The bluefin counts are piling up and there are albies off the Central Coast. My favorite weather forecasters in the Reno office of NOAA are calling for the "unusually strong" ridge over the Southwest to hold up through the weekend and their best model says it will also deflect way to the north a projected cold trough early next week.
You couldn't blame Markus Medak of the New Lo-An, though, for being a bit on the cynical side after I fished with him last Friday. It's been a long season of the dark side -- northwest winds -- dominating local waters and we had to face mixed up water right after a blow that not only moved the fish but put them off their feed.
But now we have this really unique tropical weather, with a low off Baja spinning warm moisture and thunderstorms into our midsts. Even with a big northwest swell coming through from a front that got pushed up into BC, the most wind we'll have is occasional bursts of 20 knots in the late afternoon, but most of the forecast is for 10 knots and variable through the weekend.
A good time to fish, and no doubt one reason our charter on the Pacific Queen is all but sold out for this weekend's albie search out of Patriot Sportfishing in Avila Beach.
But I think the bluefin bite is a good bet, too. I know the one I caught was fat and tasty.
It was great hanging out with Markus, who pointed out he has been able to find some great fishing despite the crazy shifting conditions. This year was a real disappointment, however, considering how well things seemed to set up. "Late in June we were running through spots of albacore for 70 miles and I said, oh yeah, this is it," said Medak. "Then everything turned an ugly green and they were gone."
But Markus and the New Lo-An have done great because he came from the school of "catch fish and let everything else sort itself out" as taught by Randy Toussaint and Tim Ekstrom on the Royal Star. When he bought his boat and the fish were standoffish, he ran the extra miles and offered 1 1/2-day trips.
"Everyone was saying you have to burn too much gas, but I said I don't care about the gas, I want to catch fish," said Medak.
This dude cares so much about what goes on aboard his pristine boat, that I couldn't even get him to look into the camera lens. Three shots and he's looking to see what's happening on the deck.
It's a strange year and an even stranger fall, but I say take advantage of it. My partner Chad Woods is up in June Lake right now and says there is no one there and the fish are jumping and the high altitude aspens are already turning. This is fall at its best. Enjoy it.