By: The Fish Sniffer Staff
January 28, 2010
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Monterey/Santa Cruz
(Monterey) Fishing for jumbo (Humboldt) squid continues to be great, but the most exciting news is the appearance of white seabass in Monterey Bay.
“After squid fishing, we’re going for white seabass,” said Chris Arcoleo of Chris’ Fishing Trips. “The seabass are hitting whole squid in 200 feet of water.”
Six anglers fishing aboard the Checkmate on Sunday, January 24 landed 40 jumbo squid in the 30 to 40 pound range and one 60 lb. white seabass. On January 25, the 6 anglers bagged 30 squid and two white seabass weighing 40 pounds each on the Checkmate.
Brian Cutting of Randy’s Fishing Trips reported top-notch squid and sanddab fishing in the bay.
“The squid are showing along the edge of the Monterye Canyon from Point Pinos to Carmel in 800 to 1000 feet of water,” said Cutting. “Anglers are catching squid on the big squid jigs at 50 to 100 feet below the boat.”
A trip by the Chubasco on January 24 produced 35 squid and 20 to 25 sanddabs per rod..
The Kahuna, out of Tom’s Sportfishing in Moss Landing, is also booking squid/sanddab combos. “The 18 anglers on our latest trip had a fantastic time with the squid, finding wide-open action 50 feet and above to the surface,” said Carol Jones of Tom’s Sportfishing. “We ended the day with good fishing for sanddabs.”
The Sixth Annual Sand Crab Classic Squid Tournament is scheduled for March 20. 2010. This year's Derby will have a new format. There will be no early morning check-in required, and the weigh-in/awards banquet will be held at Portuguese Hall (CPDES Hall) near Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz. Because the Hall is so big, there will be NO LIMIT on the number of contestants this year. For more information, go to: http://theletsgofishingradioshow.com.
Half Moon Bay
(Half Moon Bay) The weather has been rough off the central coast recently so there have been few anglers hitting the water save for a handful of private boaters heading out to pull crab pots. Squid are plentiful along Pioneer Canyon, so once things calm down anglers will be able to get in on some great Humboldt squid action.
“It’s time for us to get back up and running,” reported Sherry Ingles of Queen of Hearts Sportfishing. “Weather permitting, we've scheduled our first trips of 2010 for Humboldt squid on Saturday, February 6, and Saturday, February 20. If there's enough interest and enough squid, we may add more trips to the schedule. The reports we're hearing indicate that there are Humboldts all the way up and down the coastline right now, from Bodega Bay in the north all the way down to Seaforth Landing in San Diego. We'll also start offering whale watching trips in February, too, with our first trips of the season slated for Presidents' Day weekend, February 13, 14 and 15.”
Peggy Beckett at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center didn’t have any scores to report this week, but did relate that both the Salty Lady and the Que Sera Sera were scheduling Humboldt squid fishing trips and that whale watching adventures would be offered on the weekends.
Private boaters continue to score limits and near limits of crabs while working in 40 to 120 feet of water.
Beach bound anglers are tossing shrimp, pile worms and plastic grubs for and exciting variety of surf perch.
Berkeley
N/A
San Rafel
(San Rafael) Very few anglers have been fishing from boat or shore during the recent round of winter storms. However, fishing should definitely bust loose as the water of San Pablo Bay freshens from the storm inflows.
“The weather was crummy today and yesterday, but good weather is forecasted tomorrow, January 27,” said Keith Fraser of Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle. “The anglers that braved the weather reported catching some sturgeon in the bay over the past two weeks.”
Scott Snider of Tracy demonstrated his angling process by catching and releasing an oversized sturgeon estimated between 78 and 82 inches long. He also lost another fish about the same size. He was soaking ghost shrimp from his boat off Hamilton Field.
Brisbane/South San Francisco
(Oyster Point) Anglers putting in their time for sturgeon are seeing fair action, while perch and flounder are providing fun for anglers fishing with light tackle.
“Two fish were caught on the Oyster Point pier this past week. Anglers have been using herring and ghost shrimp,” said John Akina of Oyster Bait and Tackle.
Boaters are also experiencing fair action. “Two fish came from boaters from lights 16 and 18 below the Dumbarton Bridge this past week” Akina added. “While the sturgeon fishing around the peninsula isn’t red hot yet, anglers putting in their time are scoring a fish here and there. These rains will help spark up the bite,” commented Akina.
Anglers in search of other species are experiencing steady action on perch and flounder. “Guys are using pile and blood worms for the perch at Oyster Point Pier, and anchovies are getting bit by flounder,” noted Akina.
