san diego fish report

SUMMER FISHING HIGHLIGHTED BY BLUEFIN TUNA, DORADO, YELLOWFIN TUNA, STRIPED MARLIN, YELLOWTAIL, AND CALICO BASS!

By Bob Vanian of 976Bite.com

Southern California anglers have a lot to be thankful for as the summer shing season continues to provide opportunities to catch numerous wonderful warm water game sh that include blue n tuna, dorado, yellow n tuna, striped marlin, yellowtail, barracuda, sand bass and calico bass. When you add to that a chance at white seabass, halibut, white sh, sculpin, reds, sheephead, rock sh and maybe even a rare albacore, we are truly blessed to have an opportunity to go out on the ocean and target some fantastic game sh.

The blue n tuna continue to attract most of the attention and they have been running from 20 to 220-plus pounds. The blue n have been biting well on sardines, mackerel, kite shed ying sh, trolled Nomad Madmac jigs, spreader bar rigs, knife jigs, Colt Snipers and poppers.

The two current blue n hotspot areas are at the Tanner Bank and in the region of the 474 Spot above the West End of San Clemente Island. Other areas where there have been occasional recent showings of blue n have been the area inside of the 267 Spot that is easterly of the Tanner Bank and the area outside of Seal Cove o the back side of San Clemente Island. There are also occasional showings of blue n 2 to 7 miles o the coast between Laguna Beach and La Jolla, in the area ranging from 2 to 7 miles northwest over to southwest of North Island, at the 9 Mile Bank and at the178 Spot. What has also been interesting is that there have been occasional showings of both blue n and yellow n incidental to shing for yellowtail around Los Coronado Islands.

There have been scattered showings of 15-to-40-pound yellow n tuna being reported in the waters ranging from some of the local banks outside of Los Coronado Islands on up to the Catalina Channel but the showings of yellow n have been inconsistent and it has not been easy to get the yellow n to bite. One of the areas where yellow n have been showing with a bit of consistency has been 2 to 8 miles o the coast between Point San Mateo and Laguna Beach. Yellow n have been biting on ylined sardines shed around kelp paddies, porpoise schools, blue n stops,

Solution from CROSSWORD, PAGE 15 yellow n trolling stops, spots of breaking sh and spots of working tern birds. Cedar plugs and Halco trolling plugs have been reported to be working well on the troll for yellow n. Try Colt Snipers and poppers if you can cast them to breaking sh before they sound.

The dorado bite has been on the decline in recent days and has been just fair. There have been good numbers of dorado around prior to the recent decline and it is my guess that the dorado will pop up in good numbers again sometime soon.

Dorado have been biting from spots of breezing sh, kelp paddies and blind trolling strikes. Some of the better numbers of dorado have been reported in the region of the 9 Mile Bank, the 178 Spot, the 182 Spot, the 224 Spot and the area 2 to 7 miles northwest over to southwest of North Island.

Striped marlin have been biting well at times in the area one to ve miles o Catalina between Arrow Point and Long Point and also in the region of the 172 Spot above the West End of Catalina. The marlin bite slipped a bit over the past weekend but has been good enough at times over the past 10 days or so to be at the point where some boats were releasing two or three marlin in a day.