Monday June 3rd 2019
Evening Updates marked in RED
—– Weather —–
Great weather this morning and not a lot of wind this afternoon. Over-all it was a great day to be out on the water.
The forecast is calling for a repeat of these condition’s for the next 7 to 10 days and possibly longer!
AWESOME! That should help straighten out of cold dirty inshore waters.
Looks like spring/summer has finally arrived.
As always, please keep a close eye on the latest forecast and conditions for your local area before you head out!
Synopsis for Inshore Waters of the Southern California Coast
Weak onshore flow will continue this week, with a weak and intermittent eddy circulation expected Wednesday through Friday.
Northern Sector – Santa Barbara to LA
Southern Sector – Orange and San Diego County and SCI
Baja Sector (experimental, may not be updated every day)
—– Bait Report —–
Bait Barge Contact Info
Everingham Bros Bait Company
San Diego – 4-6″ sardine (5-25)
Mission Bay – 4-7″ sardine (6-3)
Oceanside Bait Barge Recording (760) 434-1183 – 5″ sardine. New hours for bait dock. Starting 5/27/19. 5 am-5pm.(5-25).
Dana Point – 5-7″ sardine (5-31).
Newport Bait Barge (310) 461-5370 – sardine & anchovy (6-2)
Nacho’s Bait Barge (updated when members report) – Live squid & sardine (6-3)
San Pedro Bait Barge (310) 365-2516 CH.11 – 4-6″ sardine (6-3)
Redondo Bait Report (310) 372-2111 – sardines – Available most mornings. Call 909 721-5849 for Mike at the bait barge (6-3)
Marina Del Rey (updated when members report) – Sardines. $30/scoop, half scoops not available (6-3)
CISCOS Bait Barge – anchovy (6-3)
G-Fly Premium California Flying Fish Baits
These locations have locally caught frozen flying fish for bluefin in stock…
Hogans Tackle in Dana Point
Dana Landing in Mission Bay
Islands Fishing Tackle in Carson
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INSHORE & ISLANDS Section
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Channel Islands
From what little we heard so far today it sounds like the seabass bite is still on the slow side. There are a few big yellows on the squid beds at Becher’s and a few halibut but no volume of squid and no seabass yet. Becher’s Bay has been the most consistent location for both the squid and the gamefish but the Eagle’s Nest and Rhodes Reef have also produced and are very much worth looking at.
That could very well change after this moon phase.
With great weather in the forecast for the next 10 days they could rebound by next weekend. Keep those fingers crossed.
Lingcod fishing at San Miguel and off the north side of Santa Rosa is good right now and is picking up the slack for the slow seabass bite.
Guys fishing a live sardine, mackerel or sand dab on a long leader dropper loop rig are scoring lings from just legal up to nearly 20lbs. They are also scoring full limits of red and chuckles in the these same areas.
Santa Barbara Island
There are some big yellowtail mixed in with some barracuda on the front side in the Anchorage area just above the MPA. There is a little bit of squid in this area too.
Also got a report of slow to fair at best bass fishing and a decent pic on lingcod and reds in 200 feet of water on the East side just above the MPA.
He was fishing plastics and made no attempt to score squid.
***** Reminder *****
This Island is in the Cow Cod Conservation Area so you may not fish in water deeper than 240 feet if you have rockfish, whitefish, sheephead, etc. on board your boat.
Santa Monica Bay
Same old stuff. Rockfish, whitefish and sculpin.
Water is still dirty and cold.
Sure wish it would straighten up and have some barracuda move in. They are due NOW.
LA Harbor / Long Beach Shelf / Newport Beach
Sculpin fishing at the various stones around the 150 is pretty good and the over all quality is good too. Our contact in the area scored a quick limit fishing a “sculpin rig” 6oz torpedo sinker painted red with a 5/0 hook attach with a 5 inch red grub glued on the hook. He added a couple of strips of squid to that.
He later moved to the New Pipe #2 spots and caught some nice sand bass and more sculpin all on plastics worked right on the bottom.
Other boats sounded like they did well on the sculpin too and they also did well on mixed reds and bocaccio on the Southeast Bank in 350 to 400 feet of water.
Catalina Island
Squid;
The Long Beach Carnage is NOT at the Island selling squid.
They plan to return Wednesday evening and be there through next weekend. They took what they had left and gave it to Nachos bait barge in Long Beach.
Contact info;
Long Beach Carnage – contact them on VHF channel 11 or call them at (562) 714-8103.
Fishing;
Some boats got into very good yellowtail fishing yesterday while quite a few struggled to even find any at all.
Yes very hit and miss.
The “hot zone” was between Eagle Reef and the West End along the front side. Indian Rock to Stoney Point was working well.
Today boats back in this same area are getting yellows again.
Live squid is best but there are some on the sardine and some on the surface iron too.
******* Important General Info **********
Here is what you need to be one of those winning….
1. Live Squid. With out it you might score but the odds greatly favor having squid. Today there was good fishing with the sardine and the surface iron but in general this is not the case.
2. Clean Water. The yellows right now seem to be concentrated in areas where the water is pretty clean and warm.
3. Downhill Current. This might be the most important of all as yellowtail just simply won’t bite without water movement.
4. Location. You have heard this before. It is all about location, location, location. If you are in an area devoid of yellowtail the odds of catching a yellowtail is very slim.
As for locations these seem to be changing daily. If you are in an area where they were caught yesterday but conditions are not right today the fish have likely moved on to where conditions are favorable. Be ready to adjust as needed.
