By: The Fish Sniffer Staff
November 13, 2009
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Monterey
Charter boat operations will be switching over from rockfish trips to sanddab, crab and jumbo squid adventures after November 15. The rockfish action over the weekend of November 7-8 was very tough, due to a large swell of 15 to 20 feet high.
“The 23 anglers fishing aboard the Chubasco on November 8 averaged 2 rockfish and 1 crab each,” said Brian Cutting at Randy’s Fishing Trips. “They fished close to the harbor off Cypress Point.”
A trip by 5 anglers aboard the Chubasco on November 7 also produced difficult fishing, with anglers catching an average of 3 rockfish per rod. The fish were a mixture of blue, yellowtail and olive rockfish.
However, on the last trip the boat was able to make it to Big Sur, the 27 anglers caught limits of quality blue, yellowtail and vermilion rockfish. “We nailed 60 vermilions while using shrimp flies and bars,” said Cutting.
“We weren’t able to go out on crab/rockfish combos on the opening weekend of crab season because of the big swell, “said Chris Arcoleo of Chris’ Fishing Trips. “However, the anglers were able to catch a mixture of blue and yellowtail rockfish off Cypress Point and Point Joe.”
After the rockfish season ends, Arcoleo said the charter boats will begin booking jumbo squid, crab and sanddab fishing adventures out of the wharf.
Half Moon Bay
Now that rockfish season is closed to the north of Pigeon Point, several Half Moon Bay charter boat operators are hoping to get in a little fishing south of Pigeon before the season ends November 15, but this won’t happen unless the ocean calms significantly.
“We haven’t run any trips to the south of Pigeon Point yet because it has been too rough,” related Peggy Beckett at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center. “The weather has been getting a little better, so some of our boats might make it out for a trip down south before the season closes on November 15.
Sport anglers reported good crabbing offshore of the Pillar Point Harbor. It’s been pretty rough, but a few have been going out anyway. They’ve been getting from 5 to 8 and in some cases 10 crabs per pot, but on short soaks they are pulling some blanks too.
Captain Mike Gerardo of the Que Sera Sera is planning on running some crab trips soon, according to Beckett.
“On November 5, Captain Bob traveled just about as far as he could down the coastline past the imaginary line at Pigeon Point to just above where the coastline closes again at the northernmost marine protected area this side of Ano Nuevo and put the lines in the water,” reported Sherry Ingles of the Queen of Hearts Sportfishing. “It was quite a run, but it was worth it, since the fish were biting well and easy limits were landed.”
As of press time the Queen of Hearts hadn’t ventured south again due to rough weather.
Berkeley/Emeryville
(Berkeley) During the fall when saltwater anglers hear the term “crab combos,” they usually think about combination limits of crabs and rockfish, but this season the crab season and the rockfish season don’t overlap.
This fact hasn’t kept East Bay charter boat enthusiasts from enjoying great combo action. Skippers are combining crabbing with live bait drifting within San Francisco Bay with outstanding results.
“It has been a little rough out on the ocean, but we’ve still been able to bag limits of crab today and yesterday,” reported Captain Joe Gallia of New Easy Rider Sportfishing. “We’ve been teaming crabbing with live bait drifting in the bay and we’ve had some very exciting trips.”
“Yesterday after we boated 25 limits of crabs we headed back into the bay and started drifting near Red Rock. We ended up with 6 halibut to 12 pounds and three stripers to 15 pounds. Today we went out and hauled in 20 limits of crabs and so far we’ve added 8 stripers to 10 pounds and 3 halibut to a whopping 36 pounds while drifting off the Point Pinole Pier,” exclaimed Gallia.
At the Emeryville Marina Sportfishing Center, Craig Stone reported that they plan on running crab combo trips in the coming days, but confided that over the past two days they have restricted their operations to live bait fishing within the bay due to rough weather.
“The Captain Hook took out 13 anglers and they ended up with 20 stripers to 8 pounds and 5 halibut to 13 pounds. The Wet Spot headed out this morning with 2 anglers aboard and they returned with a pair of halibut to 9 pounds and a single 20 pound leopard shark,” said Stone.
