One of the reasons why I love where I live!!

The other day, a friend of mine calls and tells me he's been in Monterey with his family - his daughter is being looked at by a few colleges wanting her for their soccer abilities. He tells me they are coming south on the 101 on their way home and asked me to dinner at Jocko's. No carnivore of any substance would deny such an invitation. While thinking of what I would order the following evening, I thought it would nice if they could go home with a nice bag of rockfish filets from our local waters (they love fish!). The following morning around 6am - I hitch up the boat, grab a few rods and yank the boat to Port San Luis. I'm in the water by 630am and fishing by 700am. Before long, I catch a couple of dandy reds, blues and a nice ling that decided to hitchhike on a nice size johnny - and it really was a nice johnny, just mangled it though. I knew the moment it latched on. When I got to the bottom and wiggled the jig a bit, a got a nice bite and started to reel up. A couple of winds later, it got really heavy! Yup, hitchhiker - a good one too. And sure enough, at the boat he has clamped onto the johnny bass and is not about to let go. Bang goes the gaff - and my fishing is done for the day. Plenty of fish filets for my friend William, wife Collette and daughter Danielle! I look at my watch and it's 830am. I had been fishing for an hour and a half. I love this place.

Ticket stubs from the past

While I did not keep all the ticket stubs - which would have been awesome, I did keep some. I put them in some kind of chronological order. I must have had something about keeping stubs going on in 1982. Other than that, I wish I would have kept some stubs from the Pierpoint days....oh well. March 1974 / Chubasco - Lee Palm's (San Diego) / 8 day / $390....I put in a $50 deposit (was a lot back then)...the boat was fast, but the fishing stunk. Don't remember where we went - but did not catch much. There was a fuel surcharge even then - at .17 cents per gallon. March 1982 / Sea Hawk - Sea Landing (Santa Barbara)/ all day / this was after seeing Bruce Root come back with a limit of 5# plus calicos all on the surface iron. Limit of calicos and rockfish around Naples Reef. I went fishing on this boat a few times over the years. This boat is the same boat that used to run charters from Pierpoint Landing in the 1960's as the 'Miss L'. As such, this is a fast boat. I recall one time when I was talking to Merit about that - and he kicked it in the ass momentarily. The boat came right up on a plane and I am sure we were 18 knots or better. The boat is 45 or 50 ft and had twin 8-53's. He didn't punch it like that very often - but the boat moves right along when throttled. July 1982 / Lot a Fun - Virg's ($26)/ 3/4 day out of San Simeon Pier / full on salmon grouper and reds. A small group of us would drive up to San Simeon from LA at 1 or 2am and park outside the gates at San Simeon until they opened at 6am or so. July 1982 / Toronado - Queen's Whart (Long Beach) / overnight / fishing at Catalina we got news Albacore were being caught 6 miles off the East end of Catalina. Pulled up anchor and shot out to the area and got 16 Albacore - I got 3, have pictures with Catalina in the background. JP. July 1982 / Toronado - Queen's Wharf (Long Beach) / overnight / though I did not keep the stub, I distinctly remember this trip. The bite at San Clemente Island had shut off, and Dennis Luckenbeck had heard there were bluefin at Santa Barbara Island. I am not sure, but I may have had the only bluefin - a small 12 or 14 lb. At the end of the day, we were weighing up the JP. Some guy comes up with a big sheephead. Got beat out of the JP by a sheephead. August 1982 / Toronado - Queen's Wharf (Long Beach) / overnight / BFT are biting at San Clemente Island (West End - NW Harbor / 9 fathom), the boat got 6 - I got 1. Light line (10/12#) and small hook (#8/10) fishing with anchovies. JP. August 1982 / Shogun - Fisherman's Landing (San Diego) / overnight / BFT are biting at the Coronados also (inside South Island), 4 out of 33 BFT for 28 folks. Light line (10/12 lb) and small hook (#8/10) fishing with anchovies. August 1982 / Prowler - Fisherman's Landing (San Diego) / overnight / Albacore - nice ones, 25 lbers...3 of 40 for 30 folks. Oct 1982 / Shogun (65' Seaway) - Fisherman's Landing (San Diego) / overnight / Norm, Vince, Alan and Mark were working at the time (I think), this is the day before the New Lo-An trip (used to go back to back in them days), got 3 YT and 2 Barracuda. Oct 1982 / New Lo-An - Point Loma Sportfishing (San Diego) / overnight / I think Nick Cates had/ran the boat / fished the Coronados - had 2 of 8 BFT on the boat, the light line, small hook fish on anchovies, then got 1 of 11 YT at North Island (Pukey Point) on yoyo iron...not bad with 30 folks on the boat. Oct 1982 / New Lo-An - Point Loma Sportfishing (San Diego) / overnight / no BFT this trip, 38 YT at the Rockpile (south of South Island), had 4 of 38 YT for 40 folks...2 fish on the surface iron. Nov 1982 / Prowler - Fisherman's Landing (San Diego) / overnight / Not sure, but I think Mike Groesbeck owned the boat and the boat had three (3) engines. I remember he fired up the center main when he spotted a breezer of yellows....had no idea that boat went that fast. November 1984 / Liberty - Queen's Wharf Sportfishing (Long Beach) / local all day / There were huge bait balls of anchovies just outside Horseshoe Kelp that were holding huge albacore. They only bit for a week or so, but I got in on this bite. Gary Nordbye was running the boat and we chased these bait balls around for most of the afternoon. About 4pm, we slid in on another bait ball and four of us got bit. These fish were skittish and did not bite heavy line - I was using 15 or 20 lb gear. For some reason, I remember the rod - a Silaflex PT70, but I don't remember the reel. So the four of us are yanking on fish and after the first hour, fish were breaking people off one by one. I was the only one left after an hour and a half. The boat was pretty much full - probably 40 or 50 folks, but my fish was the only fish going. It is dark - around 6pm, and I get the fish to color. Doesn't even look like an albacore it is so big. Finally at the gaff - yes, it is an albacore. 67 lbs. I see Curt Weggener back at the landing and he says I should mount the damn thing - I'll never see another one like that again. What did I do? I ate it. I guess I can always order one from Lyons/O'Haver - I have pictures (and the fish report from the LA Times). Sure was good eating though! April 1986 / Lot a Fun - Virg's / 3/4 day out of San Simeon Pier / full on ling cod and reds. We started first catching blues and blacks and slabbing them out and used them on 8/0 kirbys with a 10 oz sinker - worked great for big lings and chuckleheads(white bellies). September 1986 / Toronado / overnight - Queen's Wharf / got a call the bluefin were biting at Catalina Island at Black Rock. Hopped on and at daybreak at Black Rock, we hooked a few. These were a bit larger and we were able to use a little heavier line - 15 lb with #6 hooks. I think three of us got bit - and after a hour or more, mine was the only one left. This fish went in the weeds (we were relatively shallow and in tight). I worked on this for 15 minutes or more - and finally got him out and coming to the boat...weeds and all. Within 40 ft of the boat, the weeds came off and the fish took off. I thought tuna needed to be moving to stay alive! He ripped off a 100 yards or better and I finally got the fish to gaff, an hour and a half later. Weighed 31.5 lbs. JP. October 1986 / American Angler - Point Loma Sportfishing / overnight - albacore ($115) / I had heard there was a new boat owned by Dan Sansome which was really nice, and the albacore were running. So off I went, ended up with 3 albacore. October 1986 / New Lo-An - Point Loma Sportfishing / overnight - I heard there were bigeye being caught in San Diego. Off to San Diego. The fish were big - most over 100 lbs. There were 20 of us or so on the boat, and most of us hooked fish. I remember details from this trip (rare). I was using a Sabre 865XH, a Newell 300C (500 size), 40 lb blue Izor and a #2 commercial tuna hook. The fish I hooked took me right around 2 hours - spooled the reel twice, but the fish just could not break the line (lots of stretch at 300 yards). A two gaffer - 130 lbs. Nick Cates was fishing and had one hooked on heavier gear - 50 lb on a 4/0. He had to hand it off to Lori Lang (cook/girlfriend) and after a while I was done with my fish - and she handed the rod to me. Half an hour later - another two gaffer, 130 lbs. Ended up with both fish. What a day. Got my picture in the paper for that one. JP. October 