After a week of windy days, I saw a good weather opening to run offshore and look around at kelp paddy’s. My buddy Erin joined me and we met up at 4:15am at my house and made it down to the launch ramp just as the first signs of light started. We loaded up on very large Sardines at Everingham Brothers bait barge and ran offshore in very calm seas and weather conditions. It was one of those days you only get a few times a year typically, oil slick calm with very little swell.

The water was 66 as we ran outside of Point Loma and got up to 68.5 just outside the 9 Mile Bank. We found numerous paddy’s from 15-20 miles out in 65.5-67 degree water. Lot’s of different pockets of water temperatures and life. We finally found the right paddy and were able to get the first offshore Yellowtail of 2013 for us in the boat! Being excited for more I forgot to take a picture and we kept fishing. We had one more Yellowtail swarm around one of the baits but not take it. The Sardines were not just large, but pretty slow and not too healthy unfortunately.

Here is a typical paddy size along with just how flat the morning was!

As we motored on hopping from one paddy to another, we continued to find a few Sunfish sunning themselves on the surface.

Found this nice size Sunfish cruising along.

Sunfish, also known as Mola.

Around noon we decided to stop looking offshore and run inside to the 9 Mile Bank to try and throw some more fresh meat into the cooler bag. We did about 4 drops and ended up with 8 mixed Rockcod along with a very large Yelloweye Rockfish. You don’t see these very often off our waters, more towards central California and North into Alaska. Pretty crazy to see this thing come up from the deep with it’s color and size.

26” and 12lb Yelloweye Rockfish.

Once all the fish was iced, we cleaned up and ran in around 2pm with the sun out and only a mild bump on the ocean surface. It was great to find some Yellowtail even if we only managed one. I am hoping this is signs to come for our Summer offshore season!

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

I had the opportunity to take Canadian and proud Maple Leafs fan Steve Pautler out on San Diego Bay for some light tackle Bass fishing. The day started with sprinkles on the drive down, calm winds, water temperature around 64 at the mouth of the harbor to 68 in the back bay. Steve arrived right at 6:30am so we quickly got busy making our way towards the front of the bay to target Bass with the incoming tide that was peaking at about 10am. First drop of the morning resulted with Steve hooking up within about 30 seconds to a Barred Sand Bass. Since it was just the two of us, I got to fish too, and we pretty much traded off hooking up fish every time we drifted through the area. The bite stayed consistent for a few hours until the tide started to slow down, which is normal. We still picked away at a few fish and then decided to move further back in the bay once the tide came to a stop.

We fished the middle of the bay around the Midway and picked off a few more fish, then started to move around more into different areas to try and keep picking of a few fish here and there. As the afternoon progressed the bite seemed to get slower despite moving into the back of the bay. We finally found a pocket of fish at the end of the day around the amphibious base.

Despite a few sprinkles on us, it was a calm day on San Diego Bay. If you want to get away from the 3 million people of San Diego, just get on the bay during the week and you will get away from it all!

Steve with one of the nicer Sand Bass for the morning.

Steve with the last fish of the day, Spotted Bay Bass.

Here is a video Steve put together with his GoPro cameras of our day out. Fun stuff!

Overall it was a great day fishing with Steve. The clouds cleared and the sun came out to make it a nice afternoon on the boat.

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

After a lot of preparation and planning for the 2013 Southwestern Yacht Club Rockcod Tournament, Mother Nature changed our plans. It was some of the worst wind I have seen first thing in the morning in San Diego. The Point Loma weather station said the wind was a steady 18mph with gusts to 24mph.  As bad as I wanted to fish the tournament, I knew it was not just uncomfortable conditions, but flat out unsafe conditions. Unfortunately later in the day a father and his two sons were found floating off La Jolla due to their boat capsizing from the conditions. Fortunately they are all okay now despite the 18 year old son being in critical condition. The ocean is something to respect and fear. After a few looks at the mouth of the harbor we pulled the plug and put the boat back on the trailer. I think the video sums it up…

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

The morning started out great with not a drop of wind and the sun quickly warming up the chilly morning start. Did not see another boat launch out of Shelter Island, which was a surprise. The Koll family showed up with Joe, Melissa and their two boys William and Austin. Austin was excited to be on the boat, but William was not only ready to talk fishing but to start fishing asap! Right off the bat the excitement and positive energy was flowing so I knew it was going to be a good day.

The bay water temp was around 62.5 and low tide was around 10am with only a 4’ tide exchange. We started off fishing pretty much in the middle of the bay between 50-35’ of water and never really moved much due to picking fish off pretty consistently in that area. They caught Lizardfish, Spotted Bay Bass, Barred Sand Bass and even a nice Halibut that was unfortunately lost right at the boat. We saw Sea Lions along with many Dolphin including one that seemed to be playing with a dead Halibut more than he was eating it. Overall it was a great day of fishing and company with screams of excitement from the kids and laughter between us adults over the non stop jokes. Between the weather, the company and the fishing it could not have been a better day. Here are some photos and a video clip to show what I mean…

A beautiful sunrise over the fishing grounds of San Diego Bay.

