BY DAVE HURLEY
SAN FRANCISCO – Fishing has reached an apex out of northern California ports just prior to the ocean salmon opener with rockfish and lingcod limits at the Farallon Islands, big striped bass on the beach outside the Golden Gate, and an incredible halibut bite at Bodega Bay, only to be topped by something previously unheard of – limits of bluefin tuna.
Captain Charlie Barberini of the six-pack Scallyway out of Fish Emeryville put his passengers onto two of the most epic days of bluefin action since the species has become a viable option out of northern California ports, returning with four limits (8 tuna) on Wednesday and five more for six anglers on Thursday. Barberini went out the previous week to the area around the Half Moon Bay Weather Buoy, and he said, “The warm water had moved in, and the current was pushing up the hill. We marked tons of bait deep at 400 to 500 feet, so it was just a matter of time before the bait came to the surface. I knew then that bluefin were around. We were out by ourselves on Wednesday, June 24, and I have never seen so much life with thousands of birds, whales, and dolphins. Bluefin were foaming around the boat, and I there was a tremendous amount of bait out there. It was amazing. The bluefin are just stuffed with 4- to 6-inch anchovies, and these fish are in the 30- to 60-pound range although there have been some larger fish over 200 pounds reported. I debated putting out my report, but once we released the photo, I was booked for Thursday within an hour. The word was out in our tightknit bluefin community, and we were greeted out there on Thursday with an entire fleet of boats. The goal was to look for a big fish, but we settled for five more to 70 pounds.”
News in the bluefin community travels fast, and ‘everyone caught fish’ on Thursday with Khanh Tran of Nor Cal Sport Fishing picking up four bluefin before filling out his fish box with rockfish and lingcod. Commercial anglers picked up as many as 9 bluefin tuna, but unfortunately, the weather window closed as quickly as it opened. It is expected to blow offshore for up to 10 days, but with the warm water at 60 degrees all the way to the coastline and the tremendous amount of bait, bluefin should be sticking around for the rest of the summer into fall, providing another option for northern California saltwater anglers.
