Current Marlin Club Fish Reports

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May 2002	June 2002
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May 2000	June 2000	July 2000	August 2000	September 2000	October 2000

Private Boater's	AMS	Fisherman's	H&M	Seaforth	Islandia
Southern California Marlin On-line		FishSpotters	FinnSeeker	Bites On	976-BITE
JD's Big Game	Blue Marlin Chronicles		Historical Landing Fish Reports		Hot Bite
Eric Nelson	Southern California Offshore Reports		East Cape Smoky's		Declaration
AMERICAN ANGLERS	Baja Anglers On-Line		Los Cabos Weekly Fishing Report		Amigo's de Baja's

2001 Marlin Weighed in and Releases

7/27/02 Marlin Club Fish Report Randy Hinton FISH PIRATE 27 Jul 2002 02:40:11
Fished the coast up to Del Mar and back to the bottom of the 9 with friend Steve Johnson. Water was a little off color and around 68. Very calm conditions. At around 3:30pm just before slack tide the center line was hit and we got a good look at the marlin, nice size. It hit a pink and blue jig but didn’t stay on long. 32 29.37 117 20.17 just north of north island. This area looked like the best spot of the day with all the bird and bait activity. Made bait at the bottom of the 9 easy at 6:00 am lots off mackeral there.

The wild mystry of the day: we hooked a turtle! WOW! Poor guy looked as confused as we were. We actually got him to the boat and after some wild splashing around got the hook out and he sailed off just fine. I never want to SEE what it must be like for one off those guys hooked on a long line.

Good luck,
Randy on the Fish Pirate.

07/27/02 11:02:16 PM Randy, "BRAVO ZULU" especially on the turtle release!! Jim Bingham Alias "Old Fart"

1st Marlin Dennis Albert 7/20
1st Marlin of the year was caught by Ron Reese (non-SDMC member) on the HUSTLER, 7 miles south of the Coronados on a Black and Purple, 44 Magnum jig, 50# lineweighed in at 127 pounds in at Dana Landing in Mission Bay.

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Sunday at the Bullring Capt. Mike S. 08 Jul 2002
Sunday,July 07,2002,6am, 4 on board,the Nokoi, 20ft, water temp 66, flat ocean. Aboard were Myself:Capt.Mike S.,Kurt S., JR Pesima, & My son,Jason S. We got a full scoop of ½ & ½ mixed sardinas & anchoves.

We read the fish report on your web site..so we headed for the bullring. In 80ft of water, we found a wide open sandbass bite,with barracuda stealing bait as well. We were catching fish on bait as well as the chrome iron. At about 8:30 am Kurt S. using a sardina hooked into what was a very nice fish, pulling out lots of line(drag)..& 20 minutes later..we had a Nice yellow to gaff. My son, Jason had brought a scale. It weighed 25lbs. Most of the sandies were between 2lbs with the biggest at 6lbs.(3 sandies) Altogether we ended up with limits of sandies, 4 barries,some(6)mackeral thrown in and 1 yellowtail @ 25lbs.

We headed home to clean fish,@1:30pm , Everyone being very happy with todays catch!!

Thanks, Capt. Mike S.

Friday (an anomaly) Fish Report - Marty Morris 7/6/02
Taking pity on their old (figurative and literal) "beached" friend while the new (i.e. rebuilt) engine is on the way (like the check - "in the mail" - or at least on the truck) Harry and Lan Okuda took yours truly fishing on their "Alresco III." Along with another SWYC member John Dory (not to be confused with the fish) the idea was to catch a few albacore and look for Kelp paddies (Harry’s eternal quest for those elusive 30-50 pd Yellowtail).

Armed with three scoops of chovies and ‘dines and blessed with decent seas we headed out to the waters above the Airplane bank. The last hour of traveling indicated somewhat of a chop but dawn revealed relatively comfortable fishing conditions - far from what has become affectionately known as "typical albacore fishing weather."

We started slow with a double and a bait and two single jig fish. Then, as Harry pounded (no, just bounced a little) uphill to the west things slowed down for 30-45 minutes. We headed towards the "60" and soon found some of the sporties and a few yachts, most of which were stopped. The fishing picked up and in short order had about 17. Being American waters we weren’t too concerned about "limits." But, still, there was the magic 20 for the four of us. So, we talked about "only three more." Soon, the 3 came at once with a triple followed by a few bait fish, and then another 3, more bait fish, more jig fish, more bait fish and before long the "20" turned into (almost) 40. Unfortunately, the fish are small - 10-14 pds and even then with a little imagination thrown in.

