By Kevin R. Morris

After a very slow start which had many wondering if it would ever come at all, the offshore tuna bite for the San Diego 1 ½ day and overnight boats has finally kicked into high gear this September.  Recent action on the outer banks has seen some great days on the water with boats enjoying a mix of yellowfin, bluefin, and albacore.  In addition to the variety, the quality of the fish has been phenomenal with the average fish running between 25 to 40 pounds.  The flipside to all this has been that while boats that find the right school are coming back with great catches and tired but happy anglers, the boats that don’t find fish that want to bite are coming in with meager catches.  It’s been the kind of fishing where as Brian Blair, owner/operator of the Ultra out of Fisherman’s Landing put it on a recent 1½ day trip, “the guys that are on a boat that finds the right school will feel like it’s been a great season, but if you’re on a boat that gets only 4 or 5 fish you might think that it’s been tough this year.”

On the trip in question, Blair had everyone gather in the galley for the requisite safety discussion before going into greater detail about the fishing.  “It’s been a plunker bite where you have to get your bait well away from the boat on a long drift to get bit,” he said.  As is typical of this kind of fishing, he added that those who work at it and change their baits frequently were the anglers who were able to put fish on the deck.  “Bait selection, getting your bait away from the boat, and patience have been the key,” he noted. 
Using a fluorocarbon leader in 20 or 25 lb test has also been a key to getting bit recently. The crew of the Ultra was happy to help get everyone rigged up with flouro leaders once the boat had taken care of loading up on sardines at the bait receivers.  Soon we were on our way out to the tuna in good spirits with high expectations for the next day’s fishing.
Lately the fish had been relatively close to Point Loma in an area about 30 miles from San Diego.  This meant that we had a shorter drive out to the fishing, but it also meant that with the fish concentrated in one area so close to San Diego, boat traffic would be heavy as everyone searched hard for that one school that could make the trip.  At grey light Blair ordered the crew to put out the jigs and we began our search for tuna glory.  Blair had indicated that most of the fish were coming from sonar marks instead of jig strikes, and that the fish had not been holding on the kelps.  After the first few stops on sonar marks produced little more than a few boils, we finally got a very nice albacore in the 30 lb range to put us on the board. 

A little later, we hit a school of quality yellowfin and spent the next four hours on the drift, fishing hard to come up with about half a dozen very nice fish up to 40 lbs which definitely put smiles on the faces of the successful anglers.  The whole time we drifted, tuna would come up and boil on the chum in spectacular fashion, putting up a show as they flew out of the water chasing hapless sardines.  It was very frustrating as the fish frothed on the chum, yet seemed adept at ignoring a bait with a hook in it cast to within a few feet of them.  Yet those who worked hard at and changed their baits often were occasionally rewarded with a hookup.  Adding to the challenge was that with the fish being of such a good quality, and lighter line (like 20 lb test) often resulting in more hookups, some anglers found themselves locked into epic battles with tough yellowfin that didn’t want to come to the boat easily.

Another stop on a sonar mark later in the afternoon produced a few more solid yellowfin before the sun finally sank out and the day’s fishing was done.  All in all it had been good times, and we ended up with 9 quality yellowfin and 2  big albacore for the 9 anglers aboard.  Not an epic catch, but certainly a good day on the water.