The original plan was for the alarm to go off at 2 a.m. this morning and head down the coast with my friends, the Husbands, and look for squid and fish the kelp lines for those big seabass that divers have been skewering. 

Then the phone rang at 1:50. It was my sister-in-law saying that their grandmother had passed away. My in laws are on a flight from Germany to be here for the birth of our first child, which is their first grandchild. It’s a pretty gripping life comes, life goes example of how the only thing we can't buy is time that reminds me that in the end, nobody who loves to fish ever says, "I wish I had worked more and fished less, I'm glad I only fished once a year all those seasons and found excuses not to do what I love." 

So there’s no first-hand, on-the-water local conditions update today. But the good news on the fishing front is that the conditions are really coming together. I’ve stood by the whole “we need conditions, and the fish will follow” mantra this spring, and it looks like things are really about to come together. 

There’s signal of bluefin around 200 miles and yellows on kelps outside the Ridge. And the San Diego had 15 yellows on the ‘Pile yesterday while the Malihini was anchored up nowhere near the San Diego, up on one of the structure spots catching barracuda. Thirty-plus barracuda to go with a yellowtail after they ran down to the ‘Pile never looked so good in a fish count. My bud Danny Wade is on the Malihini, so I’ll get a rundown from a jig fisherman’s perspective later tonight. 

In the meantime, here’s the most recent Terrafin from this morning at 2 a.m. It’s coming together. Now if someone could find where all that big yellow swam off to … make it a great weekend. You never know when the next trip could be the last. 

Note how there's little bubbles of slightly warmer water and edges on the 100 fathom and 500 fathom curves? Time to look for threshers for the shark set, while there has to be some yellows around from La Jolla Canyon on up to Encinitas, in other words, the opposite direction from where most are looking.