The making of a fishing fanatic

My first recollection of fishing is when I was 8 years old. Since I was in Japan until then, I guess I started fishing after I arrived to the USA. By the time I got here, my father had taken it up and seemed to enjoy it. He would take me to Malibu Pier, Santa Monica Pier, the rocks along Ballona Creek in Playa Del Rey, Crystal Lake and Alondra Park. Not sure when I really started to like it...need it is more like it. By the time I went to Peary Junior High School, I was thoroughly hooked and could not get enough of fishing. I had always been a bit uncoordinated and not athletic at all. So my mother got me into judo at a very early age. My dad would challenge me to ever tougher goals to take me fishing. 50 jump ropes without stopping...then 100....200. And grades. For every A....a fishing trip. I remember the feeling of elation as I would finally get to the goal! That was also about the time we rented a house from Hiro. Once he found out how crazy I was about fishing, he would take me fishing too. And give me rods and reels. By the time I got to North High School, I was on the wrestling and football teams. I was not all that good at it, but I tried hard. I also went fishing a lot. Between high school and college, I took a 5 year sabbatical and did not fish much. I did fish a little bit in Lake Havasu when I lived in Vegas - but not much. So I was away from LA for a while - but once I got back, I started fishing again. Now I was serious about fishing. I wanted to get good at it. I went every chance I got - once, twice a week minimum. And I did not focus on any one boat or landing in particular. I just went everywhere. Then when I decided to go to college at 27, I figured the only way I was going to get to fish is if I worked on a boat. Various boats during the first three years - then at Yo's for another year or so.I don't remember exactly how I got work on a boat. I must have just gone fishing on the boat - and asked the skipper if he could use another deckhand. This is a very transient position and skippers were constantly on the lookout for help anyway. I first worked on the FuryII. Tim Ullon was running the boat, FrankG and I were on deck. We had various relief skippers - Pat Jackson, Wally, Mike Shanahan...I'm sure there were others. I would work every day I could. If I got a day off - I was back on the boat fishing. I had a small 25' trailer I lived in, located in Gardena. Rent was $100 a month. No problem. Side money was not great, but enough to pay rent and tuition at El Camino. At Ports-O-Call Sportfishing, there was...the Shogun (65' Seaway), Mustang (65' Drake), Rebel, Matt Walsh, Explorer II...about all I remember. Most of the boats came back in about the same time - and I would see the other deckhands off the other boats walking by talking about how much side money they had made. Frank and I would split $100 or so - $50 each. The Mustang guys were always bragging about making $100 and more EACH! The Shogun was run by Norm Kagawa - Vince, Allan and Mark (who sold me an original BR100), they too would talk about how our side money just sucked. I would work as a relief deckhand on Shogun, ExplorerII and Mustang. I think it was the second season I was working on the Fury, I got an opportunity to work on the Mustang. Go to San Diego (Islandia Sportfishing in Mission Bay) with the boat and work an albacore season. The albacore fishing was really good. 150+ on most days. We would filet or gill/gut most of the fish and make $2 or $3 a fish. The side money was AWESOME. By the time I had to get off the boat to go back to school, I had worked 60 days or so and had $9000 in cash - plus a paycheck for $30 or $40 a day. That would pay rent for a year, tuition at El Camino and even a little extra. On my way home, I bought my pop a Penn International 30. He was thrilled! I finished off my college career at Cal State Long Beach. By now, I had worked on boats for a few years - and was ready for a land job. I got a job at Yo's Custom Rods - the local tackle shop in Gardena that Yo Yoshida build from the ground up. He had one of the small shops in the little strip mall to begin with - but would eventually move to the biggest store on the end. His custom wrapped rods were famoust amongst fishermen - both fresh and salt water. Yo would be closed on Mondays. This was his fishing day. We were always invited - and he would go to San Diego and fish on the Searcher (run by Al Rich at the time). The fishing was great! Yo