As one might expect, private boat fishing is not producing much of anything but sporadic rockfishing reports and tales of frustration as coastal squid is plentiful but yellowtail and white seabass are nowhere to be found in the traditional squid areas.

This is the time of year to keep the boat engine running and working the bays on a ripping tide, and also tune up for the Jan. 29 San Diego Anglers Bay Bass Open. Or, go squid fishing with the lights, load up on the fresh dead and freeze it for when the fish do show up and bait is at a premium.

On a scheduling note, for those planning to fish the WON/Yamaha Catalina White Seabass tourney at Two Harbors, the event is slated one week later than last year's event that drew a big field. It will be held Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22. See www.wonews.com for details. A 2011 signup sheet will be available soon.

Okay, so it might be time to shop, but last week the weather was warm, flat and perfect with Santa Ana conditions and anglers took advantage of it. In San Diego, reported Bob Vanian of 976-BITE.com, the fishing in the San Diego region remained in what is mostly a rockfish fishing mode as the surface fishing remains slow.

"The fishing for rockfish has been good for boats fishing a variety of different areas with boats on half-day trips, three-quarter day trips, overnight trips and 1.5 day trips reporting good fishing.

Captain Chris Randel of the Indian out of H&M Landing has been running overnight rockfish specials that fish on Wednesday and Saturday. Randel fished at the Finger Bank on Saturday and reported good action on a mix of starries, salmon grouper, reds and bank perch. He said that there was a big swell running on Saturday and that only 22 of his 24 anglers were actually fishing (The other two were out of commission) and that they had a fish count of 24 anglers catching near limits with198 rock cod.

     Boats on 1 1/2-day trips have usually been running down the Mexican coast to fish the Punta Colnett region and they have been picking up near limit to limit  numbers of quality sized rockfish and some good numbers of ling cod.  Some of the trips to the Punta Colnett rockfish grounds have also seen some early morning action on 20- pound class yellowtail. Most of the yellowtail have been caught on yo-yoed iron after stopping on meter marks found with scanning sonar.

         The rockfish fishing around the Coronado Islands was good over the weekend with a nice mix of salmon grouper, reds and whitefish biting.  A couple of the best areas for the reds and salmon grouper have been the lower end of the 9 Mile Bank while fishing in Mexican waters along with the hard bottom into the north of North Island.  The Mission Belle out of Point Loma Sportfishing fished the Coronado Islands on Saturday and had a count of 16 anglers catching 72 rockfish, 41 salmon grouper, 3 sculpin, 28 whitefish and 1 sheephead.

     There are still lots of squid available to catch for bait at night at spots up and down the San Diego area coast. The best area local to San Diego over the weekend was in the Sunset Cliffs area while fishing outside of the Ocean Beach Pier and outside of the Pine Tree in about 15 fathoms of water.

     Vanian told WON the fishing along the San Diego coast has also been in a bottom fishing mode and for the most part has been producing some pretty good to good numbers of rockfish and sculpin along with a few bass.  Hard bottom and structure spots have been the best bet with a couple of the better areas over the weekend reported to have been at Southwest outside of the lower end of La Jolla as well as at hard bottom and structure spots around the pier.