Marin/San Francisco
(San Rafael) Boaters and shore anglers caught lots of striped bass over the weekend of November 7-8, with many anglers reporting limits of hard-fighting stripers.
For example, the 10 anglers fishing aboard the Predator on November 7 bagged limits of striped bass and two halibut while drifting shiners and mudsuckers between Buoy #5 and Buoy #7. The stripers ranged from just-keepers to 10 pounds, reported Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle.
All of the skiff anglers that Fraser surveyed that day also reported catching limits of stripers.
“The shoreline action is also excellent from the Loch Lomond Marina Levee to China Camp,” observed Fraser. “Shrimp baits, bullheads and mudsuckers are yielding the top action.”
The Codzilla, skippered by Aaron Anfinson, will be booking striped bass, leopard shark, and sturgeon trips out of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco throughout the fall and winter months, according to Erik Anfinson, captain of the Bass Tub.
Martinez
(Martinez) Charter boats departing from the Martinez Marina have been experiencing mixed results while targeting stripers, but limit style catches have been reported in recent days.
“I was out yesterday and the striper fishing was pretty slow overall,” reported Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing. “We ended up only catching 5 bass to 15 pounds. My dad has been doing pretty well on the Happy Hooker, so I know there are good numbers of bass around. I’ve just got to get dialed in on them.”
Captain Jim Smith, captain of the Happy Hooker, reported solid fishing during most of his recent trips.
“We went out today and got 19 limits of stripers with fishing running up to 12 pounds. We caught our fish while drifting a variety of baits including bullheads, mudsuckers, shiners, anchovies and sardines,” said Smith.
“Yesterday we didn’t get limits and the fishing was quite a bit slower, but we did get 12 limits last Thursday. I’ve been having the best results while fishing in the Rodeo area,” added Smith.
Private boaters have also been scoring limits and near limits of stripers in the Rodeo area too. Most guys are fishing off the anchor.
Bodega Bay
With rockfish season closed crabbing and squid fishing are the only games in town for Sonoma coast saltwater enthusiasts, but the weather hasn't cooperated with squidders over the past several days.
“I’m pretty frustrated right at this moment,” lamented Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center. “There are big numbers of huge squid holding offshore. I marked them while I was running a marine viewing trip several days ago, but with swells approaching 20 feet I haven’t been able to go out after them. I’ve cancelled three straight sold out trips.”
“When this rough weather lays down we’ll be going to war with the squid. It seems like just about everyone that loves saltwater fishing wants to go out and battle the squid. The way the big Humboldts fight the excitement level they generate isn’t surprising. As if the fight they put up isn’t enough, when anglers get back home they will have a freezer full of top grade calamari,” said Powers.
On the crab fishing front, Powers reported that private boaters are finding plenty of crabs. “When the weather is calm enough for private boaters to get out it’s limits all around when it comes to crabbing,” shared Powers.
Baja California
(Los Cabos) Fishing along the Baja Peninsula is a mixed bag proposition these days with every thing from sierra mackerel to striped marlin showing in the catches.
“While the marlin show began early this year, the September and October parade of storms seem to have pushed them out again,” disclosed Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly, reporting about the conditions in Magdalena Bay. “Consensus is the lack of bait is the reason. Earlier there were bait balls everywhere, but unfortunately they have disappeared.”
“Boats traveling down the ridge reported excellent tuna and dorado fishing all the way down to the 23’s, then nothing on down to Santa Maria. Some of the Loreto trailer boats are reporting fair to great wahoo action on the Thetis. Closer to shore, ten miles outside Boca Soledad, limits of tuna and dorado were a slam dunk,” said Graham.
“We're starting to get those nice firecracker yellowtail again off Isla Coronado and points North of Punta Colorada, the structure in front of the airport off Playa Salinta, and off Nopolo halfway to Juncalito,” reported Pam Boyles of the Baja Big Fish Company in Loreto. These are schooling fish and can be spotted when they have feeding frenzies near the shorelines. They'll generally be cookie cutter 8 to 12 pound fish. Live sardinas are the best bait for these fish.”
