Memories of Russ Izor

In 1974, I was a year out of high school and living on my own. I had already been fishing for many years - but now, no more rides from dad to the landing. The apartment I lived in (Friday USA Apartments) on 182nd and Hawthorne Boulevards, damn....I remember going to the Akron next door and buying a set of Melmac dishes and a cheap set of silverware. And a bachelor apartment for $160 or $180 a month. Imagine that. So I put a group of guys/gals from the apartment complex and chartered the Indian out of 22nd Street Landing. I had heard of Russ Izor, but did not know him personally. We all had a great time - but the most interesting part was getting acquainted with Russ. He had already had a few boats by then, and the Indian was just his latest. Seem to recall we caught a bunch of sculpin at the Rock Quarry on the east end of Catalina Island. Catalina was 'his' island. According to him, he had been fishing this island for 30 years or more - which would go back to....the 1940's? 200+ days a year for 30+ years...that's 6000+ days at Catalina Island! He was just a world of knowledge on fishing and seemed to have a story and details of every inch of Catalina. He knew all the old party boat skippers by their first names - before they had nicknames. Any other island in the vicinity - San Clemente, San Nicholas, Santa Barbara - they were all 'godforesaken' places that he did not like. I recall going on charters with Russ to San Clements Island. He would wake up in the morning, come out of the bunkroom and exclaim....'Who the hell brought us to this godforesaken place?'. He not only ran fishing boats - but he liked to fish. So when he was at the rail fishing - his knowledge and competitive nature came flying out and he would catch more than most and say....'here, sonny - let me show you how it's done!'. I did not see much more of Russ until the late 1980's (I think). I had a late educational awakening and went to college at the ripe age of 27. When I finished, I was 31 or so and a little while later bought a house in Gardena. As mentioned earlier, I worked my way through college at various fishing-related jobs - boats and Yo's. At Yo's, Russ Izor had retired from boat captain-hood and started Izorline and came to the shop once a week or so, selling monofilament and various fishing gear. Up until then, I had been using Ande, Meslon and if I had money - Maxima. At the incessant urging of Russ, I tried his First String line - blue and clear. As with most other things that work when you have faith in it - the line really worked out good for me. As such, I started using First String almost exclusively - still do today. When I found out his house was a mere 5 minutes from mine, I started to visit him and Lura (short for Louise - his wife). He would get invited to run various boats and yachts, speak at various functions and was generally viewed as one of the strongest proponents of recreational fishermen. We would go to DFG hearings and would invite their biologists to delineate their 'facts' - which he loved to engage and challenge. Most of the time, they were just not able to compete with a man that had spent the last 50+ years running boats in/around southern California. Though Russ lacked a formal education, he was a voracious reader and a very intuitive man to boot. So when he spoke, there was little resistance - even from representatives of academia. I spent a lot of time at Russ and Lura's. He was also a unabashedly emotional man - and would be prone to emotional outbursts. That is, he was not afraid to show his emotions. When one of his pets (Eugene the cat) got run over - he cried for hours. Few folks knew that Russ loved to fish for trout in streams and rivers. Russ and I would fish both forks of the San Gabriel River for planters. Ultra light setups with 2 pound test - and using 'his' salmon eggs, not Pautzke's. We also went to the Kern River - where we would have impromptu competitions to see who would catch the most. And this was about the time he and a few investors took on the project to build the vessel - First String. He put a lot of thought into building this vessel - and if you have ever been on this boat, it is one of the most comfortable boats I have ever fished on. To this day, given a choice - I would fish on the First String. On some of the many trips to Catalina with Russ - he pointed out spots where he had fished. Sometimes it was uncanny when he would stop the boat and tell you within a certain period of time, we should catch fish. And sure enough - we would start catching fish. Around the same time, I had a girlfriend that loved to fish. She had a small skiff - and I would take us to some of the spots Russ pointed out. One of the places was a shallow area inside Church Rock - the current had to be going east. Russ said to chum with cut squid and wait. Sure enough within a half an hour or so, we had white sea bass - nice ones, too. Around that time, he got involved with a new fishing line - spectra. The line was strong, thin and lasted a long time. Just about everyone in the fishing community shunned the idea, saying it would never work. Too bad Russ did not live long enough to see his 'spectra' become the standard for just about all fishing - both fresh and salt water.