Winter Bonita
Since we were spending a winter escape week in Orange County I decided to get in a day of fishing in San Diego Bay since I hadn’t made it down there last year when we were in the area. My expectations were a bit low compared to numerous trips in the past since it was January and there had been a lot of cold weather up until yesterday afternoon. I met Peter Piconi of the SoCal Fly Fishing at 8:00 at the Glorieta Bay launch and quickly got loaded up and off the dock.
We immediately saw bait to the right of the boat, set up and I had a fish on the first cast – a spotted bay bass. For the next 15 minutes I had a fish on for every cast, not always landing them but at least hooking up. The fish were taking lighter than they do in the summer time and so hooking up solidly was challenging. We could have probably stayed on this spot the whole morning and caught bass until the sun got high but we decided to move to a new location further up the bay in search of other finny creatures.
After a brisk ride across the bay we stopped in a back bay near the shop which was filled with grebes and bait busting on the surface. I started out with the slow retrieve we had been using on the bass but found as soon as I sped it up I had a grab. Letting the fly sink then stripping back with a moderate strip got action and I was soon into a fish. First fish to boat was a corvina – the first one of this species I’ve caught. I got a couple other corvina and a mackerel then latched into something a bit bigger and more powerful. On the first run I thought maybe I’d hooked a bonefish finally or a white sea bass. On the second run when I got the fish in close I saw it was a bonita instead, the tuna-like shape gave it away. A strong fish on a 6-weight and we finally got it to the boat and landed.
Small Corvina
The fishing seemed to slow a bit after a few more corvina and as the sun came up. I went back to the slower retrieve and started getting grabs. Soon I was into a fish and it turned out to be a yellowfin croaker. For the next thirty minutes I got so many croaker that we lost count. All of these were taking very lightly and tricky to hook up and keep on.
Yellowfin Croaker
After the bite ended we moved on to a new spot where I got a few more bass, including the largest spotted bay bass of the morning that really put a bend in the rod. At the last spot before hitting the dock I managed to land one last bass and had a few on that got off. All in all a great morning in the sun with good company and good fishing throughout the morning. As an added bonus I got a new species for my list and got a nice winter bonita which pretty much made the day. No matter what time of year, San Diego Bay seems to always hold good fishing – now if I would just get that elusive SD bone.