Right now, as I type this Sunday morning, it's actually pretty nice on the water — calm seas, light wind, pale blue sky with a little marine haze offshore. One of those classic early March mornings where you'd love to be running somewhere. But don't get comfortable, because this is the last quiet window you're going to see for a while.
A Small Craft Advisory is already in effect through Monday afternoon, and a Gale Watch kicks in Monday afternoon through Monday night. Tonight the NW wind bumps to 20-30 knots, and Monday it gets worse — 20-30 sustained with gusts to 35. Monday night goes full gale at 25-35 knots with seas building to 7-8 feet in the outer zones around Santa Barbara Island and San Nicolas. Tuesday is no better — 20-30 knots NW, seas 5-7 feet and building. Wednesday? Flat out ugly. 30-40 knots NW with seas pushing 8-10 feet in the Catalina/San Pedro Channel zone. That's stay-home-and-tie-jigs weather.
So here's the reality: if you're not already on the water right now, you're not going this week. Monday through at least Wednesday is blown out for private boats, period. The sportboat fleet will be dock-bound too. Even the guys running half-days out of San Pedro and Dana Point are going to have a tough time finding a lee. Plan your next trip for late in the week at the earliest and keep watching the forecast.
Patchy dense fog this morning with visibility under a mile in spots — heads up if you're running early. It clears to patchy fog this afternoon.
The Pacific Voyager just came back from a 2.5-day trip and that's the headline for the week. Twenty anglers put 120 yellowtail on the boat in the 15-25 pound range, plus 1 bluefin at 60 pounds, 20 lingcod, 30 vermilion rockfish, and 50 assorted rockfish. That's a legit trip. The yellowtail fishing was clearly the main event — six fish per rod on yellows is strong production for early March.
The Old Glory checked in with the first couple of bluefin tuna for their 2026 season. No size or location details, but the fact that bluefin are showing up on local boats in early March is worth noting. The Polaris Supreme has their first trip of the year scheduled for March 13 — a 3-day targeting bluefin. They're clearly expecting fish to be around.
The Fury out of Dana Wharf has been running overnights to San Clemente Island and picking at a few yellowtail, plus good lingcod. The Sum Fun out of Dana Point put a 41-pound white seabass on the deck recently — that's a quality fish.
Locally, the half-day and 3/4-day fleet out of San Diego and San Pedro is grinding on sand bass, sculpin, whitefish, and rockfish. Standard winter bottom-fishing stuff. The Voyager 1.5-day came back with limits of lingcod. Bonito are showing on some of the 3/4-day boats, which at least means there's bait and life in the water.
San Pedro buoy reading 63°F. Inshore reef temps around 61.5°F. That's still winter water — nothing that's going to light up a pelagic bite broadly. Making mackerel for bait has been tough with the strong tides — jack smelt around but no macks on the iron. That bait situation matters if you're trying to load up before a run.
There's a swordfish boat drifting in 1,000 feet of water up around 33°34'/117°59' — that's roughly in the 267-279 neighborhood. The fact that someone is targeting swords out there suggests there may be some warmer water pushing through at depth, even if the surface temps aren't screaming about it.
San Clemente Island is producing some yellowtail on the overnight boats, and the Fury has been making the run with decent results. No word on Navy closures, so it appears SCI is currently open. With the wind event coming, nobody is running out there until Thursday at the earliest.
Coronado Islands — the San Diego full-day boats are gearing up for their March Coronado schedule. Passport required. No hot reports yet but that fishery should start producing yellows and bottom fish as we push deeper into March.
Bluefin Tuna — They're here. The Old Glory got the first ones of 2026 and the Polaris Supreme is scheduling a bluefin-specific 3-day for mid-March. Early season fish, likely scattered, but this is the start. Yellowfin — nothing yet, way too early. Yellowtail — the hot species right now. The Pacific Voyager's 120-fish count on their 2.5-day tells you the Baja coast yellows are biting well in the 15-25 pound class. SCI producing a few too. Dorado — not in the picture yet. White Seabass — that 41-pounder from Dana Point is a reminder that WSB are around. Any squid activity inshore should have you thinking about drooping a bait near the squid grounds. Striped Marlin — not yet, give it another couple months.
Today is the last fishable day before a nasty multi-day blow shuts everything down through at least Wednesday. If you're already on the water, make it count. If not, use this week to rig up, check your trailer, and get your bluefin gear ready — because the early season fish are starting to show. When the weather opens back up, a 1.5-day run south for yellowtail or a local push to find those early bluefin would be the play.