September 14th 2025. Malihini out of H&M Landing with 25 Alumni, Family & Friends. It was a calm overcast day with no wind – perfect to head down south to the Rockpile, 10miles south of the Coronados. Right when we got to the area there were about 15 other boats, all private boaters that were setup presumably for the morning bite for the Yellowtail.
Going into this trip we knew going offshore or finding Bluefin / Yellowtail around the islands was going to be difficult. The fishing had really slowed down the past 2 weeks with some boats not even landing a single fish. The plan was to look for good marks at the Pile and see if we got lucky. We had two good chances at Yellowtail with good sized schools but they just did not want to bite.
We continued on, found some good marks down low and started bottom fishing. The boat crushed it, landing over 200 fish. All onboard both young and old had as many chances as they wanted to land Rockfish, Lingcod, Sheephead, Sculpin, White Fish and others. Even a nice Halibut was caught.
We hit up a few more spots on the inside of South Island and then the Middle Grounds for more bottom fish and one last effort for Yellowtail by dumping one of the bait tanks at an anchor spot we were sitting on but no luck. We did end the day with one nice Yellowtail, landed by Justin Williams ’90, who was also our jackpot winner and a fisher on all 16 of the trips.
Special thanks to Joey and Squidco for their support!
It was still a great day on the water with beautiful weather, great conversation, a few beers and boat burgers. Till next year….