was good friends with the famous FrankL, who had bought the RP from Bill Poole. Yo supplied all the boat rods and tackle too. While I was at Yo's, I got the opportunity to go on a 16 day trip for 'food and fuel'. I don't remember exactly how much - but it was not much more than a few hundred dollars. There I got to fish with a lot of the guys who were Yo's customers. Another guys I had heard about - but never fished with was on the boat. The famous Butch Greene. The man was a fishing machine. Fishing at San Benedicto, Socorro and Roca Partida - the tuna fishing was spectacular! We all took 9 pound spools of 100# test Ande - the line of choice. And the reel of choice was a Penn 50, modified by none other than Butch - who would put a solid brass ring in between the clam washers. The reel went from no drag - to almost full lock with very little effort. When you hooked a fish, 100 pounders were on the boat in minutes with the drag locked. The bigger ones would either come in quick - or break off. There was not much room inbetween. I was in absolute piggy heaven! Stymie was an ex-navy cook and was great in the galley. We ate like kings. By the end of the trip - I had 50 or 60 tuna...obscene by today's standards. And the fish were all kept come out of the fish holds like popsicles, and in horrible shape. All brown and beat up. A trade for cans was available - was 3 or 4 pounds for one 6.5 ounce can. Did not seem like a fair deal to me - but what do you do with a few thousand pounds of brown tuna? After the trip, I did an interview for the local Gardena newspaper, and even got a mention on 976-TUNA. By now, I am a full blown fishing addict!

Fishing for Calico Bass

Fishing for calico bass just may be my favorite fish to fish for. Specifically, throwing a nice swimming surface jig for these fish just cannot be beat. Calico bass are not a particularly glamorous fish to catch. Almost everybody that goes fishing with any regularity in Southern California has in all likelihood caught many calico bass. For most, it is just another fish to catch. Frankly, it was for me as well for many years. As previously mentioned, I started working on boats as a regular deckhand when I started college. A couple of seasons on the Fury II out of Ports O Call Sportfishing in San Pedro. As spring approached, anchovies got smaller and smaller. Many of the transient fleet started leaving for San Diego on their yearly summer fishing albacore. We were the nightly island boat leaving at mid-night, and we would run a lot with 8 to 10 fishermen. Though these trips stunk for side money - it did afford the fishing fanatics that we were, a chance to fish a lot.....daily no less. I would go back on the boat on my days off just to fish. Much of the time, we would have two full tanks of 'chummers' - anchovies so small, you can fit 10 to 12 in your hand. For the bait fishermen, this was a sad situation. Multiple anchovies on a size 2 or 4 hook and a rubber core. However - for the jig fishermen....this is a situation made in heaven!! We could go to any number of spots on the front and the back side of Catalina and pepper the hell out of these spots with brailfulls of chummers. Not only would the abundant chum bring out any fish in the area - they would come out in full attack/eat mode. There were days when Frank Garcia (the other deckhand - Timmy's son Toby nicknamed him Fank), the Maggot (Jason the pinhead's nickname) and I would fill the bait tanks with enough calicos to fill out limits for all the passengers. All before the skipper (Tim Ullon) would wake up from his morning nap. The Isthmus Reef was particularly good at times. With the current running east, we would make a chum circle over the west edge of the reef. Before the anchor was set - the calicos would be going nuts on the chum. One of us would grab my jig stick and start firing the candybar. My rig of choice was a Sabre 540 - cut about 6 inches off the tip, a Newell 338 filled with 40# and a green and yellow candybar. Absolutely the best swimming 'straight off the rack' jig there ever was. I started off using a full length 540 which was ten foot. But right away after the first few casts with a full size candybar (#112), the tip was too soft. I initially took two to three inches off, and ended up taking about six inches off, which felt just about right. I also started out using 20 pound test, but quickly ramped up after losing a jig or two to 25 to 30 and eventually to 40. The line started to get unamanageable over 40 