Thresher shark gives angler a fight

Great white sharks have been on the minds of many since the recent fatal attack on a swimmer off Solana Beach, but another type of shark is grabbing the attention of anglers off nearby La Jolla.

Thresher sharks, which pose no threat to humans unless they stand too close to the predators’ scythe-like tails, are becoming active in the La Jolla submarine canyon and other marine trenches off Southern California.

La Mirada’s Terrence Berg, while fishing on the Wide Load out of San Diego, caught a 220-pound thresher that was corralling mackerel, as gulls and pelicans soared erratically overhead.

He hooked his prize with a slow-trolled mackerel and fought it for 30 minutes on stand-up gear: a Seeker rod and Avet Pro EXW 30/02 reel spooled with 50-pound Ande line.

Berg will not go hungry any time soon.

Coronado Islands

Capt. Ryan Bostian of the three-quarter-day San Diego, out of Seaforth Sportfishing, reported 40 bonito and eight yellowtail for eight anglers Thursday.

The same boat on Saturday, but with a different captain, returned with 120 bonito and two yellowtail. The islands, though in Mexican waters, remain a Southland hot spot.

Channel Islands sea bass

The search for white sea bass has shifted temporarily to San Clemente Island, where anglers have enjoyed sporadic success. The Toronado out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach on Sunday picked up 10. The Dreamer, from the same landing, got nine.

Says Michelle Murray of Phantom Sportfishing: “Unfortunately, the only sea bass we got [Sunday] was a 20-pounder in the belly of a 200-pound mako shark they got on the way back to the dock.”

Catalina calicos

The three-quarter-day Freelance out of Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach on Sunday hit the calico bass jackpot while fishing in three spots on the island’s east end and backside.

Capt. Norris Tapp turned in a count of 119 legal-sized calicos but says his 39 anglers released at least 400 sub-legals.

They then tried an area on the front side and caught 50 bonito and seven barracuda.

Austin Smith, 11, a first-time ocean angler from Corona del Mar, caught nearly a dozen fish.

Tapp says the water is 62 degrees around most of the island, which may signal an impending sea bass or yellowtail bite.

Eastern Sierra tidbits

– Convict Lake, which produced the largest rainbow on opening day, received 800 pounds of Alpers trout last Tuesday, with the smallest fish weighing about 3 pounds.

– Ice fishing at Lake Sabrina essentially lasted one day. Several people fell through the ice a day after the April 26 opener but were OK. Now the ice is almost gone. No large trout caught recently, but pan-sized fish are biting on night crawlers.

– Virginia Lakes near Bridgeport are still iced over but look for blue patches to develop soon. Little Virginia, as of late last week had a 24-inch cover. Ice fishermen probably have another week to walk on the lake.

– is yielding more browns than rainbows, making it a premier early-season destination.

Anglers can thank the Bridgeport Fish Enhancement Program, which has been raising and releasing browns for about five years. The program stocks 50,000 German browns annually.

Gone fishin’

Philip Friedman, founder of 976-tuna.com, is a weekly contributor to this column, but he went fishing at Palmas de Cortes in the East Cape region of Baja California and missed his deadline for this column.

Blame it on tequila.

Adios Cabo tuna

Sportfishing operators in Cabo San Lucas are still irate over the seeming loss of an entire class of tuna, thanks to mega-seiners who spent much of last week wrapping tonnage after tonnage of football-sized yellowfin not far from Land’s End and hauling it to market.

“What a shame that the government still has not put an end to this type of corruption,” Eric Bricston of Gordo Banks Pangas says of what he and others believe is a crime against reason, since sportfishing drives the local economy.

Baja California fishing

Cabo San Lucas: Not a great place for tuna, but pretty good for marlin. The Southland’s Team Bad Company, pre-fishing aboard a customized Viking sportfisher in advance of a tournament that begins Wednesday, released eight billfish in one day.

San Jose del Cabo: Bricston’s fleet sent out 41 pangas from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos and logged a count of two mako sharks, 17 striped marlin, 36 dorado, 124 yellowtail, 118 bonito, 166 yellowfin tuna, 18 roosterfish, 122 sierra mackerel, 28 pargo and 12 cabrilla.

