Not Biting : Charity Is the Loser as Fish Take a Vacation During Anglers’ Contest

It was billed as “The Great Fish-Off/1986”--San Diego’s down-to-earth answer to feeding the down-on-their-luck dinner guests at the City Rescue Mission by donating the catch from a daylong fishing tourney.

When it first took shape, a brainchild of the men down at Blue Porpoise Marine, it was of modest proportions--a few dozen of the local boys and their boats, a handful of minor prizes just to add a little spice to the sport, and a volunteer crew to filet the bountiful catch before taking it down to the Rescue Mission.

The idea grew--snowballed in fact. Entries rolled in, prizes piled up, plans mushroomed into a two-day event topped off with a barbecue for the fishermen and an awards ceremony to hand out about $12,000 in prizes.

But someone forgot to invite the fish.

At one minute after midnight Saturday morning, the first of about 50 boats left Shelter Island launching ramps and headed for the high seas, the Coronado Islands, the kelp beds off La Jolla, as far south as Rosarito Beach and north to San Clemente Island.

By early Saturday afternoon, the ship-to-shore radio was alive with hard-luck stories about the ones that got away. Albacore--the tourney’s designated target fish because they are fun to catch and good to eat--were no-shows. One fisherman, 40 miles out in his 16-foot craft, hooked a good-sized albacore. He brought it up to the gaff before it thrashed and dashed to freedom.

“We even postponed the tournament from the first of the month until this weekend, so it would be in the middle of the albacore season,” mourned John Mattos, one of the Blue Dolphin Marine crew who organized the event. “And where are the albacore?”

Jeff Lantz, another organizer, diagnosed the problem. “It’s windy and rough out there, and these are small boats. A lot of these guys couldn’t venture out to where the albacore are, way out there.” (The tournament rules limited the boat size to 28 feet, and most of the craft were 16- and 17-footers.)

There were few winners as the weigh-in began Saturday evening. A 16 1/2-pound dorado, also known as rainbow fish or mahi mahi, drew anadmiring crowd but looked puny on the monstrous scales capable of weighing in 250-pounders.

One fellow, who didn’t leave his name, brought a piece of driftwood up to the tourney judges and handed it over with the explanation: “It’s the only thing I caught out there all day.”

Among the last to weigh in was a local team who were the big winners among the 114 contestants and who contributed about half of 400 pounds of fresh fish filets that will go into the freezers at the City Rescue Mission today. Bill Fiedler, skipper of the San Diego-based Mo-Ho, caught a 50-pound tuna, and his fishing companion, Joe Vastola of Point Loma, hit the jackpot, bringing in a 152-pound striped marlin. The pair won four top prizes in the last-minute sweep.

Don Borgen, spokesman for the mission, said that the donation of the tourney fish is a first for the downtown institution.

“We’ve had offers of fish from others, but we just couldn’t handle the cleaning and preparation,” Borgen said. “These guys volunteered to do the cleaning and to filet the fish so it will be ready to cook.”

Borgen has a suggestion, however, when the Blue Porpoise Marine crew gets ready to hold its next small-boat fishing tourney.

“We’re a church group here,” he pointed out, “and we do a bit of praying. If they would let us know a week or so ahead of time, we could use a little prayer power on the fish.”