October 3, 2026

First Bluefin Ever on the New Del Mar — Sam’s 30-Pounder in the Bay 🎣

The Santa Monica Bay just reminded everybody it still knows how to raise a bluefin.

This morning on the half-day, Sam Bastidas put the first bluefin tuna ever recorded on the New Del Mar in the boat. Thirty pounds. Flylined sardine. Right here in the bay, on a boat that leaves Marina del Rey Sportfishing every morning and every afternoon and spends its life on sculpin, whitefish, bass, and barracuda.

Mario Guzman, a longtime Friedman Adventures follower, texted me from the rail while they were still headed in. His buddy Sam was the one who stuck it. Setup was simple and right: an 8-foot 15–30 Saber Stroker, an Avet SX single speed, 50-pound braid straight to 6 feet of 30-pound fluoro, and an Owner 2/0 ringed circle hook on a butt-hooked sardine. No kite. No long soak. Just a flyline and a fish that decided the New Del Mar was due.

That boat has been the backbone of Marina del Rey Sportfishing since Rick Oefinger designed and built her in 1994. Seventy-five feet of aluminum, wide deck, Dock 52 on Fiji Way, half-days at 7:30 and 12:30. A lot of families have caught their first fish on her. Nobody had caught a bluefin on her. Until Sam.

I remember when this was not a surprise. Late 1970s, deckhand Eddie Leland could not make a trip on the Mascot for Captain Joe Schilling, so I filled in. We caught over 100 bluefin tuna just outside the Topanga rock jetty. Footballs, one after another, close enough to the beach that you could almost hear the highway. Those days left. The bay went quiet on tuna for a long time. A 30-pound bluefin on a Marina del Rey half-day is not those old 100-fish mornings, but it is the same water waking back up.

Bigger yellowfin are moving. Local wahoo have been showing. Yellowtail are eating. And now a bluefin on the New Del Mar, first one in the history of the boat. If you have been waiting for a sign out of Santa Monica Bay, Sam just hung it on a gaff.

New Del Mar runs out of Marina del Rey Sportfishing, Dock 52, 13759 Fiji Way. Half-days daily. http://mdrsf.com or 310-822-3625.

Before you roll on anything this week, check http://friedmanadventures.com for Captain’s audios, landing and boat counts, bait availability, Friedman Adventures AI, kids corner, and lots more.

And mark Saturday, October 24. That is the next Friedman Adventures Surf Fishing Festival, Anderson Street at PCH in Sunset Beach. Free, family, rods and raffles, kids on the sand.

Congratulations, Sam. First bluefin on the New Del Mar. That one stays on the board.

#BluefinTuna #NewDelMar #MarinaDelRey #SantaMonicaBay #SamBastidas #FirstBluefin #HalfDayFishing #SoCalFishing #FriedmanAdventures #Sportfishing #MDRSF #TunaBite #Flyline #Avet #SurfFishingFestival #October24