Will Rockpile yellowtail be the holiday weekend star?
Okay, here we go, the official start of the summer fishing season begins with Memorial Day Weekend and the good news is some yellowtail showed up to play.

The San Diego even got over the 100 fish hump one day this week, but word was that afterwards an "armada" of private boats at the Rockpile made it impossible for anyone to score those kinds of numbers, especially since it's been a live bait (sardine) bite.

The boat traffic could be a little more spread out the next weekend since my old buddy Pat McDonell at WON has pulled off the impossible and rescheduled his annual White Seabass tournament to June 4 out of Dana Point. Or it could get even worse since yellowtail and halibut are also eligible in the competition and Pat stretched his imagination to encourage participation.

While the check-in and awards parties are all going to be held at the Embarcadero parking lot in Dana Harbor, once checked in trailerboaters and kayakers (a separate division for $100) can travel to anywhere on the coast they want to launch as long as they are back before noon on Sunday to weigh in. In addition, you can fish the tournament without ever going to Dana Point if Catalina Island is your destination. Pat has set it up so boaters can check in at the pier at Two Harbors and also weigh their fish there. As you can see, Pat has gone all out and I think he made the right decision to switch dates and keep Catalina in the mix while moving to Dana. All the details can be found over on his WON blog.

And the fishing has definitely improved with the warming weather and water. I was down at the Jig Stop in Dana Point getting some supplies for the SFR/Fish Trap Lures skiff trip on the Q105 that leaves June 4 and a customer told a wild story of having to single-hand a big thresher when his buddy froze at the sight of the shark by the boat. He also reported seeing a pod of orcas (killer whales) in the area of the sharks. Must still be a lot of bait around.

Meanwhile I've been getting non-stop texts from my buddy Steve Suveg, who is going on the skiff trip with me. He works with Ray Ochoa at the studios in Burbank and Ray heads out on the big Q this Saturday on the skiff/kayak trip just before ours. Let's just say Ray's a little excited, but one of the best things about booking a cool fishing trip is the anticipation. Of course another good friend, Al Rentziperis, has been working off the pre-trip jitter by going fishing. He made a run to a local kelp bed out of Dana Point this morning, but stopped at the Pipe first. "I wish I would have gone straight to the kelp because once we got close enough to see there were terns working from one end to the other," he said. "It was wide open for an hour and a half with big batches of followers chasing up every calico. Then the birds went away and the bite did, too. I wish I went there right away, but a good hour or so can make your day."