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Has anyone else noticed how strange this season has been? On paper, this Super El Niño should be a dream scenario for Southern California anglers. We've got warm water pushed up the coast, tropical species showing up in places they normally wouldn't, and surface temperatures hovering around 74°F across massive areas of ocean.

The problem is that the fish don't seem to have any reason to stack up.

In a normal year, we spend a lot of time looking for temperature breaks, current edges, and chlorophyll lines. Those transitions concentrate bait, which concentrates predators. Find a clean temp break from 67° to 70° or a nice chlorophyll edge, and you've got a starting point.

This year, it feels like the ocean hit the "shuffle" button.

Instead of distinct water masses, there are miles and miles of nearly identical conditions. You can run 20 miles and still see essentially the same 74°F water. The chlorophyll charts look flat, the temperature charts look flat, and the fish seem to be acting the same way. There aren't many obvious zones telling you where to start looking.

As a result, fish are showing up in random places. One boat finds a school of decent sized yellowfin or wahoo in an area that looked dead the day before. Another boat runs over excellent meter marks in the middle of nowhere with no visible conditions suggesting why they're there. The next day they're gone.

It's been incredible fishing when you're on them, but finding them has become much more difficult because the ocean lacks the structure we normally rely on. The fish have 40-plus square miles of comfortable water to roam around in rather than being pinned to specific temperature or chlorophyll boundaries.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take 74-degree water off Southern California every day of the week. But for those of us who love reading charts and hunting productive water, this El Niño has turned the game into more of a treasure hunt. The fish are there. They just aren't giving us many clues.

Anyone else seeing the same thing, or have you found some pattern that's working in this giant bathtub of warm water?

I was planning on meeting Squatch fishing on Saturday since it seemed to be the best of the two-day weekend, weather wise.  Unfortunately, Squatch couldn't make it since he was meeting his friend in a van down by the river.  I opted to change days so Steve could get out.  It's been a long time since I had him in the Curmudgeon.

We met at my place since I was expecting a lot of fish and needed to get the boat cleaned (being Sunday and not having an extra day to tidy up the gear).  I was all ready to roll the minute he showed up and we were on our way.  Funny how lobster season, especially Saturday Night Lobster fishing keeps the crowds down for Sunday.

What great views from the ramp...







The weather was a little windy and choppy in the morning, but gorgeous!



The wind died down and everything got greasy out there.  We noticed some surface activity in the middle of nowhere and I cast my little 30-gram jig out.  I totally get slammed and was stoked but lost him.  My guess was a Bullet Tuna but I really didn't see him.  We continued to the 9-Mile and heard a few boats talking about the huge biomass of Bullets out there.  they weren't kidding!  They were everywhere but would not hit our trolling spread or irons.  It was quite baffling.

We decided we didn't come out for Bullets so we put out a few Marlin Jigs, a Wahoo lure and a few feathers just in case.  5-rod spread on the skiff...  Bullets everywhere but not in the biting mood or consumed with whatever micro bait they were feeding on.

Then, out of the blue I hear a clicker ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I'm on and on my virgin rod (Talica 16/Teramar) that I picked up from Shimano!  It would have been a great fight on the bass gear, but this set up is more for the bigger stuff, so I bounced him.



We saw a ton of flying fish around and after telling Steve I was in the lead, he said if he touches or grabs a flying fish that flies into the boat, he wins.  Reluctantly, I agreed but knew that would never happen. Well, I almost ate my words as right in front of the boat a flying fish shot out and a 18-year-old Squatch could have grabbed it.  Thankfully a 70-year-old Squatch doesn't have the reaction time. 

Another weird thing was no jumping Manta Rays anywhere.  I've seen them every single time I've been out, but not today.  It looked lifeless out there and the radio chatter reinforced that thought with the "You should have been here yesterday" blather.

Then we see what looks like a huge black garbage bag floating on the water.  We kept trying to figure out what it was and pretty much settled on a garbage bag that fell off a big boat.  Then we got close to it, and it turned its HEAD to look at us and sunk out!  Mother f@cker!  A huge female elephant seal!  Well, that was pretty cool!



