S.D. scene outer banks, local kelps

October 13, 2021

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1 BIG ONES fishermans Condor CONDOR — A NICE HEN dorado aboard the full-day boat San Diego. PHOTO COURTESY OF SEAFORTH LANDING SPORTFISING

BY MERIT McCREA

SAN DIEGO — Through the week’s thunder and lightning, calm seas persisted. On the outer banks bluefin were the target, again including huge fish beyond catchable grade. For the full-day boats, the islands were out, kelp paddies were in. At press time the weekend brought some breeze but the fleet was battening down the hatches for what would come.

The windy forecast prompted CCA-CAL ED Wayne Kotow to pull the plug on the SoCal Charter Challenge, slated to fish Monday the 11th.

What outer bank anglers saw was consistent fishing on the top of the Tanner for bluefin from 20 to 60 pounds during daylight hours. Just off the edges, the jumbos roamed.

BIG ONES coming off the Condor. PHOTO COURTESY OF CONDOR SPORTFISHING

Closer to home and just over the border, full-day trips fished kelps and found limit-style dorado fishing on tap.

For some, the day’s magic kelp held swarms of yellowtail instead. Sunday the San Diego reported 34 anglers tackled 146 forks and also landed 2 bluefin tuna.

The Daiwa Pacific had limits for 20 or 100 tails, same as the Mission Belle. Malihini had 60 for 32 anglers Saturday. The Legend posted limits of both yellowtail (145) and dorado (58) for 29 anglers.

No less than 11 other full-day and overnight trips limited on dorado. The Aztec had 74 bluefin on their 2.5-day early in the week.

The hot set-up for the kelp paddy fishing was reported as 25- to 30-pound tackle with a short fluorocarbon leader and a no. 2 live bait hook for fishing fly-lined sardines.

Local fishing was almost exclusively bottom oriented. Up in Oceanside, they posted some solid catches of rockfish – limits on their 3/4-day runs and half limits on half-day.

Saturday the Chubasco II carried 19 anglers, who bagged 190 rockfish, 41 whitefish, a sand bass and 9 sheephead.

While this week will have brought some strong westerly winds though the Bight, at press time the forecast had it backing off Thursday and turning mild northeast Friday, with a good weekend forecast.

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WON Staff