1986 / New Lo-An - Point Loma Sportfishing ($65) / overnight - well, worked last week - so a week later back to San Diego. I heard the bigeye were still around, so back to San Diego. The bite was not as good, and the fish were smaller. Had small green mackeral for bait this time. We saw a lot of fish - but only hooked a few. I got one - 85 lbs. on the heavy gear...80 lb. JP. December 1986 /City of Redondo - Redondo Sportfishing / 1/2 day / I remember this trip well. Rick Oefinger was running the boat in the afternoon - and he took us to an area around Short Banks (due West of Marina Del Rey). He must have heard from somebody the white sea bass were there. He told us to yoyo heavy white jigs (blue/white 6X Jr.) off the bottom. We started to hook fish - I hooked two, one fell off but the other was a good one...33 1/2 lbs. December 1986 / City of Redondo - Redondo Sportfishing / 1/2 day / the day after Christmas, yellows were biting around Point Vincente. Small ones - but got one around 6#. Ended up with JP. March 1987 / City of Redondo - Redondo Sportfishing / 1/2 day / there was a halibut bite going on, and I'm not sure - but I think Jeff DeBuys was on the boat (he now runs the Independence in San Diego). He showed me an interesting rig he uses for halibut - a dropper rig with a long leader on 15# gear. Ended up with two flatties - small ones, but keepers. The bigger of the two ended up being JP. May 1987 / City of Redondo - Redondo Sportfishing / 1/2 day / there were a few yellow being caught daily off Rocky Point and Point Vincente. Ended up with one yellow and a few calico bass. JP. May 1987 / Redondo Special / 1/2 day / tried to get on the City, but they were full. Tough fishing - ended up with the only barracuda on the boat. JP. May 1987 / Sport King - Ports O Call Sportfishing / 3/4 day / good barracuda bite at Horseshoe Kelp. Ended up with 7 fish on surface iron. JP. June 1987 / Redondo Special - Redondo Sportfishing / 1/2 day / I don't have a stub for this trip either - but remember this trip well. There wasn't much of a bite going on for anything - and we dropped anchor off Hagerty's to try to catch a few calico bass or anything. I recall we had quite a few sardines in the tank along with anchovies this trip. I flung a sardine and hooked a nice fish - turns out to be a white sea bass. From that moment - the bite was good. Every sardine was a sea bass. Got to a point, I was using sardines that the sea bass spit out when they hit the deck - and they worked just fine. I ended the day with 7 or 8 sea bass. None of them were that big - all around 15 lbs. What a nice 1/2 day. September 1992 / Shogun (new 90') - Ports O Call Sportfishing / 1.5 day / Norm had just put his new boat in the water this year. I am sure the boat was put in the water in San Diego first - so this is after their summer season in San Diego. This 1.5 trip was scheduled to fish Cortez Bank. I had a good day. Fishing 15 lb gear all day - I think the boat ended up with 40 or 50 tuna for 30 guys or more. Ended up with 10 bluefin tuna from 15 to 30 lbs. January 1993 / Royal Polaris - Fisherman's Landing / 16 day Yo's charter / this is the first long trip I took, which was only possible because I worked at Yo's. I don't recall having all these big swag giveaways like these trips have now. Most of the tackle was primitive by today's standards. Butch Greene was fishing these long trips regularly, and his tackle of choice was 6.5' heavy sticks with Penn 50's. We all carried around 9 lbs spools of 100 lb monofilament - and damn near used it all in the course of the trip. We were also afforded the opportunity to fish all the islands of the Revillagigedo chain - San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida - and if the fishing was slow, we went to Clarion, and worst case is going out to Hurricane Bank. Since there were no sardines - just anchovies, the bait of choice was the caballitos we made at Benedicto and Socorro. Absolutely wide open fishing for 80 to 150 lb tuna, and great wahoo fishing too. April 1995 / Mallard - Virg's (Morro Bay) / 3/4 day / There was a lot of salmon being caught this year. I made a couple of trips up to Morro Bay and got in on the action. The fish were also being caught off Oxnard, Venture and Santa Barbara - but the most consistent action seemed to be off Morro Bay. The fishing was amazing. The boat was trolling 18 or 20 