Yellowtail bite holds strong across the SoCal Bight this week

What's biting

What's next

Tide timing is worth planning around this week. Both the San Pedro and Santa Monica gauges show high tide cresting right around 8 a.m. Pacific, with the swing to low tide landing in the early afternoon near 1:50 p.m. That gives an early window on the tail of the incoming water, followed by a long outgoing push into midday, the kind of tide structure yellowtail tend to work hard on.

If the warm pocket at San Pedro holds or pushes toward Santa Monica's cooler water over the next few days, expect the yellowtail bite reported out of Point Loma to spread farther up the Bight rather than stay isolated to that one fleet. A six-degree split across the two gauges is the kind of gradient that moves with wind and current, so boats working the warmer side have the edge for now, but that could shift north through the weekend.

With a waning crescent moon overhead, low light at dawn and again near dusk should produce the better bites, and the early flood tide lines up well with that window for anyone planning a weekend trip.

Context

October sits in the fall transition for the LA Bight and Channel Islands. The warm-water run of yellowtail that builds through summer typically holds on for a few more weeks before the Bight cools toward winter patterns, and this week's San Pedro reading is on the warm side of normal for early October. The Santa Monica side running six degrees cooler is a reminder that conditions vary sharply within the same Bight depending on exposure and current, which is typical for this transition period rather than unusual. A waning crescent moon generally means calmer tidal swings than around the full or new moon, which tends to spread bite windows across the day rather than concentrating them around one tide change.