#1 “Homeguard”

Welcome to our fishing blog! If you are looking for a local San Diego fishing report, you’ve come to the right place. As an avid fishing family we spend a lot of time on the water. We figured why not log some fish counts and water temps here. Maybe the information will help you make a plan for your next trip out, or maybe you are just curious to see what the waters off San Diego are like.

Post #1: “Homeguard”

On 2/28/26 the weather could not get much better. It was a beautiful Saturday in salty San Diego. Wind was blowing 1-5 mph all day, and the swell was 1-2 ft with a nice long period. Flat and calm, like a summer day. We loaded up on prime 4-6” sardines from Everingham Bait Barge in Mission Bay and pointed towards La Jolla. When we got to La Jolla the water temp was around 67 degrees. We put a few Rapalas back in about 75-85 ft of water. Found some good looking marks on the sonar, and after trolling through without getting a bite, we circled back to the zone with good marks and threw some surface irons at bait that was popping on the surface. Hook up. This produced some little 2-4 lb class Bonito. In this same zone live bait was working for calico bass and more bonito. We managed to catch and release about 3 nice sized calicos, and at least half a dozen bonito. We even had bonito chasing bare hooks! While we truly believe what you catch is “beside the point,” we heard that yellowtail may be a possibility and we were up for the challenge. All morning we hoped to see them pop on the surface, but we knew that despite seeing them on top, there would be a good chance they could bite a rapala due to the good sonar marks we had been seeing. So we went back on the troll. Just when the sun started to really burn, and the tide went slack, we heard our reel start screaming. We had a nice fish grab our pink rapala. Unmistakable yellowtail head shakes, we knew this was our chance. A few minutes into the fight, the fish saw the boat and did another long run, but we could see it was a big one, and it was hooked very well.

There’s a reason yellowtail of this size are called homeguards. They lurk in our waters year round and bulk up. They are large and they know their territory. The yellowtail we caught weighed in at 34.2 lbs at home, and it was chunky. Instant smiles when a fish like that hits the deck. This one literally lived its life “beside the point” probably for the last 10 years. It was the cherry on top of an already great day of fishing. We are grateful for the chance to catch one and do what we love with our family, raising the next generation of anglers who fish “beside the point” like we have for the last 4 generations.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Good luck out there.

-BTP

BTP angler holding up a “homeward” yellowtail.

This yellowtail weighed in at 34.2 lbs at home on our scale.