For this 9-year-old, kayak game fishing is a snap

Paige White, 9, a budding kayak angler who'd grown weary of catching lowly triggerfish and puffers during a recent trip to Baja California's East Cape, met her father at water's edge the next morning and demanded "to catch something I can bring to the fish-cleaning table."

So Sean White, vacationing at Rancho Leonero Resort on the Sea of Cortez, paddled offshore with his daughter and they stumbled upon the giant snapper's lair.

The wily predator lunged from its cavern and struck the lure Paige had been trolling. Her rod bent to the sea and the kayak streaked across water like a sled on snow.

Paige held on, though, and kept the line taught. Minutes later, she beamed as she had alongside the vessel a beautiful 13-pound snapper -- an actual game fish; one any angler would be proud to land.

"It was pretty much all she could handle," her father said late last week, after returning home to Ukiah, Calif., where he operates the Great White Kayak Company.

It turned out to be more than she could handle, actually. About halfway to the fish-cleaning table, in the brutal afternoon heat, it became too heavy so she cried out for help.

Dad, of course, came running.

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Rancho Leonero is situated on a sandy bluff, beyond which is a reef teeming with inshore game fish, and not far beyond the reef is the purplish-blue water and a multitude of offshore species.

White and his friends did not battle marlin or sailfish, but they did catch dorado, roosterfish, amberjacks, leopard groupers, skipjack tuna and more.

As for Paige's pargo, half was sliced into sashimi strips, and the other half taken home, where it was transformed into poke and shared with Paige's close friend Teá.

Local Saltwater

The week's best bets, as supplied each week by Philip Friedman of 976-tuna.com:

Albacore: On Friday the Pegasus out of Fisherman’s Landing logged 100 of the prized longfin tuna for 20 passengers within one-day range of San Diego. Saturday morning started strongly but fizzled during the afternoon.

On Sunday the Sea Horse from Dana Wharf Sportfishing reported three albacore and one bluefin tuna before 12 noon. But the fish had become scattered and the search widespread.

This is typical of early-season albacore, said Capt. Shawn Throwbridge of the Legend. "They're just teasing us until the really big bite," he said. "Hopefully, that's right around the corner."

Coastal action: The San Diego coastal fleet continued to find plentiful sand bass and barracuda -- and an occasional halibut to 40-plus pounds. The Los Angeles-Orange County fleets did well too. The Freelance out of Davey’s Locker logged limits of sand bass Saturday. The Enterprise out of Marina Sportfishing and the Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing posted excellent twilight scores Saturday night. The former had 51 anglers reel in 510 sand bass while the latter had 45 anglers catch 450 sand bass.

On Sunday morning, the bite continued just a mile off Seal Beach, but an afternoon wind hampered the effort.

Islands: Calico bass fishing is good at Santa Catalina Island, but white seabass and yellowtail remain finicky. The Westerly, during a 976-tuna charter on Friday, nearly hit limits of calicos, three seabass and one yellowtail.

San Clemente Island is even better for calicos. The Freedom has been scoring limits or near-limits, as well as a handful of yellowtail, on its past five trips.