OUTDOOR NOTES : Sportfishing Lauds Banning of Gill Nets

How will the passage of Proposition 132 affect sportfishing off the Southern California coast?

The local gill net fleet largely targets halibut and white seabass, two species heavily fished for recreation.

Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California and a former deputy director of the Department of Fish and Game, said he expects a better balance between commercial and recreational interests.

“We’ve been out-competed in areas where the fish have traditionally been located,” Fletcher said, citing as an example a regular phenomenon that occurs around the northern Channel Islands.

“The squid will move in and begin their spawning, and what comes with the squid but the white seabass and halibut,” Fletcher said. “Usually, you don’t know for sure when that’s going to happen. It comes sometime during the fall.

“(Sportfishing) boats are running there every day, carrying a handful of passengers and catching a few rockfish and just getting by. All of a sudden, we’re there one day and bingo. We make a catch and the word is out. All of a sudden there’s nets crisscrossing the area, and the nets pretty much put us out of business.”

Fletcher said the ban will give recreational fishermen an opportunity to compete on a more equal basis with the commercial fishing operations “because they will have to be, most likely, using hook and line or something similar to that.”

George Valenzuela, owner of San Simeon Sportfishing, said he has noticed dramatic improvement in fishing the waters off the Central California landing since the area was closed to gill nets last February.

“The gill netters would disperse the bait fish, and that’s not the case anymore,” he said.

The squid phenomenon mentioned by Fletcher was credited for the off-season, hit-and-run bite of white seabass off Santa Cruz Island last Friday, when all 35 anglers aboard the sportfisher China Clipper nailed limits--a total of 105 fish.

So Fred Geiger of Agoura Hills went fishing for white seabass in the same place Saturday but landed a saltwater line class, world-record yellowtail: 57 pounds 9 ounces on 30-pound test line.

Geiger, aboard the private boat Hard Drag owned by Tom Palmer of Thousand Oaks, landed the fish in 20 minutes at the Yellow Banks, using live squid.

“He took me down to about an eighth-spool before I could turn him,” Geiger said.

Geiger first weighed the fish ashore unofficially at 63 pounds, then had it certified 22 hours later at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. The record listed by the International Game Fish Assn. is 54 pounds 8 ounces, by Danny Jackson at San Benitos Island, Baja California, in 1984.

Rick Grant of Channel Islands Sportfishing at Oxnard said it was “unheard of to be catching white seabass this late in the year.”

The bite was back to an occasional white seabass by the next day.

Dennis Saunders, also of Channel Islands, said: “White seabass are like that. A big factor is the amount of traffic. They’re real shy fish. The (China Clipper) was all by itself. The next day, it was a mess (of boats) out there.”

But with live squid plentiful, yellowtail have been consistent, running larger than average, including several to 40 pounds.

Briefly

FLY-FISHING--The “Fly-Fishing Fair” is scheduled Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, at Bob Marriott’s store, 2700 Orangethorpe, in Fullerton. Experts will present free instruction in casting and fly tying for all levels of experience, plus seminars on travel and photography. The lineup includes Lefty Kreh, Dave Whitlock, Poul Jorgensen, Lani Waller, Les Eichhorn, Jimmy Nix, Nick Curcione, John Randolph, Darwin Atkins and Bill Blackstone. . . . Gary LaFontaine, guide and instructor at the Fenwick Fly Fishing School in West Yellowstone, will be at the Long Beach Casting Club’s monthly meeting at 7:30 tonight at Recreation Park. LaFontaine also will appear at the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers’ dinner meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Odyssey Restaurant in Mission Hills, after a two-hour seminar at that location, starting at 3:30 p.m. The seminar is $20, the dinner $20 for non-members.

HUNTING--Otay Lake near San Diego continues to produce for duck hunters. On two open days last week, 67 of 99 hunters collected limits, bagging a total of 302 ducks--mostly widgeons, bluebill, gadwall and mallards. . . . The California Outdoors Foundation will have a family day fund-raiser Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Raahauge’s Pheasant Hunting Club in Norco. Scheduled: Free instruction for novices, special shooting events, live country music. Information: (714) 735-2361.

OCEAN FISHING--Ron Beaton, owner of radio station KIEV, and Arnold Gold of Encino placed second as a team in the Redbone bonefish/redfish tournament at Islamorada, Fla. Beaton caught the biggest bonefish--10 pounds and 31 inches long--and Gold tied for first place with three bones released. . . . An 11-day trip with 25 anglers by the American Angler sportfisher out of San Diego produced 169 yellowfin tuna, 93 wahoo, 116 dorado, 34 yellowtail and a marlin. The boat worked Thetis Bank, U.S. Bank and San Benitos Island. . . . Easy daily limits of dorado from 5 to 15 pounds are being reported at the East Cape out of La Paz. Michael Arrebalo of San Diego took a 245-pound blue marlin and a 137-pound striper fishing out of a hotel panga--the latter just after the boat ran out of gas. Sailfish are the main billfish fare, although stripers are coming on since the first of the season’s north winds blew through a week ago. Most of the blues are staying deep.