lb. Everywhere we went, that 540 surface iron setup was ready to go. On one particular trip, we had filled the bait tank with nice calicos - all 3 to 5 pounders. At the end of the trip, we had filet bags with limits for all passengers. As we were handing the bags out and collecting for the fish cleaning - everybody appreciated the bag of bass filets and tipped us nicely. I think we were charging 45 cents per fish - so a limit of bass was $4.50. Most folks gave us $8 to $10 and thanked us. One guy though - he gave us a $5. Both Fank and I looked at each other and thought - dang, a cheapie...he was going to tip us fifty cents. But he stood there....and waited. I asked him did we miss something? He said he counted the filets we put in his bag....it was one short. He said...'if you guys had given me the last filet, I would have give you the .50'. Well, sometimes you see a little bit of everything. One day Timmy was off - and Pat Jackson was running relief. We went to Farnsworth to have a looksee and ran right into a school of nice 20 to 40 lb yellowtail. Pat came right out of the wheelhouse, grabbed my jigstick and was on a yellow. On this particular trip, we had a couple of deadheads off another boat (I don't remember which one), but I remember his name was Bill. We nicknamed him Billdo for short. We had put a very large green mackerel in the bait tank - not sure why, but we did. Billdo grabbed one of the boat's trolling rods (broom stick with a Penn 6/0 and 80 lb line), cut off the feather, tied on an 8/0 hook, threw the giant green mackerel out and BAM. He was pinned to the rail. That yellow was a solid 40 lbs. All the yellows we caught were 25 to 30 lbs - with the exception of Billdo's 40 pounder. What we did not see much of was white sea bass. We would occasionally get one or two - but not in any numbers. The yellows were fun to hook on the jigstick. But the bigger ones would just tear you up and break you off. Not much fun. Barracuda were also fun to catch on the surface iron - but the bigger ones would swallow the jig and bite you off, and they were slimy! EEEEW. Not much fun here either. But the calicos were fun. The bigger ones would pull good - but not enough to break you off on 40 pound line. Nothing quite like watching your surface iron swim back to the boat with multiple fish following it....

Where the hell did whatshisname go?

During the years I was fishing a lot on the open party boats around LA, I would see a lot of the same guys over and over - which means of course that they saw me too...maybe. But anyway, here it is 40 years later - and sometimes I wonder just where in the hell did some of these guys go. I don't remember all the names - but once in a while, I think of one. Ted....Ted Shono. I would see him fishing on the City of Redondo all the time. From when Roy Peters was running the boat - to Rick and Jacky running the boat - with Derry on deck and Doris in the galley. Sometimes data just dribbles out. Ted was a few years younger than me, but close. Going on a boat out of Redondo was just so convenient. Didn't matter if anything was biting or not - there would always be a crowd on the City. From the early days when the boats used to sit a mile or so off the horseshoe pier fishing small Bluefin Tuna - to yellowtail and white seabass around Palos Verdes - Hagerdy's, Dominator.......what memories. If I had to think about it, I probably fished out of Redondo more than I fished out of Pierpoint. Pierpoint was when I was too young to drive - and could only get there if my dad took me. Redondo was a different story. From the time I had a Schwinn Stingray to a Honda CB350 motorcycle and a permit at 15 and 1/2, I was going to Redondo Pier. And it was cheap. I don't remember exactly - but I think it was $10 or so to go on the 1/2 day. And the three (3) barges. Anyway, I was on my way home from LA and stopping by the Japanese market to shop....and in the fresh fruit and veggie section was an older guy stocking. Kind of looked familiar......I reached out and said 'Your name isn't Ted is it?....Ted S####? He said yes. I was wearing my Royal Star jacket - so he said I probably knew him from fishing, because he fishes a lot. I asked him if he remembered going into Yo's tackle shop and fishing on the City 30 or 40 years ago. He says, yup...that was me. He used to fish with all the good fishermen of the day. I asked him if he remembered a guy named Kohei? He says, yeah....I remember him. He was a pretty good fisherman. Damn....made my day.

