MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle   JD's Thursday's Report
-Overcast skies and calm seas, great for glassing
-High Tide 10:15am, Low 4:26pm
-"Here's another former, solid tuna and their biting"! 9:45am
-Sport and private boats found the fish (tuna) near the 209 Fathom Spot
-The yellowfin tunas were hitting the little sardines dropped quickly down with the sinkers.
-Braids new Abalone Slammer Jigs in (Blue or Natural) have already proved themselves as a tuna catcher, flashy and heavy they cast excellent,  sink quickly and do the job nicely!
-Yo Zuri's Hydro Magnum trolling  lures have also been excellent as a tuna catcher, both the Purple Mackeral and the reflective Blue Mackeral have been the hot colors, A customer of ours showed me his lure all chewed up and scratched it held up through a lot of fish!  Built to troll faster than the standard Rapala lures but don't discount .
-Striped Marlin Fishing over these past few days has been OK on the inside of Catalina Island!  Not as great as it was during the tournament and maybe that just a coverage thing, But still several fish were caught today.  Conditions haven't really changed that much , a little more hazy this afternoon with a 12/15 knt breeze out of the West also radio reception was limited.  Although most of the fish caught in these last tournaments were on baits there were a few jig bites and several fish were raised on the jigs in which drop back baits resulted in fish. Even the Gene's Machine had three jig bites!
-Pescador caught a fish (marlin) between the Isthmus and the West End light, (I think) and lots of activity close to the island, dolphin working, Pilot Whales, bait jumping (sauries) a lot of life against the island that seems to be drifting up the island towards the West End, but don't count out the East End yet, there's still life there and the marlin should still be there too.  
-Bait was available between the offshore oil rig and the middle rigs (9 miles offshore).
-The Restless was hung on a what they thought was an Big Eye Tuna this afternoon, still fighting it on 20lb Dacron, Good Luck! , 5:00pm, still fighting it 6:00pm, I think he's going to need some oxygen!
-Good Bonito and Barracuda fishing above Newport Beach
-The Drambuie Tournament went over big time with a good time for all. 113 boats and close to $300,000 in prize monies on the line. I think there was 75 hookups, something like 33 releases or more and lots of lost fish. With the increased minimum weight of 150lbs this year and the of broadcasting the weights of the fish caught many anglers elected to release their fish if they felt it wouldn't place. The Gambler took top honors for releasing 6 fish, Gene's Machine with 3 fish released, Jesse's Best and Three Daughters also releasing three fish and a half dozen boats released 2 and many boats released singles.  All and all it worked out fine.
-First Days catch of 208lbs ($156,930) took the tournament by the Capt. Hook II (finding a likely spot they gave up trolling jigs, put down the gyro's and started soaking baits off the Slide, having just hung one bait out in the rigger, it got bit!).  2nd place on the Three Daughters 188lb ($23,150) fish came the Avalon Bank area on the first day, not wanting to get mixed up with the crowd off the East End, Steve Lasley and crew found several batches of sleepers on the bank and hung a double, releasing one fish (Pete Grossbeck), Ambrose with a 187 took 3rd ($15,500) and Buck Fever 186lb fish took the second days daily's worth $115,287
-Going to Mexico for the tournaments? Give us a call 1-800 660-5030 or Fax us at (949-723-0810)  if you need Mexican Fishing Permits or boat papers, JD

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line Stan   Sep-28-00, 08:26 AM (PDT)
"Catalina Classic Statistics / Results"   -   Two day event - September 25/26  
113 boats entered
98 hookups
44 releases
23 killed

First Place: Jim Francis, CAPT HOOK II - 208 lbs
Second Place: Russ Armstrong, THREE DAUGHTERS - 188.5 lbs
Third Place: Alan Landry, AMOROSA - 187.5 lbs
Most of the fishing was between Long Point and the 152, and out to the Avalon Bank. Fish were primarily bait fish, caught by either baiting feeders, soaking mackeral or slow trolling.   Geez ... winning big bucks by slow trolling the PTA ... I have dreams like that!

Lots of 25 lb class yellowfin 2-3 miles off Dana today and inside the 14 mile bank along the 209 good reports of yellowfin also, The key is 12-15 lb line with small anchovies and you will get bit since they are line shy.

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  MarlinNut Sep-26-00, 01:51 PM (PDT)
"Delayed Report - Marlin / Swordfish"     Left Thursday afternoon (about 4 hours before the outage, naturally!) on big HOOKER to fish the King Harbor Marlin Club annual marlin tournament. Made bait just outside of Angel's Gate and picked up a mooring in Avalon. Friday morning headed to north end of San Clemente Island - incredibly flat! Quite a difference from Victory at Sea the weekend before. Unfortunately, the fish had amscrayed! The wind was out of the south, and I suspect it sent the fish elsewhere. Since only one fish had been taken in our tournament, we were looking for somewhere else to try. Then we heard WILD BILL fishing on the 277. Now, they wouldn't be there unless they knew something, so we headed there at flank speed. About 5 miles SW of the 277, we spotted a prime sized (~200 lb) swordfish lazing on the surface. Despite repeated mackeral offerings, he just wasn't interested. Oh, for a squid popsicle! A few minutes later, we repeated the performance on a pair of tailers, with a similar result. While we didn't get the job done, it was clear that this was the spot. Several fish were taken there on Saturday, and more on Sunday. I doubt these are the same fish that had been off SCI - I'd expect to find them to the north. The Classic should smell 'em out!

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Saturday's Report.
-High Tide 7:34am, Low 12:36am, High 6:36 pm ,
-Reports again from the inside of the 14 Mile bank of school yellowfin. birds and tuna working, 8:05am, 70 degrees.
-Also good yellowfin even Dorado in the lee of Clemente Island.
-Calm and glassy seas.
-18/55 big spot of tuna, Big area, some porpoise mixed with it.8:25am
-We had a dorado but I knocked him off with the gaff, it hit the marlin lure
-Duck season opens the 14th!.
-A little bumpy between Clemente and Catalina Islands this morning, a little cooler water than yesterday, a few fish (marlin) seen there yesterday.
-The 152 off Catalina has quite a bit of bait there. 8:40am
-4-5 inch anchovies at Newports bait receiver. good looking bait.
-Beautiful Weather for fishing!
-Jig Bite! (Marlin! on a MJG) 11:05am! Where?
-"We released one eairler", ( I think near the Mackeral Bank? ) 12:05 pm
-14/57 A Swordfish seen? 1:30pm
-Baits becoming a problem off Avalon, some Spanish Mackeral around the 300 ft. depth. JD's Tip! Useable but you've got to let em' eat it much longer then just the standard ten potatos, the spines on their back stick both in your fingers and in the marlins mouth, it's tough for them to turn and swallow the bait with all those spines, you might snip off a few of their dorsal fins with an pair of sizzers for a quicker take. JD
-It's becoming quite on ther radio, , not much chatter, dead offshore in some areas , 277 fathon spot, though there was good looking water and some bait showing towards the Mackeral Bank from there.
-One, two, Todd, we've got a couple of marlin over here!, at 14/ 57 2:15pm
-Mackeral off Newport Beach?, look off Main Beach / Laguna Beach in about 40 fathoms.
-4:00 pm. we've got one on the line, (marlin), Bait, where?
-Baited a feeder yesterday on the 209, and saw a couple of tailers on the 289.
-"A Swordfish was up for and hour this afternoon, we baited it for about an hout, it wouldn't take at bait, we left it, found a patty, fished it and the damn swordfish came over to us and wouldn't leave us alone, we played with it for another half hour, still wouldn't take a bait"
-Could this have been the first of the three storms to send these marlin away?

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Fri, 22 Sep 2000 09:43:01 -0700 (PDT)
Fishing Thursday 9/21 Left SD bay about 7:30am on thursday heading to the 302 spot. Had our first Dorado just 15 miles from the point on a paddy. Nice fish about 20lbs. Continued to the 302 spot, got a single jig strike 5 miles short of the 302 for a Yellowfin. Heard that the fish were really showing under the birds at the 224 area. Headed out that way and sure enough birds and fish everywhere. Didn't really have to troll unless you like to. Just follow the birds and get your baits in the water. Limited out on yellowfin by 10am. Not much size to them, except a couple 18 pounders. But, the best of the catch was a 40lb Albacore. Couldn't believe we caught an Albie this close to home, I guess he was also caught up in the excitement. Very, very, very good fishing out there right now. If you've been having a scratchy season so far, this is the time to go. It's a no brainer right now. Good luck to all!  Terry "Reel Genius"

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Friday's Report.
-High Tide 6:53am, Low 11:27am, High 5:31 pm , Autumnal equinox today
-Again big birds schools off North Laguna Beach, lots of smaller bonito and barracuda, seem strange we would have these barracuda here now, they're a spring (cooler water temp) type fish,
-Satellite water temperature images were still not available today due to the marine cloud layer, so we'll have to go back to the tried and true method of marine radio transmissions, (reading each others mail). which for the most part have been limited to very few people on the radio, We'll post what we hear, when I can- JD
-10 + knts from the south, overcast cloudy, Some squalls of rain.
-33:2399/117:51, (about halfway between Dana Pt to the 14 Mile Bank) Yellowfin and birds, pretty good fishing . Birds everywhere, we've run out of bait, triple on the jigs! (iron! ) 1:50pm
-"The hot ticket for me, let your iron lure out, (blue and chrome), let out lots of line, get in front of the birds and fish , let it sink out 75 ft. then wind , wind, wind. I did pretty good that way".
-Just on crashing tuna! a Million birds! 7 to 10 from Dana, those elusive little bitches! 2:15pm
-302 and 371 outside San Diego was good yesterday for the Big Eye
-A boat I spoke with this afternoon worked the lee of Clemente Island for marlin this morning. They worked to above the West end then again back down to the Mackeral Bank, to the 289, 181 and up to the 209 and finally the 277, found very few signs of life anywhere and very little was said on the radio today. Quite a few boats out today but I don't think there was a marlin reported caught, maybe one. A down day. Another unconfirmed report about seeing more marlin yesterday than they seen anywhere else including Mexico on the 277, take it for what's it's worth, unconfirmed. This is the time that rumors come out of the woodwork and with today's internet instant reporting, rumors can get started quickly and are uncontrollable. Check your sources. JD
-Another late afternoon report, several tailers were seen in under the Dome (Clemente Island) early this morning, and a jig strike or two on a good old stand-by (Mackeral Clone!)
-Rain and wind along the coast, though calm seas

MARLIN - Steve Bledsoe  Marlin Club Report -  9-20-00
Fish report from the "No Excuses"...We fished San Clemente Island again where conditions were good with a light breeze and not much swell. We didn't see the sun all day. Not much happened in the morning but the fish made a fair showing on the afternoon tide off the West End. We found several small groups of feeders and baited at least a dozen tailers 4-5 miles north of Northwest Harbor. We had one jig bite that stuck and farmed the only tailer bait bite we had all day. The fish are still there in good numbers but were not showing as well as they were on Monday or Tuesday.  Our fish was caught on 30# test tackle by Dave Harvick on a Mean Joe D4 Doornob (Nobbie) lure.  Gerry Brennock found another hungry fish with a taste for plastic in the same area for his crewman Dale Barringer aboard Gerry's "Reel Fantasy". That fish also ate a Mean Joe colored jig. Ron Alms on his boat "Finacious" also got bit on an MJ jig. Ron's fish unfortunately didn't stick.  There were only 8 or 9 boats in the area yesterday and I don't think anyone had much luck or an abundance of opportunities. Timing is everything!

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   21 Sep 2000 03:02:37 EDT
Good Day Fishing ...Hi Dennis & Thanx Again for the awsome website! Been reading it for a couple of months now, what a great help it has been! Finally got on line at home so I can get my fish reports in. My buddy Shawn & I launched from Shelter Is. at@ 4:45 Wed on the "Money Pit". Short line but long wait at the SD bay bait reciever. The lone guy there probably had to pinch off a loaf or something. Good mix of strong Medium and Large Deans with some chovies in there. Headed for 302. A little bumpy in the morning, 15 kts comfortable. Fishing near the numbers by 07:30. Found a small Kelp good for 1 YFT & 2 YELLOWTAIL. Trolled toward 371 with a few single hookups along the way for YFT. @ 5 Mi. north of 371 got 2 Dodos on another small kelp (Kelp was scarce but produced 3 out of 5 times). Early afternoon found an area 1/4 to 1/2 mile north of 371 #'s with consistant single & double hookups on YFT & 1 Dodo. Not much luck on live bait after Jig stops. Close to limits by 2:30 PM, (All fish caught in 69ish water). Headed for home by 3:30 with a few non-producing stops in 70.5 degree water closer in. Seas calmed dowd mid morning & the trip home was comfortable at 26 Kts in my little 20' skiff in the afternoon. Final count for the two of us: 9 YFT, 3 Dodo, 2 YT. Our standard pool for Jackpot is 1$ for first fish, 1$ biggest fish & 1$ most fish. Good on Sean who swept all catagories (this time). Purple was the color on the troll all day long as we saw very little sun. Slow, no screamers but consistant. Overall a good day! Tight lines to all... Ken, "Money Pit" (One of them anyway)
PS- Dennis are you planning to update the buddy boaters list anytime soon? Have sent my stats in a couple of times in the last couple of months. Waiting in moist anticipation! Ken.Yes ~~~~I am trying to get some time to do that and fix the rest of the site , man its hard to find the time!

