Fishing Notes : Surface Fish Expected to Top Action for Holiday; Yellowtail on the Move

Over the Labor Day weekend anglers can look forward to plenty of action with mixed bags of surface fish.

No one game fish has dominated the summer catches.

With a good supply of squid in the bait tanks, the yellowtail could be accelerating toward a fall run.

This is evidenced by boats from 22nd Street Landing locating the squid. The Monte Carlo on a morning trip last week caught 32 yellowtail on Thursday and another 27 Friday, all at the oil rigs.

The Diawa fished Catalina Island with the candy bait and anglers caught 27 yellows over the weekend.

The steadiest summer species is the sand bass. Anglers have been catching limits on all trips.

For private boaters who want sharks, makos and blues can be found from Santa Monica Bay to Catalina’s west end.

Mike Kucura of San Pedro and his deckhand, Michael David, were drift fishing with a net on the Tom and Gerry near the Redondo drop-off area in 90 feet of water.

As the pair reeled in the net normally used for thresher sharks, they brought in a great white tangled in the webbing.

They returned to San Pedro where the shark weighed in at 416 pounds and measured 8 feet.

Kucura and David said they had been looking forward to catching a big great white. Kucura will have the catch’s head mounted.

Ruud Deree of Torrance, ocean fishing for the first time aboard the Redondo Special, hooked a yellowtail on his first cast and managed to move it out of the Rocky Point rocks. It weighed 21 1/2 pounds.

Troy Banum of Long Beach had never been fresh-water fishing when he headed to Irvine Lake on Sunday with his ocean rod and reel. Using a mackerel, it took him 22 minutes to land a 12 3/4-pound catfish.

Banum said he prefers ocean fishing for continuous action.

South Bay Catches: Norman Ferber of West Los Angeles, fishing aboard the Outerlimits with live squid, caught the whopper of the week and brought his 29-pound yellowtail aboard just before a seal was ready to nab it.

Allen Colby of Torrance, on the Blackjack at Catalina, reeled in a 24-pound yellowtail.

It was four-of-a-kind aboard the Diawa when San Pedro anglers--Tom Kelley, Herman Music and Tom and Brian Fujimoto--caught four yellowtail. Each weighed 23 pounds.

Gus Givanboard of West Los Angeles, fishing at the rigs aboard the Sportking, reeled in a 22-pound, 3-ounce yellowtail.

John Avellar of Santa Monica, aboard the Reel Special, caught an 18 1/2-pound yellowtail at the 150 Spot.

Fish Reports: At Marina del Rey Sportfishing, the Happyman fishing the flats on a morning trip returned with 185 sand bass, 80 bonito and a halibut.

On the Spitfire, anglers found the sand bass action and chalked up a count of 147, plus 56 bonito.

The rock cod special Betty O fished for shallow water rockfish and landed 220 reds and a cow cod.

At Redondo Sportfishing--The Redondo Special found red-hot bonito action Monday at rocky point, with 145 bonito and 20 sand bass landed.

The Sea Spray at Rocky Point chalked up 196 bonito and 24 sculpin.

The Blackjack, with tanks of squid, fished Catalina and 6 yellowtail, 270 bonito, 110 barracuda and 5 white sea bass to 12 pounds were caught.

The barge Isle of Redondo’s weekend counts continue to climb as the bonito total reached 498; 400 mackerel and 10 sand bass completed the catch.

At 22nd Street Landing--The Monte Carlo on two half-day trips caught 260 bonito, 196 sand bass and 6 sculpin at the rigs area.

The First String fished Catalina with squid and returned with 250 calico bass, 55 bonito and 11 yellowtail, with several lost to light tackle.

The Freedom headed to the west end of Catalina and anglers fought the yellowtail and white sea bass. Only four of each came aboard, but 85 bonito were also landed.

At L.A. Harbor Sportfishing--The Sportking fished the flats and anglers reeled in 240 sand bass, 48 sculpin, 9 calico bass and 2 halibut.

The Matt Walsh’s Monday twilight trip resulted in a count of 131 sand bass and 9 calico bass.

The Outerlimits had tanks of squid while fishing Catalina and returned with 9 yellowtail, all tackle busters, plus 150 calico bass.

Annie B barge anglers returned over the weekend with 1,680 herring, 1,400 queenfish, 25 sand bass and 24 sculpin.

At Long Beach Sportfishing--The Victory scored at the flats and oil rigs with 504 sand bass, 37 bonito and 2 halibut up to 11 pounds.

The El Dorado, with live squid, worked Catalina and 28 yellowtail, all 20 pounds and up, went into the sacks, plus 121 barracuda.

The Southern Cal chalked up a limit of 600 sand bass on the morning and afternoon trips Sunday, plus 3 barracuda.

The Reel Special anglers caught 152 sand bass, 31 barracuda and a yellowtail.