School’s in!

Deep sea fishing kicked into high gear earlier this week with good

catches of albacore, bluefin tuna and dorado being reported by the

sport fleet and private yachts fishing mid-channel waters and around

San Clemente Island.

Fishing conditions were prime all week long as a marine layer

moved in and kept the seas calm, which allowed skippers to locate

breezing schools of tuna, shut down on good sonar marks and locate

floating kelp.

Davey’s Locker spokesman Captain Norris Tapp reported that all the

boats running out of the landing are returning dockside with good

counts. The all-day boats are scoring on good numbers of albacore and

tuna, while the 1/2-, 3/4-and twilight trips are producing some

fair fishing for calico and sand bass.

Giant squid have stayed around a lot longer than expected and have

produced a big mess on the streets of Balboa when anglers, who have

forgotten to bring wheel barrows, drag gunny sacks of very inky squid

on the boardwalk and across major intersections.

Some locals are also complaining about the stains and the stink,

but the odds are that the schools of squid will soon head to deeper

water and this fishery will slowly dry up.

Albies are mixed in size, ranging from the size of footballs to

30-pounders.

With so-so bait available fishing has been up and down on a daily

basis for most boats heading out to the fishing grounds.

Robert Hedrick of Costa Mesa decked a 24-pound longfin tuna while

fishing aboard the 62-foot charter boat Caliber, running out of

Davey’s Locker in Balboa, to top off a good catch of albies earlier

this week.

Moving south a little, the bite on albacore and bluefin has been

consistent for most anglers.

Tom Kelleher of Corona del Mar took his uncle, Pete, who was

visiting from Tucson, on an all-day trip aboard the deluxe

sportfisher Prowler, operating out of Fisherman’s Landing in San

Diego.

Kelleher decked a big albie hooked on bait, unbuttoned a couple of

other tuna and his uncle got to pump on a 25-pound bluefin before it

finally came up and was expertly gaffed by crew member Craig West.

Captain Kenny Knight of Newport Beach headed the Pescador, a

44-foot Pacifica, to the 289 spot where he sighted a tailing striped

marlin. Doug Daniels of Huntington Beach owns the boat and cast a

live mackerel to the billfish that swung on the bait.

The fish was successfully brought to leader and released, which

earned the boat the first fish flag for the season from the Balboa

Angling Club.

There are reports of lots of swordfish in the channel, some as

close as three miles off Dana Point, and veteran billfish anglers are

looking forward to an awesome season.

There was a 257-pound marlin caught earlier this week off

Oceanside, which is a big fish for this early in the season.

With the water temp in the high 60s, and on some high spots

reaching into the low 70s, it looks as though anglers who have trips

planned over the upcoming Labor Day weekend are in for some very good

fishing out of Newport.