Outdoors : OUTDOOR NOTES : Blues Can Be Upbeat When Goal Is Tuna
Although some serious saltwater fishing is going on south of the border, where yellowfin tuna are being caught in record numbers by the San Diego Sportfishing fleet, Curtis Wegener thought it was time for a change.
“The yellowfin are all five to eight pounds, and I caught them all summer long,” Wegener said. “I’m tired of fishing for them. So I thought I’d get something new going.”
And so, Wegener, owner-operator of the Aztec out of Long Beach Sportfishing, traveled 90 miles due south to Cortez Bank, where his passengers hooked into some real tuna.
His 21 customers fished the area alone for two days and caught 103 bluefin tuna before returning Monday morning.
“They were all 36 to 60 pounds,” Wegener said of the bluefin. “We moved only once (each) day, just because we had to go catch more bait.”
Wegener, 28, said that the bluefin bite generally doesn’t begin at Cortez until mid-October, and it lasts through early November.
Whether it lasts into November remains to be seen. Commercial fishermen are already aware of the bluefin tuna--which brings a high price here and abroad--and have reportedly been netting their share at the Tanner and 60-mile banks.
A legislative package that would generate an estimated $10 million for the financially troubled Department of Fish and Game has yet to be signed by Gov. Deukmejian as the Sunday deadline looms.
Assembly Bill 3158, authored by Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), would set up a fee structure for the performance of environmental reviews by the DFG under the California Environmental Quality Act.
According to Vern Goehring, a legislative coordinator for the DFG in Sacramento, the bill is being attacked by developers who would have to pay for the services.
“They have not gone away and not let up, apparently,” Goehring said.
The other bill, AB 2126, would increase commercial fishing fees for 1991 only and would also allow the DFG to increase one-day fishing license fees and other fine and user fees.
The two bills are linked, so both must be approved by Deukmejian.
“If he vetoes one bill he might as well veto both,” Costa said.
Add legislation--Also awaiting Deukmejian’s signature is a bill that would change the DFG’s name “to more accurately reflect current missions and goals,” according to Costa, its author.
If AB 3159 is signed, the state agency will become the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Costa said the name change would have no fiscal impact because the bill prohibits the department from changing any insignia except as new material is needed, unless such replacements are provided for from funds other than the Fish and Game Preservation fund.
That new material might be needed sooner than previously thought, however.
The DFG, perhaps anticipating the bill’s passage, recently introduced a retail catalogue offering DFG logo products and wildlife-related gift items, including DFG caps, mugs, wildlife cassettes and books, stamps and limited-edition wildlife prints.
Briefly
ALBACORE--Fishing boats from Berkeley Marina are beginning to catch impressive numbers of albacore off the Northern California coast and there are reports of the popular tuna being caught as far south as Morro Bay.
John Warbeef’s Ranger 85 has had the best results so far. On one trip, fishing 75 miles off Point Arena, his nine passengers caught 65 albacore to 40 pounds, with most running 25-30. He then took out another 14 passengers, who caught 93 albacore.
Meanwhile, the port manager at Avila Bay in Avila Beach verified 15 albacore totaling 290 pounds were taken Sunday by commercial fishermen 50 miles off Morro Bay. Ed Bolling at Paradise Sportfishing in Avila Beach said the landing will send a boat out Thursday.
SAN DIEGO LONG-RANGE--Bluefin tuna of more than 100 pounds are being taken at Guadalupe Island off the Baja California coast, and yellowfin tuna and yellowtail are providing most of the action farther south at the Alijos Rocks and Thetis Bank.
Eleven passengers on the Point Loma out of San Diego caught 17 bluefin--10 weighing more than 100 pounds and the largest a 229-pounder--while on a 4 1/2-day trip to Guadalupe.
WORLD RECORDS--California catches recently approved by the International Game Fish Assn.:
--A nine-pound 13-ounce kelp bass (also called calico bass), caught by Peter Wight May 12 off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, all-tackle category.
--A 55-pound striped bass (landlocked), by Fred Brand Jr. Feb. 19 at O’Neill Forebay in Santa Nella, Calif., 12-pound line class.
--A 31-pound 12-ounce California halibut, by Steve Mares off Oceanside May 5 eight-pound line class.
--One-pound one-ounce brown bullheads, by James Cahoon Lindsay Jr. May 21 and 24, 1990 (Lindsay caught two fish at the same weight), two-pound tippet class in fly-rod category.