*******
Other than the west end front side locations it is possible to run into yellowtail in other areas too.
Back side east has been pretty good at times from Church Rock to Salta Verde for a mix of yellowtail, barracuda, calico bass and some bonito.
Other area seeing some signal of yellowtail this past week include the West End to Iron Bound (good today), Little Harbor to Mills Landing, Farnsworth Bank, and the Can Dumps on the back side.
On the front the locations with yellows include the west end front spots already mentioned above plus the Isthmus Reef, Empire Landing/Yellowtail Point, Little Gibraltar, Hen Rock and the Condos.
San Clemente Island
Here is the basic’s in a nut shell….
There are both 15 to 30lb class yellowtail and seabass biting on the squid bed in Pyramid Cove near the Caves in 90 feet of water.
Dropper loop squid is the ticket here between 4am and 8am.
After that the best fishing is/has been up the front side in the Gold Bluff / White Rock area for 8-15lb class yellowtail mixed with some barracuda and bonito.
All of this depends of CURRENT.
The bite is decent to great if there is a down hill current running. If there is not current to bite is slow.
Today from what we have heard so far it was a rather slow day with not much current flowing.
When biting live squid is working best. It is the only bait working in the Cove.
Up the front the squid is working best too but some guys have scored with the sardine and the surface iron when the bite is on. If it is just a slow pick bite stick with the squid.
Evening Update: Today was indeed slow.Not because there are not any yellows because there are plenty.
Reason for the slow down today was…. LACK OF CURRENT
I can’t stress this enough and there is no way to predict it either.
You just have to take your chances.
Tomorrow is a new day and they might bite stupid if there is some current.
Only time will tell.
Evening Email from Andrew at Stoked on Fishing;
Hung out all day front side of San Clemente Island. Lots of calicos all day but besides that, slow. Had two yellows on at Gold Bluff but lost them to sea lions.
Be sure to check the Navy closure schedule before heading out. Always monitor VHF Ch. 16 and obey any requests to clear out of closed security zones.
Click here for info on how to read the closure schedule.
Dana Point / Oceanside
Word is the bass bite is pretty good and getting better everyday.
With these nice calm conditions it should be excellent soon.
Now if only we had some anchovy…..
The bass are biting anyway. Chum squid and sardine bits and fly line the small ones. Plastic’s are working great too.
Any kelp bed from Salt Creek to Terramar should work great.
Getting much farther south from there though red tide is a major issue.
Most of the bass are shorts under the 14″ size limit but there are some bigger ones mixed in up to 7-8lbs. These big ones generally don’t bite well until you get all the smaller ones all fired up.
Rockfish action at Box Canyon is still good. The fish are wandering around a little moving from stone pile to stone pile so the one you hit yesterday and scored well on might not be the hot one today. The catch is mostly reds right now with some bocaccio, treefish, barber poles, whitefish and sculpin mixed in. Depth is 220 to 240 feet.
If you want the sculpin you are better off hitting the shallower spots in 180 to 200 feet. Boats that focus on the sculpin are doing well. Quite a few limits are being caught.
Del Mar to Imperial Beach
Red Tide….
Fishing inshore is slow as far as we know.
Rockfish is about all that is biting now due to the red tide condition.
That said there is a rumor of squid and seabass in the Crystal Pier area. This is UNCONFIRMED
**** Attention ****
There is now an ice vending machine at the Shelter Island launch ramp for your convenience. It’s located right near the bathroom building at the top of the ramp. The machine takes credit cards and 20 lb. bags are $6.95 each.
Swipe your credit card to open, take as many as you want, and it charges by weight when you close the door.
——– Mexican waters ———
Getting Permits To Fish Mexico ñ An Angler’s Guide To Baja
by That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
Water is improving a great deal but the yellowtail fishing remains slow.
That said a few are being caught. The weather side of North Island from Pukey Point to the Keyhole, the ridge in the Middle Grounds, in tight to Middle Island and the north end of South Island have seen schools of yellowtail over the past several days. Just getting them to bite has been the problem.
Those that have bit have been early and late in the day with nothing happening during the middle of the day.
Most have been focused on rockfish the NE of North Island and to the WSW off the south end of South Island.
Today info was once again very hard to come by.
If we hear something different than what has been the status que we’ll be sure and add in an evening update.
With so few boats fishing the Islands reports are very hard to come by so if you fished the Islands please shoot us a report to Reports@www.fishdope.com.
Bracelets are now required to fish within Pacific Island Biosphere Reserve areas, including the Coronado Islands, Todos Santos, and San Martin Island. You can purchase bracelets for $5 per person per day at Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, Point Loma Sportfishing Tackle Shop, and Dana Landing Market & Fuel Dock. You will need to provide your boat name, boat owner’s name, number of passengers, and dates you will be in the reserve areas, but you don’t need any other special IDs or info to purchase the bracelets. Everyone on board must have a bracelet to enter the Biosphere Reserve. Biosphere Reserve boundaries are now available on the FishDope Charts (click the Closures layer). For more information, please see https://www.bdoutdoors.com/pacific-islands-biosphere-reserve/ and for the full Biosphere Reserve Declaration click here: (may need to refresh a few times to display the document ñ in Spanish)
The boundaries of the Biosphere reserve:
N32 20.000′ to N32 29.000′, and W117 12.000′ to W117 20.000′
**** ATTENTION ****
You must stay at least 250 meters (820 feet) away from any tuna pens. If you don’t you are at risk of losing your boat and landing in a Mexican jail.