The art of the 'short pump' and other things you talk about at the tackle shop

The first time I saw the 'short pump' in action - I was on the Freedom out of Pierpoint Landing around 1966/1967. I had just started to go on the islands / all day trips. My dad had come home with yellowtails and halibuts, and I wanted to catch those. Tackle-wise, I was still ill equipped...not horrible, just marginal. Big spinning reels - Garcia 302's (always wanted a 402, oh well!) and Optimo with blue monofilament from Thrifty. We went to San Clemente Island - around the east end somewhere west of China Point. Big yellowtail were biting! I was in the fray in the stern, but was just a little kid getting in the way and being pushed around. Bobby Carr was running the boat and was fishing. I watched in amazement as he threw in a bait, and hooked a nice yellow. He just quickly reeled and pumped the rod in a very quick fashion and bounced a nice fat yellow. Looked big to me - but more I think about it, the fish was probably 20 pounds or so. Still a heck of a feat. He never gave the fish an inch of line. He looked at me, quickly grabbed another bait and hooked a fish....then handed it off to me. This fish just turned, pinned me to the rail and broke me off. Just like that. I don't remember what he said - something like, 'kid you need to learn how to short pump'. Took a while, but I finally got it after a while. I still see people on TV shows and on boats trying to 'short pump' - with mixed results. Mostly, I'm not sure people know how. The whole point is to not let the fish turn its head so it can take off. When you first hook the fish, the first couple of pumps on the rod and cranks on the reel are crucial. Once you get a couple of grinds and you know the fish is pointed at you, you have to continue to apply pressure and keep it coming at you. One constant pull is what the fish should feel. When you pump the rod - each pump of the rod gives you a certain amount of line. That certain amount of line has to be put onto your reel, immediately followed by another pump of the rod and repeat. Any slack in this process gives the fish an opportunity to turn its head and hence take off. Which isn't all bad - just adds more time for other potential mishaps to occur. What do you have to have in order to do this right? Well, heavier than normal line is a must. One cannot 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 15 pound line very well. You can however 'short pump' a 50 pound tuna on 40 pound line. I think most folks tend to fish with a light drag, afraid of breaking their line. Most line breakage occurs at the knot. Hence, use a good knot. Ask around and find the best knot. We used to sit around at Yo's shop after closing time. The usual troop that had nothing better to do than hang out at the local tackle shop. We'd have contests to see whose knot held up the best. I use a Palomar knot now. But you have to be careful not to cross the lines at the hook. If you take a magnifying glass (if you are older - and need it) and look at the two lines at the hook, you'll be able to tell if the lines are crossed or not. It makes a difference. If they are crossed, the knot will break before the uncrossed one does. This is just one of many. So once you have a favorite knot that does not break, we are good to go. Remember the more knots you have on your line the less you can pull. Just thought of a funny story. When I was working on the Fury II during the summers when I was going to college, we used to get an array of good fishermen coming on the boat fishing. I never knew Marv's last name - but he used to run one of the Catalina ferry's from San Pedro/Long Beach to Avalon. He was a good fisherman! I recall we had a good yellowtail bit going on at Farnsworth Bank. Make a tank of big greenies on the front side of the island - and off to Farnsworth. All 25 lbs+ yellows - nice ones. Marv came out fishing on one of those days. We had 25 or 30 people fishing on the boat. Most folks had no idea how to fish the big baits for these yellows. This fishing was right up Marv's alley. He had to be in his mid to late 60's by then - so he had been fishing for a long time. He was a quiet sort of guy - and lot of history on his face. I just remember seeing him bit every time I saw him. At the end of the day, we only had 15 or 20 of these jumbo yellows - and Marv.....he had 5 or 6 fish, filling two sacks! He'd fish heavy line and once he hooked the fish - did not give them an inch. That was awesome. As far as a rod goes, my preference is for a heavier parabolic type rather than a fast taper type. The long parabolic Harnells are great rods to short pump with. The first true fast taper rod I remember catching a big fish with was a Sabre 865XH. Had a nice soft tip to be able to cast an anchovy - but once you put a load on the rod, it shut off quickly. The first bigeye tuna I caught locally was 130 lbs and was caught on that rod with an old Newell 300C/500 full of 40 lb line. I don't remember if I was using Ande or Meslon. Catching that fish on that rod made me decide I liked parabolic rods better. We also discussed hooks. At that time it was all Mustads. I started with the non-forged regular hooks - 94150 I think. But soon changed to a forged hook - 9174's. For some reason, the bait swam better with these hooks. Remember, it was all anchovies then - big ones in the winter/spring, and straight 'chummers' (small 2-3" anchovies) in the summertime. I broke a few 9174's and changed to the 92677's - which were forged and slightly offset. Pretty much use these hooks all the time for dang near everything, even today. For the long range trips - I do use the fancy Gamakatsu's, but for local fishing - 94150's is it. When I think about it, I can't believe them hooks are a few bucks apiece. We were using Mustad 118H's before the fancy hooks came along - and really, we did just fine, for caballito fishing anyway. For the big baits - was a different story. 7691's were and continue to be it for me.

