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Barracuda mysterious no-show in O.C. waters
June 18th, 2009, 11:40 am · 18 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Archive image of a sportfisherman holding a barracuda off Orange County.
For reasons that aren’t clear, sportfishermen haven’t been catching one of their favorite fish — barracuda — in local waters this spring.
“Barracuda were seen off San Diego earlier, but they appear to have gone west; no one’s catching legal-sized (28 inches or longer ) barracuda from Oceanside to Newport,” says Corey Hall, a veteran sportfishing boat captain at Dana Wharf Sportfishing in Dana Wharf.” Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach says the same.
Most years, the feisty and tasty fish show up in local waters in the early part of May. Spring officially ends late Sunday night. It’s still possible they’ll show up; it’s not unusual to catch barracuda through the summer. But the reason they haven’t appeared is a mystery.
Local sea surface temperatures have been in the 64-67 degree range, which is 2-3 degrees below normal. But that might not be the reason that fish haven’t wandered into local waters.
“We’ve caught barracuda when the water was in the low-to-mid 60s,” Hall says.
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Interesting. I was out fishing on Monday and we didn’t catch anything but bottomfish. I did notice that there are a LOT more sealions in the area than last year. Over the last 4 trips I’ve been out on over the last two months, the sea lions have been spotted everywhere.
It is because the sealoins are over populated and they are still protected
The fishermen are overpopulated as well, they are also protected. Yeah how dare sea lions eat and produce offspring without limts, only humans are supposed to do that!
My husband and I take a charter boat from Davey’s Locker and we always catch barracuda. The last two times….nothing. It was actually very strange.
Darn those sea lions for being hungry, you would think that they lived in the ocean or something. Really, it is okay if the sea lions grab a bite to eat at the expense of sport fisherman.
am i the only one who has noticed that here are hardly any june bugs either? I have only seen 2 so far..
I noticed the absence of June bugs as well. Perhaps the barracuda and June bugs heard about the high cost of living in OC and wisely migrated elsewhere.
Whoa, watch it snarf, if you say something that does not match Gary’s opinion 100%, he will delete your posting. Make sure that you agree with Gary at all times. We want to make sure that we do not have a balanced or fair discussion of any kind, just one viewpoint only.
Paul: Actually, I only delete things that violate our clearly stated posting policy. Earlier today, someone posted angry comments about the Irvine Ranch Water District. The comments had nothing to do with the topic — possible pay cuts at UC Irvine. Such posts are not only distracting, they discourage people who are interested in the post’s topic from commenting.
Snarf, m.e.: I had not heard anything about June bugs. I’ll pass this on to Pat Brennan, our environment writer. He loves the subject.
Thanks! I’ve only seen one June Bug…miss the little creatures…
Usually June bugs don’t arrive en mass until July. That’s why I’ve always called them “July bugs”
Whacked some fat barries off IB 2 weeks ago, of course the over populated sea lions were all over it and shut it down. I always take the news of a possible El Nino with a grain of salt, but there is some different stuff going on this year. Bring on The Boy, we need the rain badly and the influx of cool ocean critters and fat west swell next winter is a bonus.
Besides the june bugs, I have noticed those big fat garden spiders are cyclical, too- or so it seems in my short time on the planet- some years there are tons of them, they start small in June and they are big fatties by September, I hate walking through their webs, some years they are not around-
Yep, bugs and fish and other critters are cyclical like the environment. As to swells, I’d prefer 1976 Monday morning like clockwork south swells in sept, oct, towering over the houses in Newport Beach. South point, ya.
Those 97 chubascos weren’t bad- I think Linda was one of them- nice to see an early spinner this year even though it’s going the wrong direction- has there been a decent hurricane year lately??
Other than cold water temps hugging our near inshore coastline, these fish have a long nose, maybe the urban runoff is stinky for them, like most other game fish that love that clean deep blue water. The Water temps on the West to Mexico range from 50 to 90 degrees!
I just had a June bug fly into my house, and when I opened the door it flew right back out.