Friday, March 25, 2016 at 10:55 AM
Here is a morning update on the yellowtail fishing below the Coronado Islands. Thursday’s fish counts were overall scratchy and hit or miss on the yellowtail fishing with the Malihini posting a count that included 2 yellowtail, the Mission Belle posting a count that included 4 yellowtail and the San Diego posting a count that included 19 yellowtail. Boats are on the yellows again this morning and I heard of a couple of stops that each produced 3 or 4 yellowtail so far this morning among the sportboats fishing the yellows below the Islands.
The weather is described as being a bit lumpy with a good sized swell running but without much wind so far. There is patchy fog out on the fishing grounds this morning and when the fog moves in Skippers are having a hard time looking for working birds to help locate the yellowtail. The the inner waters forecast from San Diego to the Mexican border for Saturday is calling for a weather change with 10 to 15 knot SE winds gusting to 20 knots that turns to a west wind in the afternoon. As always, be sure to check the latest marine weather forecast before you go boating or fishing.
The yellows have been found on the clean water side of a water color break where the water goes from an off color greenish brown color to a cleaner green color. The best area is at the upper part of the Finger Bank and latitude and longitude coordinates 3209 and 11706 on down and in to 3208 and 11705 is a central zone where most of the yellowtail activity is being reported this morning.
The yellowtail have been located by finding spots of fish under working birds and have also been found by locating meter marks and sonar marks. Surface iron and yo-yo iron have both been working for the yellowtail. Use surface iron if you find fish up on top and can get the jig to them before they sound. Try yo-yo iron when the fish are holding deep. Other options that have also been producing some yellowtail have been using flylined sardines and sardines that are fished on a dropper loop rig.
The yellowtail have been good sized fish with most running in the 15 to 25 pound range and with a few larger sized yellows to 35 pounds also in the mix. Good choices for yo-yo iron have been Salas 7X heavy, Salas 6X and Tady 4/0 jigs in scrambled egg, blue & white and orange & red color combinations. For surface iron, try Salas 7X lights and Tady 45’s in blue & white and sardine colors. Something with red and orange might also be worth a try with all the red crabs around and with that color combination working for yo-yo iron fishing.