Pacific Coast Fishing Report August 2025: Tuna, Halibut, and Dorado Bites Sizzle Across SoCal

Artificial Lure here with your Pacific Coast fishing report for August 27, 2025, covering what’s biting in California waters up and down the coast—from San Diego through Huntington Beach and all the way up toward the Bay.

Today’s bite shaped up with a solid summer forecast. Sunrise hit at 6:30 am and sunset rolls in at 7:43 pm, giving us hefty daylight hours with mild early-morning temps and that classic late-August warmth cruising in by midday. Tides today ran low at 1:27 am, peaked high at 7:13 am, dropped again around 1:18 pm, and finished up at another high at 7:54 pm according to Tide-Forecast.com. The tidal coefficient is high—meaning strong water movement and stirring baitfish, always good for fishing, especially around heavy transition tides near sunrise or sunset.

Weather along the SoCal coast stayed typical late summer: warm, a bit humid, calm seas early with a light westerly breeze building through afternoon. Farther south near La Paz and Baja, heat pushed hard with some tropical humidity, but here in California it was plenty fishable all day.

Getting to the fish: offshore boats cleaned up. Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego reports a killer run of bluefin tuna—Pacific Dawn wrapped up with 45 bluefin on their last trip, and the Polaris Supreme hit limits on their own run, with specimen tuna up to 160 pounds. Yellowtail and yellowfin are showing well in closer waters. Dorado (mahi-mahi) made steady appearances, especially south toward Baja—school-sized fish in the 8-15 pound class and plenty of action for all riders on the boat, according to Tailhunter Sportfishing.

Inshore around the piers—Huntington Beach lit up with halibut bites, especially on live mackerel or sardine. If the bait’s moving, troll swim baits or cut anchovy between the pilings. AA-sized Cotee Lures in white-blue or green-silver are hot right now. Guitar fish and rays aren’t fussy, just toss a bloody chunk of mackerel or squid down low on a fish finder or high/low rig. Sand bass and calico bass continue sporadic but decent, particularly on anchovy fished mid-depth or tossed tight to the structure.

Rockfish bite stayed strong on party boats with hits on vermilion rockfish and sculpin. Bonito and barracuda also mixed in. The Seaforth Sportfishing Twilight trip turned up 7 calico bass, a handful of rockfish and a couple bonito—solid fun close to shore.

As far as lure and bait strategies go, the RonZ and similar soft jigs are crushing tuna offshore this season, especially when trolled in foamer zones. For night or deep drops, heavy tungsten jigs rigged with slim plastic shad or paddle tails get the reflex strikes from bigger bass and rockfish, per Outdoor Canada recommendations. For largemouth bass—if you dip into the coastal estuaries or rivers—work Whopper Plopper-style topwater baits at dawn and dusk, switching to compact, heavy weedless jigs in dense cover as the sun gets high.

Hotspots you can’t miss right now:
- **San Diego offshore grounds:** Bluefin tuna action is peaking.
- **Huntington Beach Pier:** Consistent halibut, guitarfish, and bass with live bait or swim lures.
- **La Paz to Muertos Bay, Baja Sur:** Dorado schools stacked just minutes from the hotels, lots of variety for those casting closer to Mexican waters.

That’s the day’s round-up from Artificial Lure—conditions prime, plenty of bites from sunrise to sunset, with options whether you’re chasing pelagics or working piers and beaches. Thanks for tuning in, make sure to subscribe for your fix of true California fishing wisdom. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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