Click here for more details on this subject
**************************
The Mexican Navy is there and checking boats on a regular basis for Vessel Temporary Import Permit and Valid Country of Residence Passport for each person on the boat (can’t purchase the FMM (Tourist Card) without a passport anyway).
Required permits are listed on the CONAPESCA website for fishing within 12 miles of land including the islands. The permits can be purchased through their website.
******************************
OFFSHORE Section
******************************
——- MEXICAN WATERS ————
371 / 425-101 / Upper Hidden Bank
Still the primary zone for the private boat fleet and now most of the sportboats are up in this area now too.
Yesterday the bulk of the tuna popped up LATE. With a few exceptions it was pretty quiet until about 5 or 6 pm and really didn’t get going until the last hour of day light around 8pm. By that time few boats were left around.
Today however is a completely different story. The boats in the area are reporting pretty good fishing this morning.
Many in the double digits by 10am
The vast majority of the bluefin are still in the 50 to 90lb class with a sample of bigger units from 100 to 150lbs.
30 to 40lb fluorocarbon and a small 1 to 1/0 circle hook remains the tacket for the bait guys. The past couple of days has also seen a few caught on 100 gram Colt Snipers rigged with a 100lb fluoro leader.
One thing working well today is the balloon/kite rig with the double trouble sardine. The boats are getting lots of blow ups on this and hooking quite a few. These tuna are getting landed too as it is 130lb gear with a 200lb fluoro leader to a 9/0 to 12/0 hook.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
32 11 x 117 37 – Bluefin
32 11 x 117 39 – Bluefin
32 10 x 117 36 – Lots of bluefin schools found on this number
32 10 x 117 35 – Bluefin
32 09 x 117 34 – Bluefin
32 08 x 117 31 – Bluefin
32 06 x 117 21 – Bluefin
32 04 x 117 23 – Bluefin
Below 32 00 / Hidden Bank / West of Ensenada
Did not get a report from this area today.
As of yesterday the boats were still seeing plenty of tuna in this zone but they were not biting well.
Many have given up on them and shifted back to the 371-425 area instead.
The boats here were still seeing plenty of tuna but they were not responding to the chum very good, if at all and not biting.
The tuna here were spread out in a wide 5-15 mile wide band from about 32 00 down to 31 48
East – west from about 117 10 out to about 117 27.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
We did not get any GPS numbers for this area as of post time.
If we get some this evening we will be sure to add them in the evening update.
*******************************************************************
All reports, good, bad, or otherwise are very helpful.
If you go fishing please give us a call or shoot us an email.
reports@www.fishdope.com
1 (619) 992-6099
Sunday June 2nd 2019
Evening Updates marked in RED
—– Weather —–
Great weather today. Except for some heavy overcast it was about as nice as it gets. Calm in the morning and light wind in the afternoon.
The forecast looks fantastic!
No rain and very light winds for the next 5 to 10 days!
As always, please keep a close eye on the latest forecast and conditions for your local area before you head out!
Synopsis for Inshore Waters of the Southern California Coast
Low pressure over the region will gradually recede over the next few days as a ridge of high pressure expands over California. Weak onshore flow will continue through the week.
Northern Sector – Santa Barbara to LA
Southern Sector – Orange and San Diego County and SCI
Baja Sector (experimental, may not be updated every day)
—– Bait Report —–
Bait Barge Contact Info
Everingham Bros Bait Company
San Diego – 4-6″ sardine (5-25)
Mission Bay – 4-6″ sardine/anchovy mix (5-30)
Oceanside Bait Barge Recording (760) 434-1183 – 5″ sardine. New hours for bait dock. Starting 5/27/19. 5 am-5pm.(5-25).
Dana Point – 5-7″ sardine (5-31).
Newport Bait Barge (310) 461-5370 – sardine & anchovy (6-2)
Nacho’s Bait Barge (updated when members report) – Live squid & sardine (5-31)
San Pedro Bait Barge (310) 365-2516 CH.11 – 4-6″ sardine (5-29)
Redondo Bait Report (310) 372-2111 – sardines – Available most mornings. Call 909 721-5849 for Mike at the bait barge (5-24)
Marina Del Rey (updated when members report) – Sardines. $30/scoop, half scoops not available (5-6)
CISCOS Bait Barge – anchovy (5-31)
G-Fly Premium California Flying Fish Baits
These locations have locally caught frozen flying fish for bluefin in stock…
Hogans Tackle in Dana Point
Dana Landing in Mission Bay
Islands Fishing Tackle in Carson
******************************
INSHORE & ISLANDS Section
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Channel Islands
Still on the quiet side for seabass, yellowtail and big halibut out at Santa Rosa Island.
There has been a little sample of each daily but no big hits lately. That said it is not time yet if you believe in the Moon phase thing and seabass. The best time normally is between the 1st quarter and the full moon with the last 3-4 days leading up to the full being best.
The 1st quarter is on June 9th. The full moon is on June 17th.
Becher’s Bay has been the most consistent location for both the squid and the gamefish but the Eagle’s Nest and Rhodes Reef have also produced and are very much worth looking at.
Lingcod fishing at San Miguel and off the north side of Santa Rosa is good right now and is picking up the slack for the slow seabass bite.
Guys fishing a live sardine, mackerel or sand dab on a long leader dropper loop rig are scoring lings from just legal up to nearly 20lbs. They are also scoring full limits of red and chuckles in the these same areas.
