A pre-dawn kayak launch out of the Bay Area was supposed to deliver a limit of California halibut. Instead, the angler behind Die Hard Fishing spent the morning chasing exploding bait balls and boated three Pacific bonito — a species that normally lives several hundred miles to the south.
It is the kind of session that has become a quiet talking point on the Northern California coast as warm water creeps up the seaboard. "These are definitely more common down in Southern California, but we do get them up here in Northern California," the angler said in his latest video. "People have been kind of rumouring around. I've heard some rumours that it might be an El Nino year, which means that we'll get some warmer water up here. And if we get warmer water, it's definitely more likely to see more pelagic species like this one."
The kayaker rigged a classic dodger-and-hoochie setup — a small white squid imitation behind a flashing dodger — and slow-trolled the sandy flats for halibut. After a couple of rockfish in the first hour, the surface gave away that something larger had moved into the area. "There are huge schools of bait fish getting blown up on here," he said. "I'm not totally sure what is chasing them. Let's try something."
When the rods finally went off, they went off together. "Up. Oh, double, double. We're on. Oh my god. Double. Pretty sure these are blue," the kayaker called as the lines doubled over. "I'm pretty sure these are bonito. We got him. It worked."
What he caught after that, by his own admission, is a species many Bay Area kayakers go a season without seeing. "Now, these are very underrated fish in my humble opinion," he said. "A lot of people, especially in Southern California, kind of frown on these probably because they have the bigger tuna. It's hard to blame them. But I personally really think these cut up real well. The hardest part is you got to get them on ice right away, but luckily I have my ice box right behind me with ice in there, so not a problem today."
His handling rule was firm. "The biggest thing with these, you got to take care of them," the angler said. "I want to make sure I bleed them and put them on ice as quickly as possible, so that the meat stays good. I think that's the main reason why they get such a bad rap — is people just don't take the time to take care of them properly."
The deeper story sat on the fish finder. With water temperature reading 57.5F over the sand flats — warm by Bay Area standards for this time of year — halibut never showed up to the dodger. After roughly five hours total trolling for flatfish across morning and afternoon, he had nothing but a few small rockfish on the spike. "I'm thinking maybe everything is just kind of messed up because of this El Nino thing," he said. "You know, the water is definitely warmer right now than it normally is this time of year. So maybe it's just throwing the whole thing off."
He suggested the bonito themselves might be eating the same bait the halibut would otherwise key on. "Maybe the bonito are eating everything before the halibet can get to it. So I don't know what's going on with the halibet, but I couldn't find any today."
The angler said he would be back on the halibut grind next trip, but he framed the bonito session as a window that does not open in Northern California often. "It's not often that you can go out on your kayak in the Bay Area and go fish for pelagic fish."
