Mark’s fishing page

Misc. fish pics
BuiltWithNOF

Most of the big fish that we have caught in the leaky beaker have been halibut.  The biggest fish we’ve ever caught was the big 35” 15# halibut (left) that Mark caught just inside the moorings north of the Coronado bridge. This lunker bit a 4” gulp bait fished on a drop shot rig in about 15 feet of water. We were out on a trip for the 4th of July, grilling hot dogs and barely paying attention when it bit. If you spend enough time on the water, sometimes you just get lucky.  Each of us have managed to catch a nice halibut on 4-5” fish traps.  Ben (below, left) and Ryan (below) caught this pair of legal halibut fishing near the cement blocks across the channel from the Shelter Island boat launch.     

Martin caught our first big fish in the Beaker two years ago (right) and this was probably one the first fish he has ever caught. He was using a fish trap just inside of the submerged jetty at the mouth of the bay, across the channel from the bait barge.  Halibut are available more or less all year in San Diego, and are most frequent from May thru October in the bay.

Bill always manages to get lucky fishing when we invite him along.  Below he is showing off a nice sand bass he caught at Zuniga jetty.  Sand bass offer a very consistent fishing opportunity, and can bite very well in the winter months when other fishing is slow for other species. Bill caught this fish near the surface, but we usually catch them using fish traps with heavy leadheads that get them down to 30-40 feet of water.

Ryan has caught several shortfin corvina (above, right) while fishing for bay bass in San Diego Bay. Apparently they have only recently showed up in this area, and are often mistaken for white sea bass. Shortfin corvina typically have a single large tooth that white sea bass usually don’t have, and juvenile white sea bass usually have vertical bars that fade with age.  We can’t reliable distinguish them so we turn them all loose. Calico bass (below) are fun to fish in the kelp using swim baits, live bait, or just about anything else that would normally catch bass. Unlike sand bass or halibut, calicos are remarkably slow growing and big 3-5#ers like these can be 10-20 years old.

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