lines at once, mostly on the sinker release rigs with bait and lures. I don't remember the fish being particularly big - just lots and lots of salmon - mostly kings, but silvers too. March 1998 / Pacific Queen - Fisherman's Landing (San Diego) / overnight / some time around 1998, my friend Brian Kiyohara and Sam Patella bought the PQ from Eddie McEwen. I last time I had been on this boat was when it ran trips from Pacific Landing in Long Beach, near Pierpoint Landing. I have the stub - but no details, but I believe there were small bluefin tuna being caught at the 60 mile bank. I hooked a few fish this trip, but did not land a one. One of them days. August 2001 / Bright and Morning Star - H & M Landing (San Diego) / 1.75 day / I had heard this boat was fast and the price was right. I don't remember what I paid, but it was very reasonable. I seem to recall Dave Williams ran this trip - but not sure. This was basically an albacore trip - so we bombed it an area 100+ miles to the south. And yes, this boat did haul ass. We had a few stops for albacore and the fishing was OK. On one of the stops, there were bluefin tuna mixed with the albacore. The albacore were right next to the boat - while the bluefin were on the outside, so you had to be able to flyline a bait. This is where a 10 ft bait stick comes in handy. I ended the trip with 7 bluefin and 6 albacore. A couple of things I recall about this trip. On our way out to get bait, we were given a welcome talk and fishing update. The first thing I recall the skipper telling us - "Folks, don't expect the luxury accommodations like the other long range boats - we are the Motel 6 of the long range fleet". He was right. The conditions were spartan at best. But man, did this boat move. We were 120 miles from San Diego when we were done fishing - around 7 or 8pm, we kicked it for home. And kick it he did. Three motors started screaming and this 100 ft boat was on plane - with a huge rooster tail behind us. I don't know how fast - but we had to be at least 20 knots plus. All I know is, we were inside San Diego Harbor at about 3am. Absolutely the fastest big boat I have ever been on.

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.

Local fishing....how things have changed!

(started this in August - and just finished it) Recently, I went on a charter. Mind you I have not been on anything but long trips in quite a few years - not sure how many years...maybe 10 - 15 years ago? I cannot recall. It was a two (2) day trip with some folks I haven't fished with before, and a couple that I have. The BFT fishing had just been shut down by the Mexican government in the waters south, which was a bit of a bummer because they had been biting pretty good. Well, I get down to San Diego early and putter around for a while waiting for the rest of the troops to show up. I start seeing a few of the folks that are going. Their tackle is different. I have what I would have considered standard BFT tackle - 20, 30, 40 and 50 lb tackle on Newells and 4/0's on Trulines and Silaflexes. These guys have Avets, Accurates, Shimanos and all these new-fangled rods and reels with.....2 speeds! Wait a minute, ain't this just local fishing? 2 speed reels? What the hell for? With the BFT fishing closed, there were plenty of rat YFT's being caught locally - so off to catch mini YFT. Well, as it happens, we go BFT fishing anyway. Not size-large, but nice ones - 25 to 30 pounds. They bite the first morning for a couple of hours - and that was it for the trip. The rest of the trip was the rat yellowfin. I thought I fished my ass off. I was flinging the bait hard - and getting my share of bites. But after the bite was over, I think I had three. 18 guys and 40 tuna or so - and I had three. There was a time I would have been quite disappointed about this - because it really was a pretty good bite. But somehow, I was OK with it. The kicker is, these guys were having a relatively easy time with their 2 speeds - while I was toiling away with my old Newells and 4/0's. They would just put their reels in low gear. Hey!! This is basically the same shit I do on the long trips - except everything is smaller. So, if I am to be serious about this local fishing 2014 style, I have to rearm myself with all new tackle. I'm going back to fishing out of PSL. Much easier, and I have the tackle for that. This getting old thing is a bitch.