Finally, enough already, and it was time to head eastward and look for those elusive kelp paddies. Unfortunately, these were as elusive as the 30-50 pd tails.The boat stopped on a couple of these and they (I slept) tried the bait and jig routines for naught. But the ocean flattened out and we never saw a white cap the entire day. Finally, while Harry gave his imitation of Kenneth delicately shaving every last piece of meat from the carcasses (I volunteered to do 4 back at the marina), we headed home and made it by 1600.

The final question is for Pete Gray: on the boat I found a bunch of beautiful, bright yellow bananas. Delicious! and healthy! The question is: if we didn’t have those cursed(?) items on board do you think we might have caught 50? or more? If bananas limit one to "only" 40 think what we might have done without them. As for me - we don’t leave home without them. So much for that old wives’ tale.

Stay tuned - the engine is due on Wednesday. M

6/23/02 NE of 390 Josh REEL BRUIN Date: 25 Juan 2002 03:11:35
Had a good day...here’s the lowdown: Left SI on the ReelBruin at 5 AM. Got bait, which rolled due to the rough conditions. Didn’t need it anyhow. Went lines in at 0700 at 13/36 and headed for 10/40. Ended up working the 40 line up and down between 10/40 and 02/40 for limits by noon, plus four monster boneheads. We used a black and purple cedar plug chain shotgun, a blue mackerel yo-zuri on short corner, and a bleeding mackerel 6-shooter on the long corner. All were bit equally well. No bait fish...because no bait! What follows, in order, working up and down, in the nasty swell- Single on Bleeding Mackerel 6-shooter (BM) 06/40 Triple on 6-shooter, cedar plug chain (CPC), and blue mackerel Yo-zuri (YZ) at 04/40 Double on CPC and YZ 02/40 Triple bonehead 05/40 Double on CPC and YZ 07/40 Double bonehead on CP and BM 07/40 within 1 minute of the last stop Double on CPC and YZ at 10/40 to finish out the limits. In the barn by 200. Just finished vaccuum packing the fish. The biggest bonehead was 12, and the biggest albie was 22#. REEL BRUIN GO BRUINS!!

Last Wednesdays report? - Marty Morris 6/12/02
Didn’t go fishing. Next week’s report? Only if it is wide open at Boca Raton, FL. Today? Not a record - but a darn good average.
-Four of us were scheduled to make it out today, but yesterday’s reports were of scratchy fishing and sloppy seas. Two great excuses to "sleep in" and save fuel. So, I elected to cancel the trip - Bad move!
-However, not to let a Wednesday go by son Kenneth and I decided to leave late and try some of the closer kelp paddies for some ‘tails. Just in case, we took a couple of scoops of Everingham’s finest and cleared the point at 0330. With Barry Rockwell checking out the 302 we opted to head for the 371. From dawn for the next two hours we checked out this and checked out that and found virtually no life and no kelp (and, of course, no tails). But the radio chattered with the mosquito fleet down below (about 2-4 miles north of the top of the 1010 trench) seeing lot of eyeball stuff with puddlers, jumpers, etc. They were biting the jigs and biting the baits. Bear in mind - it was not our intent to be working "the trench." But as we slowly "worked" the waters towards the 390 - for nothing - and hearing reports of nothing at the 390 - it was time to "crank ‘em in" and run for an hour or so.
-We did this and took a little nap as we ran. Arriving in sight of a couple of sport boats (one being the Prowler who finished "with limits") and several small yachties we determined to run another 3 miles or so. But then appeared what we had been looking for - a decent kelp paddy. We were 45 miles from the point - 195 degrees (water about 62.7). So we slid up, stopped, drifted and Kenneth threw an iron as I slipped a ‘dine over the side. It started as straight ‘tails, then mixed with albacore, then straight albacore, then bonitas and to shorten the suspense - after 2 hours of drift we had 10 yellowtail to 16 pds (+) and 9 Albacore, most 15-19, but one "keeper" that weighed in at 30.1. Before we could get that 10^th albie the bonita moved in and we even took a couple to weigh in for the Kona Kai Anglers angling award (which includes boneheads - all the points add up). We were about 12 miles above the "trench" and did not feel it necessary to go further. We trolled about 2 miles and got our 10^th - an 11 pd jig fish. So we ended with double limits and were back to the point by 1415.
-Two good moves: took that extra scoop of bait (beautiful, nice sized ‘dines with a few chovies mixed in) and made that extra run. Weather was beautiful - flat at night and all morning and very slight wind chop coming back.
-And Barry? Alas, from nothing at the 302 he turned right (instead of left) and "checked" out the Butterfly - for zippo! And what about the other two members from our "cancelled" trips? Please don’t let them see this report.
-And I even managed to stay awake at the Southwestern Marlin Seminar the night before. Rich Hamilton had some interesting slides about tagging results and following the fish. Hope to "see" you in two weeks. Marty

Loreto Fish Report Marty Shorr My Susy 6/12/02
In the "for what it’s worth" department, last weekend I was fishing in Loreto with my buddies on our annual fishing and relaxing trip (many belong to the club, all of us also belong to Del Rey Yacht Club).

