A Scarcity of Squid Put Lid on Yellowtail

The fall fishing picture? It would be ideal, were it not for the near absence of squid and people.

There’s certainly no scarcity of game fish. Skippers are reporting yellowtail sightings from the mainland to Catalina. Trouble is, there aren’t enough squid locally to fill the bait receivers and in some cases there haven’t been enough people to make it worth the landings’ time to send out boats.

And the most popular fish--yellowtail--seem reluctant to eat anything but squid.

“If the squid would start showing, it would just explode out there,” said Ed Castine of Redondo Sportfishing.

L.A. Harbor Sportfishing’s Pat Conklin demonstrated that last weekend, first making the long and costly journey aboard the First String to Santa Cruz Island, where there is plenty of squid, and then using the squid to entice a large school of yellowtail near Catalina into a four-hour long feeding frenzy.

“We had very, very good fishing,” said Conklin, whose boat carried 22 passengers. “They landed 58 fish and they managed to lose about as many as we ended up with.”

The yellowtail were fairly large, averaging about 24 pounds, and the largest was a 36-pounder. “We were only able to land as many as we did because we were in deep water (and the fish couldn’t reach the shelter of the rocky bottom),” Conklin said.

Although most of the fleet is waiting for the squid to move closer to the mainland, which is expected when the water cools, the First String left Wednesday for another squid run to the northern Channel Islands.

*

All is not bleak, squid or no squid locally. There is an abundance of bonito breezing about South Bay waters, yellowtail are showing at various locations and a few are even biting on the less-desirable anchovies and sardines--both in good supply--and bottom-fishing for sculpin and rock cod remains steady.

“I took out the Sport King the last two days and had an excellent calico bass bite on the outside (oil) rigs,” Jim Peterson, owner of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, said Tuesday night. “There were a lot of yellowtail at the rigs (Monday) and a lot of big bonito--we had some bonito over 10 pounds.

“We’ve got plenty of fish around. Now if we only had some people.”

Peterson isn’t alone in his sentiments. Some boats aren’t even getting out on a daily basis, due to an apparent lack of interest.

*

More than 1,500 juvenile white seabass are getting used to their new home--the Pacific Ocean--after being released Monday from their previous homes--the floating pens in King Harbor.

The Redondo Beach grow-out facility is one of three similar facilities along the Southland coast. The hatchery-born fish were raised in the pens to a size of about 7 1/2 inches to give them a better chance at survival. Releases such as Monday’s--in a cooperative effort by the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, San Diego State University and the United Anglers of Southern California--are part of a project to determine if diminished marine fisheries can be enhanced by stocking programs.

*

South Bay catches: Bob Anderson, Rancho Palos Verdes, 25-pound yellowtail on the Shogun at Catalina; Ishi Moto, Gardena, 23-pound yellowtail on the Sport King at Rocky Point; Sandy Ross, Redondo Beach, a 22 pound, 8 ounce halibut on the Sea Spray in Santa Monica Bay.

Top catch: a 25-pound yellowtail by Ruby Weinhart of Redondo Beach, caught on the Isle of Redondo Barge.

There were six more hookups with yellowtail in the past week on the barge, all unsuccessful. “They’ve been showing,” Castine said.

Freshwater: Norris Brewer of Redondo Beach, a 10-pound and a five-pound largemouth bass caught with guide Bob Crupi at Castaic Lake; Ernest Waiters of Carson, a 12 pound, 12 ounce channel catfish at San Diego’s Lake Sutherland.