Very few anglers are venturing for striped bass. “There have been a few guys looking for reports on stripers. I had two reports of schoolies come into the shop early last week, but nothing else,” he said. “Anchovies for bait would be my suggestion,” he added.
Martinez/Crockett
(Martinez) There are sturgeon to be caught in both Suisun and San Pablo Bays, but most experts agree that the best sturgeon action is still to come when the run off from recent rains hits the bays.
“There are a lot of sturgeon in Suisun Bay,” reported Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing operating out of the Martinez Marina. “I was out with light loads on both Friday and Saturday and we got one keeper sturgeon on both days, along with a few stripers and shaker sturgeon.”
“We are still waiting for the runoff to hit the bays, but as of the last time I was out it still hadn’t arrived. There are a lot of crabs. In fact there are so many in some areas that you just can’t fish. I can’t wait for the fresh water to come and drive them away,” said Smith.
Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing is also operating out of the Martinez Marina. He has been hooking keepers with regularity, but is very much looking forward to the arrival of a big push of fresh water runoff.
On January 23 the California Dawn went out with 4 anglers aboard and ended up with 3 keepers and 1 oversize fish.
Captain Gordy Hough of Morning Star Sportfishing operating out of the Crockett Marina is expecting the sturgeon fishing to be productive during the early part of February.
“On an A to F grading scale, I’d give the tides during the period between February 1 to 10 a solid B,” said Hough. “Even though we will have an incoming tide on most of those dates during our fishing time, we should do pretty well. I expect that by then the water will be muddy and the crabs will be long gone.”
“I haven’t been out a lot recently because angler interest has been low,” related Captain Frank Miller of Fury Sportfishing operating out of the San Pablo Marina. “I’ve got some trips coming up and I’m expecting pretty good fishing. With all this rain, I’m planning to hit some shallow water areas in San Pablo Bay. I can’t wait to see how we do.”
Suisun Bay - Benicia
N/A
Bodega Bay
(Bodega Bay) The series of storms that surged out of the Pacific, bringing much needed rain to Northern California, brought with them a negative side effect in the form of high ocean swells and rough conditions. Rough water has pretty much shut down squid fishing operations for Sonoma County anglers.
Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center had been enjoying awesome results while targeting squid prior to the storms with anglers averaging more than 10 jumbo squid a piece. For example on one recent trip 17 anglers nailed 255 squid.
The squid that are being caught average about 35 pounds, but on every trip squid in the 50 to 60 pound range are caught and squid upwards of 70 pounds have been landed this season.
The squid had been holding in an area from 20 to 30 miles offshore of Bodega head, but it is possible that the recent rough weather has caused them to shift their locations a bit.
Captain Powers in confident that the squid are still in the area and they should be fairly easy to locate once his boat, the New Sea Angler, heads back out on the ocean.
San Diego (Long Range Report)
(San Diego) There was little fishing action reported by San Diego long range boats over the past week. Most of the fleet left port within the past few days and as of press time were pushing south in search of tuna and other willing gamefish.
“We departed yesterday on a 15 day open in rainy, windy weather,” reported Justin Fleck of Excel Sportfishing on January 23. “We picked up a nice load of bait, and cleared the point around lunch time. We encountered some rough weather through out the night, but this morning it seems like it's getting better. As of right now, we are heading down toward the lower banks.”
“We arrived at the lower banks around 3 am and spent most of the morning looking around to try and figure out the water structure. After we found where we thought we wanted to be, we put the anchor down and sat for a few hours with no luck. In the afternoon, it wasn't hard to find fish, but they were not the size we were looking for. At the end of the day we had covered a ton of good territory but came up empty handed,” said Fleck on January 25.
As of press time, Fleck and crew were still searching for big tuna that were willing to strike. We’ll have a full report in the next edition of the Fish Sniffer.
“After a couple of extra hours at the dock to assess the weather and allow a little extra time for things to settle down, the guys got off without a hitch, heading southeast towards the big fish proving grounds on the inside,” reported Tim Ekstrom of Royal Star Sportfishing on January 22. “With plenty of time on this fifteen day, the main focus will again be on trophy yellowfin that have shown no indication of vacating the "local banks" region.”
“The guys spent the day rigging and preparing while heading south in steadily improving sea conditions. Based on the most recent forecasts it appears that they will be in fine shape once the fishing begins with fifteen knots of breeze and plenty workable sea conditions. As the week progresses the forecast is for conditions to reach almost flat calm so they should have a good handle on what is available in the lower region within a couple of days. Captain Toussaint's has high hopes that the action on giant tuna will continue as the conditions are expected to remain excellent throughout the big fish zone,” related Ekstrom on January 24.