“Larger yellowtail are being caught from the bottom from 90 to 250 feet at San Bruno and Puerto Almejas. There are also reports of larger yellowtail at Punta Pulpito and Isla San Ildefonso. These yellowtail prefer mackerel or bigeye bait fished at the bottom with 10 to 12 ounces of lead weight,” added Boyles.
“This week we got a nice assortment of fish with a wide variety depending on where you fished and how you fished,” related Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International in La Paz. “Dorado were the mainstay for anglers looking for bluewater fish, but they dorado could be as close as a few yards off the beach, especially for our Las Arenas Tailhunter Fleet.”
“As the week went on, yellowfin tuna in the 20 pound class provided some nice action with about 2 to 5 fish per panga on the average to go along with the 15 pound dorado. Inshore, we got more sierra as the waters cooled but roosterfish and snapper were also in the counts as well as amberjack, pompano and jack crevalle,” said Roldan.
“The first true Norte is blowing outside as I write this report,” disclosed Eddie Dalmau of Van Wormer Resorts on the East Cape. “The winds are expected to die down tonight with calm conditions predicted for the next few days. Until the winds kicked in we were experiencing a nice mix of fishing, both from the beach and off shore.”
“From our perspective the dorado bite dropped this past week on average. Some days were excellent, other days slow. We managed to find some dorado each day though and the catch included some good sized fish. The number of sails picked up as did the striped marlin. The bite is not hot, but any improvement is appreciated. Tuna can be found swimming with the dolphin any where from 12 miles to 30 miles straight out. Most of the tuna are coming on cut squid and have not been accessible to the fly fishers,” said Dalmau.
At the Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort on the East Cape fishing pressure was light over the past two weeks, but a good mix of gamefish were landed by a small number of visiting anglers.
Over the past week 1 striped marlin, 15 sailfish, 104 dorado, 15 tuna, 8 roosterfish, 6 snapper, 1 amberjack and 4 sierra were caught by Hotel Buena Vista anglers.
“The striped marlin bite as well as the blue and black marlin bite dropped off this week,” reported Captain George Landrum of Fly Hooker Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas. “As the water cooled we expected the big girls to slow down but the striped marlin should be picking up. Maybe soon the big groups will start to show.”
The striped marlin that were caught were found on the Pacific side fairly close to the beach by boats looking for dorado. Small groups of two to six fish were spotted on the surface, but only one in 10 or 12 showed any interest in eating a live bait and very few of them showed any interest at all in lures. A few boats did all right, releasing two or three fish per trip, but they have not yet seen the numbers of fish as they have over the past three years, continued Landrum.
San Diego
Most long range anglers are catching a mixed bag of average size yellowfin tuna, dorado, yellowtail and wahoo. Massive 200 plus pound yellowfin have just started to show pointing to another productive trophy tuna season.
“After ten days tied up to the dock, we are happy to be fishing again,” reported Justin Fleck of Excel Sportfishing on November 4. “We departed this morning on our annual Brad Merritt 10-day trip. It looks like we have an excellent group of anglers all ready for an adventure. We picked up a nice load of sardines and cleared the point before 10 o’clock. Currently we are headed down the beach to start off our trip.”
“We spent our first two days along the beach where we had good fishing on yellowtail and school sized tuna. The yellows were mostly caught in the morning and the tuna in the afternoon. Now that everyone has plenty of fish on board, we are going to spend the remainder of our trip looking for wahoo and trophy tuna. The weather was choppy for a couple of days but is very nice now,” disclosed Fleck on November 7.
As of press time, the Excel was still on the hunt south of the border.
The Royal Polaris departed from San Diego on a 10 day adventure on November 1, according to Frank LoPreste of Royal Polaris Sportfishing, On November 2 they spent part of the day targeting yellowtail and rockfish before heading offshore.
“Weather continues to be excellent, with flat seas, clear skies, and sunny. We had an excellent day of fishing on yellowfin tuna in the 18 to 35 pound range. Some of our anglers are on there first long-range fishing trip, and they did fantastic. We had many of our new anglers catch there first yellowfin and yellowtail today. We ended up with 112 yellowfin tuna and 32 yellowtail and a handful of calico bass,” reported LoPreste on November 3.
