For many years, you used to have to go clear out way past Catalina to fish for any tuna, swordfish and even to find some decent kelp patties for yellow tail. Now the kelp forest itself has expanded and is much closer in and the sport fish have moved closer than I have seen them since like the 70's. And because of the kelp forest and the warmer waters, the sea lions are just everywhere. You used to get a few here and there in the rocks at the various jetties, and now they are covered in sea lions. At low tide they gave been gathering in large groups under the pier here!
There are just dozens and dozens of young great whites patrolling the breakwaters up and down the OC. That has also never happened. If you saw one or two last year, it was unusual. Now they are everywhere. We have always had some sting rays, but now there are thousands of them close to shore. One day like two weekends ago, the life guards at Huntington treated 150 people for stings who didn't have brains enough to shuffle their feet while walking into the surf, even though the city had put up signs everywhere. If I were not still recouping from a surgery I had in June, my ass would have been out there fishing a few times by now.
Rarer yet, some sea otters have been spotted along Crystal Cove! They haven't been this far south in like decades. They were also spotted out at Newport, San Clemente and San Mateo. A whale watching boat off Dana Point spotted some sea otters off of Laguna! Three were spotted off the Strand in Dana also. A couple were spotted off Seal Beach in the kelp beds. They are in the expanded kelp bed areas. Amazing. Plus there have been balls of sardines closer to shore than they have been again since like the early 80's! The Spanish mackerel have moved closer in. People are catching them off the Seal Beach and Huntington piers now. Even the bait barges have all moved in closer to the shoreline. Like I said, this is how fishing and wildlife used to be around here back in the 60's and 70's. It's just awesome.
The water temps last year and this year have risen greatly. It has stayed warmer even in the winter. I hope to be able to go fishing in a few weeks. I can't wait. People are catching, get this- legal size halibut while surf fishing. Get outta here! There are also a lot of corbina, sea bass, and the rock fish have showed up months early. WTH? The pier fishing alone has been yielding more fish, more variety of species and larger sizes of fish. Just from the piers people are also getting white croakers, jacksmelt, decent sized perch, mackerel, bonito, and legal size barracuda. I have not heard of anyone getting fricking bonito and rarely legal baracudas off any piers in like decades. Bonito! Awesome. They make great cerviche. Baracuda are wonderful grilled. I actually went into the garage a couple of days ago and hauled out my tackle boxes and a bunch of different rods and reels to start putting on new line, sorting my tackle and getting some rods ready.