“The Catchy Tackle-Pelagic 15-day trip aboard Red Rooster III returned January 21 with 19 anglers and skipper Andy Cates at the helm. The boat visited the Hurricane Bank, Clarion Island’s Buffer Zone and the southern banks off Baja, and found near-limits of tuna, with a good catch of wahoo as well. There were five cows aboard,” reported Bill Roecker.
“Dylan Malmberg of Encinitas caught two cows on two casts, he said, and weighed them in at 249 and 229 pounds at the H&M Landing scales. The big one won first place for the trip,” said Roeker.
Near shore action has been limited for San Diego anglers, but a few successful trips have been run in recent days.
The Premier took out 25 anglers on a half day adventure that yielded 57 rockfish on January 24, while the Twilight headed out on January 18 and nailed 100 jumbo squid for 10 anglers.
Baja California
(Los Cabos) Fishing along the Baja Peninsula is in a typical winter pattern. There are few anglers fishing and those that do visit spend most of their time targeting inshore species such as yellowtail and cabrilla.
Pam Boyles of the Baja Big Fishing Company in Loreto related that there are good numbers of yellowtail in the 8 to 12 pound class holding on the structure in front of the airport at Playa Salinta and near Nopolo on the way to Juncalito. The fish are schooling and feeding on live bait near the shoreline.
“Last week a friend landed a 50 pound yellowtail while fishing for cabrilla under the cookie cutter firecracker Yellowtail school. The fish bit on a sardina in only 15 feet of water. It was only when it was brought to the boat when they realized how large it was. The weight was confirmed by weighing on land,” said Boyles.
If the pressure is light, as it has been most of the time, you can get the yellowtail on lures, jigs and flies. When boats start to stack up the fish tend to get finicky and it takes live bait to draw strikes.
In the same areas that hold yellowtail you can expect to find both cabrilla and pargo. These fish will slam both live baits and lures.
“There aren’t many anglers visiting La Paz right now, but the weather is great and winds have been light,” reported Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International.
“There are still lots of sierra inshore even in the bay. You can find them pretty much anywhere there's a shallow place with a nice drop off. Slow trolling such areas with some live bait or a shiny lure produces strikes. We had a few roosters here and there and there could be more, but no one was really targeting them this week. It's hard to get a good gauge of the fishing when there aren't many folks on the water,” said Roldan.
“For all we know offshore, there could be monster tuna or giant marlin prowling...that's not likely in January and February, but who knows? Everyone we had this week wanted to check out the inshore fishing, which is always good this time of the year. In addition to the sierra, cabrilla and snapper were also caught and a few nice pargo got broken off in the rocks,” added Roldan.
The folks at the Hotel Buena Vista on the East Cape are enjoying unseasonably warm 75 degree water and multiple fishing opportunities. Sierra are the staple, but East Cape anglers are also popping a few dorado and there have even been reports of billfish.
“Fishing for striped marlin was spotty this week, the success ratio was down as the fish were difficult to find, and once found were not in the feeding mood,” reported Captain George Landrum of Fly Hookers Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas. “This, combined with the rough seas made most of the boats try to target other species. One friend of mine did see, several blue marlin and a black marlin feeding on a school of dorado just off of the lighthouse on the Pacific side. He reported that the fish looked to be between 600 and 800 pounds, but were focused on the schooled dorado and would not touch what he had out.”
“We had some decent action on dorado along the Cortez coastline between the Santa Maria Bay and Red Hill just off the beach. The fish averaged 12 pounds and while there were good numbers to be found early and mid-week, at the end of the week the fish had moved elsewhere. Watching the boats return Saturday afternoon there were not many yellow flags flying,” said Landrum.
“There have been some smaller school size tuna found on occasion along the ridge between the Golden Gate and the San Jaime Bank early in the week before the wind began to blow, but since then the tuna catch has been pretty much confined to an occasional hook-up on the Gorda Banks. There was a decent bite for one day around the 1150 spot but those fish had moved on by the next day, and they were just larger than footballs anyway,” added Landrum.
“A few decent sized sailfish were found as well. The striped marlin bite just shut off. A few stripers were caught every day, and the best results I saw were three fish in one day. At least the stripers were close to home, almost on our doorstep. The action was between the lighthouse and the Solmar Hotel. Deep drifting with live bait or slow trolling them on top produced the best results. Most boats were getting shut out on the striped marlin this week,” said Landrum.
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