Hi Gang,

It's been a while since my last report.  That does not mean that I have not been fishing, but things in April were a little slow.  Now that May has arrived things are slowly starting to get more interesting.  Here is an update on what has been going on for the last month and more importantly what is going on right now in San Diego.  Be sure to see the details of my fishing trip with Alex and Pete Groesbeck at the end of this report.

The wind blew for most of the month of April but there was still a little fishing to be had.  San Diego Bay was good for many species.  The rock cod fishing was very good for reds and the normal assortment of other goodies.  There was a little show of yellowtail at the Coronado Islands that got everyone very excited but the wind shut the bite down and it is just now showing signs of returning.

April 19th was the date of Day at the Docks which was a huge success.  The weather could not have been more perfect and everyone showed up and had a great time.  We sold a lot of tackle which tells me that everyone is ready to start fishing.

A couple of weeks after the Day at the Docks, we attended the Aftco parking lot sale.  Again, the turnout was fantastic.  Let's Talk Hook-up did a remote broadcast from Aftco and United Anglers had their huge sale to raise money to fight the MLPA.  The weather man predicted rain so the event was moved inside the Aftco warehouse.  Of course it turned out to be a gorgeous day.  Where can I get a job where I get it wrong and still get paid?  If I were a Southern California weather man I would just predict sun with a chance of a few high clouds and temperatures ranging from 60 to 80 degrees.  I would be right about 85 percent of the time.

Here's what is going on right now in San Diego:

San Diego Bay:  The bay fishing has been very good recently for many species.  Details of my most recent bay trip will follow below.  Sand bass, spotted bass, croaker, halibut, corvina, barricuda, and many other species are biting well on just about any moving tide.  Six to twelve pound test are ideal and 3 to 6 inch swimbaits, small grubs, Berkley Gulp, Ghost Shrimp, Sardines, and Anchovies are the best baits.  Look to the back bay for the best variety and the most numbers.  Look to the front bay for larger fish such as sand bass, halibut, and barricuda.

Point Loma and La Jolla:  The local kelp beds are starting to wake up this month.  The water is finally staying above 60 degrees and the calico bass are starting to play.  Most fish are smaller and live anchovies or small sardines are a great way to catch a few.  Also, four to five inch swimbaits will get you some fish.  There have been a few rare schools of yellowtail seen off of La Jolla and occassionally someone catches one in the 30 pound range.  Look for the kelp beds to improve stedily in the coming weeks.

Imperial Beach:  The 1/2 day boats have been fishing Imperial Beach for the last week or so.  It started off good for sand bass but good numbers of legal halibut were being caught on every morning trip.  The boats have started targeting the halibut and there have been over 100 caught in the last few days.  Point Loma Sportfishing is even running halibut specials this weekend.  I think this is the first time that I have ever seen this in San Diego.  If you enjoy halibut fishing this could be a great season!

Coronado Islands:  The Coronados are also starting to wake up.  Most boats this week had limits of larger barricuda.  Most of these were caught on surface iron.  I fished there yesterday on the Parker and is sure was nice to feel something grab my Tady 45!  We did not manage to catch any yellowtail but the sportboats are catching on or two per boat per day.  The best yellowtail score was 24 on the Pacific Voyager on Saturday.  There are also a few good calico bass scores coming from the islands as well as an occassional legal halibut or white seabass.

Long Range:  The long range season is just about over.  Most boats are fishing the hurricane bank and catching fair numbers of yellowfin tuna with a few over 300 being boated.  The wahoo fishing has ranged from fair to down right awsome.  Most boats will focus on maintainance this month and then go into their 3 to 7 day spring and summer trips.  It is likely that one of these trips will bring back our first albacore of the new season.

Fishing the San Diego Bay with Alex and Pete Groesbeck:  Last week Alex turned 14.  He has been doing well in school so a little fishing hooky day was planned for Friday.  Pete and Alex met me at the landing at 6:00 am.  We had a favorable tide for both the morning and afternoon.  Before we left the dock we decided that we would target bonefish but a secondary goal would be to catch a wide variety of fish. 

We started out near the Coronado bridge.  There are several ridges and dropoff in that area.  Things were a bit tough at first but we picked away at a few bass and Pete caught a halibut.  We made a couple of moves within the area.  Pete was fishing with sardines and Alex and I were fishing with plastics and spinnerbaits.  We picked off a few more bass and then Pete caught a shortfin corvina.  This was one fish that I really wanted to see that day and I was thrilled when he caught it.  We moved back to the flats where the bass can be wide open.  Unfortunately we only had a slow pick on the bass.  I had brought 75 ghost shrimp along for the bonefish.  I was going to save them for after the tide change, but things were so slow I decided to put one out.  It was only a short time before the rod went off and Alex had his bonefish. 


We decided to target the bonefish.  It took us about 20 minutes to locate a concentration of them and we proceeded to catch 13.  They really take some good drag on 4 and 6 pound string and some of them will take you around the boat a time or two.  While fishing the bones, Pete (Mr. variety) caught a Black Croaker.  That was the first one that I had seen in 30 years of bay fishing.

Alex was not to be outdone by Mr. Variety and quickly hooked and landed a smoothhound shark.

He then finished up the back bay part of the day by catching a batray (mud marlin).

We finighed our day out by the jetty where we caught a few small halibut and a sculpin.

When is was all said and done, we had caught 10 different species of fish including 13 bonefish.  It was far from wide open but it was one of the most memorable days of fishing that I have had in some time. 

Happy birthday to Alex.  Let's do it again sometime.

Doug