Santa Monica Bay
Same old stuff. Same as yesterday and the same as the day before…
Rockfish, sculpin and whitefish. That is about it for now until water color and temp improve.
The South Bank continues to be the primary location for a mix of reds, bocaccio, whitefish and other lesser red type rockfish.
The deep end of the El Segundo Pipe is a good choice for the sculpin.
LA Harbor / Long Beach Shelf / Newport Beach
Slow. Some are doing ok on rockfish and sculpin at West Slope locations, the Southeast Bank and the 150 but not everybody.
The fish are moving around from stone to stone so use your meter and make sure there are fish on it before dropping down.
Water is still cold and dirty. It has warmed up from a low of 52 about a week ago to around 59-60 now but it is still dirty green to brown. Not much is going to happen with water color like that.
Evening Email from Ryan at SlayDay SoCal;
Newport bait barge has both sardines and anchovies available right now. Spent half day fishing the standard Newport Reef spots for a miraculous find of sculpin and rockfish. Metered a ton of bait and some larger marks in Newport Canyon. Hardly any boats out today with such beautiful perfect weather. No wind, mild swell, and mid 70s temperatures. Water is still disgusting for the most part.
There are plenty of bass to be had at the reef. Plastics far out fished both live bait and fresh frozen squid.
Ryan C
Catalina Island
Squid;
The Long Beach Carnage is parked out in front of Avalon with plenty of live squid for sale.
There is some at Mills Landing but is still only a small amount and very hard to catch. Best bet is to buy some.
Contact info;
Long Beach Carnage – contact them on VHF channel 11 or call them at (562) 714-8103.
Fishing;
Spotty, hit and miss yellowtail fishing at the Island right now. While it is possible to get into a good yellow bite the odds are against it. A few boats it seems manage to get a decent shot everyday but the majority do not. Today was no different. A few boats got a good whack on them while others didn’t see or catch any.
Here is what you need to be one of those winning….
1. Live Squid. With out it you might score but the odds greatly favor having squid. Today there was good fishing with the sardine and the surface iron but in general this is not the case.
2. Clean Water. The yellows right now seem to be concentrated in areas where the water is pretty clean and warm.
3. Downhill Current. This might be the most important of all as yellowtail just simply won’t bite without water movement.
As for locations these seem to be changing daily. If you are in an area where they were caught yesterday but conditions are not right today the fish have likely moved on to where conditions are favorable. Be ready to adjust as needed
Beginning on the back side….
The West End to Iron Bound (good today), Little Harbor to Mills Landing, Farnsworth Bank, China Point to Salta Verde and Church Rock to the Can Dumps have all had yellowtail off and on this past week.
On the front side yellows have been seen and caught this week at Starlight, Black Rock, Stoney Point, Yellowtail Point, Empire Landing, Little Gibraltar, Hen Rock and the Condos.
Today the best action came from the front side west locations.
They bit the surface iron and the sardine well. Much better than they have been doing.
Again conditions are everything! If they are not right keep looking until you find them.
The boats are also catching some bonito, bass and barracuda too inshore and in the deep water the rockfish bite continues to be pretty good at both ends of the Island.
San Clemente Island
Once again this Island was a parking lot of boats. All sizes of boats from small skiffs to big yachts and everything in between.
They were piled up in Pyramid Cove, all along the front side and even quite a few down along the back side.
Another big issue is sea lions. They are brutal right now. They don’t seem to want anybody to catch fish as they are trying to steal every hooked fish. Use at least 40lb for these yellows and be ready to pull hard and fast.
Squid;
There is squid in Pyramid Cove. Best float appears to be in the evenings but last night boats got them right up until day light.
They are not hard to find with all the boats with squid lights on.
Fishing;
As what might be expected the fishing for yellowtail is suffering with all this boat traffic. Lack of good conditions didn’t help either. We heard there was a lack of current flowing most of the day.
There are still good quality yellowtail in the 18 to 30lb class in Pyramid Cove on the squid beds near the Caves. There is still some of this smae quality stuff up at the other end of the Island out at the 9 and in the Dunes / Runway area. BTW we hear that there is squid here too although we have yet to confirm this.
On the front side we have heard of yellows being caught from just above Gold Bluff all the way down to the Fish Hook but the concentration still appears to be in the Gold Bluff / White Rock area.
Fly lined live squid with a 4/0 to 6/0 ahi twist hook was the rig to be using on the front side. In the cove most of the yellows and seabass are coming on the dropper loop rig with 1 or 2 live squid pinned on the big ahi hook. Did not here of any sardine fish this morning. All the reports were live squid fish.
Perhaps most important of all is current. When the current is slack these yellowtail are NOT biting for anybody. Weak flow sees a few bite. Good downhill current is seeing the best fishing. No current or a raging current is not good.
Along with the yellowtail the boats are also catching the 3 B’s. Bass, barracuda, and bonito.
Be sure to check the Navy closure schedule before heading out. Always monitor VHF Ch. 16 and obey any requests to clear out of closed security zones.
Click here for info on how to read the closure schedule.
Dana Point / Oceanside
Water is clean and up to 63-64 degrees now. Calico bass are getting very active at just about and kelp spot you can find. Locate the spot where the current is flowing into the kelp and chum a few baits. If the bass are there you’ll know in a few seconds as they come out boiling on the chum. If you don’t get that reaction move on to another kelp spot. Keep moving until you find active bass. It shouldn’t take very long.
