{"id":868198,"date":"2026-06-15T05:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868198\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:09:34","slug":"massive-yellowtail-caught-close-to-shore-generates-buzz-on-the-water-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868198\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive yellowtail caught close to shore generates buzz on the water \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anglers are reeling with joy as massive yellowtails showed up just a few miles off the Orange County coast recently, a rare sight close to shore.<\/p>\n<p>Captain Steve Locken, of RockenReel Sportfishing, said large groups of 40-pound yellowtail were seen on Monday and Tuesday three miles in front of the Dana Point Harbor in water just 220 feet deep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever seen this in all my decades of local fishing,\u201d Locken said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like a playground out here, an aquarium,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just great to watch, the size of the fish are huge. It\u2019s epic if you\u2019re a fisherman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Charters looking for fish of this size usually head to Catalina for all-day or overnight trips, but finding them just half a mile out, five minutes from the harbor, is nearly unheard of, Locken said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were paddies and fish everywhere. It\u2019s unique, I went out further and didn\u2019t find them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were just hugging the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Locken is hoping it\u2019s going to be an \u201cepic\u201d year for fishing. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2026\/03\/27\/the-good-and-bad-about-potential-godzilla-el-nino-blob-repeat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The fish could be coming to shore because of a marine heatwave, he said<\/a>, with waters already about 70 degrees, early for this time of year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Dana Wharf Sportsfishing anglers aboard Sum Fun have been catching massive yellowtail just a few miles from shore. (Photo courtesy of Dana Wharf)\" width=\"990\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-YELLOWTAIL-0614-02.jpeg\" data-attachment-id=\"11900885\" \/>Dana Wharf Sportsfishing anglers aboard Sum Fun have been catching massive yellowtail just a few miles from shore. (Photo courtesy of Dana Wharf)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone in the fishing and boating community is excited about what\u2019s going on,\u201d he said, noting that it has been about five to seven years since big fish like this have shown up, and when they did it has typically been about 12 miles away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a really great sign we will have an epic sportsfishing season this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dana Wharf Sportsfishing has also been taking advantage of the big yellowtail showing up close to the harbor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been super fun,\u201d said manager Donna Kalez.<\/p>\n<p>The ocean has been active, with nine humpbacks spotted on a recent trip and a mother blue whale with her calf, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ocean is alive,\u201d Kalez said.<\/p>\n<p>The yellowtails showing up are huge, in the 25-pound range, Kalez said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnglers be ready, fishing is on,\u201d she said. \u201cTo go out and have that good of fishing in four miles from the coast is pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anglers are reeling with joy as massive yellowtails showed up just a few miles off the Orange County&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":868199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[14079,276,169749,353573,746,728,50,1036,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":["post-868198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-beaches","tag-california","tag-dana-point","tag-dana-point-harbor","tag-environment","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116752402684262239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}