8 year old William with the first fish on the day!

6 year old Austin quickly following behind his older brother.

Dad and Austin with a Spotted Bay Bass.

Melissa (aka “mom") with her first fish of the morning.

Dad and Austin with a Barred Sand Bass.

Mom with a nice Spotted Bay Bass.

Joe and William with a Sand Bass.

And the bay always throws in something different for your fishing day. This ship is something I have not seen before and looked pretty new. We also noticed a helicopter flying over it and all around it. It seemed as if it was filming the ship. You can see the helicopter in the top left of the photo.

Dad finally getting to reel in a fish on his own.

Many times I looked up to the bow of the boat to see William with a bent rod battling Bass stand up style.

Joe and William with their double on some nice Barred Sand Bass.

Austin and William doing a team effort on driving the boat back to the dock. The two make a good fishing team duo!

And to end my report I will let William sum up how the morning of fishing went!

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

My client Rick Lee contacted me to squeeze in a half day fishing trip between Sea World on Friday and leaving on Sunday with his son Robert. They showed up just before 6:30am so we were able to get on the water quickly and start fishing. The water temperature by the downtown area was around 60 and in the back bay it was 64 degrees. The breeze was blowing out of the North-Northeast first thing in the morning. With the breeze, and the incoming tide, I decided to start the day in a location that both the tidal current and wind would work together to give us good drifts. For the first 2 hours it was a good bite on swimbaits that had orange colors on them. Of course we scented them with UniButter which definitely seemed to help with getting multiple bites if you missed the first one.

Rick Lee with the first fish of the morning with downtown San Diego in the background. Spotted Bay Bass.

After dad landed a few fish, Robert decided to make up for it with a nice Barred Sand Bass.

Robert with another Sand Bass.

Robert sticking to getting the bigger Bass of the morning.

After a few hours around the downtown area the bite seemed to slow down a bit. So we opted to head into San Diego’s South Bay to find some Spotted Bay Bass. We started off around the old boat mooring area with Robert getting a fish right off the bat!

The Spotted Bay Bass bite started off quick at first.

The bite would die off at certain spots, then we would move on to a new area and pick up a few more fish. The weed beds seemed to produce the most today, with a nice double hookup for Rick and Robert.

Father and Son double on the Spotted Bay Bass.

And once again San Diego bay producing the “unusual catch”. A giant California Brown Sea Hare that was snagged accidentally.

Video of Sea Hare that Robert accidentally snagged. Look at the crazy purple ink it is squirting.

The wind seemed to quickly pick up forcing us to take cover behind Lows Resort around 11am. Despite that, we were able to pick off a few more fishing for the morning of fishing. The weather and the fishing cooperated with Rick and Robert making it a fun day on the water. It never hurts to add the “unusual catch” to the days fun too! Overall it was another great day on the big bay!

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

After dropping off my morning half day crew, I turned around and headed over to the dock at Anthony’s Fish Grotto to pick up my next set of clients, Mike and Mike. Since I had already guided the first half of the day, I figured I would just go right back to the spots where we caught fish. But I also knew that the tide was low at 2:30pm, which would slow the bite down for us.

We started the afternoon by picking off a few fish here and there at each spot. It seemed like we would get 2-4 fish, then the bite would stop and we would move on.

Mike with a Spotted Bay Bass.

At around 4pm the tide started to move and the bite slowly started to pick up more consistently for us. By 5pm, the bite really started to pick up, with a few double hookups in the mix.

Mike and Mike with a double hookup.

Sunset from San Diego South Bay while fishing.

The bite kept going strong, if not even improving more and more as the sun got lower in the sky. You could see schools of bait starting to get pushed around as the Bass started to feed more.

Mike with another Spotted Bay Bass caught in San Diego Bay.

The bite really went strong with the last hour before sunset. It’s always nice ending the day with a good bite, a nice sunset and the moon rising over downtown. It was a long day, but a great day too! My day started at 5am and ended at 9pm when I finished washing the boat down. I was exhausted, but not complaining. These guys were a great trip to end the day with.

After I dropped them off, I took a little time to enjoy the moon rising, downtown starting to light up and the pink sky to the West after the sun had set. I really wanted to stop and fish more as it got dark, but I knew my day was far from over so I headed back to the ramp to get the boat back on the trailer.

Moon rising over the downtown San Diego Hilton.

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

This fishing trip was a dual boat trip since there were 7 guys total, which was setup through Kelvin with La Jolla Fishing. The 3 guys that had fished with Kelvin in the past went on his boat, and I got the other 4 on my boat. They threw a wager down between the boats for biggest fish and most fish. Most of the time we stuck together fishing the same areas or very close to the same areas to keep the group together and make it more fun. Right off the bat Kelvin’s boat got a 15” Spotted Bay Bass which set the bar very high for us. We picked away slowly at some fish as we made our way through some spots as we worked towards the back of the bay. Kelvin’s group was already onto 13 fish when we only had 3 fish so far, but the morning was still young.

