Tribute Sportfishing

A quality lingcod and good-sized vermilion rockfish caught by this happy pair of anglers while fishing aboard the Tribute off the northern Baja coast.

Dock Totals 1/30 – 2/5: 599 anglers aboard 34 half-day to 1.5-day trips out of San Diego landings this past week caught 3 bluefin tuna, 11 bocaccio, 3 bonito, 199 calico bass (143 released), 1 halibut, 118 lingcod, 46 lobster (37 released), 18 perch, 1 spider crab, 1,358 rockfish, 224 sand bass, 761 sculpin, 3 sheephead, 331 whitefish, and 62 yellowtail.

Saltwater: Fishing along the coast of Baja has been very good for the anglers making the trek. Whether by sportfishing boat out of one of our local landings, by local panga, or even from the beach, the bite has been on. Boats working the high spots from outside of Ensenada and south to San Quintin have been reporting good yellowtail action in the morning hours following first light. When that bite slows by ten AM or so, the focus shifts to the bottom, where plenty of rockfish, sheephead, and lingcod are filling the sacks for limit-style fishing.

Recent reports indicate there are still schools of bluefin tuna in an area that stretches from Camalu and Colonet to outside Cedros Island about mid-peninsula. The Tribute recently returned from a 1.5-day run fishing ‘the beach’ along the coast near Colonet with a solid catch for their 33 anglers aboard with 130 red snapper, 76 whitefish, 60 rockfish, 53 lingcod, 3 bluefin tuna, and 2 sheephead caught. Extended half-day trips running into Mexican waters around the upper 9-Mile Bank and Coronado Islands have been catching sack limits of rockfish with a few nice lingcod, sheephead, whitefish and sculpin in the mix.

Local half-day trips are concentrating on calico and sand bass off the kelp beds off Point Loma and sand flats near Imperial Beach. Outside of the normal winter bass fishing, the Dolphin has been targeting halibut every Wednesday this month, and the Alicia and Jig Strike continue to have success on lobster during their evening hoop-netting trips.

For those fishing from shore, the CDFW has added a new page to their website that lists the locations where no state fishing license is required. As the ‘piers and jetties rule’ was relatively ambiguous, especially concerning jetties, this has been a long-running debate among anglers on social media. The rule reads, “Public piers must be connected to the shoreline, allow for free, unrestricted public access, and have been built or currently function for the primary purpose of fishing. Publicly owned jetties and breakwaters may also be "public piers" but, in addition, must form the most seaward protective boundary of an ocean harbor. Jetties and other structures that are not the most seaward boundary are not public piers.”

That sounds fairly simple, but when the jetty riprap continues into a bay, as is with the Mission Beach side of the Mission Bay channel, some become confused as to where that line would be drawn on the channel side of the jetty. Also, as per CDFW, “Even though a fishing license is not required on a public pier, all other regulations (including minimum size, bag limits, report cards, and seasons) apply while fishing from a public pier.” Those license-free locations in San Diego County, south to north, are:

Imperial Beach Pier

J Street Marina, Chula Vista, Pier

Pepper Park, National City, Pier

Coronado Fishing Pier

Embarcadero Pier

Shelter Island Pier

Ocean Beach Pier

Mission Bay Jetty North *Note: On the adjacent rock wall touching land a fishing license is required.

Crystal Pier (Pacific Beach)

Oceanside Pier

Oceanside Harbor Pier

Oceanside Jetty East *Note: On the adjacent rock wall touching land a fishing license is required.

Here is a link to the CDFW page: wildlife.ca.gov

In other fishing news, sadly, the very popular and long-running annual springtime Day at the Docks event has been cancelled.

From the San Diego Sportfishing Council: “We had hoped to be in a position to host the annual Port of San Diego's Day at the Docks in April 2022. However, the Covid pandemic disruption has had major impact on our underlying funding sources. And while we have explored potential alternative funding sources for 2022, it is now apparent that those resources will not be available in time for an event this spring. We continue to celebrate the vibrant and resilient San Diego sportfishing fleet, its captains and crews, anglers and their families, tackle suppliers and manufacturers, and the many businesses and community members that love fishing and so generously support and promote the fleet and the sport. Establishing alternative funding sources that will provide us with the ability to proceed with more certainty in the future is a priority. As those plans develop, we will keep you informed.”

Wherever you like to wet your line, good luck!