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San Diego offshore tuna bite holds, boats stack bluefin and yellowtail

Bluefin were still paying at H&M, with the Legend hitting 71 and the Producer calling in limits while the Old Glory kept finding fish on a 1.5-day run.

Nina Kowalski2 min read
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San Diego offshore tuna bite holds, boats stack bluefin and yellowtail
Source: hmlanding.com
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Bluefin were still showing across H&M Landing’s fleet, but the real story was how many ways anglers could get them. The Old Glory posted 16 bluefin on a 1.5-day trip, the Horizon stacked 41 bluefin and 21 yellowtail on 2.5 days, and the Patriot came back from 3.5 days with 19 bluefin, 150 rockfish, and one yellowtail. That mix is the kind of offshore report that tells you the tuna were still available, but the boat you picked could decide whether your trip felt like a bluefin hunt or a mixed-bag recovery mission.

The dock numbers backed that up. H&M’s April 23 totals showed 60 bluefin across four boats and five trips, and the broader San Diego dock total that day finished at 60 bluefin, 52 yellowtail, 361 rockfish, 9 calico bass, 4 sand bass, and 3 bonito. Tuna were not a one-boat flash. The fleet was working a real offshore spread, with enough yellowtail and local rockfish in the mix to keep longer trips productive even when bluefin were the main draw.

AI-generated illustration
AI-generated illustration

By the next update, the pressure on the fish still had not eased. The Producer called in with limits of bluefin, plus one yellowtail and a dorado in the first hours of an overnight trip. The Legend returned from its first trip of the season with 71 bluefin, 2 yellowtail, and 2 dorado, and it was already showing 40-plus bluefin on its 2-day trip later that day. That is the kind of sustained hit anglers look for when deciding whether to book now or wait for a softer bite, because it showed the school was still paying multiple boats, not just one lucky departure.

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Photo by isaac mijangos

For anglers trying to decide whether to go, the read was simple: book the tuna-focused trips if bluefin is the goal, and expect a real shot, not a guarantee. The Old Glory still had a few openings for its April 24 1.5-day departure at 6 p.m., while the Producer was set for a Saturday overnight targeting bluefin and yellowtail. If the tuna window did not line up, H&M was also routing anglers into the Coronado Islands for yellowtail and into local rockfish runs on the Malihini and Premier. Families had another hook too, with kids fishing free on half-day trips from April 20 through May 22 with each paid adult using code KIDS26.

Dock Totals by Species
Data visualization chart

For a San Diego fleet built around motion, the late-April pattern said plenty: the bluefin were still in play, the boats were still stacked, and the next trip still looked worth the run.

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