San Diego Saltwater Fishing Blog – El Gato Dos

As in there was no “catching” today. Fished hard 6-6pm. Went as far as we could looking for kelps and fish. Found very little to none. Fished 2 kelps for one bite and that’s all. Rough water, white caps and 15 knots of wind, overcast and cold all day. Took a beating in the tower glassing. Eyes are still red and sore this A.M. Yuck. I tip my hat to Greg and his group for being as undertanding as they are. They are one of my favorites to fish with and they will be back in a few weeks for our revenge trip. I hope this is one of those times where we “paid our dues” and get a few next time. I talked to plenty of other boats that had nothing today and this may have a big factor, besides the weather.

Guys were chatting about how the fishing just turned off yesterday and today. Someone mentioned the Moon Phase right now. 2 days before the First Quarter would put us on Sunday. We are peaking tonight and should be in good Moon phase on Thursday. 2 days before and 2 days after is usually the rule for fishing the moon.

One high note, on the way in I spotted a swordfish up finning close to home. Everyone got a good look at it before it sunk out. Seeing a fish like that makes a day.

After Monday we decided to adjust the time of our Saturday 5-5 to 8-8 to try to get into the evening bite. Had a single jig stop on the swimbait, and a single baitfish around 11am. Sadly that was our day of catching. We looked at a bunch of Bluefin Tuna, but this did not act like the fish we got into on Monday. It was less volume, more skittish and did not want to eat. We hooked one on a small iron that broke off, might have been foul hooked.. Weather was great, and Brian and his group had a great time. They enjoyed a nice plate of Albacore sashimi on the drive home and got to see the sun go down on the ocean. Can’t beat that!

[caption id="attachment_130" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The guys on the ride in."][/caption]

Had an A/M 1/2 day today. Fished Pt. Loma which felt more like winter than the heart of summer. It was overcast, with a breeze out of the south and the current was all over the place. It was very difficult to properly setup the boat along the kelp line. We found some good fishing on short bass and a handfull of keepers. Tried a new area for rockfish and found some a new little gem in shallow. For a half hour of our efforts it produced a legal Lingcod a nice big Whitefish and 4 nice Red Rock Cod. Fun morning with good action. The afternoons have been better on the bass when the current gets going.

Some days things get fall into place. You get the right weather, the right crew, the right place at the right time and fishing can be historic. Yesterday was one of those days. We completely plugged the boat with fish. There was no more room to store them. 17 Bluefin Tuna to #35, 6 Yellowtail to #20, 1 Dorado and 1 Albacore Tuna. No one on board would argue that we experienced local Bluefin fishing as good as it could possibly be. We found school after school of foaming fish that wanted to bite. It’s going to be hard to ever top that kind of fishing again.

[caption id="attachment_125" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Keith Hilton pullin on one"][/caption]

Fished yesterday offshore and found a few Yellowtail that wanted to bite. There is a decent volume of fish out there, both Yellowtail and Dorado, but common with early season fish, they do not want to bite just yet. It’s just a matter of time. We saw schools of 15-20 pound dorado that numbered over 50! It was worth the trip just to see these fish feeding. An area twice the size of the El Gato foaming with fish. We also drove the boat around a school of 40+ pound Bluefin Tune. Many of which were completely airborn chasing baitfish! They were not interested in anything we had to offer. We ended with 6 very nice grade Yellowtail. This is Aurora’s first Yellowtail! She was stoked!!!

Over the past 24 hours there have been Albacore Tuna, Yellowtail and Dorado taken by boats within 50 miles of San Diego. We still have some open days this month and next. Email us or call to book a trip now!

Had another 1/2 day trip today, and found a great spot of Vermillions that really wanted to eat. Ended up with 17 of the yummy bottom dwellers and 20 more mixed Copper Rockfish, Treefish and Starries. Weather was perfect with a slight drift to West to East. Water is still very cold. 59-60 today.

The local water temps have dropped to between 58-62 degrees. Which is NOT what we want or usually have in July! It should be nearing 70 degree by now. So in the mean time it looks like we will be fishing Rockfish untill the water cleans up and warms up. Yesterday we had an A.M. 1/2 day trip and manage some rockfish for the group. Pretty slow overall. Hope it warms up soon

Spent a long night on the water with friend David Crane. Ended up with a smaller Thresher shark, which we released and one nice Seabass. Lost another just before getting this one in the boat. Ended up being a perfect night weather wise and the squid were easy to come by.

Tommorrow night, Thursday the 2nd we will be taking the boat out on a night recon mission in search of the white seabass. Most anglers spend a lifetime trying to catch one or two. This season we have been treated to more than the normal amount of these croaking fish in our local waters. There is plenty of open spots if you want to spend a night fishing for these great fish. Figure they will weigh from 25 to 60 pounds. A true trophy catch. Our rates for these fish are extra special this time of year. Please call to book your trip on the El Gato Dos. Just a side note, we usually see some good by-catch of rockfish and bass on these trips to ensure anglers come home with bag of fillets if the Seabass don’t show up.

Wish us luck,
Capt. Bryan