San Diego Fleet Reports Renewed Bluefin Tuna Activity in Mid-March Waters

Renewed bluefin tuna activity moved through southern California waters in mid-March 2026, with multiple trip reports from Fisherman's Landing, one of San Diego's major sportfishing homeports, logging bluefin landings as the season opened. The early-March push came weeks ahead of what most charter pages describe as prime time, with one operator noting the general season runs March through October and another citing May through October as the stronger window.

The most immediate on-the-water confirmation came from the Red Rooster III crew, which posted on March 10: "Picked off a few more tuna before lunch and then it went dead. Tried another anchor job and got ran out by the sharks. Trolled up a couple more wahoo and started heading up before the wind." The same day, Bill Wilkerson of Horizon Charters announced full-day Coronado Island trips for the coming weekend, advising anglers to bring yoyo jigs, surface irons, and flyline setups, and noting that a passport is required for the run south.

For those willing to go the distance, Captain Trevor's vessel Nautilus had an update: "The bluefin are at San Clemente and Tanner Banks! You will need a minimum of a 1.5 day trip to get there, and you will be over 100 miles offshore." Captain Trevor also runs the vessel DeadEye out of the same operation. Long-range trips of that scope put anglers well past the Coronado corridor and into dedicated bluefin grounds where trip lengths of one, two, and three days are common across the San Diego fleet.

The Coronado Islands remain the classic entry point into this fishery. Sitting just south of San Diego, the islands funnel migrating pelagic species through a concentrated corridor where bluefin chase bait close enough for half-day and extended-range trips alike. Water temperatures between 60 and 72 degrees give bluefin wider seasonal flexibility than many other target species, which helps explain why the fish can appear as early as March rather than waiting for the summer push that peaks, depending on the source, anywhere from June through October. The IGFA all-tackle world record for bluefin tuna caught in San Diego stands at 1,496 pounds, set by angler David T. Hudson in 1985, a number that gives some context to why local anglers describe this as the pinnacle of Southern California sportfishing. The Pacific Fishery Management Council monitors the San Diego bluefin fishery for sustainable practices and population levels.

The SD Fish and Sips YouTube channel, which has 21,400 subscribers and logged 10,943 views on its August 2025 sportfishing report, captured a sense of what a productive stretch looks like across the fleet. The transcript from that video referenced multiple vessels and trip tallies: the Pacific Voyager on a three-day trip for 83 bluefin, the Aztec and Pacifica logging seven bluefin and one yellowtail on a one-day trip, the Pacific Dawn running limits on dolphin and sandbass for 17 anglers over two days, and the full-day San Diego run to the corner islands finishing with 125 yellowtail. Sea Watch added 35 yellowtail, while the New Se4th's half-day came back with 83 sandbass. Those numbers come from a fragmented video transcript with typos and are best treated as reported tallies pending verification with individual landing offices.

On the bait and tactics side, the same video showed an angler nose-hooking Spanish mackerel, deploying tuna tubes for slow trolling, and building a bonito-and-mackerel bait supply while birds worked the surface nearby. Dawn departures remain the consistent advice across operators: "On the water by 5AM and we had a limit before noon," as one guest described a pre-dawn launch. Private charters are structured for all experience levels, with captains providing tackle and instruction for both tuna trolling and, through mid-March, lobster hoop-netting before that season closes.

The Pacific Queen Sportfishing's Drew Card had flagged the incoming season as early as January 20, writing: "We are back in the water after a flawless bottom side Coast Guard inspection. Lots of cosmetic work being done this maintenance cycle including a full remodel to the galley. We are already getting excellent reports of bluefin up and" — the post cut off there, but the intent was clear. With Fisherman's Landing staff active, Excel Long Range Sportfishing posting from the Lower Banks, and Red Rooster III already on fish, the San Diego fleet is in motion well before the June-July window when bluefin activity historically explodes across the grounds.