THE OUTDOORS : Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : Southland Marlin Fishing Back to Normal After Slow Start

After a relatively slow start, marlin fishing in local waters has improved considerably.

“Everybody’s been kind of panicking, but everything’s back to normal,” said Rosie Cadman at Avalon Seafood, Catalina’s official weigh station. “The water’s turned warm so we got fish.”

Fishermen working various offshore locations have brought to Avalon 22 striped marlin so far this season. The Balboa Angling Club and San Diego Marlin Club, the Southland’s two other primary weigh stations, also report a vastly improved bite for the scrappy billfish.

Helen Smith of the Balboa club said its members have caught 22 marlin, 12 last Sunday.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve weighed 12 fish in one day,” she said. “Especially during the start of the season.”

Nick Pattengill of the San Diego club said this season is shaping up to be better than normal, with 25 marlin--18 taken over the weekend--already weighed by its members. The club caught 263 stripers last season.

The biggest so far is a 204-pounder caught Sunday by Newport Beach resident Bill Von Henkle. Other notable catches include the 185-pounder landed by Huntington Harbour’s Bob Hull and the 127 1/2-pounder caught on 16-pound Dacron line by 10-year-old Alec Bridges.

The albacore that San Diego landing operators hoped would move north to within range of the overnight fleet are still about 200 miles south of the city and the fish that are being caught are still small--averaging between six and 12 pounds.

However, the numbers are up--the Qualifier 105 is due back today with more than 400 albacore and the Polaris Supreme returned Tuesday with 247 longfins--and the conditions are still favorable for a northward migration.

Meanwhile, the first bigeye tuna of the year were caught Tuesday aboard the Pronto in an area about 100 miles south of San Diego. Skipper Allan Fay radioed the landings and said his customers, who were still fishing at the time of the transmission, had already boated three bigeyes in the 85-pound class.

Although the previous three albacore seasons have been poor, bigeye and bluefin tuna have shown in good enough numbers to generate a fair amount of business for the overnight fleet, which typically requires the fish to be within 100 miles.

Still no reports of albacore in the coastal waters off Central California, but one boat searching an area between 150 and 180 miles west of Point Arguello has been catching between two and eight albacore a day, most in the 12- to 30-pound class, according to Ron Dotson of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dotson said that a Scripps Institute vessel with research scientists aboard reports catching a 28-pound albacore roughly 150 miles west of the San Juan Sea Mount, about 60 miles west of San Nicolas Island.

Asked if these fish might move into the coastal waters and within range of the local landings, Dotson replied, “I see no reason why they won’t.”

Briefly

Guided night walks at the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve in Newport Beach will be held Aug. 5 and 26 as an expanded part of the DFG’s California Wildlands Program. . . . John Murray of Phoenix, fishing in temperatures in excess of 110 degrees at stubborn Lake Mead, won the Western Outdoor News BASS Pro Finals tournament held July 25-26 with a total combined largemouth bass weight of 15.42 pounds. Don Iovino of Burbank was second with 14.39 pounds.

Human-bear confrontations are becoming “a regular occurrence” in the San Bernardino, Los Padres and Inyo National Forests, according to the Department of Fish and Game. Prospective campers can contact the DFG at (213) 590-5158 for precautionary hints. . . . “The Guide to Hunting the Quail of California” is being offered free of charge by Quail Unlimited and the DFG and copies are available by writing the DFG’s Long Beach office, 330 Golden Shore, Suite 50, Long Beach, 90802.

The Mexican Department of Fisheries’ San Diego office has moved and can now be reached at (619) 233-6956. . . . The National Turkey Federation, the DFG and the U.S. Forest Service are working to expand turkey hunting opportunities in California and hope to import and develop flocks of Merriam’s strain wild turkeys.