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 23:20:31 -0700
Wednesday catching ....Hi Dennis We played hooky Wednesday. I took my friend from Florida Chris and Tim and Eric (local boys) out of SD for some wide open catching. Left the bait receiver about 6:00 and started for the 302 but wind and chop made us turn to the 425. As the wind calmed we stopped on a paddy just west of the #s and boated 1 Dodo and 2 Yellowtail. Headed for the 371 and found a huge school of porpoise. We got in front of them and all the trollers went off. Chummed and threw bait and the water boiled around the boat. We couldn't put bait in the water fast enough. In about 15 minutes we boated 10 YFT. I'd gaff one, throw him on the deck and turn for the next. Boxed the area for 2 more then followed a nice temp break (67/69) to the 302 where we added to more YT to the pile. Back to the 371 with triple and doubles and two more while we were cleaning fish on the way in. Final count was 20 YFT, 4 YT and 1 Dodo. Needles to say we had a blast. Great day on the water with good friends. It just doesn't get much better. I'm beat and headed for the showers. Thanks Money Pit and Sea Fire for keeping us company. Thanks Dennis for a great site. Mike and crew on the aFISHionado

MARLIN - Steve Bledsoe  Marlin Club Report - 9/19/00 12:10 PM
I talked directly to Harvey Hunnicutt this morning. The official totals for yesterday in the Zane Gray were 57 hook-ups, 50 fish brought to leader - 16 weighed in and 34 released.   Yesterday's top boat was No Problem with a 226-lb fish. Gene's Machine took second place in the daily with a 225-lb fish and third went to Buck Fever with a 216-lb fish.   Most of the hook-ups came from groups of feeders. There were very few jig bites yesterday. Steve

BIGEYE -  Brian on "Get Bent" Sep-18-00, 00:17 AM (PDT)
"Bruiser Bigeye 145 lbs..."   Been a while since ive posted but this needed posting...Launched at Dana Landing, mission bay about 0530 am with nice sardines....TOO BAD WE WOULD NEVER EVEN TAKE THE LID OFF THE BAIT TANK!!!!!!!!!
Set a course for the 224 (North end 302). Ran until 7 miles short of the high spot and stopped to put the jigs in after seeing lots of bird life. We ran a cedar and a b/p zukers, and with a little "hail mary" I sent a 8" black and purple marlin jig back about 30 ft from the other jigs. At exactly 4 miles from the high spot we cross a current break. Within 200yds of the current break the marlin feather running shotgun went off! We tried to load up the jigs but no takers. The jig was on a seeker sc6455xxh and a TLD50LRS w/ 80 # big game. The fish felt small at first, but then it sounded and bent the rod near double. We were on something good. Hooked up at 0745. At about 0930 we realize the fish is tiring and we only had one gaff on board. Flagged down Robert Buxton of the "Gizmo", who loaned us a hand with the gaff and a fresh body for the last crucial minutes of the fight. At 1015 we sunk two gaffs and boarded the 145.1 lb bigeye, headed straight for Mission Bay, weighed and photographed at Dana Landing Marlin Club.

Stats:
Fight time- 2 hrs
Weight- 145.1 lbs
Length- 147 cm (59 inches fork length)
Loc- 24 miles on a 216 heading (4 miles shy of 224)
Temp-70.1 degrees (lots of jelly fish in the water)
Boat- Get Bent
Captain- Dennis Grant
Gaffer- Justin Schwendiman
Angler- Brian Grant
Lure- 8" Cruiser by Pacific Trolling Gear black and purple w/ blue flake.

Thanks again to Robert on the "Gizmo" for the help. Brian on "Get Bent"
=========================================
Allcoast Sportfishing    tom_p  Sep-18-00, 04:26 PM
"BET Hooked and Lost".....Fished Saturday on the Banda Bank after a very rough ride from Mission Bay to Ensenada Friday afternoon. Heard a call on the radio about 7:30 Saturday from a boat w/ big eye on the chew at 3133 11700, about 3 miles south of us. The bite was over by the time we got there but I know they said they landed two (maybe more, I'm not sure)the smallest 75 lbs.  We trolled a wide area around there for a couple small YFT, then started north. We hooked a very good fish on a big blue/white clone at 3135 11700. Hooked it on 60lb on a penn 114 on a Calstar 760M. The line broke at the mono-spectra connection as it went over the tip roller. It was a good knot tied at the landing, we should have had the rod pointed straight at the fish. Also had a hookup on a rapala on 40 lb for a instant break off at the same time. I'll relive that lost fish a thousand times. The water down there was a consistant 70.3. The weather stayed good on the way home saturday afternoon and caught a few more small YFT on the way back.

Bigeye - Affordable Marine  Sun, 17 Sep 2000 23:23:46 -0700 (PDT) 
ENSENADA FISHING....Great experience fishing for the frst time in a "panga". I was always spoiled riding on the BIG boats. I was invited by a couple of my friends and a group of eight of us reserved two 22' pangas out of Ensenada. All can say is that these two experienced captains took us to great fishing spots with only, and I mean only, a compass... Between all of us, we took 40 yellowfin tuna and some skipjack. In our group of four in the panga, we farmed about six fish plus a triple hookup on some BIGEYE while trolling.. Two of them lost during 40 minutes battleing the giants hooked on Rapalas, and I fought one for 3 LONG HOURS hooked on purple/black feather. I was able to catch a glimpse of the giant as I brought it twice within 12 to 15 feet of the boat before nose diving straight down. The captain confirmed it was a BIGEYE between 50 - 60 kilos. I was so close but the fish was to much for my Penn 113H on 40# test. After 3 hours on the fish and within 20 - 30 feet of the boat, the line snapped @*&!^%. At least I was able to glimpse at one beautiful fish. Besides that, we had a good time on "COCOS 1" ( Sergio, Jesse, Junior, Darrol ) and "COCOS 2" ( Edgar, Sefferino, Edward, Damian ) >)));> Thanks for the great site. Tight lines everyone. and enjoy the YELLOWFIN FEVER

MARLIN - Steve Bledsoe  Marlin Club Report - 9/18/00
NO EXCUSES  - Friday, 9-15-00...Fished the east ridge of Catalina Island. The weather was a little rough with lots of fog behind the East End of the island and near the Slide. We baited, caught, tagged and released a sleeper, 1.2 miles west of the 277 at 1:30 AM. That was the only fish we saw all day. Chris Benson was the angler and he was on the fish for over two hours on 20#.

Sunday, 9-17-00 - Ran to the 181 spot in the morning after making bait at Dana at daybreak. Encountered several spots of yellowfin on the way out near the 312 spot and the 181. Saw no marlin but got a report from Rich Pomo on the Hot Spot that he saw a single feeder right on the numbers (181 high spot). We decided to run to San Clemente Island. At noon (on the tide) ran into a large group of feeders 6 miles inside the island. Two fish attacked the same bait and knocked it off the hook. After an hour or so of trying to relocate that group of fish we gave up and headed in closer to the island. We had several shots at feeders directly under the dome 2 miles off the island. We finally got bit on our third shot at feeders there. Rich Duncan hooked a fish on 20# and we leadered it in 7-minutes.

There are still big numbers of marlin at SCI. The biggest problem I think with the low counts on Friday and Saturday was the weather. With the fish showing primarily as feeders, it's very difficult to see them in chop and white caps. The Zane Gray is today and tomorrow. If the good weather holds, we will probably see a lot of fish caught at SCI. Steve

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle    Latest Fish Reports.....09/18/00,
Disclaimer, these fish reports are just that, fish stories that change daily. JD
-Low 6:07am, High Tide 12:34pm, Low 7:37pm
-The Zane Grey Tournament  ---   Quote of the Day, "You just talked me in to one"
-Familiar voices on the radio as the tournament gets underway, A lot of action as the boats made their way over to San Clemente Island and F-6 on the grid chart. The fastest boats got the edge early on in the morning but slow and steady stills paid off as the C-Bandit was on it's second double of the day by 1pm ?
-Gene's Machine had a triple , lost one, then another with still one hanging.
-Bad Attitude also had a triple on marlin and lost one, two hanging,
-Lucky L was still fighting fish. 1:12pm F-6 on the grid chart.
-Caught and Release fish were identified with photos to confirm times and dates.
-Bill Seiler kept his fish (Gene's Machine) We've got a fat one!
-C-Bandit was down to one now 1'15pm
-Get over here quick, I cant were busy!
-The bite started to happen as the tide turned around.
-Lucky L got their fish.
-No Problen hooked up 1:30 Foxtrot 6
-Bad Attitude released one, still fighting the othger, 1:32,
-Good Karma got one going! 1:33
-Gambler hooked up F-6 1:34
-Top Gun still had a fish going
-So Far! 33 hooked fish, 8 caught, 8 released by 1:40pm
-Were, Bit! Were Bit, wired again , it's a Jig Fish !
-C-Bandit's fish came up dead, they kept it,
-Tiger Spirt, had a double, then hung another and another 1:50pm
-Wait and Sea also had a fish going!
-May Scott released a fish
-"You just talked me into one" 2:08 jig fish , Lucky L just outside the mackeral bank! Jig Fish (Double!) , lost one after 5 min.
-Chaser "we're wired, foxtrot 6 , 2:18pm Boated 2:32
-Tiger Sprit landed a couple of their fish
-Up Date 46 hook ups 8 boated 12 relased F-6 (South end of the Island) 2:50pm
To listen to the sport boats with sonar, they're able to "watch" the yellowfin move about underneath the dolphin or other boats and advise them just how far the fish were from that boat and tell em when to get ready. Still tough to get these fish to bite, just a sample here and there, although hundreds of fish spotted few were caught. Live anchovies worked as well as anything else.

BIGEYE -  Southern California Marlin On-line  James Bygrave Sep-17-00, 11:22 PM (PDT)
"BIGEYE down south !!"    Fished the Blue Porpoise Marine Fishoff competition on Sat. Andrew, Mike and I left Mission Bay @ 12.00. I put the lines out just above the Banda @ 5.45am & @ 6.00 had a jig strike - I thought this was going to be a bigeye but it proved to be a better grade yft of 30lbs. Water temp was 69.4. Unfortunately nothing more came of that stop. After catching and releasing tonnage of football yfts around the "peanut" bank I decided to head to the 295/220 banks via the 238 spot. There were a few privates fishing the 238 but no action for us apart from a double on the peanuts even though I was trolling marlin jigs. About 1.00 pm (on or near the tide change) I came across a good weed line and temp break (69.8 - 70.5). After following the line for 1/4 hr one reel started screeming then another then another. I knew from the pitch of the cliker sound that these were no peanuts. As the first was landed (about 80lbs) I noticed free swimmers!! In the heat of the moment we all forgot to chum!. Once we did things went crazy. We landed 4 bait fish (to 98.5lbs). The big one I caught 10ft from the boat whilst skipping a sardine back to the boat...totally awesome!!!! We ended up with 7 fish from 80 to 98.5 for 3 anglers. Well we won the tuna division and we all need Vicodin!! Oh the coordinates were 31.31 117.05....   This was a trip of a life-time...  James "Lucky Strike"   Alert

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  MarlinNut Sep-17-00, 05:43 PM (PDT)
"Fishing the LPNTAINSLTBFT"  Just returned from fishing the Los Pescadores Next To Avalon Invitational Not So Light Tackle Billfish Tournament - also known as the Pesky. As usual, the event lived up to its billing - it's great even when you don't catch fish! Left Thursday night after scratching a few baits out in LA Harbor. All reports indicated the bite was still off the northern end of San Clemente Island. Spent the night at Long Point and headed towards SCI at 4 - rougher than hell! Turned back twice and worked the east end of Catalina until it was light enough to see (and dodge!) the biggest of the swells. Finally joined the hearty souls off the windmills only to find the marlin had left! Either the full moon or the hurricane swells chased most - but not all - of the marlin elsewhere. Worked the area for a few hours before heading for Cat Harbor for the night. Had a marlin come up in the jigs and knock down an outrigger line about 6 off the island. Slipped him a dropback mackeral, but he hit one of the sinking jigs instead - doh! Naturally, he didn't stick. Made good mackeral in Cat Harbor - wide open bite!

Because of the tourney's decreasing radius rule, we worked off the Farnsworth down to the 277 on Saturday. Three fish were taken there on Friday, but no takers today. Finished off by slow-trolling the PTA until lines out. Congrats to the few who caught fish and to Aaron Grose of PELON DOS who won top honors. The post-tourney action was hot as usual. There'll doubtless be many more posts about all that went on, but I'll just leave you with two comments. First, I always wanted to take a late-night tour of the Tuna Club, and second, I can't wait to hear Aaron's fish report about how they were biting in the Avalon jail. If you missed it, you ###### up - be there next year!

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle     Sunday's Report
-High Tide 11:55am, Low 6:32pm
-A slight chop out of the Southeast this morning, overcast skies and some fog.
-Several tournaments going on over the next few days, The Coors 500 and the Zane Grey both out of Avalon
-Where have all the marlin gone, after that great show of marlin off the West End of Clemente Island last week the fish seemed to have drifted into the lee of the island then disappeared. Oh a few scattered catches of fish were found from the Osborn Bank to the 277 Fathom spot. Yesterday afternoon 5 sleepers were seen near the 181 Fathom spot, (no bites). Where has this large body of fish gone to? Wherever the bait has drifted to that's where. Steve Lasley says "Wherever the groceries are". Currents seem to have slid to the S/E, but due to the fog and marlin layer neither satellite water temperature images or spotter airplane reports have not been available. I guess we'll have to resort to some of the old methods of finding fish. Like getting up early and simply follow the birds as they head offshore. !
-31:51 /117:24, all you want, yellowfin, on a kelp pattie we've got about 30 so far! 8:00am

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle     Saturday's Report
-Quote of the Day! "Anyone seen my sailboat!
-High Tide 11:22am, Low 5:40pm
-The Pescadore's Tournament continued to baffle those not aware of the rules of the tournament. Bonus points awarded for correct placement of bagels on the marlin's bill before released and a collection of crazy regulations keeps this tournament one of the best of the year. Best of Luck JD
-The waters were covered this morning with hundreds of boats from Mexico to the Channel Islands. Just about every pod of dolphin were harassed by the small skiffs and cattleboats. Yellowfin continue to bite for some boats and not for most. A Big Eye Tuna or two were hooked to keep the action entertaining and a few marlin were caught / released by 9am. Cedar plug, Rapalas and an assortment of feathers did hook the tunas or dorado though most boaters had a tough time of it getting the fish to go.
-Weather/ seas were a little lumpy this morning but no major problems with fog so far.
-Big Eye Tuna Hooked off the 277 Fathom Spot! Hour long battle continues!
-There's the Los Pescadores Marlin Tournament, The Balboa Angling Club has a tournament today and the Coors 500 and Zane Grey Tournaments this weekend!
-4 or 5 East of the 14 Mile Bank a small fleet of boats were on the Yellowfin. 10am
-2 today for the Pesky's tournament so far. 10:15
-Blue & white Cedar plug
-We got a couple just deep yo-yoing the iron!
-33:35; 28 / 117:52;70
-"We got nine", "we got 5 but what a story"
-Giant Hammerfores were spotted off the coastline! They're pyramid shaped dorsal fins can be spotted for miles. If one follows you beware, pull your baits out of water as you cross paths with another boats path, let em' follow that boat!
-A sailor fell overboard, picked up swimming after a couple hours, the sailboat went off at 220 degrees unattended, if you see it say something.
-Some more Jumpers seen 1:20pm Seem like a "Pop" developing around the 277, other baiting a fish now.
-The marine radio became a insult to the intelligence of the private sportfishing fleet.
-Triple jig strike on the 9 Mile bank, looking good, 1:50
-Reports of marlin off the "Little One "(Santa Barbara Island), everyones mum on the radio about it..
-Help, I've fallen overboard and I can't get up!
-"Anyone seen my sailboat!
-The West End of Clemente turned green, maybe the fish (marlin) went towards the east towards the 289, Catalina Island East's end was clean and warmer
-Just baited 5 marlin on the 181 , but came up empty! 5:15pm
-Boxing the 302 in the morning it paid off then it dropped off till late in the afternoon , doubles, triples, quads, Small Big Eye and yellowfin 10 to 18 lb fish,
-Bluefin in the 390 area , south of the border
-West of the 371, 10 or 12 miles yellowfin
-Rapalas were the hot ticket,
-425 held the Big Eye Tuna..

