Net Profits : They’re Biting, but Business Is Dismal at Local Fishing Agencies

At 5:30 a.m., with Ventura Harbor still enshrouded in thick fog, Tom Current arrived with rod and tackle box in tow at the slip of the fishing boat Seabiscuit.

Current, a Ventura resident who manages a drug store in Carpinteria, disappears from work two or three times a month to retreat into a world where happiness can be found at the end of a fishing line and the measure of success is a burlap sack filled with fish.

“I’ve been fishing my whole life, since I was 5,” Current said as he boarded the Seabiscuit on a recent weekday morning. “I love fishing. It’s an addiction.”

Like Current, hundreds of people leave every summer morning from the docks of Ventura County’s four sport-fishing agencies.

Despite some of the best fishing in recent memory, sport-fishing agents say business has been worse this summer than it has been in years.

Although there are no specific figures available, Louie Abbott, owner of Harbor Village Sportfishing, estimated that business has dropped countywide by 30% in the last two years.

“Business is way off,” said Mike Lewis, who works at Ventura Sport Fishing. “I think the down economy has really hurt us.”

Bob Hodgden, who skippers the Seabiscuit, said he believes many people consider fishing a luxury and are cutting it out of their budgets. “People just don’t have the money to spend on a recreation right now,” he said.

Jack Ward, who runs Port Hueneme Sport Fishing, said he thinks many of the people who typically fish in Ventura County “have followed the tuna bite down to San Diego.” While the Ventura area is well-known in fishing circles for its abundance of calico bass, many people travel south for more exotic fish.

Still, people in the sport-fishing business say they are confident that the quality of the fishing off the county’s coast will draw people back. For one thing, Ward said, the unusually warm water temperatures this year may have lured many of the exotic fish to local waters.

“We’ve seen some tuna, some yellowtail, even a few dorado,” Ward said. “Particularly around the islands, the oceans up here have been warmer and are really high-quality.”

And, Ward said, the drop in attendance in this area has made Ventura attractive to some recreational fishermen who want to avoid the crowds they might find on trips off Malibu, Los Angeles or San Diego.

The trips that run from Ventura Harbor and Channel Islands Harbor are primarily day trips, where individuals buy spots on a boat for $20 to $50. Often, large groups charter boats out of the harbors for several hundred dollars, the price depending on the boat size and the number of people in the group.

Current says he takes day trips out of Ventura because “it’s close, the people are nice, and the fishing’s great.”

Current was one of 18 people--most of them strangers--who took the pre-dawn excursion Thursday on the Seabiscuit, which is chartered by Harbor Village Sportfishing. Despite their lack of familiarity, a camaraderie soon developed on board, described by some as “the fraternity of fishing.”

“Everyone’s here to have fun,” said Tony Whitney, a Los Angeles County parole officer from Burbank who was using a sick day to get out on the water. “It’s kind of like Disneyland--no one goes with a bad attitude.”

Steve Ralls of La Canada came with five co-workers from a wholesale warehouse for his second-ever fishing trip. “It’s just what the guys are doing now,” he said. “Awhile ago, it was basketball, then golf. Now it’s fishing.”

Some were more experienced fishermen. Preston Taylor, a retired field manager for Hunt-Wesson Foods in Oxnard, said he has fished since he was a boy.

“My father used to take me out, but once I started working, I could never really find the time to do it much,” Taylor said. “Now I come out every other week.”

The fishermen crowded the rails of the Seabiscuit, elbow to elbow, with eyes peeled on the calm waters, as the boat sat off the coast of Ventura. Some used live bait, others chose from an array of brightly colored lures which, Whitney joked, “are meant to catch fishermen, not fish.”

Other than the constant rumble of the boat’s engine and the occasional clatter of a man winding in his line, the early morning was quiet--until the fish began to bite.

“The fish come in waves,” Current explained. “One minute it’s slow, the next the fish are practically leaping onto the boat.”

By 8 a.m., activity on the boat was frantic.

Every few seconds, someone fought to reel in a sand bass or barracuda or halibut. At one point, Taylor caught a small shark. As fast as they pulled fish onto the boat, the deck hands grabbed them, pulled out the hooks, and dropped them into one of the 18 burlap sacks. By midday, the brown sacks wiggled and shook.

By 3 p.m. the wave had passed. Many of the passengers retreated to the cabin to rest, and as the boat fired its engines to head back to shore, the deck hands pulled out their knives to fillet the fish that had been caught.

With a flock of sea gulls and pelicans trailing the Seabiscuit back into harbor, Current and the others collected their poles and their gear, and the fish they would smoke or freeze or cook up that night.

For Harbor Village Sportfishing, it was a slow day. The Seabiscuit can hold 45 passengers, but carried only the 18.

But many of the fishermen counted the day as a success.

“I’ve got enough fish here to last me for weeks,” Current said. “By the time I’m done with it, I’ll be back out here again.”

FYI

There are four sportfishing agencies in Ventura County. They are Channel Islands Sportfishing Center Oxnard (CISCO’s) at 985-8511; Harbor Village Sportfishing at 658-1060; Port Hueneme Sport Fishing at 488-1000; and Ventura Sport Fishing & Landing at 650-1255.