THINGS PEOPLE DO : BAY FISHING : The Best Advice of Those in the Know? Have Fun, and Take All You Want--but Don’t Eat All You Take

Ray Silva is looking for a fight.

Seems he hasn’t had a good one since the early 1980s.

Silva, 37, of San Diego has been fishing off the northeast hub of Fiesta Island in Mission Bay since his teens. He used to enjoy the struggle put up by spot-fin croakers, halibut, sharks and bat rays.

But in the early ‘80s, he noticed a drop in the number of fish in the waters in the eastern part of Mission Bay.

“This bay used to be lined with people hauling in fish,” Silva said. “But now they say there’s nothing out there.”

The reason? Well, there seem to be a few problems: sewage pills, toxins and stagnant water.

“My father works for Sea World,” said Darin Durham, 25, of San Diego, who also casts his line into the bay from the northeast part of Fiesta Island. “And some of the scientists there say every time they do a study, the fish are contaminated. I would never eat anything out of this bay.”

Don Kent, who works for Sea World’s research group, said Sea World has done a study of heavy metals in the bay but that it was not extensive enough to yield any definitive data.

“And I wouldn’t even want to comment on them,” Kent said.

But Kent said toxins could enter the bay from many different sources. Even fertilizer put on lawns as far as 15 miles away could make it’s way to the bay after it rains.

Whatever the reality, fishermen don’t trust the east end of the bay.

“I wouldn’t eat anything from (that part of the bay),” said Mike Ross, 34, of Carlsbad. “That water is real stagnant. It never washes in and out with the tide. Plus it seems like (sewage) dumps in there about once a month.”

Actually, it’s just the east part of Mission Bay that is unsafe, fishermen say. Anything west of the Ingraham Street Bridge is considered OK because the water is affected more by the tide and therefore is fresher.

That’s where Ross does his fishing. He launches a boat from Dana Point and usually anchors under the Ventura Street Bridge, where it is shady and deep and attractive to fish. Plus it’s close to the channel, so fishermen know what they catch there is “clean.”

On Friday, Ross pulled in what he guessed was a 40-pound bat ray, considered the best fighter in the bay. It took him a half-hour to get the thing aboard.

“They call bat rays the poor man’s marlin because they’re so much fun to catch,” Ross said. “Pound for pound, they put up the best fight. Once they hit 30 pounds, they put up a good struggle. They’ll run six, seven times on you.”

In fact, fishermen believe that the better the fight, the more likely it is that the fish is free of toxins.

“I don’t like to fish in the back bay because the fish don’t fight as hard there,” said Mike Orara, 33, of Clairemont, who has been working the two local bays since he was a boy. “If they don’t fight, I’m throwing them back.”

Fishing is allowed in any part of Mission Bay that is not otherwise designated for water skiing, jet skiing, or swimming.

There are also several spots to fish in San Diego Bay. Four fishing piers (Shelter Island, Embarcadero Park behind the convention center, Pepper Park at foot of 32nd Street in National City and J Street Marina in Chula Vista) are available to anyone, regardless of whether they have a license.

The water’s not as deep off the piers, and the fish not as big, but the piers do offer an advantage over boats.

“The Navy ships are always going by and creating big wakes that rock the boat,” Orara said. “Plus there are other big boats that have no respect for (fishing) vessels.”

The Navy ships also leave oil slicks, several fishermen said.

Most people who use the piers aren’t there for the excitement of landing a big fish.

“I come out here for peace and relaxation,” said Lawanda Ashworth, 31, of San Diego while fishing off the pier at Embarcadero Park. “It’s very peaceful.”

Those who fish off the piers are one of the few groups that use San Diego Bay without polluting it. But they are also the group most likely to be affected by the bay’s contamination.

Ashworth used to eat what she caught, but about six months ago, she decided it wasn’t safe. She had heard rumors of mutated fish and seen news reports about toxins in the water.

The rumors and reports were substantiated last month with the release of a two-year study conducted by the San Diego Unified Port District. It warned pregnant women not to eat fish caught in the bay because of potentially dangerous levels of chemicals found in organs of bay fish and also warned against a regular diet of bay fish for anyone.

“I’m afraid to eat the fish (I catch) here,” said Michael Halm, 15, of San Diego, while on the pier at Shelter Island. “I’ve heard stories about what’s down in here. Supposedly there’s mercury and all kinds of other stuff.”

The port study said the “stuff” includes polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are chemicals suspected of causing cancer, and traces of pesticides and metals.

Not everyone throws the fish back. Many bay fishermen eat their catch and have been doing so for a number of years, despite all the warnings against it.

“Hey, they taste good,” said Rocky Liwana, 29, who has been fishing in San Diego Bay since he moved here a year ago and was also at the Shelter Island pier earlier this week. “We’ve been eating the fish here for a year, and nobody in my family has gotten sick.”

Liwana said he averages five catches a day, mostly mackerel and croaker, and has seen no evidence of mutated fish (the Environmental Health Coalition has displayed bay fish with signs of tumors).

“They say the fish have chemicals in them,” Liwana said, “but they seem fine to me.”

Richard Bettell, 43, and his mother, Joyce, 65, both of Spring Valley, also eat the fish they catch.

“I’ve never got sick from eating them,” Joyce said. “And if I catch mackerel, the cats like mackerel, so I feed them some, and they never get sick.”

But the Bettells don’t really use their days at the pier to catch their dinners.

“I don’t care if I catch anything or not,” Richard said. “I just have a good time being out here.”

Added Joyce, “I just come out here for the fun of it. If I catch something fine, if not, then that’s OK.”

James Jackson, 58, of Chula Vista, has been fishing in the bay since boyhood. Earlier in the week, he was fishing with his grandson, Derek Glos, 10, off Shelter Island.

“Fishing is just a lot of fun,” Jackson said. “It’s good recreation; it keeps youngsters from being bored while they’re not in school.”

Like Ashworth, Jackson used to eat the fish he took from the bay. But he too stopped--about 10 years ago when he “heard a report from a biologist in town.”

“You know,” Jackson continued. “Years ago this used to be one of the cleanest bays in the country.”

No longer.

“I guess with all the different industry, apparently they can’t keep from dropping all that stuff in here,” Jackson said. “But I don’t think they do enough to clean it up.”

There are different fish to be caught at the different sites.

On Shelter Island, the catch is most often mackerel, bass and an occasional croaker. At the Embarcadero Park pier, the catch is mostly the same, but using a lure can lead to landing a bonito.

“You can’t catch the bonito with bait (squid and live anchovies are provided at bait stores),” said Peter Agapito while trying his luck at the Embarcadero pier. “You have to use one of these $1.79 lures.”

There are also smaller and less-used piers down south: at J Street in Chula Vista and at Pepper Park in National City.

Neither has a good reputation among fishermen, which is why Jackson and Glos drove from Chula Vista to Shelter Island.

“This pier (at Shelter Island) is much more productive,” Jackson said.

But Derek said he prefers J Street.

“Because I catch bigger fish there.”

Said Jackson: “He likes (J Street), because he catches bat ray and shark there--that’s what he likes.”