Landings Need Right Bait to Lure Anglers

What’s good for the angler isn’t necessarily good for the landing operator.

Because passenger loads are typically light at this time of year, the competition for customers is at a maximum. Those who turn in the best fish counts attract the most fishermen.

With fishing the way it is, those who don’t have live squid in their bait tanks are forced to remain at the dock and those who do get all the business.

Therefore, most South Bay landings have at least one boat making the 95-mile run to the northern Channel Islands, where the squid remain concentrated, refusing to migrate south as they generally do in the fall, thus making things difficult for everybody.

“We’ve had to add a little surcharge per ticket,” said Mark Pisano of the Islander out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro. “We burn about 500 gallons of fuel per trip (to the squid grounds) and at about a buck a gallon that adds up.”

But Pisano and a few other skippers have found the costly trip worthwhile, as they have treated their customers to battle after battle with hungry yellowtail.

Pisano took a load of live squid to Cortez Bank on Sunday, and his passengers landed 178 yellowtail, all in the 20- to 30-pound class. They lost several more. Pisano was reached at Cortez Bank at noon Wednesday and his 31 anglers had already boated 59 yellowtail and a 45-pound bluefin tuna.

It doesn’t seem to matter where the boats fish, as long as they have squid in the tanks. Anglers aboard L.A. Harbor Sportfishing’s First String have enjoyed excellent yellowtail fishing at Santa Catalina Island the past week. They boated 208 fish during an all-day bite Friday and posted fair results on Tuesday as well.

Gary Norby took Redondo Sportfishing’s Blackjack to the squid grounds on Monday night. After loading up on squid, he decided to fish the coast of Santa Barbara Island on Tuesday. The resident yellowtail, some of them too big to catch, pounced on the squid almost as soon as they hit the water.

When the bite was over, 42 yellowtail had been put in the sacks and several dozen had been lost.

“These were not the small fish they’ve been catching at Catalina,” said Scott McKelvey at the landing. “Most of the fish were 20 to 30 pounds average and we’ve heard of boats up there catching fish to 50 pounds, so who knows what size the ones that they lost were.”

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The squid watch continues. Although there are signs that the rubbery critters are moving south, the nearby supply has not met the demands of the South Bay fleet.

“It would make things so much easier if we could get the squid at Catalina,” said Jim Mellin at 22nd Street Landing. “Then we could have a crack at the white seabass at night and yellowtail at daybreak.”

Landing operators are making due with squid that becomes available and using less-desirable anchovies to catch the less-exotic species moving about local waters.

Calico bass are still biting in the kelp north of Malibu Pier, the sand bass and barracuda in the Santa Monica Bay seem more than willing to feed on anchovies and there is an occasional run of white seabass and yellowtail at Rocky Point.

“We’ve had a lot of bonito moving through the Horseshoe Kelp and by the (offshore oil) rigs,” Mellin said. “And some days the calicos will turn on and we have excellent fishing. We’ve even had some yellowtail locally.”

Just not very many customers.

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South Bay yellowtail catches: Chris Demlak, Palos Verdes, 42 pounds; George Grage, Redondo Beach, 35; Kevin Atkinson, Redondo Beach, 34; Tom Gaston, Carson, 30; John Gebert, Carson 28; Shawn Pirrello, Carson, 28; Paul Martinez, San Pedro, 23.