We continued to troll and troll for nothing else.  We did see some birds working and Squatch got to see a leaping Manta Ray finally!  I missed it, but he got to see it.  Then in the distance we saw what looked like a marlin.  Then the closer we got, realized maybe it was a school of big tuna!  Then we got closer to see it was a huge pod of small dolphin.... and they wanted to play with the boat.  We literally "Trolled" with them for a bit and then just gave up when we realized there were no tuna with them.




On the way back in we passed some MONSTER kelp paddies!  Nothing was holding, but there were a few small yellows under them.  They would chase the jig up but not commit to the attack so we called it the day.



The ride in was glassy and pretty smooth.  Gorgeous day on the water and great to be fishing with my friend again.

Got home and washed the boat and equipment.  Steve took his leave and I was finishing up the cleaning when as I started cleaning the trolling lures from my tackle bucket, a tiny little wiener dropped out.  Mother f@cker!  hahahahahaha
That thing has lasted probably 15 years being passed back and forth since we found it Sturgeon fishing at Cuyamaca!  Touche Squatch!



Well, that was it.  A fun day on the water even if the fish didn't want to show themselves (except for the Bullets)

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

Sounds like the Square Boma for most of my time owning her!

Well Damn, glad you got out and same thing here.  I was expecting a lot of wind and it was glassy, although the waves and swell seemed to be coming from 4 different directions.

Well, you got your yellow.  I had my fill of those suckers.  I went from having every yellowtail the past year and a half being 25-50 pounds and then they were all 8oz to 2#.  hahaha

I got Steve in the boat since I refused my buddy's invite to lobster fish this weekend.  I don't want anything to do with that mess on opening weekend.

Well, I hope you get her fixed up soon.  The season has been "Hot or Not" for a Super El Nino.  If anything, it's been the year of the Marlin!

That thing is going to require some new P-Soul stickers when it's done!

You never disappoint with the food pics, but adding in all the trout was a bonus!  Another great trip to remind me that I need to get my ass up there.

Vive El Concolor!

I took a personal day and wanted to get out fishing before the offshore storms start to kick up the seas again.  The plan was to fish for marlin and wahoo.  Anything else was a bonus.

Dropped the boat in and as I was walking back from parking the trailer I passed 5 sets of underwear.  I don't even want to know.



My buddy needs to take less coffee grinders...



It was a little windier than predicted and quite a bit more bumpy.  We got out to the 178 and metered some fish.  We probably should have just started fishing there trolling Mad Macs, but we decided to just run to the 182 instead and hit the 178 on the way back.

Water was gorgeous!  No birds or signs of life.  An occasional gull and flying fish, but we trolled all over and around the FAD.  No one was there so it was pretty nice having it to ourselves.

I finally get a quick hit but it never stuck.  I reeled in my "Megabait" to see the steel hook attachment snapped!  Everything was gone and this was a solid piece of steel that ran through the lure!  WTF?



We would reel in at any paddies we saw ,which wasn't much, and see who was home.  We did pick up some nice marlin baits in case we decided to fly line one in their face if we saw them!



We had one knockdown that I was sure was a marlin, but it took off and never charged again.  We also 2 more out there just free jumping, but couldn't make it happen.

We decided we were going to troll the 178 to the 9-mile border on the outside then troll back up on the inside to see if we could find something.  The marlin guys were all over the 178/9 so we still felt we had a shot.

As we were trolling to the 178, we spot a beauty of a paddy!



Dodo, yellows and little nerf footballs all over the place.  My first cast with the jig and I hooked the dodo which proceeded to use the jig as a bullet at my head as it made its final jump next to the boat.  It was pretty good fishing and then it just literally shut off.



We continued the troll when we saw something really close to us just pop up out of the water!  My buddy said it looked like a water heater with a pipe.  I was like Holy f@ck!  Look at that Sub!



It was huge and kept maneuvering at us.  I'm not sure why but the radar said it was less than 3/4 of a mile away, so we decided to get some more distance between us just in case.

We trolled the entire outside to the border for nothing.  Wind picked up and now it was just plain sloppy out there.



We started trolling home when one of the trollers for tuna went singing!  It was totally a nicer grade YFT... the boat near us just caught a 50# model and this one seemed from the same school, but like everything today, we lost him.

