OUTDOOR NOTES : Dorado Off Baja Become Fall Harvest

Limit? What limit?

According to reports from Baja’s San Jose del Cabo, fishing is nearly too good.

“Dorado and yellowfin tuna are absolutely thick,” one fleet representative said.

Larry Burson of Jig Stop Tours in Dana Point, speaking for Victor’s panga fleet, tells of huge schools of dorado holding under anything that floats.

“One day, a floating piece of rope, off Salinas, was holding hundreds of dorado,” Burson said via fax. “Gary Ritchie of Rancho Palos Verdes worked the area under the rope and landed 15 dorado, releasing another 22 of them.”

What Ritchie might not know is that the daily limit for dorado is two , according to Mexican regulations designed to protect the fishery. The limit for tuna is also two.

“People are keeping too much,” Burson said. “There’s going to come the time when the officials come to enforce the rules. So far, they haven’t--and people are fileting their fish on the boats and filling their ice chests.”

Fortunately, Burson said, Mexican skippers are beginning to advise the release of smaller fish, which is an improvement over previous years, when catch, kill and eat was the prevalent philosophy.

Farther south at Cabo San Lucas, the focus is on marlin, which are rebounding because of the fairly longstanding practice--and enforcement--of catch and release. Last month’s Bisbee’s Black and Blue tournament produced 167 hookups, 107 catches and only 14 kills. The winner, Rowan Henry of Marina del Rey, took home a first-place check worth $133,250 after catching a 525-pound blue marlin.

More recently, skipper Steve Lasley aboard the yacht Coleen, caught a 546.5-pound blue and won the Cabo Gold Cup. Lasley was also the winning skipper of Southern California’s Catalina Gold Cup during the summer.

President Bush waited until the day before the election to sign legislation repealing the controversial “user fee” imposed on recreational boat owners two years ago.

The fee has been assailed by the boating community as an unfair tax.

Effective immediately, boaters with vessels 21 feet or smaller need not display the “user fee” decal. Effective Oct. 1, 1993, boats 37 feet and shorter will be exempt and on Oct. 1, 1994, all remaining vessels will be cleared.

Briefly

SALTWATER--Local tuna counts are dropping and the transition from surface to bottom fishing will probably begin after the first major winter storm. San Diego’s medium-range fleet, however, continues to take impressive numbers of exotics south of the border. The Morning Star and Holiday returned Sunday from three-day trips with limits of yellowfin. The Holiday reports one bite that lasted from 11 p.m. “until the next afternoon.” It brought back to port 225 yellowfin, 45 skipjack and 31 dorado.

Cabo San Lucas: Striped marlin beginning to mix with the blues as water cools. Dorado extremely plentiful and wahoo picking up. San Jose del Cabo: Dorado and small tuna are as sure a thing as there is in fishing. Wahoo getting plenty of attention. Top catch: a 92-pound wahoo by Dennis Smith of Torrance.

East Cape: Hotel SPA Buenavista reported 400 dorado last week. During a billfish tournament at Palmas de Cortez, 31 fishermen in three days caught 26 sailfish (19 released), 14 dorado, five blue marlin (four released) and five striped marlin (all released). Mazatlan: Heaviest blue marlin of the year--a 710-pound 13-ounce fish--was caught by Frank Diaz of Alabama. But sailfish remain the prevalent catch. The Star Fleet reports 83 from Oct. 24-31.

Seminars: Fishing talk show “Let’s Talk Hook-Up” is conducting a long-range and Baja seminar Thursday from 6-10 p.m. at Anglers Marine in Anaheim. Details: (714) 666-2628. . . . Penn Fishing University is offering a symposium on saltwater fall and winter fishing, free, Nov. 11 from 6-9 p.m. at Sport Chalet in West Hills. Details: (818) 710-0999.

FRESHWATER--The West Coast Bass Classic, featuring the top 40 professional and top 40 amateur bass fishermen in the west, will be held Nov. 10-13 at Old Sacramento. The winner becomes the 1992 Western United States champion. . . . Fly-fishing guide Duane Milleman will discuss the future of California angling at the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers’ Nov. 12 meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Encino Glen. Details: (818) 785-7306.

HUNTING--Blame Southern California’s poor duck hunting on the Northern California drought. The Department of Fish and Game says that because of the lack of rainfall in recent years in the northern part of the state, ducks and geese apparently found it too risky to fly south during October.

On opening day last week at the Wister Unit of the Imperial Valley Wildlife Area in Niland, 357 hunters bagged 366 ducks, down from the 1.63 per hunter average a year ago. Results were similarly down at other local state and privately owned hunting areas. And don’t look for things to improve until at least the middle of November. Geese are even farther behind schedule. Wister hunters had yet to bag one as of Monday.

Nov. 14 openers: California’s general pheasant season, a 30-day run. Daily bag limit is two male birds, four in possession after opening day. Carcasses must be preserved during the hunt so the sex of the bird can be determined. The fall turkey season, 30 days, in all counties but San Diego. Daily limit is one turkey of either sex per day, one in possession. The second half of a split season for doves, 45 days. Daily limit is 10 birds with no more than 20 in possession. White-wing doves can be hunted only in the Southern California counties of Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino.