish day on Friday but struggled to connect on subsequent trips. The good news is that the bass, perch, and rockfish are biting so passengers can at least take home a bag of fillets as a consolation prize on the days the yellows don’t bite.
The seabass, yellows and halibut are still biting for boats fishing the Channel Islands but that zone is getting hammered with wind right now so we’re going to have to wait and see what it does to the bite once it’s over. There have also been some yellowtail biting at Catalina, which is blown out as well, but the bass and bonito have been providing the most action.
The fishing along the coast had been improving, but the offshore wind has blown in a large and close interval swell that is likely to cause some coastal upwelling and will likely cause water temperatures to drop. While we have a bit of a weather break this weekend, it’s not going to be nice out there as the residual wind swell is still going to be rolling through. If I were planning an offshore or island run, I’d probably hold off until Monday or Tuesday to let things settle down a bit.
Have fun but be careful if you’re heading out this weekend!
