Pacific Bluefin Tuna - Well, the past 6 to 7 years, the big Pacific Bluefin have been around the SoCal Bight and down into Baja. No one is sure if it was currents, conservation, water temps, or maybe a possibility of a bunch of conditions put together at once that produced this amazing fishery down here, but it is a WELCOME visit by them. As a matter of fact, there barely is a season as at all times during the year, anglers can find them swimming in the SoCal Bight/Baja area.
Most of the year however, it seems you have to travel 35-60 miles in any given direction to find them and they are usually on the offshore high spots or canyons out past the shelf. Every year however, many nice Bluefin 50-100# show up at our local banks and even visit the local islands. Every year, they seemed to come in closer and closer, but usually you don’t find the cows (200# plus) mixed in with these good grade of Bluefin. Some anglers that catch them and keep the bite secret may know of this and word sometimes leaks, but many people rarely get in on the action as they are usually gone within a day or two and pop up elsewhere.
My friend Nicky wound up getting a 173# Popper fish on Friday which was an absolute brute on the gear he was using. Mad props to the him as I’ve watched him fish and grow up since he was about 6 casting a bait caster better than most adults at that age.
My buddy and I decided to give it a shot on Sunday and look for fish away from the fleet. I get more of a thrill fishing with no one around and catching than ever being in a fleet of boats getting all stressed out with all the struggles of fishing with the fleet brings. We fished all day and decided to run close to shore to see what we could see…. What was saw was a football field sized foamer of 150-200 pound tuna moving at breakneck speed! Thankfully we got one before they sunk out, but it was an inshore cow at 210#. Absolutely unreal experience.
Be sure to follow the link to the forum and read all about the adventure. While you’re there, read up on some current and even back stories as it’s way better and more fun than reading the headline news these days and this will cure you of what ails you.
Enjoy the read!
-Latimeria
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