Outdoor Notes : One Big Wave Altered Redondo Fishing Scene

It was too windy to fish, so John Evans of Torrance was sitting in a pizza restaurant on Redondo’s horseshoe-shaped Fisherman’s Wharf late last Saturday afternoon, watching the waves pound away.

He noticed several unusually large sets assaulting the link, a causeway that connected the horseshoe with the end of the Monstad pier.

“The second or third big waves lifted it and it settled back down,” Evans said. “Then one big wave lifted it as high as the roof line of the coffee shop (at the end of the Monstad pier) and everything broke loose. I could see pilings swinging free and the front section tilting.

“It didn’t take 15 minutes before everything broke up. I took off. I was worried that some of the pilings might wash up against the rest of the pier and bring the whole thing down.”

Evans is one of several regulars who fish off the piers, which have taken a beating from storms this year. One in January buckled the north side of the horseshoe, prompting officials to close that side, and pounded through the King Harbor breakwater, crippling the sportfishing pier 200 yards up the beach toward the battered Portofino Inn.

With the link gone and the Monstad pier closed for the installation of new pilings, Evans and the others fish from the seaward-facing portion of the horseshoe that remains open. It’s a little more congested, but nobody seems to complain.

Redondo Sportfishing has moved its operation down past the demolished Blue Moon Saloon to the boat hoist building at the other end of the parking lot. Boats are still running with normal loads, but the tackle store and restaurant will be closed until repairs are completed in about a month. The holes in the breakwater remain, but plans are to beef up the whole wall.

“It’s killed us as far as (tackle and bait) sales (go),” said Dan Armstrong, who manages the operation with Les McFarland. “But as far as people on the boats, it was pretty good through February and March until we started getting bad weather again.”

Armstrong and McFarland keep a wind gauge near their temporary office. It was showing a steady 30 m.p.h. Thursday as white foam broke over the breakwater. It registered 67.5 at the height of the storm last Saturday. They aren’t sure what it was during the January blast, but McFarland remembers the dates.

“January 17 and 18,” he said. “The 17th was my birthday, the 18th was my boss’ birthday. Happy birthday.”

Gene Cox’s 12-pound 4-ounce brown trout was the largest fish taken when the Eastern Sierra trout season opened last weekend, so he knows what’s coming when he runs into another fisherman these days:

--”Congratulations.”

--”Gee, what did you use for bait?”

--”Uh, exactly where did you say you caught it?”

Cox, who teaches math and science and coaches girls’ softball and basketball at Rosamond High School in the desert, has his responses down pat:

--”Thank you.”

--”A worm. An Alabama jumper. I can’t always get ‘em, but I use ‘em when I can get ‘em.”

--”That’s a secret. They all asked me that up there, and I wouldn’t tell ‘em.”

All Cox will say is that he took the fish on Rush Creek somewhere between Grant Lake and U.S. 395 on the north side of the June Lakes loop. But except for the big one, it wasn’t that hot a spot.

“I caught only two others the first day and four the next,” Cox said, adding that none compared to his prize.

“I got it just after daybreak, about 6:30,” he said. “I’d snagged a couple of logs before that and I thought I’d got another one until (the fish) hit the surface. It took me 25 or 30 minutes to land it. That fish was 30 inches long.”

It was a birthday outing for Cox, 42, with his father and son. He has the fish in his freezer but isn’t sure what to do with it since he learned that mounting it would cost $210.

Game wardens issued 70 citations--17 at Crowley Lake--during the opening weekend. Most were for fishing without licenses and using illegal gear or more than one rod.

No citations were issued for lack of good judgment or some ice fishermen might have been in trouble.

It was so cold and windy at some of the frozen lakes, such as Mary and George in the Mammoth area and the Virginia lakes near Bridgeport, that fishermen had ice forming on their lines.

That and warnings of soft, unsafe ice didn’t discourage most efforts, however, especially when a few anglers started pulling large rainbows out of the Virginias last Monday. They merely took the precaution of crawling out onto the lakes on gunny sacks.

Then there was the guy at Lake Mary who decided to test his snowmobile on the ice. He got out after a chilly bath but the $3,000 machine is still at the bottom, awaiting the spring thaw.

Briefly

The San Diego Marlin Club has scheduled its public “Just for the Halibut” tournament Saturday, June 4. Entry fees are $15 for adults and $7.50 for anglers 16 and younger and include a barbecue dinner afterward. Halibut must be caught from Oceanside to Pt. Descanso after 6 a.m. and weighed in at the club--2445 Shelter Island Dr.--by 5 p.m. Chairman is Chris Newman, (619) 225-1300.

The Sport Fishing Institute’s monthly bulletin notes that its lobbying has resulted in an increased allocation by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council of coho and chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest, as against what commercial fisherman will be allowed to take. Sportfishermen will have an increase of 19% to 25% coho and 10% to 19% chinook.

Showtime: The Southern California Marine Assn.’s second annual Spring Boat Show opens a 10-day run today at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona. Show hours are 2 to 10 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children ages 6-12, children under 6 free.