Good Early Fall Fishing Being Found Offshore, at the Local Islands and along the Coast!

The fall fishing season is upon us and there is still a lot of good fishing going on which gives good reason to be optimistic about the prospects for a great fall fishing season. The fall months can provide some of the best fishing of the year with the warm water species sometimes going into feeding frenzies as they group up and prepare to migrate to warmer waters for the winter months.

 

Bluefin tuna fishing remains good with the main area of bluefin activity being found out westerly of San Diego. Productive areas include the Tanner Bank, the area from west over to southwest of the West End of San Clemente Island the Snail Bank and the Osborn Bank. If you do not want to travel to these offshore areas, there have also been some bluefin biting at Los Coronado Islands.

 

Most of the bluefin being caught at the Tanner Bank have been in the 20 to 60 pound range and there has also been a chance at finding some 15 to 25 pound yellowtail in the mix with the bluefin. The best chance at some of the bigger bluefin that have gone to 200-plus pounds has been in the area ranging from west over to southwest of the West End of San Clemente Island, the Snail Bank and the Osborn Bank. The bluefin biting around Los Coronado Islands have been in the 15 to 60 pound range.

 

Offshore bluefin have been biting on a variety of baits and jigs with sardines, frozen flying fish, live flying fish, California Flyers, knife jigs, Colt Snipers, poppers and trolled Nomad Madmac jigs being among the favored baits and lures. Anglers have been encouraged to include within the tackle that they bring a 25 pound test outfit and a 40 pound test outfit for flylining live baits and a rail rod outfit spooled with at least 100 pound test line for fishing for the bigger bluefin with the sinker rigged sardines, the sinker rigged frozen flying fish, the kite fished baits and the knife jigs. The bluefin at Los Coronado Islands have been biting best on slow trolled or flylined sardines.

 

The fishing for kelp-paddy yellowtail, dorado and tuna at the more local offshore banks within 30 miles or so of the coast has been slow with an occasional yellowfin or dorado being caught. Most of the yellowfin are being caught with porpoise with the area outside of Los Coronado Islands providing the best chance at finding some biting yellowfin tuna with porpoise.

 

The few yellowfin that have been caught have been in the 15 to 30 pound range and have been caught on trolled cedar plugs and Rapalas as well as on flylined sardines or small mackerel. Recent reports of yellowfin activity with porpoise have come from the 277 Spot, 4 to 6 miles off La Jolla, the area to the southwest of North Island and the 425 Bank.

 

The fishing for striped marlin had been very good in the Catalina area but the marlin fishing off Catalina has slowed in recent days. There was some recent marlin activity reported by a Skipper fishing to the southeast of the 14 Mile Bank so look for the bite in the Catalina area to possibly be improving sometime soon. Productive areas in the Catalina region were the Slide, the 152 Spot, the 277 Spot and the area below the end of the Steamer Lanes in the Catalina Channel.

 

The fishing for striped marlin in the San Diego area has been good and there has been some blue marlin activity to report as well. Recent days have been seeing what I estimate to be from 0 to 4 marlin being caught and released each day. Productive areas have been the stretch between 3 and 6 miles off the coast between Point Loma and Carlsbad, the 312 Spot, 3 to 12 miles off La Jolla, the 182 Spot, the 178 Spot and the 9 Mile Bank.

 

There have been feeders, sleepers, tailers and jumpers showing with jig strikes, dropback mackerel and cast mackerel leading to hookups. There was also a recent blue marlin hookup on a fish that was estimated to be 400 pounds.  The fish was hooked on the troll on a light tackle 30 pound test outfit intended for a striped marlin. The blue marlin went nuts jumping on hookup and it did not take long for the fish to spool the undersized reel of its line. It was less than a minute of wild action which will be remembered for a lifetime!

 

Captain Barry Brightenburg reported that John Stuber caught and released a striped marlin while fishing a short way above the upper end of the 9 Mile Bank and said that it was Stuber’s first marlin aboard his new 43 foot Mikelson called Pioneer. Brightenburg reported that they got a sleeper to bite on a cast mackerel that was fished on a 40 pound test outfit that had a section of double line tied to a short 80 pound test Fluorocarbon leader. Congratulations go out to John and Barry and the rest of the crew aboard Pioneer!