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle     Friday's Report
-Overcast skies and some fog this morning. Calm weather
-High Tide 10:53am, Low 4:57pm
-A few scattered catches of Yellowfin taken inside the 14 mile Bank this morning.
-The 11 Annual Los Pescadores Marlin Tournament is today and tomorrow, should be good for a few laughs You just can't believe these guys!
-Around the 267 is where we saw a lot of fish 10:30am
-We just got wired , sleeper the ate the bait.11:30am
-There chewing! 11:35am
-33:00 /118:29 Big spot of bait, birds, seals, the marlin will find this spot sooner or later.
-1. 2 miles east of the 277, Marlin
-There was a reported double hook-up (Marlin) up on the Osborne Bank this morning.
-Visibility remains at 1/4 to a mile this afternoon.
-The yellowfin this morning for the cattleboats came from either a few porpoise or stringers of kelps inside the 267 fathom spot (21/50)
-Still tough to get the yellowfin to bite the jigs or baits.
-15 to 20lb yellowfin between the 277 and the 209, we've got all the tuna you want! We've been on a big porpoises school for about three hours now. Just about every drop is a bite!, You've just got to get the right school of porpoise . 33:09;43/ 117:59;83 , I even used my marlin outfit with 125lb leader and got bit! All by ourselves
-Fishing the 181 it was slow, a few yellowfin this morning then it seem to have dried up.
-Soupy and the winds blowing, wonderful! 3:15pm
-Jig Strike on the 152 (the outside ridge and towards the Mackeral Bank) on a flying fish colored lure.
-Los Pescordores Tournament only had 4or 5 fish for the day, if that , 29 boats around us, near the 499, might be best to look around for something else.
-Two Swordfish baited just outside Fish Hook (Clemente Island)
-The weather cleared up by 4:30pm although still a bit hazy .
-Pay attention to the White Terns
-For what it's worth Albacore are showing well off Morro Bay, Private yachts traveling south out of San Francisco were finding absolutely miles and miles of large sardines all the way down the line. Thick with bait these waters should hold some big Swordfish and the late season tunas should show up there too.
-Strong Uphill current offshore

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle     Thursday's Report
-High Tide 10:28am, Low 4:19pm
-Small Craft forecasted this afternoon/ tonight 15 to 20 knts, it's allready starting to freshen out of the west at 10:00 am
-Yellowfin 9 miles off Newport this morning , under the porpoise, still tough to get to bite, 3 football fields of porpoise with meter and sonar marks.
-117.48 33:26 Yellowfin
-That was the most ugly stop we've had yet, that was ugly, we must have hooked 40 fish so far I think we only got 2 ot 3 fish aboard. Any poropiuus you find should be holding. We should have well over a hunderd fish by now. it's fun watchin it but it's been ugly! 11:24am
-11 so far and there still hanging.
-Here we go again I've got every rod on board hung 118;01 33:22 (14 Mile Bank) one boat got 60 fish so far. 11:50am

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line   Osprey Sep-14-00, 08:57 AM (PDT)
"Marlin Sept 9,10,11,12" --Fished September 9th 2 1/2 miles out of Northwest Harbor SCI and released two fish. Chased feeders all afternoon. September 10th 1 mile outside Northwest Harbor released two fish and lost one. Again tremendous feeder show. Water temp 69-70. Fished Monday the 11th 1 mile north of the dome approx 1 mile off the beach released 1 fish and chased feeders all day. Through 50 baits. great show. Tuesday the 12th fished the same spot caught one (died in the fight. weighed in at 178lbs.) Very big fish in that area. Again chased feeders all day. Water temp 68.5 to 70 degrees. Another large area fish was inside the 499 towards the Cat harbor. Erin marie released 5 or 6 fish. Great Trip . Neal Shaver (Osprey) 

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line   emsssi Sep-13-00, 08:07 PM (PDT)
"Double hookup"    Left Huntington fishing on the "Freespool" at 0300 on 9/13. Tried to make bait in all of the usual spots in Long Beach and was unsuccessful. Headed down to Newport between the piers. Armed with a chum bucket we made NO bait until the sun came up. Once the sun came up it was full speed. Unfortunately we did not leave Newport until 0730.  We ran at 20 knots encountering lots of Yellowfin Tuna in an area southeast of the Avalon Bank. Threw sardines at them but they were not interested. Continued running to the area 5 miles off of Wilsons cove, San Clemente Isalnd. I thought I was in the wrong place because the area was deserted. Put the jigs in and within 1/2 hour the fish came up foaming under the birds. Slid onto the spot and got a double. We promptly got wishboned with one fish on 20 and one on 30. The fish stayed up and we were going to try for a triple until John Woods on the bow got down to the knot on 20. We chased his fish while Bob Hersch fought his from the stern.

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
Subject: fishing Tuesday ,,,,Hi Dennis- I normally do not post report but by the looks of things you could use a local report, here's an area I found some fish closer to home.Left Mission Bay at 5:30 AM with mix of red sardines and brown bait( to bad not fishing for bass today). Made the 25 mile run to 224 fathom spot and started to troll towards 230 spot. About half way to 230 spot I was interrupted by U.S.Navy ship (Hull Number 966) I was told over the radio to clear to port, soon I found out why. As I cleared to port as they requested they started to shoot there 5 inch guns...wow it was an impressive sight! Okay Navy wins I give up on this spot and made a move to ten miles south of the 371 spot water temp 73 degrees. Started to troll towards 371 spot with zukers mexflag, zucchini and cedar plug. About four miles south of 371 spot got single yft on the cedar plug, no bait fish. Got about 1/4 mile away another yft on cedar plug, no bait fish. Changed other trolling rods to cedar plugs (blue/white and dorado color).

I just boxed the area in one mile square, ended up with about 20 yft 15lbs to 20lbs. I kept three only the ones that I could not release. little disappointed with no bait fish. My first stop numbers were 32.12.50 117.34.59 By the way there was hardly anyone out today sea's were calm and no wind. On the way in water temp got high as 75.7 degrees about six miles inside of 302 and about four miles from the shore it drops off to cold 67 degrees.

MARLIN - Affordable Marine   12 Sep 2000 15:53:20 EDT
Subject: mondays fishin 9-11-00 Hi Dennis;; Jim on anastasea--ahh 48 chris~~` left dana 5am pin heads go figure????? Ran out to 209 top of the Mark breezers everywhere birds a workintrollin cedars feathers the works/// nothing??//all morning //need a seiners net and plane to catch these mothers .Everytime the boat got near they'd go down (sounder took a dump. ).. finally more boats arrive they try chunking and trolling 70 to 71 to 69.5 breaks ////breakin fish all over nata paddys , did not produce unless you had a spear gun. I heard the marlin bite went off at 7am then back again in the afternoon...(rosies tournament at avalon gambler had at least 4 hook ups on the marlin sounded like a great marlin day ).. had to head in early then some guy says the goin off inside the 4 mile mark off Dana an afternoon bite wouldn't you know I got to be in early SSooooo while dumpin bait out front I throw out a marlin baitcaster with a bigggg mackkk and guess what~~~~` 15 plus Yelllow to the boat 1/2 mile off the jetty what a waste of 75 gallons of $2 ( ouch) diesel ohh well no skunk on my boat one beautiful boat ride!!!! flat

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 08:12:25 -0700
Fishing Sunday/Monday-Ensenada "BIG EYE-Yellowfin Tuna-ALBACORE"  Just returned from two days in Ensenada, tired, sore and fishy! Left Diamond Bar at 10pm Saturday night, towing Gabe's 22' Gladier Bay, no boat name, but I use the call sign "Cat Magic", arrived at the Coral in Ensenada at 2:30am. We were stopped and searched at the border, but no other incidents. Beautiful weather to start, clear night and calm seas, radioed Mike at the bait receiver, 2 miles away and filled the bait tank with a scoop of chovies, some hookers, but mostly chum, Mike added about ten nice size Mac's in case we ran into Big Eye Tuna, Un Huh! He recommended the Peanut or Punta Banda Bank. we selected the Peanut bank, which is 28.6 miles south of Todo Santos Island, approximately 33 miles from the Coral. About 20 miles outside the swells increased in size and there was a little wind chop. In the gray, 3 miles from the bank, we put the jigs in, about half hour later, our first hookup was a small YFT about 10 lbs on a Black/Red feather with purple black teasers. shortly thereafter a 25-30 lb Albacore hit the cedar plug, blocked the bank a number of times for one more small YFT. Worked about five miles south, then west and finally headed north 10 miles, all for nothing. Chased porpoise school after porpoise school for nothing. Heard chatter about the 295 having a mixed bag of YFT, albies and Dorado. We stopped on numerous kelps for nada. Late in the afternoon, we returned to the Peanut Bank, most of the boats had vacated the area, hit the mark from our first morning YF and got another small YF on the cedar plug, then 5 minutes later the daisy chain went off again, but this time it was really screaming, counted to ten, but only got to eight when the mean joe green, medium sized, went off on the 100lb Shimano 50 2speed. I was driving, so Gabe and Virgil grapped the trolling outfits, as I reeled in the cedar plug, and chummed some chovies. Both were yelling, these fish are big, I tossed an anchovy on 20lb, later was sure glad I didn't get bit. Virgil got his fish to color on the 100lb in about 10 minutes, and we both did a double take, wow, "Big Eye". Gaffed the BE, turned out to weigh 80lbs at the dock and grabbed the 50lb and 5/0 hook and pinned on a Mac. Bam, instant on another BE. A half hr later, I have my BE within 1ft of the gaff, just short, gets its head and takes off on a 150 yd run, spooked, shortly after, near the surface, 200 yds out, unbuttons, darn! Meanwhile Gabe's had his fish to color numeous times, about an hour into the fight we gaff it, weighed 70lbs. 5 pm two hrs from the dock we head in, 4 YF, 1 ALB, 2 BE. Too tired to run outside on the second day, we were up all night, some 42 hrs, we fished the Bay for lots of whitefish, sand bass, calicos, sculpin, and one Yellowtail on a yo yo jig, the seals got two others and we had numerous short biters, unbuttons on the jigs, etc. Called it a day at 1 pm, back home in DB at 7pm, searched once more at Rosarita, but no other problems in Mexico, whooh! Cory the fanatic fisherman!

MARLIN - Marlin Club Report - Dave Verdugo  9/13/00
-No fish weighed in Tuesday
-Rosey's fish tournament registered 9 - 12 fish, the largest 200# mainly from SCI up and out from Wilson's Cove.
-Tuna at the 425
-Calm seas today

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game TackleWednesday Report
-High Tide 10:04am, Low 3:44pm
-Foggy off the West end of Catalina Island!
-Tuna 31:30/ 117:14, 9:30am
-Tuna breaking the surface half way from Avalon to Newport
-Tuna 3 miles 240 degrees out of Dana Pt. taken on natural cedar plugs and Black & Purple Rapalas
-33:35 / 117:52 tuna 9:45am
-The 295 Fathom Spot (below the border) had a triple on Big Eye Tuna 9:46am
-Lost a Big Eye after a hour and a half battle on the Bunda Bank, also hooked yellowfin and albacore, it seems to have died down . 10:25
-Some type of acoustic testing going on off the east end of Clemente Island , the research vessel was requesting all vessels remain outside a 2 mile radius of the east End of Clemente, That'll never happen!
-Yellowfin at 33:11/ 117:56 under the porpoise
-The wind started to pick up out of the Southeast a little, clear sunny skies in some areas, foggy other areas. Big ground swell, not much wind
-50lb White Sea Bass seen this morning off Laguna Beach in 50 ft of water!
-"These are my porpoise, go find your own
-There something big out there, I'm not sure I want to see em', it smoked my 9/0 reel, 3 miles off the golf ball (Oceanside) 12:15pm
-There's a lot of life out here.
-An 4oz sliding sinker and a mini Mack worked well for the tuna!
-A big military event going off Camp Pendleton, lots of top brass in the area, alot of BS on the radio
-We've 3 yellowfin, 3 albacore and 5 skipjack on board, caught one of the yellowfin at 11 knts!
-We've been getting about a hundred yards in front of the porpoise and putting in the small anchovies on # 4 hooks w/ egg sinkers!, Got 4 so far.
-They're starting to bite again (3:13pm)
-Strong Uphill current offshore
-Some clown been playing Purple Haze (Hendrix) on the radio, it just starts to get good when he turns it off, what's wrong with that guy!
-From the cattleboat counts today it sound like winter fishin, sculpin, rock fish and a few bass it must be slow fishing. A few Yellowtail at Farnsworth Bank Catalina Island.
-The fog again came back in late afternoon, water temp above Pt. Vicente were in the high 50/ low 60! Rock Cod waters!~
-The Marlin were only showing fair today off Clemente Island, Maybe it's this full moon thing. seem most of the bites were mid/ early morning

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line   MarlinNut Sep-12-00, 03:29 PM (PDT)
"Final MABT Results"   The following are the results of Balboa Angling Club's 2000 Master Angler Billfish Tournament:

2000 Master Angler: Dave King fishing on REEL TIME II.
Dave had 420 points for three marlin released on 16-lb test.
Second Place: Dave Sanderson, 420 points
Third Place: David Herrera, 240 points
Fourth Place: Ken Kelley, 240 points
Fifth Place: Mike Hefty, 240 points
Sixth Place: Jerry Garrett, 240 points
Seventh Place: Dave Denholm, 240 points
Eighth Place: Mike Scott, 240 points
Ninth Place: Bill Bridges, 240 points
Tenth Place: Bob Ross, 240 points

High Boat: REEL TIME II
Second: BREATHLESS
Third: ESPADON

High Club: Harbour Rod & Reel
Second: Baloba Angling Club
Third: The Tuna Club

MARLIN - Marlin Club Report - 9/11/00
Last 2 fish weighed in was on Sunday 9/10 by the DOS PANCHOS angler Frank Brown Jr, of the dome at SCI on a lure 119-1/2 # and one from the SNOOPER II Chris Liebman, on 20# test and live bait same area.