East Cape: The Reel Baja reports lots of marlin but few takers in East Cape waters, citing an abundance of squid, upon which the billfish are gorging. “Some days we are seeing lots of fish, but we can not get them to take as they are stuffed with squid,” reports guide/owner Jeff deBrown.

John Ireland, owner of Rancho Leonero, says an increasing number of bull dorado are showing with marlin.

Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly shares a report from a local angler fishing the beach: “Highlight of my beach fishing this week was finding a freshly beached amberjack of about 10 pounds. Must have beached itself chasing bait. We took him home and filleted him – still twitching as I cut it. Very tasty stuff.”

La Paz: The yellowtail season has ended, and the giant pargo are no longer cooperating, but fishing for other species is fair to good, reports Jonathan Roldan, owner of Tailhunter International.

Lots of variety, though, with sporadic marlin and dorado action offshore and a mixture of roosterfish, jacks and small pargo and cabrilla inshore.

Bay Area halibut

Halibut fishing remains poor locally but very good in San Francisco Bay, where the only drawbacks are wind and rough seas, on some days. USAfishing.com reports that Happy Hooker, with 23 anglers, managed to land 20 halibut to 23 pounds on Sunday, despite nasty weather.

On Saturday, Smith’s son James, on the California Dawn, turned in a count of 31 halibut to 21 pounds for 25 anglers.

Freshwater catches

– A 58-pound, 4-ounce blue catfish by Gary Bareis, Lakeside, on mackerel at San Diego’s San Vicente Lake.

– A 13-pound largemouth bass by Maria Fyffe, Philadelphia, on live shad at Lake Casitas.

– 9-8 and 7-8 bass by Steve Grey, Ventura, on live shad at the Lake Casitas rock pile.

– 18-pound, 4-ounce rainbow trout by Marcos Perez, Corona, at Corona Lake.

– 13-pound rainbow trout by Ryan Nguyen, Westminster, and Chris Taylor, North Hollywood, on Power Bait and Nitro Bait at Santa Ana River Lakes.

– 10-pound, 4-ounce rainbow trout by Rick Reese, Riverside, on a Rapala at Irvine Lake.

– 3 1/2-pound rainbow trout by Larry Hurd, Chino Hills, at Bridgeport Reservoir on a nightcrawler.

This week’s trout plants

LOS ANGELES - Alondra Park Lake, Arroyo Seco Creek, Belvedere Lake, Big Tujunga Creek (Lower & Upper), Cerritos Lake, Downey Lake, Echo Park Lake, Hollenbeck Park Lake, Jackson Lake, Kenneth Hahn Lake, La Mirada Lake, Legg Lakes, Lincoln Park Lake, Magic Johnson Lake, Peck Road Park Lake, Puddingstone Lake, San Gabriel River (East & West Forks) and Santa Fe Reservoir.

ORANGE - Laguna Lake.

RIVERSIDE - Hemet Lake and Perris Lake.

SAN BERNARDINO - Arrowbear Lake, Big Bear Lake, Green Valley Lake, Gregory Lake, Jenks Lake, Lytle Creek (Middle Fork).

SAN DIEGO - Doane Pond.

INYO - Baker Creek, Big Pine Creek, Bishop Creek (Intake 2), Bishop Creek Lower, Bishop Creek (Middle & South Forks), Cottonwood Creek, Diaz Lake, Georges Creek, Goodale Creek, Independence Creek, Lone Pine Creek, Owens River (below Tinnemaha), Owens River (Section 2), Pleasant Valley Reservoir, Sheperds Creek, Taboose Creek, Tinnemaha Creek and Tuttle Creek.

MONO - Bridgeport Reservoir, Convict Creek, Convict Lake, Deadman Creek, Glass Creek, Grant Lake, Gull Lake, June Lake, Little Walker River, Mammoth Creek, McGee Creek, Robinson Creek, Rock Creek (Sections 1 & 2), Sherwin Creek, Silver Lake, Twin Lakes Bridgeport (Lower & Upper), Virginia Creek and West Walker River (Sections 2 & 3).