The choice of working on a boat or transitioning to 'Passenger Kingdom'

As I have mentioned on previous posts, I had been a 'pinhead' on sportboats out of Pierpoint Landing (Long Beach) in the late 60's - scrubbing the boat to get a free ride. I had also worked on some boats during my years in college (early 80's). When I was working on the sportboats and I had a day off, I went back on the same boat and fished. Given the virtually unlimited availability of engaging in my favorite hobby - I could not get enough. I had enough documented sea time to get an operator's license. I wanted to be a sportboat captain! But, after seeing the recreational fishing industry from the side of the worker, I decided that a career in fishing was not for me. I envisioned getting lucky at some point and owning a boat and operating a passenger fishing business. I envisioned spending my working life in the environment which I truly loved. However, as time went on - I began to see the difficulty of making a career out of your favorite hobby. There are people that can do this - the exceptional ones that made a career out of their passions. These are the people I envy. But there are not many - and I am certainly not one of them. I began to realize that at some point, being inundated in fishing would eventually negate my passion for this hobby I loved so much. I did not want my passion for fishing to wane. I have a small skiff now - with which I can be a mini-party boat captain! I love taking people fishing - and watching them catch fish. This past year, I happened to meet a guy at the local AAA. He was talking to some other guys about fishing, their sons and....life. When the subject turned to offspring pride - one guy says, 'my boy is in Harvard'....another guys says, 'yeah? Well mine is at Yale!'....I could see the irritation in this guy's eyes and he says, 'mine just bought me a new 750IL'. Pretty much ended the conversation. I started a conversation with this guy - he had recently moved up to the central coast. Retired, 72 years old and loved to fish. He talked about catching a white seabass from a partyboat out of Oxnard. I said - 'why do that? We catch seabass right here, and as a matter of fact there are salmon to be caught now!' He says, 'bullshit, you have to go to Alaska or something for those...what kind of salmon are we talking about?'. 'King Salmon!!' I said. His expression turned to complete disbelief. A week later, we went trolling out of Port San Luis and promptly caught two King Salmon!! He could not wipe the smile off his face. Sent the picture to all his family and friends. Awesome. Anyway, back to the subject. A few years ago....no, more than that, 30 years ago....Frank LoPreste called and asks if I wanted to work a trip - a 10 day. Steve Loomis ran the trip - Rich Rogers, Bill Lang, Reese and Rollo Heyn - what a character Rollo was. I was between jobs after getting out of college - so I said OK. Turned into a great fishing trip to Alijos - lots of 60 to 80 pound yellowfin tuna, wahoo and yellowtail. Interesting to note on this trip - one of the passengers looked familiar. His name was John. I asked if he'd ever worked on the Freedom out of the old Pierpoint. Turns out I was his pinhead! Anyway, taking my turns on wheel watch, deck watch, anchor duty, checking the engine room, serving meals and all the normal duties of a deckhand. Not being used the hours - I was completely wiped out. The last leg of the trip back to the docks - and we are pulling fish out of the holds. I swear to god, I thought I was going to die. Then, after we pull in to the slip, we had to throw fish from the boat to the carts. Holy Shit!!! After cleaning up and refueling, I go out to my car - and just as I was getting ready to pull out, a police car blocks me in. The officer comes to my window and says I am parked illegally. After 10 days in the same spot? Come on!!! I said - 'look, I just got off the RP after 10 days of working myself to death. So hurry up and write a ticket, take me to jail, or whatever you want to do because if you don't - I'm going to puke and pass out'. I must of looked like it too - because he just shook his head and walked off. I knew right then that Passenger Kingdom was where I belonged. No more working on a boat. A lot of the guys I used to work with on the boats became successful businessmen - owning their boats and generally being a success in life. Except for one thing. Most of these guys are just not crazy about going fishing anymore. Fishing is no longer what they want to do in their spare time. Fishing is no longer their passion. Fishing is their living! I remain crazy about fishing. Perhaps not as maniacal about it as I used to be, but definitely the activity of choice for me. Here it is almost Christmas 2014, and I am about three weeks from my next long trip. I can hardly contain myself. My fishing partner is not going on this trip. Quite bummed about it. Another