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Watercolor painting of a striped marlin in open blue water offshore, bill forward and dorsal raised.

Species · Billfish

Marlin fishing in Southern California

Kajikia audax

The blue-water prize of the Bight, a sickle-tailed billfish that rides warm water north and lights up when it hunts.

TYPE

Marlin, a billfish

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Kajikia audax

TYPICAL SIZE

90–150 lb (some 200 lb+)

LIKES WATER

68°F+, clean & blue

HANGS ON

Offshore banks & current breaks

BEST MONTHS

Jul – Oct, peak in Sept

marlin regulations

MINIMUM SIZE

None

DAILY BAG

OPEN SEASON

Year round

One fish, with no size limit, and California sets no closed season on it.

14 CCR 28.50, as read on October 9, 2026. Limits, seasons and marine protected area boundaries change, so the CDFW ocean sport fishing regulations are the authority, not this page. Check them before you keep anything.

Meet the marlin

Marlin are Southern California's billfish: long and lean, with a spear of a bill, a tall cobalt dorsal fin and pale blue stripes down the flank. SoCal sits at the northern edge of their range, so they're summer visitors that ride warm water up from Mexico. When they show, they're the fish every offshore crew is out looking for.

Where marlin hang out

Out on the offshore banks: the 14 Mile Bank, Avalon Bank and the 152 around Catalina, the 267 and the 279 off Newport and Dana Point, Mackerel Bank and the west end of San Clemente Island. Look for clean, purple-blue water on a temperature or current edge with mackerel under it. Decades of San Diego catch records show the bite builds once the surface warms past 68°F.

How big marlin get

Most SoCal marlin run 90–150 pounds, and a 200-pounder is a genuine fish. In hot El Niño years the rarer cousins wander in too: blue marlin and the odd black, like the 662-pound blue taken off San Diego in 2015 from a 21-foot center console.

How to catch marlin

Most local fish are sight-cast: run the banks with binoculars, spot a fish tailing down-swell or sleeping on the surface, and lob it a live mackerel. Trolling lures, which locals call jigs, covers water when nothing is showing. Nearly every marlin is released today, and California has kept them sport-only since 1937.

Where to catch marlin

The grounds that hold marlin within reach of each home port, south to north. Follow a port through for its season, the rest of the water it reaches, and the rules that apply there.

Point Loma
- THE OFFSHORE BANKS
Oceanside
- THE OFFSHORE BANKS
Dana Point
- THE OFFSHORE BANKS
Newport Beach
- THE OFFSHORE BANKS

Seasons, depth limits, size and bag limits and marine protected area boundaries are set by CDFW and change from year to year. Check the current rules for the ground you are running to before you keep anything.

🐟 FUN FACT

A hunting marlin flashes its stripes bright the instant it charges a bait ball, then fades them again. Researchers filming from drones think it tells the rest of the group whose turn it is to attack.