Local Southern California BFT fishing / Sept - 2017

After at least a couple of years of banner fishing for crewcuts (BFT) in socal, I finally broke down and went on a 11 man charter on the MV Outrider. JimmyL and JohnK put the trip together from some of the guys that used to either work at Yo's or just hung around the shop. When I worked in the 80's, Jimmy would come in the shop often and talk fishing. He was going on a lot of long trips (16 day) on the Qualifier 105. I did not go on a long trip on it - but some one day trips. Extremely comfortable boat for shorter people like me. Kind of a wet boat as it was so low to the water - but what a comfortable fishing platform. John wrapped rods for Yo. DarrenK went too - and he also wrapped rods, repaired reels as well as worked in the shop. GeraldC used to come in the shop from time to time. He was the one that got me on the Scotia to fish with Lee Wong. Banner trips fishing Catalina - absolutely spectacular fishing. CraigS also hung out in the shop a lot. He would volunteer his time and work the counter. SteveT also would come into the shop often. JonH - his dad would come into the shop from time to time with Kobo. His dad was instrumental in getting me into party/charter boat fishing. We all converged on one of everybody's favorite places to eat and gather - Gardena Bowl. Home of the best Bacon Fried Rice in LA.(Well, some of think so anyway) I had not seen most of these guys in 20 years or more. Jeeeesus, they got old....just like me, I guess. We were a raucous crowd in there, making all kinds of noise. Then it was down to 22nd Street Landing to get on the boat. The schedule was, leave the landing around 8pm Sunday night, fish all day Monday and come back to dock on Tuesday morning. Like I said, the crewcut bite had been awesome for the last few years. There is definitely better days than others - but overall, awesome. When we woke up at 430/500am, we were in a very familiar place. A few miles off the Runway at the West end of San Clemente Island. Wow...what memories I had of fishing this area! Crewcuts no less! Another boat the Ultra was on the same schedule and had gotten there before us. The change in the pitch of the engines was Tucker (owner/Outrider) kicking the boat in the ass to get there quicker. Jacob (Ultra) was already bit. We meter around and stop - right away three (3) of us get bit. I went in with 20# gear - don't ask me why - I just did. Without much fuss - we get three crewcuts around 10/12 lbs. I thought - see that, there was a reason I went in with 20# gear. That was it for the little ones. I went back in with 20# and was sadly outgunned by fish that were all 40# plus. So much for the 20# gear. I switched over to the 40# rig.....much better. The bite was not WFO, but a nice steady pick bite. Soak your bait for 5 minutes - and you were bendo. Even with 40# gear, these fish would take a while to bring to gaff. I lost a few, but also got some too. After the first wave or two, there were yellowfin in the mix. The same size as the crewcuts - and bigger....up to 60#. By mid-morning, we were done on the crewcuts and working on the yellowfin. Good fishing! In the afternoon, Tucker announced we would now go trophy hunting at the East end. An area I had not heard of - Desperation Reef. We got there just before dark and hooked a few more of the 40/50 lb fish. About that time, Tucker announces he has bigger fish on the meter. It is just about dark - and Darren gets bit on his flatfall. While Darren is pulling on his fish, I look around the boat - and with squid lights and deck lights, we can see the surface of the water is alive with activity. As far as the light would reach - the water was full of baby sauries. And to make it even more interesting - there was squid underneath the sauries picking them off and eating them. I see now why the fish we caught were so fat. They had been feasting on the abundant forage in the area. Darren is still pulling on his fish. The fish does not spool him - but would not give him much. After over two (2) hours of going around the boat and not making much headway, the hook pulled. It was 9 or 10pm and we would start our ride in. I'll add more as I think of it - but suffice to say, this is definitely one of the better crewcut bites I have seen. As previously mentioned, I had fished for tuna around the West end of San Clemente. Those bites were never all that great - but we would invariably get a few. Also fished the same tuna at Cortez Bank. We did not have small 2 speed reels, nor did we have spectra or small circle hooks. It was straight monofilament. So many time we would fish with bigger baits and wire. Not many bites, but we would get some of the fish - 100#+. I also happened upon a good BFT bite in the 90's - straight BFT's....all 60 - 100 lb fish. We were fishing straight 50 and 60# gear with sardines. It was a good bite. I think I ended up with 8 or 9 nice fish. (no limit on these tuna at the time).