Most of the bass are shorts under the 14″ size limit but there are some bigger ones mixed in up to 7-8lbs. These big ones generally don’t bite well until you get all the smaller ones all fired up.
Rockfish action at Box Canyon is still good. The fish are wandering around a little moving from stone pile to stone pile so the one you hit yesterday and scored well on might not be the hot one today. The catch is mostly reds right now with some bocaccio, treefish, barber poles, whitefish and sculpin mixed in. Depth is 220 to 240 feet.
If you want the sculpin you are better off hitting the shallower spots in 180 to 200 feet. Boats that focus on the sculpin are doing well. Quite a few limits are being caught.
Del Mar to Imperial Beach
Red Tide…..
The entire area is affected with red tide now. It is streaky and clear in a few areas for short periods but over all the entire zone is covered with red tide.
Nothing new on the barracuda that popped up off Hill Street yesterday. Conditions in the area got worse over night and appears to have driven the fish away.
These fish were on schools of small anchovy well outside of the kelp line. If you want to look for them look for jumpers and ANCHOVY. Find the bait balls and work them over good.
Colt Snipers and a Tady AA and the Tady C are great choices.
Report from Papituna on the Sea Era:
Decided to fish the San Diego Bay yesterday for halibut. With drifts all morning for nothing. Waited until incoming tide around 3. Had a consistent bite of 24 to 35 inch halibut all taken on live sardine. We mainly concentrated on the rocky Jetty points. Had an amazing day with my son and nephew. Left them biting and had halibut for dinner! Good luck!
**** Attention ****
There is now an ice vending machine at the Shelter Island launch ramp for your convenience. It’s located right near the bathroom building at the top of the ramp. The machine takes credit cards and 20 lb. bags are $6.95 each.
Swipe your credit card to open, take as many as you want, and it charges by weight when you close the door.
——– Mexican waters ———
Getting Permits To Fish Mexico ñ An Angler’s Guide To Baja
by That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
Word is the yellowtail bite is still slow. There are some yellows around and the water has warmed back up into the low to mid 60’s but the clarity just isn’t quite right yet.
That said a few are being caught. The weather side of North Island from Pukey Point to the Keyhole, the ridge in the Middle Grounds, in tight to Middle Island and the north end of South Island have seen schools of yellowtail over the past several days. Just getting them to bite has been the problem.
Those that have bit have been early and late in the day with nothing happening during the middle of the day.
Once again this morning the early word was the bite was slow and the boats were focused on rockfish instead to the NNE of North Island and the area WSW off the lower end of South Island.
As of post time we have still not heard of any decent yellowtail bite. We will of course update this tonight should we learn of anything good happening today.
Evening Email from Kirk;
Fished the islands Today. Water conditions decent color, not blue but definitely clean enough, 63° most everywhere we went from North Island, South Island Middle Grounds. Little to no current all day. No meter marks for yellows that I saw. Very nice otherwise, flat all day.
Ended up catching rockfish and some calico’s too.
Best regards,
Kirk Albrektsen
With so few boats fishing the Islands reports are very hard to come by so if you fished the Islands please shoot us a report to Reports@www.fishdope.com.
Bracelets are now required to fish within Pacific Island Biosphere Reserve areas, including the Coronado Islands, Todos Santos, and San Martin Island. You can purchase bracelets for $5 per person per day at Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, Point Loma Sportfishing Tackle Shop, and Dana Landing Market & Fuel Dock. You will need to provide your boat name, boat owner’s name, number of passengers, and dates you will be in the reserve areas, but you don’t need any other special IDs or info to purchase the bracelets. Everyone on board must have a bracelet to enter the Biosphere Reserve. Biosphere Reserve boundaries are now available on the FishDope Charts (click the Closures layer). For more information, please see https://www.bdoutdoors.com/pacific-islands-biosphere-reserve/ and for the full Biosphere Reserve Declaration click here: (may need to refresh a few times to display the document ñ in Spanish)
The boundaries of the Biosphere reserve:
N32 20.000′ to N32 29.000′, and W117 12.000′ to W117 20.000′
**** ATTENTION ****
You must stay at least 250 meters (820 feet) away from any tuna pens. If you don’t you are at risk of losing your boat and landing in a Mexican jail.
Click here for more details on this subject
**************************
The Mexican Navy is there and checking boats on a regular basis for Vessel Temporary Import Permit and Valid Country of Residence Passport for each person on the boat (can’t purchase the FMM (Tourist Card) without a passport anyway).
Required permits are listed on the CONAPESCA website for fishing within 12 miles of land including the islands. The permits can be purchased through their website.
******************************
OFFSHORE Section
******************************
——- MEXICAN WATERS ————
371 / 425-101 / Upper Hidden Bank
This zone still has bluefin but is hit and miss. Some guys working the zone say there is very little signal while other say they are finding widely scattered small schools of what appears to be mainly 50 to 90lb bluefin.
One thing that seems to be constant. Best showing is late in the day after 4pm. Mornings have been slow and very hit and miss.
The area remains pretty unchanged. Have a look between the 371 and the 425 around 32 15 x 117 28 to down just inside and below the Upper Hidden Bank around 32 00 x 117 18.
Anywhere in a 4-5 mile wide strip between these numbers will have you in the right zone
These bluefin are well fed! They are stuffed full of micro bait and red crab although the volume of red crab appears to be thinning out.
