It’s Been a Productive Summer, Except for Those Hard-Core Fishermen

Two Southern Californians who follow the saltwater fishing scene closely were asked the other day to assess the ocean sportfishing season for the summer of 1986.

Said Rick Petronave of Long Beach: “It’s been lousy. The prime bait (anchovies) has been way outside and it’s kept the albacore out there. The water temperatures suggest we should be having a good marlin season, but we’re not. I just hope we get some bigeye tuna in local waters this fall.”

Said Phil Tozer of Newport Beach: “This is the best summer of fishing I’ve seen in a number of years out of Newport. Party boat skippers here make their living off the three B’s--bass, barracuda and bonito--and the fishing for all three has been very good all summer. Plus, the yellowtail fishing off Huntington Beach has been good to very good for over a month now.”

Are these guys talking about the same ocean? Or the same year?

Asking fishermen to rate the fishing in hopes of achieving some sort of consensus is a lot like trying to rate restaurants. In the summer of ‘86, for example, one man’s bread and butter is cause for another to put his tackle box in storage.

Albacore, the migrating tuna that normally pass by the Southland coast this time of year, have executed an end-around this summer--except for Morro Bay, where party boat fishermen have been catching albacore for about six weeks--plunging those for whom there is no other form of fishing into deep mourning.

But all is not lost. The action on yellowtail, calico and sand bass, bonito and barracuda has ranged from good to very good this summer, giving private and party boat fishermen brisk fishing activity.

Here’s what half a dozen Southland fishing people had to say this week about the local fishing scene:

Don Brockman, skipper, the Freelance, Davey’s Locker, Newport Beach: “We’ve had the most consistent bite of yellowtail at the 150 kelp off Huntington Beach that I’ve ever seen. The fish have been there seven or eight weeks now, spawning. Usually, yellowtail will stay in one place no more than a week or 10 days.

“My fishermen caught 35 15-to-20-pound fish Tuesday, and had maybe a hundred hooked up. It makes up for the albacore, believe me. Actually, yellowtail have been there the last three summers. But the albacore fishing was so good in recent summers the yellowtail weren’t noticed.”

J.D. Doughty, Bisbee’s Saltwater Tackle, Balboa Island: “A lot of the private boat people are looking hard for marlin now, with the albacore not around, and it’s a hit-and-miss proposition. We’ve had scattered catches off the east and west ends of Catalina lately, off Santa Barbara Island, the 267 and 209 banks, 8-to-10 miles off Oceanside and 15 miles north of Pyramid Head on San Clemente Island.

“The water conditions keep changing, and until things settle down the marlin will probably keep moving around. Bands of varying water temperatures and water clarity keep moving through the area. We’ve got water temperatures ranging from 60 to 72 degrees.”

Terry Turk, manager, Redondo Beach Sportfishing: “There’s a lot of bait, including squid, in the water around our offshore barge, the Isle of Redondo, and we’ve had good bonito fishing out there all summer long. Some summers, we have no bonito at all. Most summers, we get some 3-to-4-pounders. This summer, we’re getting bonito to eight pounds.

“Our day boats are getting into some bluefin tuna and calico bass action around Catalina.”

Dottie Cummings, manager, 22nd St. Landing, San Pedro: “We’ve had a good run of sand bass, some occasional good yellowtail fishing and good barracuda fishing all summer.

“We thought our albacore season began three weeks ago with a brief spurt of albacore around San Nicolas Island, but it didn’t last long. Aside from that, I’d say our season’s been above average.”

Rick Ellis, Cerritos, fisherman: “Let me put it this way. I bought a boat four years ago so I could be out there as often as I could during albacore season. When the albacore aren’t around and I wind up fishing for yellowtail, my fuel bill looks a lot bigger to me.

“Actually, I’ve enjoyed fishing for yellowtail off Huntington Beach. If we get some bigeye tuna in this fall, I’ll call it a good year.”

Rick Petronave, Long Beach, fisherman: “The exotics (marlin and albacore) just aren’t around. But if you’re talking about barracuda, bonito and calico bass, it’s been excellent. The water temperatures look like we should be into a good show of marlin now, but it just hasn’t happened.

“One good sign is that there’s a lot of mackerel around. To me, that means the bigeye tuna could follow them in this fall and we could have a good bigeye run, if conditions remain the same.”