Fishing babble

My first recollections of fishing is from the rocks at Playa Del Rey with pieces of shrimp. Catching small calico bass and opaleye. Fishing from the Malibu Pier catching baby halibut, perch and tom cod. As curiosity began to take over and I started to explore, there were other people fishing from the pier using BIG tackle.....by that I mean something bigger than 6 lb test on a freshwater setup. 8 - 10 ft poles, penn jigmasters, surfmasters with 20 and 25 lb test. As I watched, they would just have a sinker tied on and underhanded cast the sinker way out. Then a leader with swivel on one end and a hook with a live anchovy - and clipped the swivel on the line and let it slide down their main line. And wait. Of course they were halibut fishing and on occasion they would hook one. Lower a big net down to the water and guide the fish in. People would be gathered around 'ooing and aahing'. I remember meeting an old black man fishing on the pier. He said his name was Sammy.....Sammy Davis. I did not think about this until much later....but I'm relatively certain he was Sammy Davis Jr's father! He even looked a lot like Jr. As I fished more and more, I noticed the seasons - and the fish that came along with it. The winter was mainly rockcod fishing, squid fishing for white sea bass and calico bass. The surface action limited anyway - so if you wanted to fish, it was rockcod. Synonymous with rockcod was squid. Rock cod seemed to always be available to catch. I am not sure if anchovies were tougher to get in the winter or not - but my recollection was getting squid for bait in the winter time. Just about 50 years ago, we lived in a rented house in Gardena - around 1967. The landlord was a fisherman. His name was Hiro Hirabayashi and he fished a LOT. Once he found out I did too - he would take me fishing occasionally and give me tackle. My dad would go fishing on boats on occasion - but he wasn't really into it, and he would go by himself. He would bring home calico bass and yellowtail and we would feast for weeks. Later he would take me to the landings and drop me off, but he would not go with me. I think it was because he got seasick. Matter of fact, now that I think about it - I cannot remember a time he went fishing with me on a boat, barge or pier. I do recall fishing on the Playa Del Rey rocks with him - but that's about it. My best memory fishing with Hiro was after we moved out of the Gardena rental - and my folks bought a house in North Torrance. It was a winter seabass trip in 1970 on the Point Loma - Eddie Diehl running the boat. We fished an area south of San Diego - called Tijuana Flats. The weather was windy and the water was lumpy. There were other boats in the area - along with small commercial boats (these were no bigger than 20 to 25 foot boats. They were called rat-trappers - rod and reel fishermen. The weather worked in their favor - the rocking boat would yo yo their jigs for them automatically. I watched them as their rods were left in the holders - and they would hook fish. Live squid bunched up on a heavy salas 6X, yoyoing on the bottom. We were drifting in an area called Tijuana Flats in rough weather. We didn't really have to yoyo, the boat was doing that for us. I recall seeing small boats (rat trappers they were called) with rods in holders on both sides hooking and catching fish. I recall the boat being in the trough trying to hang on in the stern - everybody was fishing on the port side of the boat. We would catch fish in waves. I'd look towards the bow and see people hook fish in sequence towards the stern. I caught two (2) fish that day - the numbers I remember were 32 and 25 pounds. For some reason, Hiro was having an off day and did not have