 

David Verdugo of R Mol Lyn reported that his wife Carolyn caught and released an estimated 160 to 180 pound striped marlin while fishing to the north of the 178 Spot that is located above the 9 Mile Bank. He said it was a troll fish that bit on a KK Pono jig that he had won at the 2023 Marlin Club’s ILTT Tournament. Congratulations go out to Carolyn and David!

 

           The surface fishing at Los Coronado Islands has been ranging from pretty good to sometimes very good with a mix of yellowtail, bluefin tuna and calico bass biting to go with the chance of a bonus halibut. In addition, the bottom fishing for a variety of rockfish species remains very good.

 

Captain Tony Souza of Green Bee reported catching 2 bluefin tuna, loosing 4 bluefin to seals and catching a bunch of bonito while fishing at Los Coronado Islands before he went offshore and found porpoise that produced 3 yellowfin tuna. Another private boater report from the same day of fishing was of catching 3 of the 35 to 40 pound bluefin tuna and hooking and loosing 2 yellowtail while slow trolling with sardines in 80 feet below and inside of South Island in the area of the South Kelp Ridge. The Skipper reporting said they were getting bit when using light tackle with 20 pound test line and size 2 hooks.

 

The best areas for surface fishing have been the South Kelp Ridge, the area inside of the north end of South Island, the Middle Grounds and the lighthouse at the south tip of South Island. If you want to try for a halibut, a productive zone has been drifting the sandy bottom areas along the lee side of South Island.

 

The bottom fishing around Los Coronado Islands remains very good and the best areas for the mixed bag bottom fishing have been to the northwest, north and northeast of North Island in 25 to 60 fathoms. Also productive has been the rockfish fishing on the Mexico side of the border at the lower end of the 9 Mile Bank.

 

The fishing along the San Diego County coast has been good for a mix of calico bass, sand bass, bonito, rockfish, sculpin, barracuda, sheephead, halibut, yellowtail and an occasional white seabass.

 

The Imperial Beach area is still producing some flurries of sand bass action but the bite has been hit or miss. What has been more consistent for sand bass has been the hard bottom to the north and northwest of Buoy #3 at Point Loma.

 

The Point Loma Kelp Beds have been good to very good for calico bass and small bonito along with an occasional halibut, white seabass or large yellowtail. Look for kelp bed areas where you find your warmest and cleanest water with a downhill current flow with some of the best fishing often being found at spots between the Green Tank and the Drop-off.

 

La Jolla has been good to very good for calico bass, bonito and a chance at a yellowtail, halibut or white seabass. There were two recent mornings of good yellowtail fishing when New Seaforth out of Seaforth Sportfishing posted back to back morning half day trip counts that included 19 yellowtail and 27 yellowtail. The yellowtail bite has significantly declined from those levels the past few days but conditions remain favorable to where anglers are hoping for another rally in the yellowtail bite.

 

The two best places for yellowtail have been off the upper end of La Jolla and around the outskirts of the MLPA closure area at the lower end of La Jolla with the area on the outskirts of the MLPA closure area at the lower end of La Jolla being the best zone in recent days.

 

Productive baits for yellowtail have been sardines, mackerel and live squid. In addition to the live baits, yellowtail have also been biting on surface iron with good choices for surface iron including Tady 45 and Salas 7X light jigs in blue and white, mint and sardine colors. There has been some squid available to catch for bait at night off Pacific Beach and off the upper end of La Jolla and there have been a few white seabass biting at night on the live squid.

 

Going further up the San Diego County coast, Captain Joe Cacciola of the Sea Star with Sea Star Sportfishing and the Oceanside Sea Center reports that there has been good mixed bag fishing for calico bass, sand bass, bonito, rockfish, sculpin, sheephead and whitefish along with a chance at a bonus halibut while fishing kelp bed and hard bottom areas off Del Mar, Solana Beach, Leucadia and South Carlsbad.

 

The summer fishing season has now turned to fall and I hope you do not make the mistake of putting your fishing gear away for the season as the fall months can provide some of the best fishing of the year!. Keep on fishing and I hope to see you out on the water sometime soon!

 

    Bob Vanian is the voice, writer and researcher of the San Diego-based internet fish report service called 976-Bite which can be found at www.976bite.com. Vanian also provides anglers with a personal fish report service over the telephone at (619) 226-8218. He always welcomes your fish reports at that same phone number or at bob976bite@aol.com.