interesting occurrence. I normally pay a deposit for these trips about a year in advance when I make my reservation. Out of the $4500 or so fare, I put in a thousand. About a month or two before the trip, I call the landing and ask for the balance - which I normally pay off. I have a good idea what the balance is - but I call anyway. Lori tells me I have a zero balance. I tell her she must be mistaken - I do not misplace $3500. She says 'no, I am not mistaken - someone paid off your trip'. WHAT!!!! This is not a tank of gas or a dinner we are talking about here. It is 35 hundred dollar bills. Then I think - perhaps my wife paid it off for my Christmas present. This is essentially a left pocket or right pocket of the same set of trousers routine. So I call her, and she says no. She does not even know which boat I am going on. So I proceed to call everybody I can think of that may possibly be a candidate for doing such a dastardly deed. I say 'dastardly' - because I do not have a $3500 'thank you' in my repertoire. Assuming this person knows me well enough - this person knew...one, I would be driving myself nuts trying to figure out who it is...two, I would be relentless in trying to pay back the deed. It has been over five weeks now, and I have no clue who did it. I mean, I'm not going to not go....and I could not be more thankful....but HOLY SHIT!! Neither Lori or Brian, the owner is giving up any info. Brian Kiyohara is one of those success stories in the fishing business I wrote about earlier. Having known him for a good part of the last 20+ years, I thought surely he would tell me who this culprit is, and put me out of my misery. But, nooooo. Well, in less than three weeks, I will be on the same boat with him for 14 days. Question is, how badly do I want to know?

Decline of recreational fishing and other random thoughts.

As some of you may or may not know, I have quite the drive to/from work. I drive approximately 200 miles one way, stay in a hotel for a couple of nights then drive home - almost every week. Which leads to a considerable amount of time by myself in the car with plenty of time to ponder. For instance, since there is almost a certainty that I will encounter automobile traffic - I started to wonder why? Firstly, for every mile of freeway - a considerable number of cars can line up bumper to bumper. Let's see, if a car is 10 feet long and a mile is 5,280 feet - that means 528 cars can line up for each mile of freeway. If they all moved at the same speed, they should all be able to move at a particular speed - let's say 65 miles per hour. So the guy in the front of the line is moving at 65 miles per hour, but the guy behind him is going 64 miles per hour, and the guy behind him is going 63 miles per hour - and so on. That means the 65th car in line is at 0 miles per hour. I think the traffic jams in LA are some form of this thought. At 1/2 mile per hour less per car, the 130th car is at 0, and at 1/4 mile per hour less per car - 260th car is at 0. That's basically a half a mile. Most of you would think....way too much time on my hands. Correctomundo, as Samuel L. Jackson said in Pulp Fiction. Then another good one - ass gaskets. Who the hell thinks much about those 'keep your butt germ-free while sitting' wastes of paper. Well, I used to find myself almost shitting where I was not supposed to while breaking the perforations along the middle of the gasket. I was relating this to my co-workers one day and lo and behold find out that this de-perforating pre-defecating ceremony is gender specific. I was going to call into the Mark and Brian Show on KLOS and relate this to those guys - but they quit before I got around to it. It's only the men that tear the perforations before placement and finally discovering nirvana. Women are much smarter than that. They just place the gasket on the seat and promptly sit down. The middle just breaks the perforations from the pliable arse applying pressure at the perforations and the middle just floating down below. So I tried this. Well, my arse shape must be different. The middle just stays there and nothing happens. Much akin to running into an invisible wall. There's much more - but fishing....that's what I'm supposed to be writing about. When I first started ocean fishing around 1963, there were lots of choices for public recreational fishing. There were boats and barges all along the coast of southern California. Earlier posts describe the barges from Malibu Pier to Long Beach. Each of these barges and boats were operated by a landing. There was enough public interest for multiple landings in very close proximity to each other. A lot of the old fishermen talk about how good the fishing used to be. I am not so convinced. I still believe there were more days spent fishing than catching. If you look at the numbers of fish caught, no doubt there were more fish caught - both commercially and recreationally than