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Tuesday's Report
-High 9:41am, \Low 3:12pm
-It was exciting, slow trolling a bait, it broke the reel. (big eye tuna just above the border, above the 302)
-Rosy's Marlin Tournment 12:00 update.
-Lots of action this morning, 5 fish released and 3 boated so far.
-24/51 Marlin reported 11:55am

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Mondays Report
-In a two hour stop we caught 34 and hooked 69 fish. all on breaking fish, no porpoise, wide open, Yellowfin Tuna. (219/ 827- loran lines) 13.8 miles straight out of the Dana Harbor.
-Wide open bass fishing today 45 line ( below Dana Harbor)
-There was another marlin tournament (Rosy's) going on today out of Catalina 17 boats The fish again showed on the slack tides at 9:20am (high) then again at 2:40 pm (low) this afternoon.
-Jet heads working, we've got three on the lures and two on bait, only 4 off Dana point. Birds, everything it's going off 2:40 pm
-Porpoise moving towards Laguna
-Two to three miles outside before you get to the blue water.
-lots of birds off Main Beach ,Laguna Beach
-They heading 10 knots to the west, we just can't catch em' 71.6 degrees. diving birds and breaking fish.
-Former still up now dolphin all over the place. 245p,
-Another school at 15 off the beach between the 276 and the 277
-The marlin tournament was doing well with singles , doubles and even a triple reported on the marlin 2;50pm
-Watching fish as far as I can see, breaking fish in front of the porpoise. Here we go!
-Another disappointment, they can see fish but they won't bite our baits, they did this morning when we were offshore but now against the beach we've had a tough time to get them to go.
-Another Blue Marlin seen! 3:24pm
-7 fish (Marlin) released two boated and currently 1 boats fighting fish. 4:40 pm
-Big Eye Tuna expected to make a better show over the next week, let this full moon go down and things should break wide open!
-Large swells expected to come in from the south (Lane) . Anchorage at Clemente Island could be a little lumpy.
-White Sea Bass off North Laguna Beach (Deadman's Cove)

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line   Dave Schlieder Sep-11-00, 12:41 PM (PDT)
"Marlin - SWYC Tournament"  ...Just me and my Dad out for two days of Marlin fishing in the SWYC Annual Marlin Tournament on the Gadget III. Left Saturday morning for ???. Would have left Friday night for San Clemente (we only do 8 knots if the current is with us) but the weather report was for 10-15 knots. So we were going to stay close and maybe go as far as Oceanside for the night depending on how much it blew. But the weather was good and we heard about all the action up off San Clemente so we kept heading that way. As usual the weather report wasn't worth anything and we were in the right place at the wrong time and the wrong place at the right time!

Late Saturday we were within a couple of hundred yards of Dos Ponchos when they hooked into a Marlin just around Wilsons Cove and close in to the island. They were probably within a 100 yards of feeding Purpoise when they got bit. Trolled that area for a while and then by the time we got to the hot bite area 3 miles out of NW Harbour it was late and we had to head for the anchorage. The Navy Seals entertained us with flares, machine gun fire and whatever else they do.

Left early Sunday morning for the hot bite area. But since we are slow, we had to simply pass through once and point it back to the Point. Within a couple of hours we were sick as the reports coming in on the radio from the area we had just left were reporting numerous feeders popping up every few minutes! But to far for us to go back and still make it home in time.

Snooper Too passed us going the other way and lo and behold they got up there and caught a fish! They just re-engined the boat so they had all the speed they needed to make it back in time for the 5:00 PM weigh in.

For us we saw and baited a 250-300 pound swordfish a few miles off of Fishhook but couldn't get him to go and he spooked quickly.

Live of Mike saw a number of feeders pop up close to the beach at Fishhook a while later but by then we didn't have enough time to go there and get back in time for the dinner.

Nothing all the way back as we crossed the 43 and then pointed it home. The water turned green and full of grass about 15 miles from the point so we pulled the lines, got the water hose and and washed the boat and the gear.
Fish on!   Dave

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  emsssi Sep-11-00, 11:34 AM (PDT)
Fished on the Freespool with the fleet at San Clemente Island. Certainly no secret spots. Just you and 75 of your closest friends. Lots of Marlin seen over a wide area. Got a fish (John Woods) on 20# (released) Numerous batches of feeders. It was the only fish that was caught in the Hoag 552 tournament.

Unfortunately did not get money in on time to fish BAC Masters tournament. Will not make the same mistake next year. Lots of talent in that tournament resulted in numerous fish (I believe all of which were released). I am sure somebody will write a synopsis on the tournament.
Good Luck, Paul Lepore  Alert

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  - Chet Spreen  - BITE ME Sep-11-00, 08:05 PM (PDT) 
"Thurs.-Sun MABT Marlin"  Let's call this report the HARD LUCK report because that is all we had, that and BAD LUCK. We started out Thursday pre-fishing for the Masters. We wanted to try and find a new area of fish other than the Clemente stuff. So we worked the 289, 209, 277, 1-5 miles off Church, and the Slide for not one sighting of a marlin. The 289 looked fantastic though, with feeding Yellowfin everywhere, water temp 70 with a 2 degree break on the outside of the bank, and hordes of terns and jaegars. We finished the day dropping off my dad in Avalon to make his trip back to the mainland on the Catalina Express for a wedding Friday night.

First day of the tourney, Friday morning we left the can dump around 4:45am heading for the Mackerel Bank right behind Randy Woods on OFFSHORE so we felt confident that this was the place to be and no new areas of fish had been found by the pre-fishers.Once on the Mackerel we commenced trolling, pounding the area, we covered the whole lee through 2 tides for no marlin raised or seen. So off we went to the 289 where we found good conditions the day before, but once again no marlin. The day ended for us back in Newport Beach picking up my dad for day 2 of the tournament. 6 fish were caught today with most coming from off the windmills near Wilson's Cove. On the way in we found a group of quick feeders between the 277 and the 14 so we decided to start there on day 2.

Day 2 of the tourney found us on the 277 at daybreak until hookups started happenning out near Clemente. Using our RDF we found the guys off the west end of Clemente and 1 to 4 miles off Wilson's Cove. As we cruised into the area around 10:30am at 17 knots we came across our first group of feeders with perfect casts but no bites. Soon we found this would become very routine for us, as we casted on 8 more groups the rest of the day for no bites. There were at least 40 boats in the area and 23 fish were caught. There were some doubles and even triples so the fish were biting for other guys just not us. It became embarassing that we couldn't get any fish to go, I was in a state of disbelief. REEL TIME II won the tournament with Dave King as high angler with 3 releases on 16lb.

Sunday we arrived on the grounds 4 to 8 miles off the west end of Clemente. We found a little life but no fish. THen a radio report came across that OSPREY had a triple going, so we used the RDF and found them 1.5 miles off Wilson's. We ran into the area and baited 9 groups of feeders that consisted of at least 6 fish with one group pushing 30 fish. We again could not buy a bite and ended up thoroughly frustrated with another performance of 0-0-0. I have been HUMBLED!!!! Todaty the fish started showing 1 to 3 off Wilson's then moved steadily west which is exactly what they did on Saturday.

Water temps in the zone were 68.5 to 69.1, we made bait(greenies) off the newport pier the first day and off the quarry at the east end of catalina on saturday night.
Tight Lines,
Chet Spreen

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line   captjims Sep-10-00, 09:29 PM (PDT)
"Tournament Results O.A.C."  The Oceanside Anglers Club held its Marlin Tournament on Saturday and Sunday. There were 5 fish taken, one on Saturday ouside Northwest Harbor, and the other 4 taken on Sunday. The totally refurbished (and very Fast!) Five A Day, with Captain Grant Hunner at the helm took 3 fish, the one on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Tony Reids "Jessies Best" also took a fish on Sunday. Jim Richert on his new boat "DOS EQUIES II" with myself at the wheel, took Mr. Richerts FIRST EVER Marlin. The Weigh in went as follows:

1st to Miguel Gascon on "FIVE a DAY" 210# Capt Grant Hunner
2and to Jim Richert on "DOS EQUIES II" 202# Capt Jim Squibb
3rd to Tony Ried on "Jessies Best" 139# Capt Mike Anderson

All of the fish were taken on BAIT. Location was for Five a Day Northwest Harbor aprox 5 miles off the beach. Tony Reid and Jim Richert took their fish off of the Dome area, aprox. 1.5 to 2.6 miles off the beach, and up toward the new barricks area.
Capt Jim Squibb

MARLIN -San Diego Union Tribune -September 10, 2000
Fishing was extremely slow for the San Diego Offshore Invitational Tag & Release Tournament, and only two marlin were tagged and released, none with the special archival pop-up satellite tags. The T-Rose with Capt. David Thompson tagged and released a marlin caught by Fred Weston on Friday, and the Mil-So-Mar, with Capt. Rich Hamilton, tagged and released a marlin caught by Troy Fitzgerald, grandson of the late owner of the boat, Ed Fitzgerald.
Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Local anglers help scientists study marlin at new tourney
By Ed Zieralski
STAFF WRITER

September 10, 2000
Angler adrenaline and the anticipation of big catches for big money usually charge the atmosphere of a captains meeting before a billfish tournament.

But the captains meeting Thursday night at the San Diego Marlin Club was mellow, almost subdued, and for good reason. The inaugural two-day Marlin Club Offshore Invitational Tournament that ended yesterday was a unique fishing competition, reportedly the first of its kind anywhere.

The anglers fished for more than $20,000 in cash and prizes, with the top prize going to the boat with the most released fish. But that seemed to be a secondary motivation. This was a tag-and-release money tournament with no professional observers and done largely to gather data to help scientists better understand marlin.

"It's the first of its kind that I know of not to have professional observers," said Mike "The Beak" Hurt, part of Bill McWethy's team aboard McWethy's 58-foot C-Bandit.

Instead of observers, throwaway cameras were used to document the tagging and releasing of billfish with 8-foot tag sticks. Instead of big fish and weigh-ins and a party at the scales, tournament organizers hustled film to a one-hour photo shop. Official winners were announced last night at a special awards dinner at Sea World.

"This is essentially a photography contest, guys, so make sure you get good pictures of your tag and releases," Capt. Rich Hamilton told the participating anglers at the captains meeting. "If you drop your camera in the water and lose it, it's just like a fish fell off the swim step."

Hamilton, the tournament chairman and captain of Millie Fitzgerald's Mil-So-Mar, one of the 16 competing boats, explained to the captains why this mainly was a science-based, tag-and-release tournament. He said it was up to recreational fishermen to help scientists learn more about marlin fishing.

"There's a fisheries management plan coming up soon, and that will change the way we fish here," Hamilton said. "We're looking at regulations for bag limits and size limits coming here soon."

Hamilton was talking about the Pacific Fisheries Management Council's Highly Migratory Species Plan that is due out next year. Commercial fishermen have petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to allow long-lining inside the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the West Coast. Recreational fishermen are terrified that a proposal that calls for 135 long-line boats will devastate sportfishing.

Hamilton received inspiration to hold the tournament after meeting with NMFS officials last summer at the Balboa Angling Club. NMFS scientists asked Southern California fishing clubs to meet and talk about the various fisheries plans that are being worked on throughout the world. Of particular interest is the Highly Migratory Species plan that will govern and impact commercial and recreational angling off the West Coast.

"NMFS wanted a cooperative effort with sportfishermen to collect data on marlin," Hamilton said. "It's unbelievable how little is known about marlin. I've fished for them for 15 years and didn't know much. I was shocked that scientists don't know how long they live, when they reach sexual maturity, where they go -- it's unbelievable."

Hamilton responded to the meeting by introducing DNA testing of marlin weighed in at the San Diego Marlin Club. Tissue samples are now cut from any dead marlin brought to the club (mostly by nonmembers) and sent to NMFS for DNA analysis.

"The Magnuson Act demands the best available science be used for fisheries management, but there is no science on marlin," Hamilton said. "So how can you manage a species if you don't know anything about it? This is a way for recreational fishermen to step up and do something."

Hamilton pitched the idea of the tournament to club members, but it wasn't received well at first. Catch-and-release fishing is a huge part of the marlin fisherman's ethic today, with an estimated 80 percent or more of all marlin caught off Southern California released. But paying money for marlin, even released, caused some backlash.

"The big obstacle was the cash award," Hamilton said. "We don't give cash awards here for killing marlin."

But he sold president Dave Verdugo on the science aspects and the attention the club would get in the international angling community. Verdugo said he was disappointed in the local turnout and support, but they competed with a handful of other marlin tournaments.

In addition to more than $20,000 in tournament cash and prizes for the fishermen, there were more cash and prize incentives from Steve Crouch's Vista-based Tag & Brag. All the anglers had to do was take a small skin sample from the marlin's fin they tagged and released, no easy chore, and bring it back for DNA analysis.

Only two boats tagged and released marlin, so they were named co-winners, but only one, the Mil-So-Mar, managed a DNA sample. In addition to splitting first-place money, the Mil-So-Mar crew received $500 and five sets of shorts and shirts from Tag & Brag.

The T-Rose with Capt. David Thompson was the only other boat to tag and release a marlin, hooked by angler Fred Weston. But they didn't manage a DNA sample.

And for the first time, two expensive archival pop-up satellite tags were available on two boats to place in marlin for sophisticated tracking. Unfortunately, the two boats that had the pop-up tags, the Legend and the Capt. Hook II, didn't tag and release any marlin.

Verdugo, the Marlin Club president, said the tags will be used at the club's Invitational Light Tackle Tournament, Sept. 22-23.
Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Sunday's Report
Striped Marlin Fishing fair to good for those in the "Zone", and where was that zone, off the West end of San Clemente Island and also a few in the lee of the island. Live mackeral was needed. The Masters Tournament accounted of 29 fish released but there must have been 50 fish hooked though lost on the light tackle (8, 12, 16, 20 or 30lb lines) All fish were released, as an all release format this year the tournament was one of the best events of the season!

They're everywhere Tuna, Tuna, they're everywhere, everyone's chasing them around but no ones catching anything.

Found all around the East End 277 Fathom Spot and southwards from there towards the 181 and 289 fathom spots (Ridge) Tough Fishing for most anglers. The tuna keyed in on small baits and not going for anything else. Live anchovies, sardines, live bait, dead bait very little were caught, although some fish were taken on trolled lures. Daisy chained small hoochies (small squid skirts) some cedar plugs, some Rapalas and reported on the Yo-Zuri Hydro Magnum lures accounted for a few fish. Even a couple of larger 50 lb Big Eye were hooked and the trolled marlin lures (MJG) . A couple dozen Dorado reported off an kelp neat the 277.