30-40lb fluorocarbon is a must for fly lining a sardine. Match that with a size 1 to 1/0 circle hook.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
32 10 x 117 32 – Bluefin
32 09 x 117 27 – Bluefin
32 08 x 117 31 – Bluefin
32 06 x 117 21 – Bluefin
Below 32 00 / Hidden Bank / West of Ensenada
This remains the zone where most of the fleet started out this morning. This also remains the area where you have the best chance of getting a bite. These bluefin are not all stuffed with micro bait and red crab like the tuna up in the 371-425 area
The boats that did find biters got them on 40-50lb fluoro both flylining and with a 6oz torpedo sinker and a hot sardine pinned on a size 1 to 1/0 circle hook.
Most are in the 50-90lb class but the boats are also seeing bluefin in the 100 to over 150lb class as well.
It is far from wide open fishing. Bluefin are normally tough to get to bite and it is no different now. You need a ton of chum to draw interest from them and then you need to get that bait well out away from the boat. Take your time picking out a sardine. You want a HOT green one! No red spots, missing scales or sick looking baits are working.
Location(s)
This morning there was a lot of life and tuna found in a 2-3 mile block centered around 31 53 x 117 13 and this is where a lot of the fleet was working early in the day. That said there is really bluefin spread out in a wide 5-15 mile wide band from about 32 00 down to 31 48
East – west from about 117 10 out to about 117 27.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
31 56 x 117 17 – Bluefin
31 53 x 117 13 – Lots of bluefin schools seen up puddling and breezing in the early AM
31 52 x 117 15 – Bluefin breezers
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All reports, good, bad, or otherwise are very helpful.
If you go fishing please give us a call or shoot us an email.
reports@www.fishdope.com
1 (619) 992-6099
Saturday June 1st 2019
Evening Updates marked in RED
—– Weather —–
Heavy overcast but otherwise great weather today.
Forecast is calling for more of the same for the next 5-10 days straight!
This should help straighten things out!
As always, please keep a close eye on the latest forecast and conditions for your local area before you head out!
Synopsis for Inshore Waters of the Southern California Coast
Weak onshore flow will persist through Wednesday, with a coastal eddy at times. Higher pressure will gradually build over the region through the week.
Northern Sector – Santa Barbara to LA
Southern Sector – Orange and San Diego County and SCI
Baja Sector (experimental, may not be updated every day)
—– Bait Report —–
Bait Barge Contact Info
Everingham Bros Bait Company
San Diego – 4-6″ sardine (5-25)
Mission Bay – 4-6″ sardine/anchovy mix (5-30)
Oceanside Bait Barge Recording (760) 434-1183 – 5″ sardine. New hours for bait dock. Starting 5/27/19. 5 am-5pm.(5-25).
Dana Point – 5-7″ sardine (5-31).
Newport Bait Barge (310) 461-5370 – 4-6″ sardine (5-29)
Nacho’s Bait Barge (updated when members report) – Live squid & sardine (5-31)
San Pedro Bait Barge (310) 365-2516 CH.11 – 4-6″ sardine (5-29)
Redondo Bait Report (310) 372-2111 – sardines – Available most mornings. Call 909 721-5849 for Mike at the bait barge (5-24)
Marina Del Rey (updated when members report) – Sardines. $30/scoop, half scoops not available (5-6)
CISCOS Bait Barge – anchovy (5-31)
G-Fly Premium California Flying Fish Baits
These locations have locally caught frozen flying fish for bluefin in stock…
Hogans Tackle in Dana Point
Dana Landing in Mission Bay
Islands Fishing Tackle in Carson
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INSHORE & ISLANDS Section
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Channel Islands
Word is the seabass fishing in Becher’s is on the slow side. The boats are still seeing some fish so a re-bite is entirely possible.
The best time normally is between the 1st quarter and the Full moon with the last 3-4 days leading up to the full being best.
The 1st quarter is on June 9th. The full moon is on June 17th.
The boats are still getting some yellowtail and a few big halibut too
We have not heard about the squid. This is very important as these fish are on the squid grounds at Becher’s. If the squid dries up so will the bite. The boats are still catching a few fish so it would appear there is still likely at least a little bit of squid still around. Squid too generally builds up in the same moon phase so keep watching this. The new moon is coming on June 3rd. Anytime after that the squid could show up in big numbers.
Santa Monica Bay
Rockfish, sculpin and whitefish. That is about it for now until water color and temp improve.
The South Bank continues to be the primary location for a mix of reds, bocaccio, whitefish and other lesser red type rockfish.
The deep end of the El Segundo Pipe is a good choice for the sculpin.
LA Harbor / Long Beach Shelf / Newport Beach
Not much to report.
Water is still cold and dirty. It is still under 60 degrees and is green to even brown in some areas.
Rockfish and sculpin continue to be the primary catch.
Hit the Southeast Bank for the rockfish and hit the various stones on the 150 for the sculpin.
Evening Report from Alec;
Alec called in to report slow fishing at the 150 and the Southeast Bank today. Just a couple of sand bass and a few rockfish.
Catalina Island
Squid;
The Long Beach Carnage is parked out in front of Avalon with plenty of live squid for sale.
There is some at Mills Landing but is still only a small amount and very hard to catch. Best bet is to buy some.
Contact info;
Long Beach Carnage – contact them on VHF channel 11 or call them at (562) 714-8103.
Fishing;
VERY hit and miss yellowtail fishing with way more miss than hit. The yellows are around in a lot of areas but for what ever reason they are not biting well. You need clean water, downhill current and you need to have live squid for any chance at all.
