coast Fishing Report 2024

It started out great and got better and better. The whole boat went bendo kelp after kelp and the kelps weren't to far between. I'd say we could have done better on the hoo. We lost alot more than we landed. The anglers were pulling the tricks out of their sleeves seeing what cool ways they could get bites. Hookless jigs, taquitos etc. We couldn't ask for better weather. It is unbeatable. We're headed up north to finish the trip with some yellowtail fishing.

Today we went out on a hunt for the “catchable” grade bluefin. After a couple hours of searching our efforts were rewarded as we landed 13 (50-80 lb) bluefin. Be prepared to fly line with 40 lb as well as fish a sinker rig on 50 or 60 lb. size 1/0 circle hooks on your fly line rod. Size 2/0 or 3/0 on your sinker rig. Always a good idea to bring a 25lb rod just in case we get a yellowfin stop.

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in with an audio update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We have been drifting for 5 hours now.  We have 16 Bluefin Tuna in the 60 to 80 pound class.

The Tribute is online at Seaforth by the seashore.

Aug. 17
    Today almost went as planned except for the lack of yellowfin.  We were supposed to scratch pretty good at the yellowfin in the morning, like 40 or so and then get on that big bluefin, and then scratch out another 30 or so yellowfin in the evening.  Well we did the middle part but the numbers were lower on the sides.  We saw plenty of that yellowfin, it just didn't bite well.  On with the cool part.  We found a mega school of that 70-100+ pound bluefin mid morning.  It's been a long time since I've seen a mega school and every time I do I forget about the time before and I think it's the biggest school I've ever seen and that's how today was.  Of course it didn't bite, but for me up in the wheel house where I can see it well it was incredible.  Just the area of fish was monstrous, and when you add in all the shiners and thousands of black backs swimming through, it's amazing.  We fished it for 4 hours on different attempts.  On the first, the youngster Brendan hooked up and landed about an 80 pounder.  On the second, his dad Scott hooked up and lost it and we hooked and lost another one.  On the third, Scott hooked up again but this time he landed his 107 pounder. So far it's looking like we'll have a father- son jack pot.  On the next few tries we got no reaction so we let it regroup for a while and a couple hours later we found it again and we hooked two more and lost them both and we missed a bite on the kite.  We tried it one more time after that for no reaction before we left it for good.  We're going to fish again tomorrow.  We'll make a small move and relocate but as things are right now, we don't need much more yellowfin so we'll concentrate on the other kind of tuna.
                                    

 

44 yellowtail 17 barracuda 1 bonito. One stop made our day.

Capt Matt has called in an early report of 20 bluefin and 10 yellowtail with 5 fish still hanging. Spots are going fast so make those resos. Passports are required for all trips that fish within 12 miles of Mexican Territory. The Coronado Islands fall into that category.

Our full day trip was turned into a 1/2 day trip due to rough seas. We did however get a couple of good shots and ended with 28 yellowtail. Looking forward to spending an entire day on the grounds tomorrow.

Aug. 29

Here we go again. We arrived early this morning and unloaded a deck full of bluefin and yellowtail, loaded up some sysco, put on a bunch of fuel, then loaded more groceries, put the new peeps on and took off on the glory run. The Gary Roberts 9 day baby. We got a good load of bait and we're headed down. It looks like we're going to pass by where we caught our bluefin last trip after daylight so we'll definitely be looking for those as we roll down. We'd never pass up that kind of fishing but we're not going to give it our all. If we don't see it and the other boats in the area aren't seeing it we're going to keep her rolling on down down down to destinations unknown. Or better yet not decided on. Either my next report will be about us catching bluefin or it will be about our traveling down.