MARLIN -Rich Johnson - Marie-B   08 Sep 2000  -  20:14:31
THAT Saturday. Poor Joe Lops--for the rest of his career on the water the poor guy is going to have to listen to --So Joe, how was the halibut fishing? But of course, we will all have our own little story of why we weren't there. You know I almost always fish with Chuck Smith on Saturdays. That is the only way I an usually catch something. But this Saturday, our son Phil was in town from Colorado so we decided to strike out on our own which is what we did on That SATURDAY except for some wayword yellowfin inside the 182.

As we helped Chuck and Todd weigh in their fish late Saturday night---ohhh it hurts. So we just hung it up and enjoyed Sunday. On Monday morning I got up early and decided to try for some bait. Just before I left the dock, I happened to call the Marlin Club catch report, and there was Kenny catching one neatr the Nine. So we tried for bait, but wanted to get to the Nine for at least the last part of the slack.

Phil had left for Colorado, so it was just Marie and I. I told her that today would be her day--on any strike just run the drag up slowly. Not more than 5b minutes later we had a strike--It's real heavy she says and up jumps a small marlin. just like old times I am running around the boat trying to get all this stuff in while I watch the reel empty. Boy, these little guys are scrapers. Anyway, we manage to gaff this little guy, but then he beats us all up, tears out the hoses to my bait bags and pulling our old arms out of their sockets. The heck with noble motives for release--this is a lot of work for GRANDPARENTS. But we are down to our last package of smoked marlin from last year, and it is our chance to cover ourselves with glory at the BBQ. Besides, this is our 25th Anniversary of our first marlin caught here in California. We caught it at Catalina, and I pulled our GB up to the Tuna Club dinghy dock and asked them to weigh our fish. Imagine a GB 36, 3 little kids,!
2 golden retrievers and a cockateel plus one dead marlin at the Tuna Club. They weren't impressed but that Rosie--what a gal--she made us feel like heros and remembers us to this day. It took a bit of the sting out of missing Saturday for sure. We even got to tie up to the Marlin Club for the BBQ which was great by the way. Just like the BIG HUMMERS.

Rich J

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Thursday's Report
--High Tide 7:38, Low 12:04pm, high again at 6:04pm, Swordfish Tides! 20 chance of rain, (falling barometer)
-Yellowfin Tuna to 30 lbs taken off Dana pt. to the 209 and 181 Fathom Spots
-Calm seas and pleasant skies
-Tropical weather forecasted towards Cabo San Lucas!
-We're seeing them jumping but no biters, 11:00am
-69.4 the other side of the 209 Fathom Spot, it drops off as you get further out.
-Orca's in the waters, reports of several full grown porpoise cleanly bitten off behind the heads
-Albacore on the 181 Limit!!!
-There starting to show now. (Birds and bait up) 12:34
-Rain and Lighting ?
-Quick Feeders up 12:50pm
-one marlin caught, location? 12:55
-Commercial Seiners from San Pedro were moving in on the fleet.
-Cloud cover came in and the porpoise seemed to go down. .
-277 quite, looks like a desert.
-Just outside the second bank (209) was best. Prime time was expected in the afternoon,
-Somehow with this electrical storm the fish weren't up like yesterday.
-Sloppy seas between Clemente and Catalina Island
-inside the 289 2 miles it looked good, 2 jumpers seen 57/81 55/01 (loran)
-55/ 76 (loran) lots of birds and bait 2;00 pm
-Feeders up now, inside close to the beach, (Clemente Is.) We're hooked up now, 2:30 pm .
-Seems like the radio reports slowed down as the afternoon went on. Still the yellowfin were being caught with the porpoise but the marlin stories were just not put on the air.
-Yellowtail fishing very good at Clemente Is.
-Yellowfin with the porpoise, 23 miles 250 degrees from Mission bay , the last half hour it shut off, we caught 12, thanks for putting us on the fish, we got out lateb here and it made the day, beautiful sunset, isn't it. 7:00 pm!
-Best of Luck to everyone this weekend, I'll be in the Masters Marlin Tournament and will not put out another fish report till Sunday morning. again best of luck this weekend- JD

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  Osprey Sep-07-00, 08:51 AM
Wednesday the 6th of September Released a fish 5 to 6 of the Dome on SCI. Saw a couple groups of feeders as well as 3 swordfish. Water was grease. Osprey osprey

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Wednesday's Report
--High Tide today 6:42 am, Low at 10:40am and a slow building High at 5:00 pm. Fishing should be good from 2pm to 6 pm.
-Yellowfin Tuna at 32:55 117; 32 , There's Snapping. Best fish I've had on the boat in seven years!
-Mackeral was available at Newport Harbor's entrance, nice size baits' Bait rigs tipped with bait (anchovies/ squid ) helps.
-We got a swordie, a mile and a half off the Dome (San Clemente is) we don't have heavy enough tackle to bait him. Anyone want him? 10:25am looks like a nice sized fish.
-We had a quick feeder here, just outside the Dome (Clemente is) 10:30
-We're between the 14 and the 277 just caught a Marlin on 20lb tackle, 10:35
-We must have used a hundred baits casting on quick feeders (off the East End of Catalina!) , they weren't taking our baits. we decided to pull the plastics till they get hungry , using a JD's Double Hook rig , one strike, one fish on the black purple,
-Just inside the 209, porpoise and tuna!
-We're halfway from the Dome and the Head, , seen 2 jumpers, feeder out 4 or 5 miles
-Saw a batch of 50 feeders at 10:30 this morning! Clemente Island, Just outside Wilson's Cove.
-4 ot 5 miles off the Head (in the lee) we've seen 3 swordfish in the past 45 Min. ! 11:30am
-2 1/2 to 3 miles S/E of the 390 Lots of Yellowfin on the Rapala, CD 14- B& W 1:40 pm
-32:59; 01/ 117:27;09 Yellowfin, all over the place. driving me crazy, they wont hit anything, lots of little white tuna birds, tuna boiling the surface
-Swordfish everywhere!!!
-Tides like we have today are prime for the Broadbill swordfish!
-New Marlin Tournament !!! Coors 500 Marlin Tournament -- Sept. 17, 18 2000 -- Avalon, Catalina Island -- Call for details!
-Giant Squid move in to the coastline from Oceanside to Newport!
-We blew two fish, a jig fish and a bait fish in a batch of feeders, were turning home now. it all happened at once. 3:15pm
-Fantastic weather most of the day grease!
-Cattleboat were having a poor day of it at Catalina Island, reports of blue perch and bottom fish.
-Strong current going to the East today!
-20/24, albacore, 19/23 kelp yellowfin, 16/25 sonar mark 70 to 100 yellowfin or big eye tuna
-Espadon caught a Swordfish today! 251lbs, on 50lb Dacron, in 50 minutes! Caught on the 499 Fathom Spot!
-It wasn't gang busters at Clemente, although several boats did find fish close to the island (tight) others didn't.

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Tuesday's Report
-Low Tide at 8:56 am, High 3:45 pm
-No Boats and the fish started to bite again, Dorado, Tuna, Swordfish and Marlin what a great way to start the week.
-Tournament boats are getting ready with new lines, drags and the latest lures. If we can assist, give us a call or drop by- Best of Luck- JD
-Troll Rapalas @ 5 1/2 knts, get into the meat of the school of porpoise and bend-do, bend-do! 11:00, 07/ 49 , 10 to 15 lbs fish
-Twin B maybe hooked to a swordfish 12:00 "we had a good shot at it, it just didn't go for it" 14 Mile Bank. 72.5 degrees.
-Mackerel hard to get at Catalina,
-30/30 Albacore, Bluefin Dorado and Yellowfin
-We're 5 or 6 off the Dome, we just had a feeder up, 1:15pm
-Yellowfin in half day range out of Newport, Spots of yellowfin up south of the 14 Mile Bank
-US Navy War Ship was playing games on ch 72.
-Sand Bass were biting off San Onofre
-Marlin showed 278 degrees 1:00pm 10.5 mile from the Point (Loma) another fish 7 miles off the Dome (Clemente)
-Satilite images show a strong band of warm water moving up from Mexico, looks like we'll have a increase if warmer water here off So Calif for at least the next month.
-13 miles 210 out of Dana Pt. with breaking fish all around us this morning. (tuna)
-Great Weather all day, grease this morning, the wind picked up a bit by 10 am but again it backed off to beautiful weather the rest of the afternoon. You should have been there!

Returned to SD with YFT and no marlin but were told at the fuel dock that most boats including the big charter boats had a disasterous day and no fish, we were told that we were one of the only boats coming in with YFT boated.

Dinner time a good friend calls me with super secret dope------------head on out to Clemente Sunday quick he said Wild Bill and others were wide open on the Marlin. Decided to make the 59 mile run from SD to clemente and had rough seas and very warm temps 72 up, hell we left Dana in search of Marlin down SD and ended up coming to Clemente. We still had no mac's or dines so trolled lures and had one jig strike , ran over a Marlin when we got the jig strike, saw Jumpers and jumpers and jumpers we were in tight inside 1 mile off the east end of Clemente and saw a boat hook and land a fish right next to us, continued trolling until dusk and continued to see tailers and jumpers.

The weather was terrible so no trip back to SD and decided to anchor with the fleet and take shelter in Pyramid/Clemente. Waitn Sea, Legend and others all there waiting it out and the first grey light getting ready for the morning marlin. So much for this secret dope, some 50 boats out here trolling looking and hooking marlin. Mad mac's overnight and early morning and left at 6.00 trolling live mac's and as we rounded Pyramid in tight trolling we got a knock down. No Marlin stuck, trolled all day and saw jumpers and many boats. Temp was 69-70.5 breaks and loads of kelp and Hammerhead sharks all over.

Trolled home and saw kelp paddies but nobody home water was warmer towards home across the 279 and found YFT breaking 4-6 miles off Dana Point mixed in with the Porpoise, trolled feathers and nothing the fish were moving so fast and as we came up on them sounded only to pop up and be chased again. Fished on "Here Fishy Fishy " 42 Bertram and had a fantastic time, thanks Ray and all those who shared good info with me . Chris

OFFSHORE REPORTS  - Chet Spreen  So Cal Offshore Sep-05-00, 11:38 PM (PDT)
"Marlin,Yellowfin, Dorado, Albacore, etc." Marlin-It's time for the MABT and various other tourneys this week! All is quiet as everyone gears up for competitive fishing. As everyone knows, unless you were living under a rock for the past few days, WILD BILL caught 14 marlin on Saturday and 2 more on Sunday, not bad, try incredible!! The bite was 5 to 8 miles off the dome at San Clemente Island. It consisted of a few jig bites early in the morning, then a feeder show, and then a tailer show. Other boats in the area got between 1 and 3 fish each, but no one even close to the Kingsmills. On Sunday there were also some fish taken on the 289, 277, and 5 off the slide. Also some fish were taken 10 to 12 miles 240 degrees off La Jolla and off of Mission Bay. Another area that looked good was from 32.55/118.05 to 33.05/118.25, that area was visited by a spotter plane today that saw some fish.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say, because mostly I haven't heard a thing other than the weekend reports. We are leaving Wednesday night and fishing the Masters till Sunday afternoon, so once I am back I will have all the info on where the fish are. GOOD LUCK in the tournaments this week!!

Yellowfin Tuna - Yellowfin tuna action has been good and bad depending on the day and if you find the right schools of porpoise. The best areas today were the 209 to the 181 for up north. Down south the 1010 Trench looked excellent today with loads of 8 to 20lb. Yellowfin cruising with porpoise schools and under the kelps, this was definitely the best biting area of the day. There are also tuna on the 371, 302, 277, 14, Butterfly up to Pyramid Head at SCI. The 60 mile bank is also holding some tuna with some albies mixed in as well.

Paddy Dorado - The best area for paddy dorado today was out side the 209 5 miles west of the bank on up to the Eas End of Catalina. Some private boaters reported some great scores in that general area providing you find the right kelp. Down south there were some good dorado scores in the tuna areas near the 1010 into the Upper 500, but again it's all about finding that magic kelp.

Albacore- Hey how about it, the albies are starting to filter back in a little bit. There were fish mixed in with the Yellowfin on the 60 mile bank today, but these guys were smallish 7 to 20lbers. Down off Colnett the multi-day boats are getting into 40lb. Albies. The Airplane Bank is holding some good numbers of the longfin, with these numbers producing well, 31.50/118.08 and 32.07/118.20.

Bluefin Tuna - See ya, I have no idea where these guys are, but they aren't within 1 day range! There is still a smattering of these guys mixed in with the Yellowfin and Albacore but nothing substantial. Probably out on the Cortes or Tanner, but I haven't heard anything.

Bigeye Tuna - No news on these guys lately . They are probably being caught off the 9- mile bank and the other San Diego Bigeye haunts like the 425, 302, 371, and off the Coronados by local boys that are keeping the bite on the down low. This has happened in previous years.

Paddy Yellowtail - No real big concentrations of Yellowtail on the paddies right now, a few fish here and there. Best areas are on the tuna grounds 1010 Trench to the Upper 500 out to the 60 mile bank and beyond. The inside areas to the north are holding fish on the kelps around the 181, 209, 277, on up to the 286 off the west end of Catalina. Best bite on Yellowtail is over at SCI at White Rock, nice 15 to 30lb. fish biting pretty darn good.