By about 9am we got into a good bite of Spotties, along with landing a Bonefish on a plastic grub. Quickly we were catching up to them, and at one point I believe we were even tied. But they moved onto another spot and found some more fish, quickly leaping ahead of us on their fish count. Then we hooked into a Brown Smoothhound Shark on our 6lb spinning setup, which tested the drag system. Once landed, we measured it and let the other boat know that the bar was now set to 28”.  A few fish later, another Smoothhound was hooked and landed, both on artificial plastics. Clients always get a kick out of seeing Sharks, which makes it that much more fun. After that, we picked off a few more Spotties.

The bite seemed to slow down and Kelvin called us to let us know they had a decent bite going, so we headed over to their spot and started fishing together again. A few more fish were picked up, but then the breeze picked up. So we headed over to the West side of the bay to be a little more protected from the breeze. We fished the baseball field area with no luck, so we moved back to our previous “Shark” spot while Kelvin kept working down the shoreline. We were happy with our decision since we got back into another “bite” in the same area, bringing our total to 23 fish by the time we picked up and ran in. Kelvin’s boat did manage somewhere in the low 30’s, so they took the most fish. But we still ended with the biggest fish.

One of many Spotted Bay Bass.

It was a great trip with a great group of guys! They were a blast to take fishing, especially with the friendly competition going on.

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

This trip was with Denny, his wife and daughter. The goal was to get his wife and daughter on some Spotted Bay Bass in the back bay. The morning started at 7am at the dock, then off to the back bay to find some fish. With only a light tide movement, the bite started off difficult. After only getting a few fish in the first hour, we started to find more at various spots. It seemed like we would pick of a few fish at each spot, then move on due to the bite dying. We finally found a good bite fishing in 5-6’ of water around some grass beds. It’s always nice getting into a better bite towards the end of the trip.

Sun rising over downtown San Diego as we head to our fishing grounds.

Denny with a San Diego Spotted Bay Bass.

Overall it was a fun trip with the Morgans. I was hoping the fish were going to bite more like they had in the past few weeks, but it was still nice getting into a good bite fishing the weed beds.

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

I had the pleasure to take Doug and Penny from Utah out fishing for some light tackle Spotted Bay Bass fishing. I had heard from Kelvin with La Jolla fishing that the back bay was biting pretty good. Doug and Penny were staying at Loew’s resort on Coronado, so I picked them up at the Glorietta Bay dock and ran to the back bay to look around. As we slid up to the first area you could see all the bait rolling on the surface with a few being chased by bigger fish. The water temperature was averaging around 62.5 degrees and oil slick conditions at first. Later in the morning the breeze lightly blew from the W-SW. Luckily the fog was not nearly as bad as the previous few days.

I casted first to demonstrate how to target the Spotties with the 3” MC Swimbaits we were using. While demonstrating I hooked into a Spottie on the first cast. This was pretty much how the rest of the morning went for us. Every so often we would drift out of the “fish zone” and have to pull back up. There were various spots around the back bay that had fish. Due to only having Doug and Penny on the boat, I was able to fish also, which is always a nice but infrequent event! It seemed like if we were in the zone, we would pick off a fish almost every to every other cast. So with those stats, you knew when you drifted out of the zone, since the bite would stop. The average depth was 11-12’ deep where the fish were.

Most the fish were smaller, but we did lock into a few nicer Spotted Bay Bass. Here is Penny with a nice Spotted Bay Bass.

Overall it was a nice steady bite on the Spotties with easily 40+ spotties being released between us all. Fun stuff on the light tackle setups! Lot’s of fin bait in the back along with some Dolphin and Seals feeding back there. Looks like Spring is around the corner along with the great bite that will follow. Hopefully they will be cooperating on Wednesday for my next clients!

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service

Due to the wind and fog the day before, we opted to stay in the bay and try to find some Bass and hopefully stay out of the fog and wind. Don, Rachel and Jon are repeat customers from a few years ago. So the jokes started right off the bat along with some fish! Jon being the hot stick of the day, with Rachel and her dad Don tying for second. The bite stayed fairly consistent as long as we kept drifting over the same areas. Once we drifted too far away from certain spots, the bite would shutdown. The fog eventually lifted giving way to a nice day on the big bay! The water was averaging 60 degrees and the fish were mostly on the ridge of the channel or up on the flats above the channel in 35’ of water. Swimbaits in browns, oranges and greens seemed to be working best this day. Earlier in the week blues seemed to be doing better.

Jon with the first Spotted Bay Bass of the day.

Jon with another Spottie!

Rachel adding a Barred Sand Bass to the list of species.

Like I said, Jon was the hot stick for the morning...along with a Sand Bass caught by Don in the picture.

Jon & Rachel enjoying the morning of fishing.

Most of the fish were caught with swimbaits along with a few caught on Kelp Assassins by Reebs Lures. Another fun trip with this trio!!

Until my next report, take care and tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann
San Diego Fishing Guide and Charter Service