Brother, Can You Spare a Marlin?

Charlie and Katie Albright of Corona del Mar took sibling rivalry to a unique level over Labor Day weekend, landing their first marlin at Santa Catalina Island.

Fishing on their father Jock’s Kea Kai, Charlie, 8, caught one Saturday that Rosie Cadman weighed in at 122 pounds at the Avalon Pier. On Sunday, Katie, 9, came in with one that weighed 97 pounds. She had fought it for 50 minutes.

Cadman said she was moved by Charlie’s catch.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “I weighed his dad’s fish when he was that age.”

Jock Albright is coordinator of the state’s new white seabass hatchery at Carlsbad.

Not to be outdone, Megan Coulter, 11, of La Crescenta, fishing on Jimbo Bryant’s Pionero, took a striper weighing 152 1/2 pounds.

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Opening weekend of the state hunting season for mourning doves left little reason to mourn for the birds, according to preliminary reports from the California Department of Fish and Game.

John Massie, the DFG’s coordinator for upland game, rated it slim pickings, based on personal experience.

“All the hunters I saw had had a poor day Sunday,” Massie said. “One guy said there were four of them and they got one dove, and Monday they didn’t get any. I shot only one myself, and the five or six places I went to look--including all three of those private places the state planted--had a complete zero. There was no place where we saw more than four or five doves together.”

Massie figured it was too cool.

“It’s got to be hot at night. If they get any temperatures below 80 at night, they’ll bail out,” he said. “I was in El Centro at 5 in the morning and it was cool.”

Apparently, the birds had huddled together for warmth at the Imperial Wildlife Area’s Wister Unit, where Assistant Manager Ron Thompson said the shooting was “pretty decent” as hunters chased their prey back and forth across fields of cross-fire.

“There were plenty of birds . . . some limits,” Thompson said. “It was slow early on, but if you hunted hard morning and afternoon you got some birds. Monday was a bit slower.”

The season is split into two phases: Sept. 1-15 and Nov. 9-Dec. 25. Massie said that the second part is sometimes better, but that the first could still produce.

“If they’re gone, there’ll be a new batch in from northern California,” he said. “The same conditions move the whole flocks at the same time. [Also,] second-half doves can be better shooting because they’re often more concentrated--if you can find ‘em.”

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Susan Chaplin is a self-described twice-divorced “delightfully single” 52-year-old from the British Virgin Islands who participated in the rugged Catalina Classic Paddleboard Marathon Race 10 days ago, although you won’t find her name among the 64 entrants.

“I did the race unofficially,” she said. “They had a qualifying heat and told us to paddle eight miles in one hour. I did it in 1:06.”

Undaunted, in steep seas and 20-knot winds that veterans called the worst conditions ever for the race, Chaplin and a few other renegade competitors jumped in anyway for the 32-mile ordeal from the Isthmus to Manhattan Beach. Chaplin finished in 10 1/2 hours.

“I didn’t do well overall,” she said, “but 26 men dropped out. I finished. . . . I was too cold to continue but I had a point to prove, and I proved it. I hope to compete again next year.”

Officially, no doubt.

Briefly

BAJA FISHING--Hot tips of the week: Look for the dead sea lion or the “Hen House.” The former--a bloated, floating carcass found a mile off Los Arcos--helped to offset a so-so week for marlin. Jeff Klassen’s Mako I took 14 dorado there in 1 1/2 hours, followed by several other boats with similar success. The Hen House is a blue house on the beach 1 1/2 miles past the lighthouse at Faro Viejo where roosterfish are usually found where an underground freshwater stream flows into the sea. . . . Blue marlin were around but stubborn while tuna were sporadic, although Jerry Jack of Thousand Palms landed a 245-pound yellowfin aboard the San Lucas II. Lots of marlin strikes but few catches at the Gordo Banks.