Tuna swarm off Colonet and points south

March 12, 2024

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1 SLAMMER FISH hm old glory copy — SLAMMER FISH coming up aboard the Old Glory

BY MERIT McCREA

SAN DIEGO/OCEANSIDE — The reports coming from the boats running weekend Baja Coast trips have vectored offshore in the evenings and at night, finding schools of bluefin tuna to stop on.

The Old Glory got into a smoker of a night bite, then this past weekend saw a first run aboard the Polaris Supreme pull nine fish their first evening on the grounds. The fish landed were 80- to 130-pound class.

The word was multiple areas of fish, from offshore of Colonet and south.

The word from angler Rob Tressler was slightly smaller night jigs in the 300-gram class got bit best. He was aboard the Old Glory for that bite – said he was bit instantly on a zebra SK jig.

Izorline’s MC braid with the 100-foot color changes continued to offer a huge advantage in targeting the bite depth accurately.

BLUEFIN ON DECK aboard the Supreme. PHOTO COURTESY OF POLARIS SUPREME SPORTFISHING

Local fishing down the coast off the IB pipe area and out to rockpile has been exciting, with some nice yellowtail to try for and a continuing excellent sand bass bite on both lead-head and squid gear and on plastics inshore.

Lots of sculpin came with the sand bass catch and numbers were upwards of 50 to over 100 keeper sandies per run. Also, there’s some halibut to be had in that area too.

The long-range fleet fishing far down the Baja California Peninsula saw some great cow yellowfin fishing again. Aboard the Red Rooster III angler Peter Losifidis landed a 210, then a 265 and finally a 315 pounder.