HEADED FOR ALBACORE : Millie G Gets Underway, and That Means Just One Thing

On the waterfront in Morro Bay, folks take notice when they see the Millie G, a commercial tuna boat, moving out to sea.

The Millie G is under the command of Dick Gaydosh. And at this time of year, the waterfront guys say, when the Millie G is under way, it means only one thing.

Albacore.

“Dick almost always finds the albacore first up here,” said Mike Fitzsimmons, who owns a fleet of sportfishing boats at Virg’s Sportfishing.

“The Millie G is a 70-footer, and Dick has used it to catch albacore from Oregon to Mexico. When we see him heading out, we figure he’s got a good tip. He usually has a crew of a half-dozen guys, and they drag feathers (feathered jigs) to find fish. When they find them, they use hook-and-line rigs.”

The Millie G moved out to sea the other day, apparently on reports that a commercial fishing search boat chartered by the American Fisherman’s Research Foundation, had located a body of albacore about 200 miles off Point Conception.

Monday, crewmen on the vessel caught 26 albacore in the 12- to 20-pound class. By late Wednesday, the body of fish--of indeterminate size--had moved northward to an area roughly 200 miles due west of Avila Bay, according to oceanographer Mike Laurs at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla.

By midweek, it was the only known report of albacore within 400 miles of the West Coast, Laurs said.

Also, the weather picture changed drastically in two days.

“The crew Wednesday was reporting 50-knot winds and 15-foot seas in the area where the fish were,” Laurs said. “Weather like that will cause an upwelling of water temperature in waters close to the coast. That means we’ll have sharp temperature gradients, and since pellagic (open-ocean migratory) fish like albacore tend to bunch up on gradients, they shouldn’t be hard to find, if they move in closer.”

Water-feed conditions in areas within range of sportfishing boats, Laurs added, appear to be ideal.

“Stomach samples of albacore in our waters, as well as other areas in the Pacific, generally show approximately the same ratios: 25% squid, 40% to 60% small food fish such as anchovies, saury and juvenile mackerel in the five-inch class, and the balance shrimp-like animals and red crab. All of those items appear to be abundant right now along the coast.”

Another occasional food source for albacore, sardines, are reported to be “everywhere” around the Channel Islands, according to another NMFS oceanographer, Ron Dotson.

The late-June, early-July period is one of high anxiety for thousands of Southland saltwater fishermen. For chartered albacore boats, the deposits are paid or the checks are in the mail.

Dr. Sheldon Siegel, a Los Angeles allergist, organized nine 1987 charter sportfishing trips and hopes his remaining trips this year will be for albacore.

“It’s one of the most exciting kinds of fishing,” he said. “To be on a boat where everyone on the boat is hooked up to a big albacore . . . there’s a certain excitement, a mania, connected with albacore fishing.”

Unusual warm-water conditions of recent years have brought early arrivals of albacore, Laurs said.

“We’ve seen albacore as early as mid-June in recent years, and that isn’t normal,” he said. “Historically, mid-July is the normal picture.”

Albacore are mighty travelers. Their migration pattern is trans-Pacific, covering approximately 12,000 miles. In 1952, a biologist tagged 215 albacore off Los Angeles, and one was caught 11 months later, 550 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Albacore also are powerful game fish, among the sea’s great fighters. A 20-pound albacore on light tackle can keep a fisherman busy for 30 to 40 minutes.

And few fish, if any, exceed the albacore as table fare. It can be served fried, baked, canned or barbecued.