Good Luck This Week! Cheers,  Chet Spreen, "BITE ME" 

MARLIN - Affordable Marine   Wed, 6 Sep 2000 01:18:57 EDT
Fishing Sunday ----   Hi Dennis, I headed out to the 371 Sun. with fishing buddies Alan and Nico. We got the tip to head there from the "Vanator "out of Mission Bay(they got 16 YFT there on Sat.) We ended up with 12 YFT with Alan taking the lion share. We were heading in when My rod went off big time and I had visions of Big Eye when a BLUE MARLIN exploded and began an incredible Ariel display. After nearly spooling me we chased him and I got back some of my line then he sounded and eventually, the hook pulled. I was disappointed only because we didn't get a picture, I planed on releasing it anyway. All in all a great day on the water, with one exception. A fellow angler radioed for assistance because someone on his boat had a bad shark bite. Another vessel said they could help with some first aid, which was great. Then some wise guy on another boat starts making smart ass comments about "Not feeding the sharks." When a fellow boater is really in need of assistance, he doesn't need a smartass!! I'm sure if it was him with the shark bite, he wouldn't appreciate any of those comments. Thanks for the great site, tight lines, Sam on the Catillac

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   5 Sep 2000 23:17:17 EDT
Fishing Outside Tuesday 9-5
Dennis, Nice day on the water early and late- in between kinda sucked but the water laid down nice in the afternoon. We went out of a deserted Shelter Island, got terrific sardines that never did quit and headed to the 371. We started to troll about 8 miles short and drove past the spot 5 miles @ 210 degrees. Then we took a right turn towards the 230. Once we got outside the 371 we found the warmest water of our day--68. 4.5 miles short of the 230 we found Mr. Paddie but alas could only boat uno Yellowtail. Around the 230 we had our lone Yellowfin, fooled by a green and white Marlin jig--go figure. Up thru the 302, stopped at several floating hotels, but couldn't seem to find one holding. Long day, caught dinner, had some laughs and most importantly, nothing broken to fix! Love life ........ Doug of the "Robert Francis"

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine    5 Sep 2000 09:27:53 -0700
Sunday on the water Hi Dennis and readers, Gave up my spot on a friends Glacier Bay catamaran in which we would fish the 220 area because my wife ordered me to take my in-laws fishing on my 21 foot Cabo (Roxanne). They didn't have Mex licenses so we headed to the 43 fathom spot. Water was green all the way out to about 15 miles from Pt Loma. It turned blue and milky after that. Put the jigs out at 20 miles and shortly after that got a single YFT, followed by 2 doubles and another single. Tried to hand my 3 yr old son a troll fish but he declined because it wasn't on his snoopy rod. He was later stoked to catch a Mac-Daddy Mackerel. On the way home and at about 2 miles outside the 9 mile bank (in green water) we saw tons of life. Huge blue whale, large jumping marlin, mega sunfish, large shark and meter marks. Didn't catch anything else. I've always passed up the green water looking for the clear dark blue stuff however, with all the signs of life we saw in the green water I think I'll take a better look next time. One of the 20lb tuna had a giant squid in it's stomach. It's amazing that this tuna's stomach was stretched so tight that it was ripping and it still attacked my jig. All in all I was really glad that I took out the in-laws. Seeing the old man, his son, and his son all catch their first tuna was as good as it gets. Oh and my friends on the Glacier Bay at 60 miles ended up with limits of YFT that sounded smaller than the ones we got, and they got the #@!* kicked out of them on the ride home. Good luck fishing, Scott

This is a very friendly event and lots of fun. It is also growing very fast. 95 boats and 400 anglers. By the way, Keeper placed Third, Afishinado place second and Big Hit place first. We all decided individually to donate our winnings which shows you the kind of tournament that it is.

Also, there were only 3 fish caught on lures from what I heard. A few came up in the pattern, but most were sighted and baited. You might want to check out www.afishinados.com. It is just a personal site that I update with the idea that every fish is a learning opportunity. I try to share what I am learning with each fish story.

I will see you at the KHMC Marlin Tourney!  Afishinado

MARLIN - Afishinado Sep-03-00, 09:01 AM (PDT)
The Church Mouse Invitational

OK, I have been slow to update the site...hey, it is a lot of work. The Afishinado has been very busy, a trip to Kona, Cabo and more. The lead story is the about local marlin.

Team Afishinado entered the Church Mouse Invitational Marlin Tourney looking to test their skills on SoCal Marlin. Only Bob Fruge, our "pit man" had caught Marlin in local waters. Todd Gleason, Paul Gillet and I were pretty excited after the Captain's Meeting. We had a plan, macks in the tank and a winning attitude.

We left at o-dark-thirty to get to the 499 at 6am. Things were pretty quiet on the 499 and about 1pm we began to re-assess our plan. Should we make a run to another bank or wait it out. This is where good information and good fishing buddies are critical. The good marlin fisherman still seemed to be in the area and a buddy had just relayed that he was coming down from the 172. We decided to stick it out.

Then it happened! A marlin jumped within 50 yards of the boat and we turned and baited it. "I'm bit, I'm bit!!!!...awwww, he's off!"

We missed a feeder and a great shot and we were bummed. We made a few mistakes and it looked like our best shot had just been taken. We blew 5 good baits and we now only had one live and one dead mack in the tank.

"Another jumper, three hundred yards!!!" The Afishinado is a fast and nimble boat and we were there in a flash. As we approached it became apparent that the jumper was just one among a herd of fish. They were actively feeding and slashing as we approached. Rather than risk our last bait with a bow cast, I went downswell and cut off the ravaging herd while yelling "get the baits in the water!" Seconds later Todd sings out "I'm bit, I'm bit", and I hit the throttles. "We're on, we're on" and out jumps a beautiful, greyhounding Marlin heading rapidly away from our boat with 30# test line on a Newell reel.

We were immediately in trouble and at risk of getting spooled on the small outfit. I hit the throttles in a 9 knot reverse. The drag quit before the fish did and it took 53 minutes of total team effort and some wild manuevering to bring the fish to gaff.

Although there were fish in the area, we were out of bait and decided to head in to the weigh station. We were not sure how big the fish would be on the scales, but we knew it would beat out the 115 pounder caught that morning. We high fived and guessed the weight to be 140 lbs. or more.

There is a lot of excitement at the scales. The crane manuevering to pick the fish, gawkers, photographers and some happy anglers. Rosie guessed the weight at 164 and we lit up in anticipation of the official report. Team Afishinado caught a 165 lb. 8 oz. Marlin and finished the day in first place and second place overall. A great achievement in a field of 95 boats and 400 or so fisherman.

Many thanks to Mike Arujo, a great fisherman and teacher, and to Bob Stephens and the Exta Sea team and all the fishing buddies that helped us to get that first local fish. The Churchmouse is a fun event designed to raise funds for the kids in Avalon. We decided to donate our winnings in the spirit of the tournament and in appreciation for the opportunity to add a great memory to our collection.

MARLIN - Afishinado Sep-03-00, 09:01 AM (PDT)
The Secret Weapon
When you are new to Marlin fishing or to any fishery, it seems that everyone else has a secret weapon that allows them to catch fish. A lure, a hot spot, a technique, or, ....the bait.

After boating a first day, first place striper and finishing the champagne, we realized that we would have to get out and defend our position by trying to catch a bigger fish or perhaps release one to qualify for the release awards. But first, we needed bait.

Team Afishinado rallied at 10pm to make bait for the second day of the tourney. The Avalon bait receiver was closed so we tied up and started chunking with the lights on.

We were not having much luck until we started seeing flashes of white below the surface...jumbo squid. We hooked up with some big 2 to 4 pound squid and got on the radio to ask whether Marlin eat these things. We could not raise any other boats except the swordies who said they would be right over to get in on the action.

This was a wild experience. Big squid shoot a lot of ink and a lot of water. We were drenched and black with ink and laughing so hard that Bob almost fell in the water. Although we were not sure if they would work, we figured that everything likes to eat the candy, this is just bigger candy. It might prove to be our "secret weapon."

Our "secret weapon" turned out to be a bust. We threw the squid on a big boy who was tailing downstream. In fact, we threw everything we had at him trying to get him to light up. He stayed brown and swam away.

YELLOWFIN - Allcoast Sportfishing  Rory Hughes - Whaler 27 Sep-04-00 at 10:50 AM
200 mile run produces limits.....Fished this weekend out of Mission Bay with friends Brain Wilson, Bud Link & Troy Regan. We left for the Butterfly Bank with 2 nice scoops of dines. Got on the water early so we could be on the bank before dawn.
Most of the one day fleet surronded us as we soaked bait before starting to troll at grey light. Slow fishing for everyone on the bank left us with just one YFT on the troll and one dorado on bait. We worked all around the outside wing of the mushroom before heading over to the 60 mile bank to find some water of our own. We worked the 60 for 3 more yellowfin and a couple of yellowtail before venturing off to the stem of the mushroom bank. There we found a huge paddy holding yellowtail, dorado then YFT.

Spoke with Tom on the Samuri who was also working the same area. He had picked up some radio chatter with info of a private yacht doing better down on the 213 bank. After Tom passed me a spare hand held radio because I was having radio problems, we picked up and ran down to the outside edge of the 213.

After a couple of troll fish on rapalas we found a good paddy holding yellowtail, dorado and yft. Mako sharks shut off this bite afte two rounds so we headed across the bank to the inside edge.

Almost right over the edge of the bank we came across the glory hole paddy. As we sled up on the barn door all four of us went bendo. First it was yellowtail, then dorado, then yft as we drifted away from the paddy.

An hour and half later we were at our Mexican limits, boy it was hard pulling away as they were still biting. As we picked up to run home we saw a huge spot of dolphin feeding and playing. Many jumping 6-10ft out of the water, what a beautiful sight. Well, we had to try the text book troll around the pod, as we put back out the rapalas they instantly went off. (Sorry we couldn't call you in Tom, the battery on the hand held went down too!)

Total for the day in Mexican and International waters: 22 yft, 5 dorado, 8 yellowtail & a mako for the b.b.q. Total canyon run almost 200 miles. We left the fish biting on the 213 bank at 6:00pm and were back at Mission Bay by 8:30pm.

Execellent sunny day, no swell and just a 1-2ft wind chop. Can't wait to go to Morro Bay for the big albies, see you there! Rory Hughes - Whaler27

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Mon, 4 Sep 2000 12:33:19 EDT
saturday and sunday fishing -- Dennis, This is Tony from phoenix. I hav'nt had the chance to go out for the past year, but this last weekend i was out there. We drove from phoenix friday after noon got to point lama around 10pm, went and bought our licences and hit the sack. We got in the water about 5:30am and headed to get bait, it was microscopic anchovie, oh well. Headed to the 302 looking for a temp. break but didnt find anything, and there were not to many bouts out there. So we decided to head to the 425 area so i climbed up on the front of the boat and looked for kelps on the way there. I spotted a nice one on the way there but it was dry. Aproching the area between the 425 and the 371 we some some light traffic and as soon as we were in it we saw several boats stopped up. So we set out 4 jigs, this was about 3mi south-west of the 425, within 15min i went back to the trolling rods to just check it and right as i was reaching for it, it went off, then the rod right next to it went of too, i was yelling to my dad KEEP GOING KEEP GOING!!!!!! My dad was kinda puzzled by my frantic yells to keep going i mean we had to fish on the line, about 5sec later the third one went off. How much more exciting could this be!!!!!! My brother, my dad and I were all hooked up to yellowfin. It was the first yellowfin for my dad and my brother. We landed all 3 fish and gave each other high fives in the blood bath we were in. It was great!!!! We got cleaned up and kept trolling we got one more single, a triple but one unbuttened. And the bight pretty much ended around 10am. The water was 69Deg the whole area we fished. Got back with cleaned fished around 2pm. Thats great. Same thing happened next day except that we had one quadruple hookup between 3 guys that was just about as exciting as it gets. So we ended up with 13 yellowfin for 2 days. That probably doesnt sound incredible but it was a blast for us. Thanks for the great sight I check it every day. Thanks Tony

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 22:07:29 EDT
Sat fishing --- Dennis: My buddy & I took my boat out sat. looking for the yellowfin! We left M.B. bait barge with a scoop of nice dines & mini-macs, and headed to the 371...First jig strike was a single on the zucchini jet head about 2 miles S.W. of the high spot. Continued trolling to an area about 11 miles S.W. of the 371...It went wide on the yellowfin! Every thing we dragged got bit, but the black & silver CD-14 rapalas accounted for 4 out of ten fish for the two of us...Kept 2 for the bbq, & 1 for the smoker...It was snotty on the way in, 2 and a half hour boat ride, but well worth it. Keep up the great job on the web site!!!!!!!!!! Scott on the INTIMIDATOR

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 12:22:18 EDT
Saturday YFT ---- Launched out of Mission Bay at 0500, picked up a scoop of nice-size but uncured sardines and went out on a 270 heading until we passed the 100 fathom curve where the water warmed up a little to 69 degrees. Turned north looking for warmer water and kelp paddies. We finally found 71 - 72 degree water, put the jigs out, and saw lots of kelp but it was all empty. Once we were off La Jolla, turned toward the 181 and kept finding empty paddies. Finally scratched up a nice yellowtail on a small paddy. About 6 miles short of the 181, the water drops back down to 69, so we headed toward Del Mar. Water eventually warmed up again but no more paddies. At around ten miles off the beach in 72 degree water, turned south to head for home. Finally saw a large pod of working dolphin and as soon as we got in front of them - ZZIIINNNGGGG - all four trolling rods go off. We farmed one and landed three. Kept working the dolphins for a total of 16 YFT all in the 17 - 22 pound range. The wind had picked up in the late afternoon and that combined with the small but steep swell made me glad we had a downhill ride back to the bay. 80 miles roundtrip over half of it trolling. All the tuna had squid in their bellies. The colors that worked were anything in the water, including a natural cedar plug. The farthest back jig always seemed to be the first to get bit. Great day on the water with good fishing buddies. rb on the Reel Knotty ps. Thanks for the tip on my motor, I followed your advice and it ran great all day.

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 23:31:12 -0700
Fished Sunday. Quick late report cause I'm tired. I'll make it short and sweet even though we caught zip. Left Mission Bay 7am with good bait(6 to 8 inch sardines that held up). Went north lookin for warmer water from the latest Terrafin charts( unfortunately they were a few days old). The cold water has moved north( I can tell now by looking at the latest charts). Temps started to rise to 69 degreees as we hit 32.54.17 117.25.51. The warmer water was towards the inside, not the outside. Did not chase the spread out porpoise inside off Del Mar as water was 67 to 68 degrees on the outside. Might have been my first mistake. Found the warmer water towards the inside offf of Cardiff?Luecadia ? Carlsbad. Ran into 73 degree water up there. Think you go out of O;side to hit YFT. Saw Marlin that sank out at 32.59.56 117 . 31. 87 in 71.1 degree water. Found garage door size paddy with boats taking dorado and yellowtail on slow troll Macks at 32.59.69 117. 31.12 . Sorry for short report. Better than zip. Tired. Toooooooo Tired and going to sleep as we speak. Goood luck John Gleaves

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 01:31:55 EDT
371 sunday ---  still biting 5-15 mi. sw of 371 yft. Keep going west for patties holding dodos and yellowtail, good size too 15-25lb. purple and black rapala,ceder,feathers worked well to start the day, marlin in area also.