On November 4, LoPreste reported very good wahoo fishing with fish averaging 40 to 50 pounds. They also picked up some yellowtail, yellowfin and dorado.
“This morning Chuck Nowicki hooked and landed his first ever 200 plus pound tuna while drifting before sunrise,” he stated. After the sun came up things slowed down until about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and then things changed for the better. The ocean came to life, and we began hooking 100 pound plus yellowfin tuna. We had 4 to 5 going for the rest of the afternoon.”
He added, “Once the smoke had cleared, we would end up with 44 yellowfin tuna. Most were in the 130 to 150 category, with a few getting close to the 200 pound mark, but we will find out once we get home. Many of our passengers caught the largest fish of there lives and they all had that yellowfin glow. We also had some 25 to 35 pound dorado in our count for today too,” related LoPreste on November 7.
The Shogun slid out of San Diego on November 4 and by November 6 they were enjoying solid yellowtail action while fishing rainy weather. By November 7 the weather had improved and Bruce Smith of Shogun Sportfishing reported good results while targeting dorado, yellowfin and yellowtail and a few wahoo as well.
The Red Rooster III returned to H & M Landing after a 14 day trip on November 1. On the trip anglers scored 215 yellowfin tuna and 77 wahoo.
The top jackpot spot went to Bob Peters for his 351.2 pound yellowfin. Jim Kokesh took the second spot for his 294.6 pound tuna, while John Nelson rounded out the top three with a 277.2 pound fish.
Several other 200 plus pound tuna were landed. John Wichman caught a 258.1 pounder and a 236.6 pounder. Charles Tanaka nailed a 256.8 pound fish. Larry Martin got a 256.5 pound fish. Mike Butler busted a 235.8 pounder and Joe Davidson battled a 226.5 pounder.
The near shore action in the San Diego area has slowed down a bit, but anglers are still enjoying productive fishing. On November 8, for example the Malihini took out 23 anglers and they returned with 46 whitefish, 5 sheephead, 8 sandbass, 36 bonito and 15 rockfish.
Monterey/Santa Cruz
Charter boat operations will be switching over from rockfish trips to sanddab, crab and jumbo squid adventures after November 15. The rockfish action over the weekend of November 7-8 was very tough, due to a large swell of 15 to 20 feet high.
“The 23 anglers fishing aboard the Chubasco on November 8 averaged 2 rockfish and 1 crab each,” said Brian Cutting at Randy’s Fishing Trips. “They fished close to the harbor off Cypress Point.”
A trip by 5 anglers aboard the Chubasco on November 7 also produced difficult fishing, with anglers catching an average of 3 rockfish per rod. The fish were a mixture of blue, yellowtail and olive rockfish.
However, on the last trip the boat was able to make it to Big Sur, the 27 anglers caught limits of quality blue, yellowtail and vermilion rockfish. “We nailed 60 vermilions while using shrimp flies and bars,” said Cutting.
“We weren’t able to go out on crab/rockfish combos on the opening weekend of crab season because of the big swell, “said Chris Arcoleo of Chris’ Fishing Trips. “However, the anglers were able to catch a mixture of blue and yellowtail rockfish off Cypress Point and Point Joe.”
After the rockfish season ends, Arcoleo said the charter boats will begin booking jumbo squid, crab and sanddab fishing adventures out of the wharf
Half Moon Bay
Now that rockfish season is closed to the north of Pigeon Point, several Half Moon Bay charter boat operators are hoping to get in a little fishing south of Pigeon before the season ends November 15, but this won’t happen unless the ocean calms significantly.
“We haven’t run any trips to the south of Pigeon Point yet because it has been too rough,” related Peggy Beckett at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center. “The weather has been getting a little better, so some of our boats might make it out for a trip down south before the season closes on November 15.
Sport anglers reported good crabbing offshore of the Pillar Point Harbor. It’s been pretty rough, but a few have been going out anyway. They’ve been getting from 5 to 8 and in some cases 10 crabs per pot, but on short soaks they are pulling some blanks too.
