26 • Mar. 25 - Apr. 7, 2016 • The Log Counting Sheephead
fishrap.com
Anglers aboard Pacific Eagle (half-day morning) and Island Spirit (full day) reeled in three sheepheads on March 5. The two boats featured 49 com- bined anglers who reeled in 310 rock- fish, eight ocean whitefish, seven yel- lowtail and one scorpion fish to go with the three sheephead. The first few days of March were productive overall for the Ventura Sportfishing fleet, with thousands of rockfish, hun- dreds of lingcod and about a dozen sheephead reportedly caught.
Southern California fishing news Holy Mackerel! 42.6-pound yellowtail on a kayak
Brian Fagan did not waste too much time finding another big catch off the coast of La Jolla. The 56-year-old kayak angler from Poway reeled in this 42.6- pound yellowtail on a live mackerel on March 9. Fagan’s large yellowtail catch comes about five weeks after he reeled in a 74.2-pound white seabass with 32-inch girth, also on his kayak and off the coast of La Jolla. Fishing columnist and out-
door writer Jim Matthews recently reported yellowtail action has been wide open for the San Diego sportsfishing fleet on 1.5-day trips. Most big yellowtail catches have been in the 18- to 25-pound class, Matthews reported. A March 10 fish count of all landings on
976-tuna.com reported 112 yellowtail catches.
2016 spring fishing season starts with a bang! By Bob Vanian
Spring officially arrived on March 20 and the saltwater fishing readily broke out into a springtime pattern of action with bluefin tuna reported from the 60 Mile Bank, yellowtail bird schools pro- viding surface iron action below Los Coronado Islands and calico bass and yellowtail biting at Catalina Island. Water temperatures are up into the 62- to 64-degree range and prospects are looking favorable for yet another fine season of saltwater fishing in 2016. During the past several weeks bluefin tuna have been reported in several areas with a 45-pound or more bluefin being caught outside of Punta Colnett three weeks ago aboard Pacific Queen out of Fisherman’s Landing.
There have been some bluefin tuna around but without many boats actu- ally out fishing offshore waters it has been hard to know for certain what might be around and biting. The most exciting – and most recent
– report came in on Sunday while I was at the Fred Hall Show in Del Mar, when Bob Hoose and Steve Carson of Pure Fishing, Penn Reels and Berkley Tackle reported getting a photo and text mes- sage from a friend fishing out at the 60 Mile Bank and reported catching six of the 15-pound-plus bluefin tuna. Time will tell but anglers are hopeful this is the start of what will be a sustained run of bluefin tuna.
The type of fishing that has picked up sharply with the arrival of spring
has been the yellowtail fishing below Los Coronado Islands. Not only are the yellowtail biting well they have changed their habits and are now being located on the surface under spots of working birds. When the yel- lowtail are up and working on the sur- face it makes it much easier for boats without scanning sonar to be able to locate the fish. This surface activity is a certain sign of the spring season when compared to the winter time pattern of fishing when most of the yellowtail are located in the lower half of the water column via the use of scanning sonar. Private boater Craig Boegler of
Gooey Duck reported a recent trip where he fished the yellowtail below Los Coronado Islands and did very well
on quality sized fish. Boegler had a fantastic trip and reportedly caught 15 large yellowtail ranging from 18 to 35 pounds. Most of their yellowtail were within the 18- to 26-pound range. He said they had a 30-pound fish and a 35-pound fish to top off their catch. Sportboats have also been doing
very well on the yellowtail while fishing below Los Coronado Islands with most of the yellowtail action coming from fishing bird schools being found between the Rockpile and the Finger Bank. The fishing on March 20 saw near-limit to limit yellowtail fishing for the three-quarter-day trips fishing below the Islands. A three-quarter day trip on San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing returned with limits of
thelog.com
Photo courtesy of Brian Fagan
Ventura Sportfishing photo
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