Prime time, but no longfins
Very frustrating to wait,and that creates an atmosphere of wishful thinking and rumors. I called my buddy Bob Vanian of www.976BITE.com in San Diego who makes his life's mission and profession to listen to the marine radio and sit by the phone for clues to what is happening inshore and offshore in SoCal.
Bob has been watching the local and offshore
scene as it's been sloooowly developing for us, and reported Sunday morning the albacore bite is still
"promising" but not producing any catches - yet.
"There have been some
sightings this morning (Sunday) of albacore jumpers at the western end of the
Butterfly by some boats looking for bluefin, but none have been caught."
This is his report as of Saturday night.
There were some good numbers of bluefin tuna located in an entirely
different area than where boats have been fishing them in recent days. Some boats went to do some exploring
today and looked around to some different areas than where the bluefin were
being fished most of the week.
There was a good area of bluefin tuna located outside of the 43 Fathom
Bank out toward San Clemente Island.
There were some big spots of bluefin reported up that way and every once
in a while someone would slide in on a spot and catch a few fish. I believe that the top sport boat count
was up around 15 bluefin tuna.
Typical for bluefin fishing the bite was hit or miss and some boats did
not do as well.
It was reported to be a pretty nice day out on the water with some
breeze and chop. As always, be
sure to check the latest marine weather forecast before you go.
The best area was outside of the 1000 fathom trench that is outside of
the 43 Fathom Spot which is 51 miles 256 degrees from Point Loma. There were also some fish
reported down a bit further 54
miles 247 degrees from Point Loma. The late morning and early afternoon hours
were when the bluefin seemed to come up out this way. The fish seem to be
moving quickly out to the west, let's hope they settle in for a while.
The other area where I got reports
of a bit of bluefin action was back down at the area below the tip of the
Finger Bank. There was a private
boater fishing that zone this morning that was chasing around some bluefin and
had caught 1 and lost another.
This activity was reported in the area 41 miles 155 degrees from Point Loma. Also check the tip of the Finger
Bank 38 miles 153 degrees
from Point Loma.
I also got a report of a few spots of bluefin being seen this morning by
a boat fishing below the Hidden Bank.
Most of the bluefin are in the 25 to
40 pound class with a few bigger fish to around 90 pounds seen in some of the
schools. Most of the action has
come while using sardines fished on 25 pound test fluorocarbon leaders. Also try Megabait style iron as you
approach a spot of breaking fish.
There has not been much action on the troll. On Friday a bluefin was caught on a trolled cedar plug.
There was an albacore caught on Friday by a boat fishing below and
outside of the Bell Bank at about 115 miles from Point Loma. Seaforth Sportfishing is reporting that
the Eclipse has one albacore aboard and the Cortez has three albacore aboard
from today's fishing. 112 miles
199 degrees from Point Loma with some action also reported several miles out to
the west of that area as well. The
information I have about the albacore caught on Friday was that it was a jig
fish of around 18 pounds. Let's
hope this is the start of something big!
Yes indeed, we could all use an influx of longfins, and the conditions offshore this week look good. Very little wind. A big swell, but not much wind.
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