San Diego Bonefish

I'm still alive and fishing. It's been several years since my last post, but with national boredom at an all-time high during these "un press heh dent Ed" times I figure I'd give the internet's worst fishing blog another crack. I needed to clean up the most cringe-inducing posts from my middle school and high school years, and will likely need to do the same with this post in a few years. I moved to San Diego a few years ago to attend UC San Diego. This city is great for many reasons, and one such reason is the productive, easily accessible fishing for a wide variety of exciting species. I sometimes even wish I grew up here instead of Portland. In Portland I'd need to drive an hour and a half to fish the surf and two and a half hours to kayak fish on the ocean; from where I live in SD it's ten minutes to get to both. I haven't had to drive more than a half an hour to fish anywhere, making it super easy to kill a few hours on the water without compromising all the other stuff I have to do. There's also a great fishing community here, complete with its own drama, taboos, strange brand allegiances, and scandals. Ok, that didn't make it sound too great, but there's a lot of cool people that enjoy time on the water here. After living here for a couple years I can confidently state that I will never set foot near the infamous Bethany Pond again. 

There's some great fishing here. A lot of it can be pretty tough due to the heavily pressured waters near such a large population of people, but that makes you better at it than fishing someplace where the fish are stupid and have never seen a bait before. It's also a lot more rewarding when you score a nice fish in a spot everyone knows about than in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of great fish over here that few people really know about, or at least few people outside of the West Coast fishing community. I figure I'd start by talking about one of San Diego's most interesting and unique species, the Cortez Bonefish. 

Yep, there's Bonefish in San Diego. Yep, they don't grow very big. Yep, they're not super fun to target. However, they are a blast to have on the end of your line. A temperate cousin of the world famous tropical flats speedsters, the Cortez Bonefish can be distinguished from other Bones by its yellow fins, its signature orange "Joker smile," and the fact that you won't catch any other species around here.

Unlike the iconic imagery of Florida Keys or Pacific Islands Bonefish tailing in crystal clear water near a pristine atoll or mangrove forest, Cortez Bones like deeper water that's generally impossible to sight fish in. Most of the fishing done for them involves drifting live or dead ghost shrimp on a light Carolina rig with a fluoro leader and small hook. I've even heard from many reputable accounts that they aren't even line shy, but given that the world record is only a couple of pounds there isn't much need to go heavier. It makes the fight a lot more fun and can't hurt your chances of getting more bites. Drifting bait with the rod in the holder isn't the most exciting way to fish. In fact, it can get pretty boring. However, it's worth it when a bonefish bites and starts screaming drag from your small spinning reel. 

I've had success targeting them both from shore and from a kayak, but I greatly prefer kayak fishing since shore fishing with small pieces of shrimp or squid in SoCal is a great way to gut hook 20 Stingrays before you catch the target species. In addition, these Bones move around quite a bit and if the shore spot you select isn't holding them, you won't have much luck. Kayak fishing allows you to drift over wide expanses of eelgrass flat until you find the particular area they're congregating in that day. 

Despite their small size, they definitely live up to the reputation of their larger relatives. I don't know how a small species of fish that mostly eats clams, crustaceans, and other bottom critters can swim so fast and pull so hard. It's astounding; I don't think I've hooked any other fish that go on such hard, explosive runs for their size. They're also very squirmy and difficult to hold onto, and are also extremely slimy. For this reason, it's best to land them using an appropriate catch-and-release net and minimize their time out of the water. They never stop fighting, and the bigger ones definitely need to be properly revived to avoid release mortality. This isn't one of those species to just toss back into the water.

Nobody likes the fish police. I'm not talking about game wardens, I'm talking about the know-it-alls on the internet that admonish strangers for improper fish handling or keeping a legal catch because they personally disagree with the ethics of retaining that species. Bonefish are the exception for me, and I will admit I've called people out for keeping full bags of them. The fact that these normally subtropical/tropical fish thrive in certain areas of California's temperate waters is a blessing, and it's important to preserve their relatively limited populations through catch and release and proper handling techniques. 

As aforementioned, they're pretty fragile fish. They also don't have much table value. It is true that traditional native Hawaiian fish cakes often call for bonefish (or O'io). True to their name, these fish are notoriously bony and the meat needs to be meticulously scraped off in order to make it palatable and practical to cook. However, Cortez Bonefish are much, much smaller than the huge Bonefish Hawaii is known for. You need to keep a bunch in order to have a respectable meal. It seems pointless to retain them when there's so many other species of fish found in California that have better meat yields, are found in larger populations, and don't need to be made into a patty to be edible (an automatic red flag in my book). 

Fortunately, Bonefish aren't a super popular fishery in San Diego. They aren't popular table fare (to most), and their small size makes them rather unimpressive for "hero shots." They can also be pretty tricky to target; I definitely don't have them dialed in yet, and I've had weeks of steady, consistent action followed by equally long skunk periods when the fish moved to a different part of the bay and I could no longer find them. The area of San Diego Bay that holds the best fishing for them is also pretty tricky to access by San Diego standards. Like I was saying earlier, you normally don't have to drive that far to fish here. When spots are 10-20 minutes away, a 30 min drive seems like an eternity. However, this makes the fishery all the more appealing to me. 

Bonefish are pretty rad fish, and targeting them definitely feels different than so many other California fisheries, which are often characterized by close proximity to major infrastructure and lots of other people around you. The wide, open flats where bonefish like to patrol are usually uncrowded and within view of Mexican territory. Putting time into Bonefishing has also led to some interesting and unexpected wildlife surprises. The Sea Turtles that have been all but extirpated from most other areas in California still reside in a small population alongside the Bonefish. This only adds to the local character and mystique of the fishery, as many that live in San Diego are unaware that Sea Turtles can even be found here. As of writing, I haven't gone after the bones in a few months now, but just thinking about it makes me want to get back out there.