Captain Mike Gerardo of the Que Sera Sera is planning on running some crab trips soon, according to Beckett.
“On November 5, Captain Bob traveled just about as far as he could down the coastline past the imaginary line at Pigeon Point to just above where the coastline closes again at the northernmost marine protected area this side of Ano Nuevo and put the lines in the water,” reported Sherry Ingles of the Queen of Hearts Sportfishing. “It was quite a run, but it was worth it, since the fish were biting well and easy limits were landed.”
As of press time the Queen of Hearts hadn’t ventured south again due to rough weather.
San Rafael
(San Rafael) Boaters and shore anglers caught lots of striped bass over the weekend of November 7-8, with many anglers reporting limits of hard-fighting stripers.
For example, the 10 anglers fishing aboard the Predator on November 7 bagged limits of striped bass and two halibut while drifting shiners and mudsuckers between Buoy #5 and Buoy #7. The stripers ranged from just-keepers to 10 pounds, reported Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle.
All of the skiff anglers that Fraser surveyed that day also reported catching limits of stripers.
“The shoreline action is also excellent from the Loch Lomond Marina Levee to China Camp,” observed Fraser. “Shrimp baits, bullheads and mudsuckers are yielding the top action.”
The Codzilla, skippered by Aaron Anfinson, will be booking striped bass, leopard shark, and sturgeon trips out of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco throughout the fall and winter months, according to Erik Anfinson, captain of the Bass Tub.
Berkeley/Emeryville
(Berkeley) During the fall when saltwater anglers hear the term “crab combos,” they usually think about combination limits of crabs and rockfish, but this season the crab season and the rockfish season don’t overlap.
This fact hasn’t kept East Bay charter boat enthusiasts from enjoying great combo action. Skippers are combining crabbing with live bait drifting within San Francisco Bay with outstanding results.
“It has been a little rough out on the ocean, but we’ve still been able to bag limits of crab today and yesterday,” reported Captain Joe Gallia of New Easy Rider Sportfishing. “We’ve been teaming crabbing with live bait drifting in the bay and we’ve had some very exciting trips.”
“Yesterday after we boated 25 limits of crabs we headed back into the bay and started drifting near Red Rock. We ended up with 6 halibut to 12 pounds and three stripers to 15 pounds. Today we went out and hauled in 20 limits of crabs and so far we’ve added 8 stripers to 10 pounds and 3 halibut to a whopping 36 pounds while drifting off the Point Pinole Pier,” exclaimed Gallia.
At the Emeryville Marina Sportfishing Center, Craig Stone reported that they plan on running crab combo trips in the coming days, but confided that over the past two days they have restricted their operations to live bait fishing within the bay due to rough weather.
“The Captain Hook took out 13 anglers and they ended up with 20 stripers to 8 pounds and 5 halibut to 13 pounds. The Wet Spot headed out this morning with 2 anglers aboard and they returned with a pair of halibut to 9 pounds and a single 20 pound leopard shark,” said Stone.
Bodega Bay
The rockfish season for Sonoma County anglers ended on October 31. Some folks see this as bad news, but for other the lack of rockfish fishing opportunities will only free up there time to battle big rambunctious Humboldt squid.
“The Humboldt squid are here, they’ve already been caught and after the rockfish season ends we’ll start slugging it out with them,” exclaimed Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center.
“I can’t wait to get started squid fishing. The squid are by far my favorite fishery. Very often a squid trip aboard the New Sea Angler makes a hot albacore bite seem boring by comparison. After the rockfish season concludes we’ll be targeting squid daily depending on the weather,” said Powers.
“As far as rockfish fishing goes, I thought I was going to finish up the season with a perfect record of full limits on every trip of the year. I almost made it but not quite. I ran a trip down to Point Reyes last week and ran into quite a bit of red tide. The red tide really slowed the bite. We stayed out pretty late, but we were only able to score about 8 fish per rod,” disclosed Powers.
“Since then I’ve been running my trips up to the north near Fort Ross and we are back into steady limits on quality bottomfish,” said Powers.
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