Current Events Leave Fishermen Baffled

Planning a marlin-fishing trip to Cabo San Lucas?

You might want to reconsider and travel instead to, say, San Francisco.

A crazy idea? Perhaps, but maybe not that crazy.

Nobody is bragging about the marlin bite off Cabo these days because, frankly, there is not much of a bite to brag about.

And although there have been a lot fewer hookups outside the Golden Gate--none, to be exact--than off

southern Baja, there have been sightings almost every day this week of leaping billfish.

That in itself is cause for excitement for Bay Area anglers because marlin simply don’t travel that far north.

Unless, of course, they are given a push.

And nobody pushes harder than El Nino, an occasional weather phenomenon that occurs from time to time, resulting in unusually warm water off our coast and unusually wet and mild winters.

A still-developing El Nino is expected by many scientists to be similar in strength to the devastating El Nino of 1982, which caused widespread flooding throughout California. It was during the summer of ’82 that the last marlin--two hooked, none landed--were encountered off San Francisco.

But regardless of how powerful this El Nino turns out to be, saltwater fishermen will long remember it for making the summer of 1997 one of the wackiest.

The water is at least five degrees warmer than normal in many areas from southern Baja to San Francisco, where offshore sea surface temperatures near 69 degrees were recently recorded. That’s nearly 10 degrees above normal.

The warmer water is being credited with an abnormally early albacore season--one of the best in years--off Central and Northern California, where party boats are averaging nearly 50 fish a trip.

Those catching white sea bass--a species that rarely strays north of the Channel Islands--off Seal Rocks just outside the Golden Gate are giving thanks to El Nino.

The almost unheard of capture of two dorado off Half Moon Bay in the last month could not have happened during a normal summer.

Locally, things are just as weird.

Yellowtail have invaded Southern California waters in numbers only old-timers can relate to, and can be found breezing up and down the coast from San Diego to Ventura and teeming offshore under practically every piece of floating kelp. Dorado, in all their iridescent splendor, have been scooting around in fair numbers as far north as Santa Monica Bay.

Needlefish, a non-game fish species rarely encountered beyond sub-tropical regions of the world, have also been seen chasing baitfish just beyond the surf line in the bay, where the water is running a comfortable 70-74 degrees.

A few days ago, just outside the bay, an angler aboard the half-day boat Redondo Special hooked a marlin.

Fishermen aboard the Mirage out of Port Hueneme Sportfishing, en route home from a rockfishing trip at Santa Barbara Island, encountered a huge school of yellowfin tuna crashing the surface. They landed eight, the largest 35 pounds, and lost four.

John Shull, skipper of the Pacific Dawn out of Cisco Sportfishing in Oxnard, recently stumbled onto a school of bluefin tuna in the 100- to 200-pound class while fishing for albacore.

The bluefins proved too tough for the tackle the fishermen were using, “ripping the line off the reels faster than you could imagine,” Shull said.

Meanwhile, at Cabo San Lucas, a slower than usual marlin bite is being blamed by many on El Nino, because the water is too warm, at times topping 90 degrees, leaving the billfish that are in the area sluggish.

Up the Sea of Cortez, in the East Cape region, temperatures have been recorded as high as 93 degrees.

“There were no marlin, but plenty of yellowfin tuna and dorado,” said Ronnie Kovach, who recently returned from one of his Eagle Claw fishing schools at Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort. “The weird thing is that the reef fish--the pargo, cabrilla and amberjack--have gone beyond the edges of the reefs [looking for cooler water] and are at the [offshore] high spots mixing with the pelagics.

“So we had situations where one guy would catch a tuna and the guy next to him would catch a pargo and the next guy a 40-pound amberjack.”

THE DOWNSIDE

While fishermen have embraced El Nino and the exotic species of fish coming our way, biologists are concerned about the effects El Nino might have on the state’s fish and wildlife.

In areas with stable watersheds, the heavy winter rain and runoff that is usually associated with El Nino may wash sediment from gravel and improve salmon and steelhead spawning habitat.

But where there are unstable watersheds, mudslides can be devastating.

“The effect depends upon when the steelhead and salmon come out of the gravel after hatching,” Tim Farley, Department of Fish and Game inland fisheries chief, said in a news release. “Heavy precipitation and high-water flows can transport salmon and steelhead fingerlings out of the gravel beds and into the ocean within a few days, allowing them to bypass many normal mortality factors such as predatory fish. But it also limits the benefits associated with growing to a larger size before entering the ocean.”

Wild trout in streams may find their food supply, mainly aquatic insects, displaced.

Waterfowl might benefit from additional wetlands created by abundant rainfall, but the birds might also find existing wetlands too flooded to be properly utilized.

In the ocean, warmer water brought on by El Nino will lead to a reduction of cold-water species such as rockfish and lingcod. And kelp forests, vital to the survival of many species, could be thinned dramatically as the fast-growing plants weaken and break loose in warmer water, which is much lower in nutrients than colder water.

One reason local offshore fishing is so good is the hundreds of kelp paddies floating around, providing cover for yellowtail and dorado, which gather under anything that floats.

But where that kelp should be, and would be if this were a normal summer, is just beyond the surf line, standing horizontally, flowing in the currents, providing cover for smaller game fish such as calico bass, and all the smaller species of fish that provide forage for the larger fish you love to catch.

NO LAND HO

There still has been no word from Steve Fisher, the Maui resident who set sail on a custom sailboard from Marina del Rey July 18, trying to become the first person to windsurf from the mainland to Hawaii.

And his friend, Jaiom Berger, the unofficial media contact, wishes Fisher would turn up.

He theorizes--and is constantly trying to convince Fisher’s mother in Florida--that Fisher is OK, that his radio isn’t working and that he is taking longer than expected because there has been little wind since he left.

“I give him 60 days until I even think about doing anything [like pushing for a Coast Guard search],” Berger said. “He has food enough to last him, and he has all kinds of fishing lures, and he has an emergency [beacon] he can set off if he needs help.”