today. But the number of players are vastly different. I don't remember the exact numbers - but I recall looking at the number of fishing licenses bought in California these last few years - versus 40 or 50 years ago. They are about half. So what is it that chased the fishermen off? In all likelihood a variety of factors. Increases in oil prices resulting in fishing fare increases, vast increases in recreational choices and lots of other reasons, I am sure all contributed. In 1963, an overnight fishing trip would cost around $14. I don't know about diesel fuel - but a gallon of regular at the Texaco or Atlantic Richfield around the corner was around $0.31 so I would think diesel was considerably less. Matter of fact, I remember seeing gas at a Lerner station for twenty some-odd cents. Well the highway diesel is now just under $4 at 3.90/gal. I do not know the exact price of diesel in 1965 - but, in a little less than 50 years the price of diesel goes from around ten cents to 3.90 per gallon. Astonishing. So the price of an overnight fishing trip goes from $14 to $100+. Fishing for most folks just is not that exciting. No wonder the sales of fishing licenses are half of what they were. On the other hand, with less fishing pressure - are the fish populations on the increase? Add all the protection and environmental concerns and you would really think the biomass of fish would be nothing short of incredible. Perhaps the commercial and recreational fishing pressure had been so heavy for so long, that it will take lots of time to recover. So at some point in time in the future, the fishing will become what some of us 'old-timers' would call....'the old days'. Fishing was good in 1965...no doubt. But I have had days quite recently that was also pretty damn good. So maybe the good old days were really in the early 1900's......

aging fisherman

Getting old with Fishing addiction I’m not that old yet – pushing 60 is not that old. However, it won’t ever get confused with being young – even to most older folks. Being married during this aging process makes the whole experience much more bearable. There are hiccups that should be avoided however. A few years ago, I was on one of the open party boats out of Port San Luis. We were fishing somewhere around Diablo – when I started to get uncomfortable. I don’t usually get seasick – so I didn’t know what the hell it was. As time went on, I got progressively more uncomfortable – and the sensation started to switch to pain. Pain in the lower abdomen. A short while later, I curled up in a fetal position and couldn’t move. Captain Sal called PSL Harbor Patrol – who promptly came out in their overpowered inflatable and picked me up. Back at PSL – an ambulance was waiting for me. This is the first time I had ever ridden in an ambulance. At the hospital, they found out I was passing a kidney stone. Had no idea passing a kidney stone could be this debilitating – and painful. My wife Pam comes into the ER and what’s the first thing I say to her? ‘Honey, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to go fishing anymore!!!’. As the undaunted king of afterthought, I have had many regrets about that one. More recently, I have suffered torn retinas in both eyes. Until recently, a ‘floater’ was something I saw in the toilet. Well, a few months ago, the ophthalmologist found a torn retina and floaters in my left eye - now I am the proud owner of a right eye with ‘floaters’. The ophthalmologist says it is a relatively common occurrence – as we get older. What next? The recent movie – ‘The Bucket List’ makes more and more sense as I get older. The part where Jack Nicholson’s character says – ‘There are three things you learn as you get older – never trust a fart, never waste a hardon and never pass up a bathroom’. Well, the question of trusting gas as gaseous without solids is not as age-related as all of that. I am convinced most if not all folks shit their pants. They just don’t all admit to it. I freely admit to it now. So, really it is the admitting part that is related to age – not the shitting your pants part. Doesn’t seem that long ago, that I would wake up in the middle of the night with a piss-hardon and dang if I could bend it to be able to pee in the toilet. I would end up peeing in the shower – that way, I wouldn’t have to wait for eventual pliability. Now, despite the condition – it is pliable enough to bend in a downward direction. And yes, if there is an available bathroom – I ask myself more than once, ‘do I need to go?’. And more times than not, I go in anyway – you know, the ‘hearing water makes you want to go’ thing – and somehow, the proximity makes me want to go anyway. So what does all this have to do with fishing? Not much I guess. I just repowered my boat with a nice Honda outboard – and here I sit, in front of the computer typing this….not able to go because I just had surgery to repair my second retinal tear. Joy.