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 12:26:16 -0700
yft at the 209  --  We caught 4, 20# yft on porpoise near the 209 on Saturday. Thanks to this message board we were heading towards the numbers where yft were caught on Friday. We were stopped short of the numbers when we found a pod of porpoise & birds. The fish were all jig fish on cedar plugs and green and blue feathers. We tried to bait fish with mackerel but no luck. Thanks for this service. Jim

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 13:35:08 EDT
Yellowfin Bigger Models   ----  Hey Dennis. SLAYER 1 took another tour towards the San Clemente Is. and ran into a huge school of porpoise. Need I say any more? We slayed 30-40 lb model Yellowfin consistently on the jig strike. My Dorado Rapala lure definately needs to be replaced now. Other paddies were holding shy Do-Do's that needed some good convincing before they decided to bite. One (bigger model) yellowtail 1 mi. off of La Jolla found his way to the kill sack as well. Slow on the inside! Descent for sand bass, aka Pussbellies! This adventure took place Friday! See ya, JR

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 23:28:34 -0700
They're baaaack!   Started out Saturday from Mission Bay about 4:30 am. The bait at the bait barge were eye balls and fins, so I decided to make bait outside the jetty. After moving several times, found the sweet spot and quickly made about 40 mini-macs using squid tipped jigs and a little cat food to keep 'em interested. Reports were that there had been yellowfin caught at the 371 on Friday, so I thought I'd look at the 302 first, then head that way. Didn't find hardly any signs of life at the 302, so I started to head south. Then there it was...a hotel sized paddy that just had to have something on it. Approached carefully from uphill a tossed out one of the macs. As soon as my bait hit the water I was on! Turned out to be a nice yellowtail, about 15 lbs. Tossed another mac out and bam! Another tail. This one was much larger and fought me like a runaway freight train trying to get checked into the hotel. As I'm pulling with everything I've got on my 15 lb. rig a HUGE dodo leaps out of the air next to the paddy!! I'm thinkin' this is gonna be good...real good. Maybe no need to go any further. Next thing I know some dimwit pulls right up to the paddy and drops his anchor right on  top of it! Damn!!    Nothing stops a hot bite as quickly as blasting right on top of a good paddy! After shutting down the bite, my new neighbor decides to go cause havoc somewhere else. Marked the paddy into the GPS and went to the 371. I didn't see any meter marks, boats, birds or other sea life at the 371, so I went southwest based on reports of y'fins being caught about 10 miles down. I wouldn't say the bite was wide open, but I was able to scratch up 2 y'fins on black/green, and black/purple and a 20 lb. bull dodo on a plain cedar plug. The water was gettin' a bit wet in the 18 footer, so I pointed her back to my favorite kelp paddy outside the 302. Picked up one more y'fin on a mac and that was it for the day. Heard lots of reports of limits outside the 371 both south and west. Not a bad day all in all and sure beats my last boat ride. Dennis, another belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and thanks for making this fantastic forum available to the fishing community!!  Mark on Tuna Time

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Sun, 3 Sep 2000 08:45:37 -0700 (PDT)
Saturday, September 2 Fish Report -- We hit the SD Bay bait barge at 11:00pm Friday night and no matter what we tried (short of money or coutesy) we could only get pinhead anchovies with a handful of mackerel, smelt and sardines in the mix. My cousin's teeny tiny hooks turned out not to be such a joke! Instead of following the fleet out (they went more northerly) we headed straight down on a 185 degree heading for 70 miles. Early morning water was 69.7 but it warmed up to about 71 later. There was only one other boat in our area--the Fin Addict I think. I was on the radio with him when we got the first hook-up and I was unable to get back to him again. Within two miles and after two jig stops with no bait takers, we found what we were looking for--a KELP PADDY!! Only about 4-5 feet in diameter, it was the KELP PADDY from heaven. We spent the next 4 hours working it, drifting up to a mile off it while the yellowfin tuna and dorado followed us. Our boat "became the paddy". The dorado performed spectacularly--nearly every fish hooked jumped over and over again. Four of us limited on the dorado with two bulls in the mix. The yellowfin tuna were all 15-20 with the exception of a 25 pounder my nephew fresh from Navy boot camp brought in. We ended up breaking off about half as many fish as we caught. One tenacious bull dorado provided us an extra thrill. After being netted, placed in the kill bag and de-hooked, he proceeded to jump right out of the kill bag and to his freedom. Eventually, all the activity and blood from our catch brought in the sharks, some of them big bruisers, but the dorado stayed around, swimming amongst the sharks picking off their share of chummed anchovies. The handful sardines and mini-makarel were the fastest bait bit, but we have a new appreciation for anchovies. On light line, the bigger choves were bit well by both the dorado and the yellowfin. The small hooks made them work. The tinier anchovies were plentiful and used successfully as chum to deep the fish around and biting. We also picked up 3 yellowfin on the iron--two on a silver Wilson Dart and one on a blue and white Tady. With coolers full, we slogged into it for the long journey home. It was uphill, against the whitecaps: wet and satisfying. Thanks for the great website and the opportunity to give back a little information. Now it's time to clean the gear.  Don on the "Why Knot"

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle  Labor Day Weekend Report// Sunday
Wildbill caught 14 marlin ( all released!) yesterday !
Quote of the day! "You should have been here yesterday!" Marlin off Clemente Island
-It's glassing off this morning, Beautiful Weather.
-I think one boat caught 8 (or more) marlin yesterday. full details not know yet (fishing under the dome at San Clemente Island) radio reception was a little poor so I'm not sure of the exact location.
-That strong temp break seems to have drifted a bit to the south every day now
-Jumper 8:45 , another jumper 7 short of 152 from Dana Pt.
-we just got bit, were about 6 outside to dome. 9:30 am
-Another jumper inside the the 152 6 miles 9:45 am
-We've seen a couple this morning, had one jig strike but it didn't stick, yesterday we caught two on the whiskey line with a squid colored clone, (Petrolero) (JD's has the in stock) but it doesn't seem to make much difference, others were caught on a variety of colors. Just watch for fish to be underneath birds
-1 to 7 miles inside the lee of Clemente Island , several boats yesterday had 2 and 3 fish, the fish had balled up anchovies and sauries and were hot on the cast baits. Others took fish on jigs.
We were at the 277 at daybreak for nothing, we did pass up a school of dolphin which weren't playing with us, maybe there was something with them? JD's Tip: If the porpoise don't play around with your boat, they're probably working, sandwiching the bait between themselves and the tuna. -Get ahead of them and drop down baits (on sliding sinkers) or troll Rapala lures.
-Working under the Slide off Catalina Island not much happening now 11:00 am
-A mile and a half out of Fishhook (Clemente Island) we had feeders sleepers , we put one on the boat, we saw quite a few fish maybe 6 or 7 by 8am
-The majority of marlin yesterday were between The Dome and Wilson's Cove, 12 to 5 miles off the island. Many of the fish seemed to be small in the 125 lb range and were very aggressive , up and down quickly, you had to be quick to get to them. Several boats got in to them with double and triples not uncommon. The baits (mackerel) were small and a 7/0 or 8/0 hooks was necessary Boats saw groups of feeders a half dozen or more at a time, by 1 or 2 pm the wind came up a bit and tailers popped at the turn of the tide.
Tuna on the 43 hitting purple and Black.
Blue Marlin on the 371? (1:35pm)
Birds porpoise everything's going off, right on your numbers, 1:40pm ( 1:30pm high tide)
The wind picked up about 3:45
there's a swordy , hang on! 4:05pm
We thought we had a good score with four fish yesterday, one today, but the Kingsmills turned in their score with 16 fish for two days!
Dumped three on the troll Purple & Black (tuna) , or dumping bait on meter marks.
The marlin bite was not as good today, but there were still a good number of fish seen, hooked, lost or caught. Looks like the upcoming tournaments will at least have some fish to fish for. We'll try to keep everyone informed, though as the tournament time rolls around things become quite. Lets hope for a few insights of what happing. Best of Luck JD

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  Sep-03-00, 07:43 PM (PDT)
"Marlin Report - Sept 2-3"
Team HOOKER left San Pedro at 5AM Friday - first time out on the big boat this season. Made mackeral and headed around east end of Catalina headed to the 499. Around 9, just short of the spot, started hearing about WILD BILL catching fish off the dome in the middle of San Clemente Island. Started trolling their way after the third fish, kicked it in the ### after the 6th. They ended up tagging 14 (yes, fourteen!) marlin there yesterday. Absolutely amazing. Don't even know how to describe it, so I won't even try - until tomorrow's fishing news, that is! Several other boats got fish there as well, but all we did was run around and chase feeders. Spent night at Pyramid with it blowing pretty good. Took off around 4AM - got to spot at same time as WB. Worked it for a few hours, but the weather was a lot worse, with reports that it would get even nastier. Diacretion being the better part of valor, we trolled over the Mackeral Bank to Catalina and down the ridge. Weather was 100% better. 4 miles short of 277 we hooked and released a striper. It was a little guy, but it had a big heart and left very healthy. That attracted quite a few more boats, and several got fish. Heard that WB got two more back at SCI, and several others as well, but nothing like yesterday. Now that the marlin seem to be in town, looking forward to a couple of epic tournament weekends!

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle   Labor Day Weekend Report/ Saturday.  
5,000 Dorado!!!! see below
Clear skies last night with a 1/8 moon filling. Calm glassy seas this morning. I think every kelp patty off our coastline has been visited by at least two boats by 9am.
-Low Tide 6:27am, High Tide 12:51 pm
-33:24/117:50, marlin jumping , 7:50am
-The wind start to freshen out of the north 8:45am
-Another marlin 33:23/ 117:56 , 8:50 Jumper
-It was straight yellowfin for a while, they'd come up on the chummed baits but we couldn't get them to take a hooked bait. 9:45 am (Inside the 209)
-We had a strike on a marlin off the 152 fathom spot (East End of Catalina Is) this morning , but it didn't stick, Todd, "Amberjack"
-Another marlin seen 24/50 Must be a wad of bait and fish in that area.
-The wind came up
-The only thing we caught was a hard wet time, We did catch the bottom of the boat with a Zuker but lost it though.
-the wind still blew, not as bad offshore

5,000 Dorado!!!! 30 miles from the Newport Harbor , about 6 miles from the 277 to the S/E towards the 209 there was a strong temp break from 69 to 71 degrees in only a couple hundred yard distant.. I ask the skipper when he came in just how many , honestly how many fish do you think you saw; "hum, hum, I'd have to say maybe 5,000 fish, they were 10 to 15 feet deep and for a half mile each way there were jumpers in every direction all along that break". We had made about 40 mini-macks (6-8") mackeral just right out of the harbor entrance this morning, We also stocked up with some of the best anchovies I've seen in Newport this season. Seeing a jumping (dorado ) on that break next to a patty we slid in and starting using the chovies as chum baits, they wouldn't hit a hooked bait, but loved the mini macks. We caught 35 dorado today, smallest was around 10 lbs the rest from 12 to 15lbs, the largest at 30lbs. No other boats around!. The bite started at 1:30 ( Slack High Tide 12:51pm) and we stayed with it till 3pm the we gave up. Left em' biting! Great Fishing , simply great fishing. Several schools of porpoise were found half way from the 277 towards the Mackeral Banks were holding Yellowfin.

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine  Jack Burrito Sat, 2 Sep 2000 19:54:11 -0700
Don't go where I did!!  - 7:30 Sat. p.m. Went to N. 302, to 182 and back to Point Loma for nothing!! Bait in a.m. was micro anchovies, so we passed. Tried to make mack bait, but only caught one little guy and ended up turning him loose at the end of the day even after he went out on a few missions (few kelp paddies). Water temps at high spots was 70 to 71 plus, water color was clear blue-blue green, water a little rough from wind, swells small but very close together. Trolled with cedar plug, rapala, Tuna Clone, daisy chain, Crystal Minnow, plastic swim bait, and still nothing. The private boat fleet went someplace else.....we did't see many boats. P.S. Kelp "paddy" is spelled with two "d's". "Patty" is for hamburgers.heres a happy meal Dave on the Jack Burrito

ALBACORE - Allcoast Sportfishing  hipcash on Sep-01-00 at 06:09 PM (PST)
 "Albacore 17 miles off O-side"   I talk to some guys at the O-side ramp on the way out and they said they caught 3 albacore 17 miles in the middle of the dophin. I question that they wern't yellowfin and was reasured me they were albacore. Then pulled out some nice bags of filets. They said they got 5 hook ups but only landed 3 fish and estimated them at about 35lbs each. the water temp in that area today was about 68 to 69 - hipcash

YELLOWFIN - Allcoast Sportfishing   hipcash   Sep-01-00 at 06:01 PM (PST)
"Fri O-side Report"Left O-side at 5:30 and with a scoop of small dines and chovies and headed to the 209. Stopped on alot of paddies that were dry. Water temp from 8 to 14 miles out was 70 to 71.5. Worked our way from the 209 to the 181 and out towards 43 for nada. Then decided to head back toward home and found a patty at about 14 straight out from O-side that had fish. Got 2 quick hook ups and 2 fish farmed just as quick and that was it for the day. hipcash

YELLOWFIN - Affordable Marine   Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 16:54:44 -0700 
Subject: Thursday YFT Report - Butterfly !! Took the advice of 976-BITE and pounded out to the Butterfly ( approx. 50 mi on 229 heading from Pt. Loma ) yesterday onboard the Cazadora. No, we were not stopped by the Coast Guard this time. We did catch 16 schoolie YFT. Most were trolling CD 14 Rapalas ( Chrome/ Mackerel ) but three or four were on sardines and one on the blue and chrome iron. Water was 69.5 degrees. We saw several party boats and all seemed to be catching fish. I enjoy your site. Cazadora out.

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle   Fridays Report
From what I've gathered there were a good number of marlin seen about 7 miles or so from the East End of Catalina Island towards the West End of San Clemente island, just outside the drop off (650 fathom line), Batches of a dozen marlin seen at a time. This was several days ago and those fish may have moved on, maybe not. Feeding on balled up anchovies schools along a strong current break that runs from the 267/279 over the 277 fathom spot and towards Clemente. 

MARLIN - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle   Thursday's Report
-For all you inlanders, it was glassy, greasy and slick here this morning, seas that you can see forever. But by 10 am it started to blow again out of the northwest, even a funnel cloud seen. Water temps dropped to 66.5 degrees off Laguna Beach at 6 miles off. and to 70.5 on the 277 Fathom Spot. The temps havd dropped 5 degrees in a little over a week !
A Marlin was seen 8 or 9 miles outside Oceanside this morning, lots of birds and bait. 69.5 3 miles below the 267.

