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!

When King Harbor was AWESOME!

Around 1967 I was 12 years old, had a green Schwinn Stingray and rode the damn thing everywhere. Not sure how I discovered King Harbor. We lived in a rented house on 134th Street between Western and Normandie. So I would ride down Western to 190th Street, then follow 190th down to King Harbor. I would bum enough money to buy ice cream at Thrifty on the way home on the corner of 190th and Anza. I think a double was a dime. Going down the 190th street hill on the way to PCH was awesome! Going back...not so much. Going by the big sign was exciting - for I knew I would be fishing soon. I had a Garcia-Mitchell outfit, a light two (2) piece rod and a 308 filled with 6 lb mono. In my pocket would be Tiny Tots - white ones and yellow ones which I would buy at Red's Bait & Tackle or Jerry's. I would cast and whip the little jigs back in - and it was game on! I remember the first few times - I would put the bonito in a backpack and take them home with me. Not a great idea, since they were in bad shape when I got home. After a few trips - I would just let the fish go. And then I would see other people using frozen anchovies for bait. They would be getting hooked up when I was not - though most of the time it was pretty good. The best bites I can remember was when it was raining. The bite on the Tiny Tots would be awesome! The water was so clear in the harbor that one could watch the bonito eat the jigs. There were other fish in the water that would not eat the jigs.....bigger fish. Yellowtail! Every once in a while, they would eat a frozen anchovie. Only problem was, you'd hook one - and in one good run, they would spool the 308 - and my trip would be over. As I stayed later and later in the day, I would start seeing people with big spinning rods with sinkers and treble hooks. These guys would attach sinkers to their lines and tie multiple treble hooks above the sinker. At dark, these guys would begin flinging their rigs and make big jerking swings and start snagging bonito. Lots of bonito. These guys would take big gunny sacks full of fish home. Two years later, I was between Peary Junior High and North Torrance High School and had friends that also liked to fish. We would rent the wooden skiffs in King Harbor with live bait skids in tow. The fishing was outstanding. I also remember going to the Fox Redondo Theatre to watch movies. I'm fairly certain I saw the first Godfather there for 75 cents. I looked it up - the Godfather came out in March/1972, and the theater had its final movie in December/1972 and was knocked down early 1973. I am sure I saw the Godfather there in late 1972. By this time, I had a gold colored 1971 Honda CB350. Distance was no longer an issue - and I tied the rod onto the sissy bar and rode that scooter everywhere. Not sure how I stayed alive riding that bike with no helmet. Remarkable.