one - so I shared and gave him one of mine. A good day. It is 2017 - Hiro recently passed away. A sad day that was. Fishing for sand bass and bay bass in King Harbor with Dewayne, Marty and Mark. Right under the Harbor Master's window no less. Fishing on the Toronado for bluefin with Bryan. Fishing for striped bass at Quail Lake with Craig - before it was open to the public. Fishing and pinheading on the Freedom with Mel. Going on the half day boats out of Redondo Beach with Brian. Sneaking into Churches and Golf Courses to fish for bass in their lakes with Craig and Brian. Grey scroungers thrown into the aquaduct water going into Quail. Fishing was always more fun when you went with your buddies. Buddies that were just about as proficient at fishing as yourself. God forbid going fishing with a guy that was way better than you. That would be embarrassing. Besides, we were 'meat-fishermen'. Catch as many as you can, as often as possible. After a while, taking non-fishermen fishing did get to be fun. Not only that, I sort of grew out of killing as many fish as possible. But it took a while. Fishing was serious business! Like, I could not imagine taking a non-fisherman fishing for bluefin at San Clemente Island. Except for one guy. George Mowery. He was one of our neighbors when we lived in North Torrance. We did not get to be buddies right away. But after a while, we got along pretty good. He liked to fish - so I am not sure I could call him a non-fisherman, but somehow he always seemed to catch his share. His tackle was more rental tackle-ish for a lack of better description. He refused to buy anything more than he needed - and bought on his own without any input from anybody. For example, I recall he went on the Toronado bluefin fishing. He was using 20 or 25 pound gear - way too heavy for bluefin fishing really. But for one reason or another, he would catch one. I mean, the boat had 30 or 40 people, and there were maybe 6 bluefin. Bryan and I would have the bulk of the fish 4 out of the 6, and there was George. He got one. Not even sure when or how, but he would have one in his sack. All with his patented 'shit-eating' grin on his face. Most of the time when we would go fishing, the way he fished just invited a comment. 'George, you may want to try.....', 'shuddup' he would say. And he would smoke these 5 cent cigars. Made everyone want to puke. Especially in the galley. People would ask him to leave. There weren't any rules against smoking in them days. Yuchhhh. Just for shits and giggles, I tried smoking one......tasted as bad as they smelled. I had a long acquaintance with Russ Izor. The first time I went on the same boat with Russ was in 1974. He was running the Indian - and the apartments I lived in had a lot of folks that like to fish and chartered the Indian - owned and operated by Russ Izor. I had known of Russ for many years before. The legendary Russ Izor of 22nd Street Landing. He had built and run many many boats. His favorite and only place to fish - as far as he was concerned, was Catalina Island....his island. It would be many years after that when my mother talked me out of being a vagabond and asked me to work in the health food business she had started. A few years in, she decided that running a health food store was not the right 'fit'. Besides, she had two other sons she had to figure out what to do with. Pushing the right buttons and saying the right things - I started college at the ripe old age of 27. I started working on boats to pay for rent and school. I'd run into Russ here and there - by that time, he had stopped running boats and was running Izorline - a fishing tackle distributor. Working on boats and in tackle shops - I started to run into Russ a lot. He would even invite me to go fishing on occasion. After I got out of college I entered the corporate world and eventually bought a house. Not sure where I ran into him again - but I find out his house is a mere mile away. We would go fishing and hang out quite a bit. His wife Louise (Lura) was a former flight attendant for Pan American Airways - so there would always be lots of classy ladies at their house. Even ended up marrying one of those ladies. Jeesus. What a tangent that was. I was actually going to write about some thoughts I have been having lately in regards to long range fishing. On one of the trips