-High Tide today, 11:33 am, low 5:27 pm, again a strong surge of tide today with a short slack tide time frame. The bite time (Pop) may not last long today
-Water tempos at 70 degrees off the Domes (San Onofre).
-Bait (mackerel) was hard to get off Dana Point, boats spent a couple of hours for only a few larger baits. Newport had bait this morning.
-Left the 277 back to the 1523 now we had only one knock down out there. 11:50am , Our hot color Purple and Black!
-You can really tell when the water temps have dropped , especially when the salmon boat out of Newport Buckshot was working!
-Still wonder where the main migration of marlin are? This morning I spoke with the Escapar travleing north from the Cape- The marlin are at Mag Bay/ Thedis Bank Excellent Striped Marlin ! It looks like November off the Thedis bank, Bird pile after bird pile, and feeders everywhere!
-Some Yellowfin taken below the 267 on feathers 1:20pm
-The wind had the flags straight by 4:00 pm

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  Mark Brackmann Aug-31-00, 04:34 PM (PDT)
"Mackrel Bank Wed. 8-30" Fished the Mack Bank on Wed for 1 knock down. The water was grease calm with not much life there. We saw 2 jumpers and 1 sleeper that we spooked. Had a fish up in the jigs that knocked down the rigger lure peeled off a little line and was gone. No takers on the drop back. I did not see much bait out there but the water was 71-72 and clean. It was a good day but it would have been better if it would have stuck.

Everyone keeps waiting for the marlin to pop up in some kind of quantity. After this weekend, they're still waiting. Three fish were taken in the Tuna Club event - one 6 miles off the Slide, one on the Mackeral Bank and another off Pyramid Head. But that's pretty slim pickings for thirty of the top marlin boats in the region. The ever-stealthy ESPADON quietly released a pair last week while working the region from the Mackeral Bank into the lee of San Clemente Island. One additional marlin was boated by a surprised private boater when it hit his sardine soaking on a paddy 4 miles out of Newport Beach (one more reason to always be prepared for anything). But that was pretty much it for the marlin. There was a lot of boats working the 499 and off the west end of Catalina, but with little to show. We also got reports of a nice tailer show off the east end down to the 152, but no one claims to have gotten any of them. Of course, every boater out there seems to have seen at least one jumper, but, considering the lack of numbers thus far, one has to think it must be mola or mako. The same goes for swordfish, as we've gotten a lot of reports of two-finners seen at a distance. The only confirmed sightings came on the 267 and Avalon Bank, where boaters reported unsuccessful baitings. The most interesting billfish report, and something to think about, is the report of some marlin action late yesterday on the 499. The Churchmouse tourney starts today, and if that's a real bite, you know the anglers will be there. Stay tuned.

At what point do we consider this a failed marlin season? Last year at this time, there'd only been a little blast of fish off the San Clemente Island domes. It wasn't until well after the tournaments that a few fish arrived to save the season. This year started off well, but now looks a lot like last year. We know there are longliners nailing the marlin as they work their way up from Mag Bay; are we seeing the effects? Is this the way it will always be in the future? All the more reason for us to make our voices heard at the next fisheries plan meeting in September ...  Lest you think it is only the billfishermen with their lips dragging this Monday, just read this typical report from the other offshore guys: "Fished the (fill in your favorite bank) on Saturday and Sunday for one lousy dorado/yellowfin/yellowtail (your choice). I figure that means I spent about $40 a pound - a mighty expensive fish!" The numbers were way off this weekend, and I suspect it is due at least in part to the fishing pressure being exerted. The only folks who seemed to do well were those out Friday or early Saturday. By Saturday, and through Sunday, boaters reported finding paddies with few fish, but showing clear signs of previous fishing - mostly in the form of debris left behind by the fishermen. We even heard cases of notes being left on paddies for the next guy who came by. When you consider that some of the paddies were being worked by as many as 40 boats at a time, it's no wonder the fish are moving off of them! As for the distribution of the fish, they continue to be found from La Jolla all the way up to the oil platforms off San Pedro. Personally, I'd try further offshore in the hopes of finding virgin territory. There was a report of good yellowtail fishing off of Church Rock on Saturday, and a 40-lb dorado was taken out of a school of freeswimmers in tight to the Slide. Yellowfin continue to be taken out of porpoise schools, although getting them to bite can be a frustrating challenge.

Here at the SCMO Home Office, we have a long list of features and projects to add to the site. One of the oldest (like three years old) has been to provide a graphical chart of all the fishing hot spots to complement our latlon listings. I'm happy to say we finally found the right picture to use, and are in the process of setting it up for use. It'll have all the points, ports and hot spots on it, and clicking on a spot will give you the name and coordinates. Finally, you'll be able to look and say, "so that's where the 1010 Trench is!" Look for it in the coming weeks.

Best bite is way south at the 31.30 , 116.55 line ~~~~~way inside and below Ensenada (168 degree heading from Pt. Loma) Too far for most people( 70 plus miles) , by the weekend or early next week the cooler water should push up the inside and give us good temperature breaks between the 425 and 302 areas once again.

What happened to all the fish?????????????????????????????
Well? ~~~~` the picture above shows not much of big current break for the fish to follow and until that comes up our way we will most likely see the bite continue as a very slow pick. Give it a couple more days and maybe they will come out and bite again or maybe they have gone and we will have to wait for another wave of fish. Best hope is for a biggggg hurricane to form and push the warmer water up our way , it's that time of the year that this normally happens and it hasn't happen yet~~~`if we don't get a hurricane forming soon the season will end really quick. Cooler waters have invaded which also puts the bite in a declining stage , if the water warms again then look for the bite to turn on again. Later this week the is supposed to return but it really needs to shine offshore.

Marine layer for over a week offshore has killed any chances of a satelitte image so current breaks , temperature breaks can't be found as easily before heading out . Bait continues to be a problem , with sporties talking of rationing daily and the general public may be limited at times also. Anchovies almost to small to hook , live squid , great sardines , you never know what your going get each time you get there. They are doing the best they can and we are lucky to even get live bait year round so be kind to the guys at the bait dock and tip em out for there efforts ~~~~~tough job and very long hours .

This year I haven't really heard of any reports of offshore bait coming up on the surface in our areas , south of San Diego. No pelicans feeding ,diving ,crashing. Pretty dead out there right now.  Coronado Islands has a slow pick on the yellowtail , but very slow and the local kelp beds have not produced much a bite all year long. The season started off with a bang on the Albacore , then the Dorado came into the seen for a solid month and a half and then the yellowfin came for about 2 weeks. Cross your fingers and hope it still comes this way.

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  Joe Agliozzo Aug-30-00, 04:05 PM (PDT)
"277 Report - 8/30"    Fished 277 to East end, Avalon Bank Area. Scratch.  Water was 68 to a high of 70.5 - warmer at the 277 than inside.  Saw one porpoise school, trolled for nothing, about 4 dry paddies, only heard about two reports of dorado, both seemed to be near (inside) the 209.   Got to pay the dues, sometimes.

MARLIN - Afishinado   Aug-30-00, 11:05 AM (PDT)
"Marlin Herds"   I am not sure of the technical name for a herd of marlin that exceeds 12 fish in a group. I am sure that it was an exciting thing to see in So Cal waters. The Afishinado did a pre-tourney run this last week.

Friday, we baited two tailers between the 209 and the 277. This spot shows a bank at 367 on my charts. Good water at 72.4, however these fish were not interested in eating out baits.

Saturday, from Avalon hit the 499 which showed pretty good water and some life with 72 degree water. We did not spot any marlin at this time so we went to the Osborne then to the 172 and finally the 175. The water on these banks showed 71 degrees at the peak with fingers of 69 degree water. The life on the 172 was the best of the day with feeding porpoise, birds and bait all over the bank but no jumpers or other signs of Marlin. A long day.

MARLIN - Chet Spreen  So Cal Offshore Reports  Aug-29-00, 00:01 AM (PDT)
Ok boys it's tournament time, so I don't have a thing to say, no just kidding. Let's start with the question of the weekend, "Where in the hell is this herd of marlin everyone is talking about seeing up North?" Well I think the mystery is slowly being uncovered as Church Mouse participants are finding some fish. With nearly 100 boats in the tournament most of the spots that have had fish or were rumored to have fish are being covered, so we should have a good idea of what is going on later this week.

My info: Friday the sword boat MIRAGE spotted 2 tailers 1/2 mile off the slide, 1 more 7 miles northeast of the slide, and some feeders/tailers at 33.22/117.55 inside the 14 in the late afternoon. Saturday a sportboat reported to the GAMBLER that he had seen 2 groups of tailers at 4 and 7 miles south of Pyramid Head, we of course saw a good feeder/jumper show on the morning tide at 33.21/118.42. An assortment of tailers/sleepers/feeders were seen from the slide down to the 209, but no large volume. A few fish were seen on the Mackerel Bank as well. A spotter plane reported lots of marlin at 33.05.50/118.44.50, this could be the original "herd." Sunday and Today marlin were caught in the lee of Clemente and on the 499, I also suspect some were taken off the west end of Clemente. The area down south by San Diego has slowed considerably with only 1 or 2 fish caught 1 to 2 miles off Pukey on North Island. Sunday a SD boat reported having found a few fish on the "knuckle" but no real volume, there were also rumors of fish up by the Channel Islands, but those were radio rumors, but I wouldn't be surprised.

SWORDFISH- a couple seen just west of the Mackerel Bank and inside 4 to 6 miles off Laguna Beach. Also a couple were seen east of the 277 last week. Hot jig- 7 Strand pro series 4 in black/green. Now go get one! Good Luck,  Chet Spreen

OFFSHORE REPORTS  - Chet Spreen  So Cal Offshore Reports  Aug-29-00, 00:01 AM (PDT)
Yellowfin Tuna - Good then bad, good then bad, that seems to be the trend as the tuna bite well one day then tank the next. So where are they? Well, they bit well and showed well between the 209 and the 181. That area produced well for the Newport sport boats and the Bongos fleet. Reports from the weekend indicated that the best bite was below the 43 anywhere from 10 to 20 miles. Also, tuna have been seen and caught off Pyramid Head a couple miles, down  the lee of Clemente, out to the Mackerel, and on up to the 499. Down off San Diego the best bite today was off the inside banks near Ensenada starting 15 miles west of Todos Santos. It didn't sound like the private boaters did well as a group over the weekend, with heavy pressure reported both Saturday and Sunday on the 302, 371, 9 mile bank, and 425.

Paddy Dorado - The bulk of the Dorado seemed to have moved offshore south of the 209 to the 181 and on out to the 43 then up to Pyramid Head at Clemente. There was a serious lack of kelps which made finding good numbers of dodos difficult. There are still some scattered fish along the beach from San Diego to Newport but the main concentration is offshore. Below the 43 seemed to hold large numbers of both dodos and Yellowfin. The MIRAGE located a large school of fish off Pyramid Head on Sunday a couple miles southwest of the Island. Down south off San Diego the bite remains best down below off   Ensenada and further south. We also found a large school of Dorado under a kelp just 2 miles southeast of the 499 that wouldn't bite on last Saturday. There were some fish reported by spotter planes between the 270 and 286 under paddies also.

Albacore- Heard the sport boats talking about fish out to the west off the Dumping Grounds and the Worm. Who knows? Try west of the Channel Islands or off Morro Bay.

Bluefin Tuna - There are still some fish mixed in with the other exotics on the paddies off San Diego and then out west with the Albies on the Dumping Grounds. Not much to report.

Bigeye Tuna - These guys are starting arrive in larger numbers, maybe because of the latest influx of Giant Squid. They have been found in "Tuna Alley" between the 425 and the 302, offshore in random locations, and heard a sport boat catch 4 off a kelp on the Worm out west. I am not sure which worm bank these guys are referring to? I am only familiar with the bank down below Ensenada named the worm. The 7-Strand 1220c in "Goatfish" is an outstanding Bigeye lure!

Paddy Yellowtail - These guys are in the same areas as the Dorado and Yellowfin, 209 to the 181/182, out to the 43 and below, and then out to the east end of Clemente. There numbers and size have diminished in recent days. There are also fish reported under paddies between the 499 and west end of Catalina and on the 270 and 286 as well.

Mako Sharks- We saw quite a few little pup off the East End of Catalina on Friday, we also hooked and lost an est. 300+ lb. Mako on a 7 strand 1220c in Black/Purple 7 miles west of Ben Weston Point. Off the west end of Catalina between the 125 and 172 looked like a prime big mako area, with all the right signs of life. Tight Lines, Chet Spreen

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  MarlinNut Aug-28-00, 09:55 PM (PDT)
"Two marlin released"  Just got word that Reed Miller, fishing on Ron Johnson's SHOWDOWN, released a  pair of marlin over the weekend. I'm still working on getting the details; I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

MARLIN -  Southern California Marlin On-line  Jim Day Aug-28-00, 08:50 PM (PDT)
"East end sword"  Hey Stan: Baited a large sword off the East end of Catalina Sunday. Big fish well over 300 lbs. Must of tossed my mack in front of him a dozen times. He took a few good looks but finaly sunk out. I'll post the whole trip report   later. Tight lines Jim

Saturday:
Dorado's Trolling 8 miles out of Dana through breaking schools of YFT we hooked up dorado on the troll towards the 279, Mexican flag seemed to work best with Cedar plugs run short.

YFT: Headed 12 miles south of the 43 from good info and had yellow tail, Dorado and YFT jumping all around, again we ran out of bait and limited out, only two other boats there both Commercial Sea Horse out of Dana and one other.

Marlin: Jumping Marlin and no jig strikes trolled all the way up same pattern and saw fish ahead but still no luck, with the Zane Grey and Drambuie Classic heading my way Im trying hard and covering lots of ground. Rumor has it that a well known marlin expert will be fishing on the Capt Hook boat ??!! for these tourneys.

Sunday:
Dorado: Same pattern headed out trolling and got Dorado's schooling and breaking water, live bait seemed to work best today

YFT : Found them again with larger fish running today hitting lures, cedar plugs and almost everything we threw at them including plastic, Yellows 27 lbs , YFT 20 lb Class and Dorado running 25 lbs
Marlin & Swordies: Trolled the backside Catalina off the line in good water and Avalon bank, all we saw was jumpers( Teasing me) and a swordie ) we tried to bait the swordie and about bloody time we saw a Marlin , baited him he lit up headed for the bait and sounded ? Live mac so I sent out two more live mac's no go still.  

Had a fantastic 3 days , more fish than we could all handle, clean and eat,  but waht fun and so much easier fishing from a tuna tower on a 50 ft Pacifica, can see the world for miles. Chris