Outdoors : OUTDOOR NOTES : Fish-Finders Will Be at Premium for Marina del Rey’s Halibut Derby
Fishermen will be out in force for this weekend’s Marina del Rey Halibut Derby, but they might find the flatfish flat-out hard to come by.
Halibut, which usually enter Santa Monica Bay to spawn in the opening weeks of spring, have yet to do so.
Foremost among reasons given is the three-week absence of live bait in local waters.
“We still don’t have any,” a spokeswoman for Marina del Rey Sportfishing said. “We’ve had a boat out for the last five nights, and they haven’t got any.”
At Redondo Sportfishing, Vito Ramon called the bait situation “non-existent,” adding that the landing’s New Sunbeam has been reoutfitted and is scheduled for another bait run tonight. “It doesn’t look very promising, that’s for sure,” he said.
Carl Lambert, tournament chairman, said the restricted-entry of 1,200 is filling up nonetheless. “We’ll all be out there competing under the same conditions,” he said. “We’ll all have the same handicap, if the fish aren’t biting, they aren’t biting.”
Lambert said there are fewer than 100 openings left. Entry forms are available at most tackle stores and marine-related businesses in the Santa Monica Bay area. Cost is $35 for the derby or $60 for the derby and subsequent banquet.
Proceeds for the 16th annual event will be split between the Boy Scouts of America, youth fishing programs and marine-conservation groups.
Prizes will be awarded for the event’s 50 heaviest halibut, the largest winning a trip for two to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
If what happened south of the border last weekend is any indication of what Southern California can expect later this spring and early summer, it figures to be another banner season for barracuda fishermen.
The razor-toothed gamefish moved into the waters off Ensenada last Saturday, when 32 fishermen aboard the the Baja Clipper and Clipper I caught 400 barracuda up to eight pounds.
Barracuda have been showing sporadically in the San Diego fish counts. On Monday the passengers aboard the Shogun, which runs out of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, caught 38 barracuda to six pounds while fishing for calico bass off San Clemente Island.
The initiative drive to ban gill-nets off the Southland coast is fast approaching the 600,000 signatures necessary by May 7 to qualify the measure for the November ballot, but proponents are hoping to get 900,000 to assure that enough will be valid.
Jim Paulk, who heads the volunteer effort for the Committee to Ban Gill-Nets, said it is approaching 500,000 and that Saturday has been designated as Super Signature Saturday, when the committee hopes to get another 100,000.
“We have set up locations from Northern California to the Mexican border,” Paulk said, adding that anyone wishing to help should call the committee office at (714) 828-9269.
Briefly
Department of Fish and Game biologists are monitoring the effect of the Feb. 7 oil spill off Huntington Beach. Paul Gregory leads a team sampling grunion eggs deposited below the beach surface. . . . The next desert waterhole project by the DFG and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep is scheduled Saturday in the Granite Mountains near Interstate 40 and the Kelbaker Road. Details: (213) 256-0463.
The Fish and Game Commission will hear public testimony on mammal hunting seasons proposed by the department April 6 in Long Beach. The department, under fire from anti-hunting groups, has prepared eight draft environmental documents for various seasons to meet requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. The documents are available for public viewing at regional offices, including Long Beach, and at major county libraries. . . . Part of a study, anglers catching a tagged halibut in Santa Monica Bay through April 27 can receive $5 by returning the tag to the DFG, with information on the catch. Details: (213) 590-5162. . . . A guide to the DFG’s 22 artificial reefs from Central California to San Diego County is available for $3 at the Long Beach office or for $4 by mail. . . . The American Bass Assn.’s first team tournament of the season, at Ventura County’s Lake Castias, was won by Jeff Brasier and John Taylor, whose four fish weighed 18.66 pounds.
Flyfishing: Two presentations on fishing Montana’s Bighorn River are scheduled: a free slide show by guide Dan Miller at the Marriott Hotel in Fullerton March 29 at 7 p.m., and a video seminar by outfitter Jack Sonnhalter at the Pasadena Casting Club April 1 from 2 to 4:30 p.m; Poul Jorgenson, author and world-renowned fly-tier, will be the guest speaker at the Long Beach Casting Club’s March 29 meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Recreation Park in Long Beach. Details: (213) 433-9408.
Times staff writer Rich Roberts contributed to this story.