I have my favorite combo, a custom made graphite rod with an accurate Boss 870 with 600 yards of 12 pound mono. I was most interested in tangling with a 50 pound Dorago, when I baited a nice sail fish and landed it from a ponga on 12 pound. I’m sure it was no record, but for me I had the time of my life.

I’m still looking for the 50# dorado on the lite rig, but in the mean time I will be satisfied with my performance on the sail fish. I almost never fish with anything heavier than 16#, even when we are into big albies (last summer my boat landed a 42# on 15# spinning gear). Marty Schorr

JD's Monday Report - JD - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle 6/10/02

Monday, June 10, 2002 Report..morning at 70%cloud cover, some clearing skies, a light wind out of the south a 5knts. flat calm seas, a little wind ripple. Nice conditions. Afternoon sunny and warm,Solar Eclipse this afternoon, Stand By for earthquakes!

Meter 60-90 feet deep on the barracuda, from Newports harbor entrance to Laguna Main Beach. Use casting or heavy lures to get down quickly to the meter marks, Yo-Yo- and then a fast retrieve. . Good clear water above Newport to Huntington with Sand Bass biting well. Good Luck- JD

San Diego cattleboat continue to do well in the scores, with counts of 30 albacore or more and at least a half dozen yellows.

JD's Sunday Report - JD - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle 6/9/02

5 or 6 acre's of breaking fish, were getting slimed, got to go 11:51am, Cattleboat out of Dana, working up towards Newport. 11:51am

San Diego partyboats had to run 80+ miles south to get to the fish, they put on good scores. be in at 10pm-11pm tonight

Gunny sacks covered the stern of the cattleboats (too be resold? what that all about?) out of Newports as bass and barracuda filled out the bags.

Albacore catches were far and few between near the 43 Fathom Spot, A few yellowtail, bonito and even a report of a Bluefin.

JD's Saturday Report - JD - J.D.'s Big Game Tackle 6/8/02

Saturday, June 08, 2002 Report.. Nice calm weather, soft wind out of the South, 5 knts, overcast skies

Quote of the Day, "We're having a great time out here, even some of the mackeral were catching have smiles on their faces!"

1st. Marlin of the year spotted by the Jersey Devil, enroute from Newport to the "Hot Bite" at the 43 Fathom Spot they passed over the 181, 2 miles below up jumps a big fat marlin the stripes bright blue and light up! Estimated at 180 lbs it makes several jumps and sinks out. Slow trolling sardines around for an hour produced no action they left, only to find bait and activity in the same again as they returned from the fruitless 43 spot.

It was nice to hear a better attitude on the marine VHF radio these past few years. I think it was the San Diego boaters who, after years of not using ch 72 , it not being the "Hot" channel anymore, recently began to freely help one another with fish and weather reports on it again. Contagious this open-ness on the radio has spread to other channels and areas

302 Fish Report Dennis Albert 6/8/02
Fished Saturday with Al on my boat, TIGHT LINES. The plan was to hit the 302 and go as far as the fuel would allow us. I took 20 extra gallons, got to the boat at 2:00am and got it ready. Al arrived at 3:30, we hit the bait reciever and picked a mix of anchovies and sardines. Off we went into the darkness. It was calm enough to do 20 MPH, constantly watching the radar and GPS. At grey light, we found bait and porpoise just before the 302, so we started the troll. Al did Black/Purple and I did Green/Black. We bucked the swells through the 302 as they got bigger with the help of a little wind. We decided to keep heading west. The water temp seemed to be a consitant 61.3 to 61.7 throught the area for those who had an accurate Sea Temp. We continued to hear the mix of chattter from the 371. Those with no fish, those with Bonito, one with yellowtail, and one boat that seemed to be in the right palce picking up Albacore. Just before we got to the 230, I got a jig strike on the Green/Black small tuna jig. A 15lb fish. We boxed the area, but didn't get another bite. We circled the great 230, then back to the 302 and toward the Coronados., but no takers. We stopped at a spot for Ling Cod, but the wind and swells were pusing us to fast. We bagged it and headed for the slip. All in all, good day one the water. The wid didn't get too bad and we caught one fish. Tight Lines......