Then we started boxing the area and I got SMEARED on the Mad Mac!!!!  f@cking violent hit and run but it never stuck.  WTF... this was getting annoying.  I reeled in the mack to investigate and Holy Hell!



It looks like wahoo, but I'm no wahoo expert.  Tombo saw a bunch of makos out there so it could have been one of them, but the lure was hit in the middle so I'm leaning towards a hoo.

We finally call it quits as it was 6:00 and headed in.  As we passed under the bridge, I realized we had our limits of yellows in the bait tank and they were all strong and hardy!  I dumped them in the bay for someone to catch.  How cool would that be to fish for bay bass and catch a little yellow!  Hahahaha

Anyways, a non-productive trip for pelagics but it was worth the PTO to spend all day on the water.

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

That looks almost exactly like my "Square Boma" project.  Tackle some of the cheaper and easier things first because once you are at the end game and put a coat of paint inside, it's going to make that baby dazzle!

Thanks for the post as it's bringing back a lot of old memories of the Boma.  I probably have a few things for your boat in my garage.  I'll look for a few things and send you pics if you want any of them.

Quote from: jrodda on September 22, 2026, 11:30:26 AMExciting trip! Never a saw a paddy this weekend so hopefully some of those drift up this way.

It was only a manhole sized paddy, but held a TON even 50 yards away!  As for the one I found when the navy threw me out, well that was as big as your boat!

My shoulder was toast, but I needed another shot at marlin.  I reset the Curmudgeon to fish and only planned on hitting the water from 6-12.  The forecast seemed it would be the best day all week, so I needed to get out there again and try to redeem myself for the lost marlin.

I headed straight out to where I was on Saturday and the forecast was totally wrong!  It was windy and choppy the entire way out!  Ugh... I get out there and start trolling.  There are like 4 other boats all doing the same thing and looked suspiciously like fishing for wahoo and marlin.







I had zero hits and was wet from all of the spray coming over the rails when I saw the big paddy!  I ran over and started casting my little iron and instantaneously caught 4 tiny yellows in a row, but there were dodo all over the paddy!  Then a guy in his 36' Pursuit trolled right next to the paddy as I'm fishing it but no time to get pissed.  I pulled in a few small YFT (Nerf football size) and even hooked a few of the dodo that launched my iron like a missile when they jumped! 

I was ready to tie on a better lure to get the dodo when I hear cop sounds behind me.  There was a navy boat behind me saying I had to clear the area.  There were 4 other boats around, but he shot up to me first.  I was like "Are you kidding?"  "There's a million miles of abyssal plains for you to do drills but you have to park it over the ridge everyone comes to fish?"...  He said I need to be 7-miles from this location in a north easterly direction at bearing blah blah blah...
He didn't like that very much, so I complied and started heading in that direction as well as the big Pursuit that kept trolling around me.

He shot over to another boat and kicked them out before moving to the next boat and doing the same.  I got a mile away and said f@ck it and threw the trollers back out and the Pursuit did the same.  We were heading exactly on the course he said to go.  Then the Pursuit hailed me and said to look back...  There was that Navy Squid all up on my ass telling me to go.  I said "I can only go 15 tops in these seas and I'm trolling at 10, what's the difference, I'm heading to where you told me to head".  Well, he didn't like that even more and gave me a final warning so I reeled up the rods and gave him the big final bird before running again.  I know he saw it because his loud speaker said something the minute I did it.





I got about 5 miles away and said f@ck him and put the trollers out.  I saw more mantras jumping and flying fish, but was on the outside ledge of the shelf before getting into rockfish land.  As I was going, I saw a big Mola that followed me around and more mantas jumping. 







Then I caught a glimpse of it again and it was a marlin!  I pretty much had everything reeled in except my marlin gear and started boxing the area.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!

Literally 5 seconds and one jump later he was off.  10 more circles and I decided I was done.

On the way in, I found a paddy and started using my little bass jig on it.  Well, no ahi... or wahoo.... But TONS of tiny yellows! I caught about 12 and released before packing it in for the barn.



No fish in the bag for me but also a lot less cleaning when I got home.  My shoulder is a wreck, but it felt good to get the boat out 2x in a weekend.