on the Royal Star, I had just landed a 253 chunk fishing with a tuna heart (on Blake's suggestion). A good fish. When the deckhands stuck four gaffs in it and brought the fish aboard, I noticed liquid squirting out of the tuna's butthole. Huh? A closer look reveals the fish was in spawning mode and was squirting eggs all over the deck. That scene's been swirling around my head for a while. That fish was caught at Isla Clarion - one of the two remaining places where long range boats can fish. So the area is a spawning zone for yellowfin tuna. I have been catching the brood stock. On the first few long trips I took - the fish were just placed in the holds. Out of sight, out of mind - until the boat got back to San Diego. But on the two boats I have been fishing for the last 7 or 8 years - the fish are bled, gilled and gutted before being place in the RSW tanks. And you get to see what form of critters this fish has been eating and whether it is male or female. After working on many boats and cleaning many many fish - I can about tell when the fish are ready to spawn. All the local tuna I have caught locally in Southern California never had much for roe or milt sacks. But these bigger fish down in long range land - had well developed roe and milt sacks. I did not realize how well developed and far along they were until that 253. They are actually spawning during the time we are fishing. So I have been dealing with the thought of killing brood stock yellowfin tuna at their 'hatchery'.

Long trip - 2015, all good things must come to an end

This would be the long trip taken on the Angler in January, 2014. Well, the string finally broke. I did not get a 200# fish this trip. 5 trips and 13 deuces is not bad - matter of fact, it is more than I could ever have dreamed. I was back on the American Angler with Accurate group. I could not imagine a better meshed group of fishermen - so instead of doing what I thought I would do, which was alternate years with the Royal Star, I booked and went with the Angler. This season, the wahoo have been thick at Alijos. Since the long trip season started around OCT of last year, most - if not all the long trips have been stopping on the way down or up or both. Unlike the wahoo at the bank or the island, these fish seem to not mind the boats coming around weekly (seemed almost daily) and hammering away at their brethren. Normally, the first few boats to an area holding wahoo will do good. Subsequent trip will get a few - but the fish eventually become wary and getting them to bite is tough. But this group of wahoo are differnt. They have been biting good for the boats now for the last four months or more. Not only that, they are slugs - 40 lbs or better, and not many smaller ones. Jigs and bait were both working good. On our way down, 19 of us got 70 wahoo - and on the way back we got another 50 or so. What was a bit challenging however, was the weather at our normal tuna grounds - Hurricane Bank and Clarion. We had great weather getting to Alijos - and going back home from Alijos. But that was about it. Ten days of 20 - 40 knot winds and matching seas. We went from Alijos to the bank first. The first day at the bank was OK. We got maybe 20 fish or so - all 120 to 150 lb fish...nice ones. Then the second day, the place became a desert. Add to that a weather front approaching from the south - and we decided to go to the island. The weather followed us. We did not get to do much of my favorite fishing - salamis on the big gear. I think one night, we made enough big bait to fish with - the rest of the time, it was sardine fishing. We fished at the island for 3 days or so - and headed back up to Alijos. The weather was rough. Fishing anywhere on the boat was an effort just to keep your balance. Still caught fish though - just not too many big ones. I think my big one this trip was 157. We were still left with a little time - so we stopped at Colnett and fished for yellowtail - we got 30 or 40 small fish on the yoyo iron. It was fun. This was the first long trip, where we did not get more than a 2 day boat ride before we got to fish. Pretty damn nice, really. Most of these long trips are three and a half days down and up. I ended up with ten tuna and eight wahoo - more than enough tuna and wahoo to pass out on my way home. And the detachment therapy is always outstanding!