302 Fish report Peter Vasquez 3 Jun 2002 16:55:41
Date: 6/1/02 Water temperature: 60.5 Condition: calm 1 to 2 feet wind waves Time: 8 am Lure: Mexican flag color feather on 30 lb line trolling. Fish: 20 lb albacore. Only 2 boats in the area. Everyone also was at the 371 and 390.

Sunday KENDAN Fish Report - Marty Morris 5/27/02
Hello again to everyone. It's THAT time of the year - "A" time. It is also "W" (as in Wednesday Report) time. Yes, the Albacore have arrived, but the weather and Memorial Day week-end conspired to get us started on Sunday. So maybe we should be calling this the W-S report.
Last week saw such bad weather on Monday and Tuesday that the sport boats didn't even make it out of the harbors. The stormy weather "turned" the water over so that even Wednesday was a poor day for those who ventured out. But things picked up (despite the full moon) at week-end and Saturday saw some excellent fishing for both the sporties and yachties. So - Sunday was the day.
With a little help from Mark Henwood, ye olde (29th season) "Ken-Dan" fired them up and, with Kenneth and Daniel together (and not argueing for a change) and an out-of-town visitor from Tennessee (very poor albacore fishing back there) here for a two week Navy reserve stint and out we went - in the general direction of Bob Vanian's always accurate numbers (just above the top of the "1010 Trench").
The weather? It was one of those nights AND days that should be bottled, patented, preserved and at least remembered that are few and far between. That is, not a drop of water hit the bow railing until we hit Point Loma - on the way BACK! Flat? Perfect? Ideal? - take your pick. One of the benefits of such weather is when you are bringing a fish up in the glassy water you can look down and see them 30? 40? 50? feet down all silver, circling with wings out, etc, etc.
Water temp was 60.7+/- . Not a lot of bird life, but virtually no fish where where there were no birds (you know, the little black "tuna" birds). We caught all our fish in that 47-49 up and 40-41 out area just above the top of the "trench" - just where Bob Vanian's 976BITE report had them the day before. We started with a quadruple and actually had only 4 jig stops for the morning - but all multiples - two triples. That helps raise the count in a hurry. 11 by 6:45. And porpoise all over the place. Lots of small kelp patties, but we found little under them.
I then decided to keep going - down the trench to find the sporties - where the previous day's action had been - at the bottom of the trench, perhaps just west of the outside edge. They were report to have been at 77 miles. But at 65 we hadn't seen any life for a few miles and nothing to show for it. As it turned out I believe "the Beak" on the HanaPa found them at about 70 miles (the fish seem to be moving northward at a healthy clip), but the action not as good as the previous day, but with better quality fish (I assume that meant "larger").
But we decided not to go farther and circled around the outside edge of the trench and back to where we had been. Within a couple of miles of where the small boats where still working we started to pick up the birds and soon thereafter had a triple. We had excellent bait - mixed larger anchovies with the smaller sardines. As you know - the albies seem to prefer the anchovies and we had a couple of excellent bait stops so that our final count was about 50-50 jig vs bait. By 9:30 we had 19 - one short of what is affectionately called "limits." So started heading back up the line and shorly after got another fish to call it a day. Unfortunately, several bait fish follwed that last fellow in and we seem to have miscounted, winding up with 25.
The fish were mainly in the 12-16 pd size with maybe a couple a tad under 10. At the start of the season they always seem to look a little larger - takes a few trips to get your "guesstimates" more accurate.
So back to the point by 2:15 - not bad having been to 65 miles and caught some fish. And driving past the Marlin Club on the way home we were, as usual, startled to see that life sized Marlin hanging there. NO - NO - no one killed it - HONEST! It was the Marlin Club's "hang-for-a-picture" mount that, from a moving car out on the street, sure looks real. For reasons best not explained - he has affectionately been named: "Rich!" (and I am not referring to the skipper of the "Mil-So-Mar.") M

Fish Report 5/11/02
Local boats began to pick up Yellowtail under Kelp paddies and a few Albacore the first weekend in May. This past Friday, Yellowtail made a strong showing at the Rockpile and the Coronados. Friday had Yellowtail counts of 139 for the San Diego landings and 55 for Seaforth Landing. Saturday, the boat counts oats, anglers and fish counts rose. There were 7 boats with 163 anglers on 1-1/2 day and full day boats out of the combined Fisherman's/H&M/Pt Loma landing 109 Yellowtail and 12 Albacore. Seaforth's 5 boats with 114 anglers landed 190 Yellowtail.