Thanks for reading and pictures to come later.

I had my buddy who bailed on me last minute for an emergency, but I already had the boat packed so was on in the morning no matter what.

I wasn't sure what was going on locally over the week, but I knew it would be a little bumpy for the Curmudgeon... and it was billed as forecasted.  Sharp/short period 3-4' waves @5 seconds made for a sporty trip out to the 9-Mile.



Water was super clean and bright blue, so I threw out the trollers.  I put out a 4-rod spread with a big Mad Mack for wahoo, a big marlin troller, and two chrome jet heads in case.
I ran south but didn't see much.  Plenty of Devil Rays and flying fish, but very little else in the way of the signs that I was looking for.  I missed a few of the jumps, but also potentially saw a few marlin mixed in with the rays.



I switched to head north and try the 178 area instead.

It was a long, boring troll and I was thinking about maybe just heading to LJ and look for yellows when both of my Jet Head rods doubled over and started screaming!



I got both in and they were legit skippies!  All lit up as hell and the fresh pictures just make them glow!
I cast out a small iron on my bass gear and a screamer again!  I gaffed this one, but it showered my boat in blood, and I didn't like that outcome so I decided I would bounce more if I had the chance.
Next cast and I had the chance!  Unfortunately, I bounced him on the casting platform, the hook pulled and he rolled out of bounds like basketball and back into the drink.  Oh well.







I continued my troll and found a beautiful paddy that appeared to be full of bait.  I pulled out the little iron on the bass gear and started jigging it by the paddy.  Well, the same as last week... this paddy was full of little nerf sized yellowfin tuna and small ½ to 1-pound yellows.






I think I caught a dozen total, maybe more and released all of the baby yellows, but kept the footballs.  I saw a few dodo but I couldn't get them to bite for some reason.  I decided to troll circles around the paddy and see if there was anything bigger on it or around it.  I made about 8 loops before deciding to start to troll home when my marlin rod started screaming!

Nice striper doing the greyhounding thing and my first marlin for the curmudgeon?  I fought it for about 10 minutes, and I could not get him to budge from 30 yards from the boat.  I got him close once, but he went... "NOPE" and then locked me down.  I started to angle the boat in a way so I could gain some ground when he jumped again and threw the hook... UGHHHH!!!!



Well, I didn't need any more marlin meat anyway and I went from thinking I was going to release him to keeping him, so it was bound to get off since that was my original plan.  LOL

I worked my way back through a desert and just called it as it was getting late and the only thing I found on any remaining paddies were the tine yellowtail, so all in all it was a great day.  I would have loved to get my mitts on the marlin, but I still had a lot of fun fighting it on my skiff. (My skiff lacks a lot of room to maneuver around the console!)

That's it.  I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow.

The way in was a mess with the Thunder Boats racing in MB.  Too many drunk idiots out there....

I had an almost epic day on Saturday and almost had a more incredible day today!  f@cking Navy Squids pretty much closed down all of the inshore banks and forced me off my paddy full of YFT, YT, and Dodo.  f@cking really pissed me off....

I'll get a post up here as soon as I can.

Yep, that all seems right about the Maiden Voyage!  Once again, beautiful boat!

As far as the GWS... I've seen a dozen jumps in my boat and they are always unreal!  Squatch used to think I was lying until he finally got to witness a big one leap!  Super cool stuff.

Man... you guys didn't just go fishing, you went on a full‑blown Survivor: Dana Point Edition. LOL

Fuel line patchwork, dead battery, sunglasses retrieval mission, bathroom pit stop... at this point I'm convinced Jake's real job on the boat is "Chief Crisis Pump‑the‑Bulb Officer."

That skipjack story had me laughing, especially since you were thinking you've got a medium bonito and suddenly... your reel starts singing opera. And Jake's first gaff job being a literal blood sprinkler? Chef's kiss. That console is gonna smell like a crime scene until at least Thanksgiving.

Glad you broke the pelagic curse though. A season without one would've been rough, but you pulled it off with style... and duct tape. The turds at the end were just the ocean's way of saying "good hustle."

Solid report, Jeremy. You earned that poké.