Surface ocean temperatures in late spring in the local waters off San Diego have increased in the past few years, and our usual summer visitors the Albacore have been hard to find. Limits of Albacore were the rule in July and August in the 1990s and are rare today. Small Yellowfin seem to be the order of the day the past few years and larger Albacore are often in short supply. Indeed the dozen Albacore we brought home on our first trip in the last week of June was the seasons best Albacore catch. Mark Itos first albacore was typical of the day. Mark Ito We caught two Albacore on the next trip and some nice YellowtailGary Schenks nice Yellowtail but the Ablacore bite for the Seabear was over by the first week in July. Erv Wheeler and the next trip was only our second skunk on a day long tuna trip in years. The closest we came to a fish was a group of half a dozen nice Yellowtail that circled the boat smiling all the time and wouldn’t take any of the tasty morsels thrown their way.

Fortunately the next trip in the last week of August was probably the best of the year. Everybody got into the act. Everyone and we came home with 26 quality fish. Bluefin

The rest of the year including this years Make-A-Wish tuna challenge was filled with smaller yellowfin. Brian Sprinkles and Arno's Yellowfin were typical of these fish. Brian and Arno multiple jig strikes were frequent and the fish came readily to the boat despite often bad bait. Except for the Make-A-Wish the weather was nice and everybody usually caught fish. Pat For this years Make-A-Wish we fished below the 295 in really ugly weather. After one wide open stop for 18 smaller yellowfin there was a steady diet of jig strikes for these smaller fish punctuated by one nice stop for more yellowfin and a wave of larger Albacore that cruised by. We managed to boat one Albacore from this surprise visit. We did weigh in fish but didn't place. On Sunday Bruce and Dennis's Dorado Taco dinner was outstanding. While we enjoyed Tacos, Jeff and Tom attended the Make A Wish dinner. At the dinner we did win the Early Bird lottery and scored 500 lottery tickets and several prizes. Our last trip in late September was Another long day on the water in bouncy seas. We covered a lot of ocean for 2 small yellowfin

Bottom Fishing: In April when it was clear that the 9 mile bank had dried up Bruce and I explored the area along the canyon below the rockpile and above the finger bank and found wide open fishing for quality fish. Two more runs to this area also produced fish although the last run in early june found greenish water and produced mostly small fish. In the fall and winter we made three more productive trips to this area the fish were smaller for the most part. We also exolored the Descanso Ridge on a december trip. The area was blanketed by Squid and fishing was slow but this looks like a productive spot to explore in the future. We made only one trip to the 9 mile bank this year and managed 3 modest ling cod and salmon grouper.

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