Currently it seems the best fishing over all is back side east from Silver Canyon to Salta Verde. The area has quite a few barracuda, bonito and calico bass along with yellowtail. Some of the better grade is out in 90 feet of water while there are some little rats right in the kelp line.
There is also some word of barracuda and a few yellowtail in the area from Little Harbor to Iron Bound on the back side.
On the front side there are yellowtail but most never see them or catch them. That said they have been caught in recent days at Black Rock, Stoney Point, Empire Landing, Little Gibraltar and the Condos.
Today the west end front side spots and the west end saw some pretty good fishing for some bigger grade yellowtail barracuda and some bonito.
Remember though if conditions are not right with clean water and a good current flow going the odds of catch a yellowtail go waaaaay down.
San Clemente Island
Parking lot!
There was a lot of boats at the Island today.
Huge numbers of them in Pyramid Cove and lots more scattered all along the front side of the Island.
Another big issue right now is SEA LIONS. They are brutal stealing a lot of hooked yellowtail, seabass and barracuda.
Below is the run down on the fishing….
Squid;
There is squid in Pyramid Cove. Best float appears to be in the evenings but last night boats got them right up until day light.
They are not hard to find with all the boats with squid lights on. Kind of looks like a small city.
Fishing;
Some boats got into the bigger grade yellowtail in Pyramid Cove this morning while some didn’t. Luck of the draw more than anything else. These bit on the dropper loop live squid mostly and much of it was before daylight from 4 to 6am.
Later in the morning the front side Gold Bluff / White Rock area started biting. There was a ton of boats here too and the ones set up on the actual spots did way better. Fly lined live squid with a 4/0 to 6/0 ahi twist hook was the rig to be using. Did not here of any sardine fish this morning. All the reports were live squid fish.
Perhaps most important of all is current. When the current is slack these yellowtail are NOT biting for anybody. Weak flow sees a few bite. Good downhill current is seeing the best fishing. No current or a raging current is not good.
Along with the yellowtail the boats are also catching the 3 B’s. Bass, barracuda, and bonito.
Be sure to check the Navy closure schedule before heading out. Always monitor VHF Ch. 16 and obey any requests to clear out of closed security zones.
Click here for info on how to read the closure schedule.
Dana Point / Oceanside
Not much, if any, change.
Calico bass fishing is decent and appears to be improving although 90% of the bass are shorts under the 14″ size limit. Still fun catch and release fishing. Not a lot of kelp around yet but where you do find some it generally has a bunch of bass on it.
Sculpin fishing at Box Canyon is good right now. Lots of limits being caught on the hard bottom in 180 to 200 feet of water.
Red plastics are getting lots of bites.
Reds are biting good too at Box Canyon on the stone piles in 220 to 240 feet. Guys dropping down the largest Colt Sniper with a strip of squid are scoring the larger reds and bocaccio.
Del Mar to Imperial Beach
RED TIDE! The area from at least Del Mar down to Mission Bay is now completely covered in red tide conditions.
Fishing is poor at best. Going to have to wait for this to clear up before you have any real shot at a gamefish.
Breaking news! Barracuda!
Below Mission Bay there is much better conditions and there is now a pretty good volume of barracuda just outside of Hill Street. These are from just barely short up to 7-8lbs with most being legal sized fish.
They are outside of the kelp line. Water is NOT ideal. It is dirty and might be getting worse if the Red Tide to the north spreads farther down to the south.
Look for birds and sonar marks. They are chasing schools of anchovy. Find those and the cuda will be close by.
A couple of boats got into these this morning and did good casting Colt Snipers and Tady AA jigs
Report from Bajadog on the Tinadall II;
Ran out late yesterday morning out of Mission Bay.
Got to just north of Scripps pier and looked for birds, boils or meter marks about 9 AM.
Slow trolled sardines and threw salas 6X blue white.
Nothing on the troll after almost 2 hours. Water was brownish, not even green.
Pulled the plug at 11:30 and made way back towards wreck alley, looking for meter marks.
Nothing really decent, so headed in.
With the sun up high now, coming back into Mission Bay channel, I saw the water was brownish-red, super nasty looking.
Barf.
**** Attention ****
There is now an ice vending machine at the Shelter Island launch ramp for your convenience. It’s located right near the bathroom building at the top of the ramp. The machine takes credit cards and 20 lb. bags are $6.95 each.
Swipe your credit card to open, take as many as you want, and it charges by weight when you close the door.
——– Mexican waters ———
Getting Permits To Fish Mexico ñ An Angler’s Guide To Baja
by That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
Water conditions are improving. Water is plenty warm enough now running between 63 and 65 degrees. Much of it is still off-color though.
There are yellowtail around and yesterday the San Diego scored 4 while seeing a pretty good volume of them.
They have been seeing them almost daily but this is the first time a few decided to bite. Sure there has been 1 here and 1 there but this is sign that the bite might begin again in the near future. What few yellows that have been biting have come in the late afternoon hours.
The weather side of North Island, the ridge running through the Middle Grounds and up tight to Middle Island and the north end of South Island is where the boats have been seeing yellows lately.
This morning the early word was the bite was slow and the boats were focused on rockfish instead to the NNE of North Island and the area WSW off the lower end of South Island.
The yellows have not been showing in the morning hours anyway. It has been an afternoon deal since the water rolled over and got cold.
That was it as of post time. Of course if we get some more info we’ll update the report this evening.
