Tuna 2022, let the games begin!

SilverFly · Oct 20, 2022

RRSmith said:
Here's one that's a little closer to the PNW - taken a few days ago out of Shelter Cove (Humboldt County, CA). They are still out there....

View attachment 37432

With dozens of dorado, a Kona billfish here in the PNW, and 3 species San Diego type cow tuna being caught in numbers in NorCal, it really seems like some kind of threshold has been crossed.

As I understand things, that threshold is an ecological zone boundary in the California current at Point Conception just North of Santa Barbara. Hopefully the experts will chime in, but the real eye opener for me was the 240# Yellowfin caught off Fort Bragg last month. Historically, they have been caught throughout the SoCal Bight, but seldom North of the Channel Islands, and (to my knowledge) NEVER North of Point Conception.

Looking at the temp and chloro for the last month, not seeing a huge difference between NorCal and the PNW. Just sayin'...

RRSmith · Oct 21, 2022

Good stuff @SilverFly and agree - never north of Point Conception (for yellowfin). I am by no means an expert but I did do some research several years ago for an article about offshore exotics for the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers newsletter. Thanks to archival and satellite tagging, bluefin are known to occur off the PNW during fall months. Bigeye catches were sporadic and not unheard of during past El Nino's as far north as off Cape Mendocino. Ditto for striped marlin. The cow yellowfin blew my mind but a shortbill spearfish? Holy cow! Don't forget that we are in the middle of a La Nina event that's forecast to persist at least through the winter and perhaps longer.

SilverFly · Oct 21, 2022

RRSmith said:
Good stuff @SilverFly and agree - never north of Point Conception (for yellowfin). I am by no means an expert but I did do some research several years ago for an article about offshore exotics for the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers newsletter. Thanks to archival and satellite tagging, bluefin are known to occur off the PNW during fall months. Bigeye catches were sporadic and not unheard of during past El Nino's as far north as off Cape Mendocino. Ditto for striped marlin. The cow yellowfin blew my mind but a shortbill spearfish? Holy cow! Don't forget that we are in the middle of a La Nina event that's forecast to persist at least through the winter and perhaps longer.

Glad I'm not the only one thinking this.
Yup, the fact that we're in a negative (cool) PDO phase makes these exotic catches even more surprising. Will be very interesting to see how things develop as the PDO appears to be cycling towards a positive (warm) phase.

SilverFly · Oct 21, 2022

@RRSmith, you would be correct. The big NorCal tuna are still out there. Whooda thunk San Fran would be a cow tuna town!

adamcu280 · Oct 21, 2022

SilverFly said:
@RRSmith, you would be correct. The big NorCal tuna are still out there. Whooda thunk San Fran would be a cow tuna town!

View attachment 37539

I remember when the Flying Fish out of Sausalito caught a striped marlin on an albacore trip back in the early 90s. That was nuts, but it's getting nuttier.

Tallguy · Oct 21, 2022

RRSmith said:
Here's one that's a little closer to the PNW - taken a few days ago out of Shelter Cove (Humboldt County, CA). They are still out there....

View attachment 37432

What convinces me I need to go catch one of these is the absolute bone deep shi*t eating grin these guys all have. They look like they just robbed a bank and got away with it. I love fish that can do that.

I might need to go run the night jig operation off San Diego one of these days.

RRSmith · Oct 22, 2022

I wonder if there was something going on further offshore that drew those exotics around and past the 39 degree north line to put them in position to stray close enough to be intercepted by sport anglers? Nearshore SST's (inside the 127 line) didn't seem unusually warm compared to recent years plus the Southern California anglers have not been catching those bigeye and big yellowfin. This might suggest that these fish are coming from the west instead of the usual north/south migration pattern.

The research folks have been paying attention. I just found out that tissue samples from yellowfin, bigeye and dorado caught off the Northern California coast have been sent to NOAA's La Jolla Laboratory for researchers Owyn Snodgrass and Heidi Dewar to analyze. With a 1" cube of muscle, they can do a stable isotope analysis to determine which area of the Pacific these fish are coming from. Every large body of water has its own signature of isotopes, different from the California Current System so they should be able to get a good idea. I am not sure how long this will take but will report back if get wind of the results.

SilverFly · Oct 22, 2022

RRSmith said:
I wonder if there was something going on further offshore that drew those exotics around and past the 39 degree north line to put them in position to stray close enough to be intercepted by sport anglers? Nearshore SST's (inside the 127 line) didn't seem unusually warm compared to recent years plus the Southern California anglers have not been catching those bigeye and big yellowfin. This might suggest that these fish are coming from the west instead of the usual north/south migration pattern.

The research folks have been paying attention. I just found out that tissue samples from yellowfin, bigeye and dorado caught off the Northern California coast have been sent to NOAA's La Jolla Laboratory for researchers Owyn Snodgrass and Heidi Dewar to analyze. With a 1" cube of muscle, they can do a stable isotope analysis to determine which area of the Pacific these fish are coming from. Every large body of water has its own signature of isotopes, different from the California Current System so they should be able to get a good idea. I am not sure how long this will take but will report back if get wind of the results.

Thanks, I'll be looking forward to those results. The stuff we're getting into really should be in the PDO thread, but these fish coming in from the west makes sense. Especially the dodo's and spearfish. This also fits with the negative phase PDO that we're in now. While that is generally associated with cooler nearshore waters, and better for salmon, the flip side is warmer than average water in the north/central (edit: and /western) Pacific.