Report from Kelly and Karen;
Wanted to give you a fish report from the islands. 1 bass, 1 sculpin, 1 stupid mackerel. The weather was a little cool, but the trip there and back was pretty smooth. Water is still dirty.
Report from Ryan;
Got a 15lb yellowtail at the Keyhole at 6:15 am on trolled Rapala. After that, I trolled and yoyo’d all over around South Island and Middle Grounds and metered fish, but no bites. Water was ok and about 65 degrees.
Ryan
With so few boats fishing the Islands reports are very hard to come by so if you fished the Islands please shoot us a report to Reports@www.fishdope.com.
Bracelets are now required to fish within Pacific Island Biosphere Reserve areas, including the Coronado Islands, Todos Santos, and San Martin Island. You can purchase bracelets for $5 per person per day at Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, Point Loma Sportfishing Tackle Shop, and Dana Landing Market & Fuel Dock. You will need to provide your boat name, boat owner’s name, number of passengers, and dates you will be in the reserve areas, but you don’t need any other special IDs or info to purchase the bracelets. Everyone on board must have a bracelet to enter the Biosphere Reserve. Biosphere Reserve boundaries are now available on the FishDope Charts (click the Closures layer). For more information, please see https://www.bdoutdoors.com/pacific-islands-biosphere-reserve/ and for the full Biosphere Reserve Declaration click here: (may need to refresh a few times to display the document ñ in Spanish)
The boundaries of the Biosphere reserve:
N32 20.000′ to N32 29.000′, and W117 12.000′ to W117 20.000′
**** ATTENTION ****
You must stay at least 250 meters (820 feet) away from any tuna pens. If you don’t you are at risk of losing your boat and landing in a Mexican jail.
Click here for more details on this subject
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The Mexican Navy is there and checking boats on a regular basis for Vessel Temporary Import Permit and Valid Country of Residence Passport for each person on the boat (can’t purchase the FMM (Tourist Card) without a passport anyway).
Required permits are listed on the CONAPESCA website for fishing within 12 miles of land including the islands. The permits can be purchased through their website.
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OFFSHORE Section
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371 / 425-101 / Upper Hidden Bank
This area is where most private boats and skiffs are working. There is good volume of tuna here although most seem to have trouble finding them.
Could be a time of day thing as yesterday the boats didn’t see much until about 4:30pm and then they popped up.
When located some are up top puddling or breezing in small schools or down from 50 to 200 feet and being found on the sonar.
The best zone currently appears to be from between the 371 and the 425 around 32 15 x 117 28 to down just inside and below the Upper Hidden Bank around 31 58 x 117 18.
A few guys found some foamers late in the day yesterday and got a few to bite the poppers in the area around 31 59 x 117 19.
Red crab finally appears to be thinning out but the is still a lot of micro fin bait around and the tuna are stuffed full of them which in turn is making them even harder to hook than they already are.
30-40lb fluorocarbon is a must for fly lining a sardine. Match that with a size 1 to 1/0 circle hook.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
32 15 x 117 28 – Bluefin zone
32 06 x 117 22 – Multiple bluefin schools
32 00 x 117 20 – Bluefin
31 59 x 117 19 – Bluefin foamers
31 58 x 117 18 – Bluefin zone
Evening Email Report from Lucas:
Left the big bay at 5:30am headed for the 425 bank. Water was still green until about 5 miles past the islands. Stopped at a nice paddy near the 425 proper, no yellowtail, but as the divers were exiting the water a tuna boil popped up about 100 yards off that paddy, fizzled out before we could get into position.
Headed to the 371 and found lots of paddies on the way. We probably jumped in on close to 15, but only one had a single yellowtail on it.
Finally near the 371 we found the right boil of bluefin. Swam from far off to get to it but it was worth it as the 60# tuna were still boiling when I got there. Coordinates of this tuna attached. Put a shaft into one of the slower moving ones and landed it some tome later. From there we headed north along the color break checking out more empty paddies.
In all we only saw 3 tuna schools at the surface for the whole morning between the 425 and 371, a couple of them without many birds at all to help find them.
Hidden Bank / West of Ensenada
This area is where most of the over night to 1.5 day fleet was working today.
The boats are finding bluefin mainly in the 50-90lb class but they are also seeing and hooking a few of those bigger ones from 100 to 150lbs.
This morning was on the slow side for most. Many of the boats spent most of the morning hours just driving around looking for tuna either up on top or on the sonar.
That said some did find schools but not all of them bit. Just bluefin being bluefin.
The boats that did find biters got them on 40-50lb fluoro both flylining and with a 6oz torpedo sinker and a hot sardine pinned on a size 1 to 1/0 circle hook.
The following GPS numbers are where bluefin or kelp paddy yellowtail were found today but not necessarily where tuna/yellowtail were caught:
31 56 x 117 21 – Bluefin
31 53 x 117 21 – Bluefin
31 52 x 117 26 – Bluefin
31 52 x 117 22 – Bluefin
31 51 x 117 24 – Bluefin
31 51 x 117 14 – Bluefin
31 48 x 117 27 – Bluefin
Double 220 to the 238 down to west of the 1140 Finger / Lower 500
No report from this area today. Not sure if any boats even made the run. Most that would have been in this area decided to fish out west of Ensenada instead.
*******************************************************************
All reports, good, bad, or otherwise are very helpful.
If you go fishing please give us a call or shoot us an email.
reports@www.fishdope.com
1 (619) 992-6099