The Gaff November 2001

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The Marlin Club

The Gaff Line

Since 1931

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As the season began to wind down (with numbers reflecting another year of poor marlin fishing in local waters) the autumn Santa Ana-type weather brought us some smooth seas and reports of the Marlin ganging up at Catalina. In addition, excellent Albacore and Bluefin Tuna fishing continued in the offshore (Mushroom, Airplane, "Dumper", etc) banks waters. The beneficiaries of all of this were, of course, the fuel docks. 70 mile runs to watch the Marlins chase sauries became commonplace. Sleepers were often seen around signs reading: "Do Not Disturb."

The next-in-line of the scheduled, but delayed, competitions was the Club’s Small Boat Tournament. MICHAEL BERRY (aka MICHAEL B) on his "October Rose" made the run to Catalina (along with a small fleet participating in the Mission Bay Marlin Club’s "Heart" Tournament). A tailer, at 0800 (Oct. 6^th), took a cast bait and guest, Joe Rodr, brought in a 165 pder on 20 pd. line = 1^st Place in the Marlin Division of the tournament.

That same week-end the Mission Bay Marlin Club held their annual "Heart" Tournament. A large number of the Club’s regulars joined in and made the Catalina run. Lots of boats, lots of fish, but bites were few and far between. The tournament saw only 2 fish caught with BOB & PATTY WOODARD’s "Christina Lynn" releasing one. Der Elf WALT GUTJAHR was the happy angler managing to "hang" a tailer/bait fish.

Next up was the Club’s Gene Grimes Memorial Invitational Light Tackle Tournament. Also rescheduled due to the shortage of Marlin in local waters this created a potential bounty for the fuel docks. But it was not to be. The poor fishing took its toll and the Club made the proper move in order to cut costs and cancelled the tournament for the 1^st time in over 40 years. Donated raffle prizes and awards will be held over for next year.

Last year’s fishing was bad. This year – a near disaster. As of this writing only 20 fish had been weighed in at the club – an all time low. The numbers on the board are brought up by a reported 44 releases, with many of these coming from release tournaments and several fish (5?) weighed by members at affiliated Clubs or weigh-in stations. Lots of Yellowfin Tuna showed up in local waters, but getting them to bite was a major endeavor.By month’s end, however, some excellent catches off of the kelp patties were being reported. Bigeye Tuna were few and far between. The "Ken-Dan" did manage to snare a 90 pder giving the team 1^st Place in the annual "Make-A-Wish" Tuna Challenge which, this year, was co-sponsored by the Kona Kai Anglers and the Southwestern Y.C. Anglers. 113 boats participated and the event raised almost $76,000 for the "Make-A-Wish" Foundation.

Finally, the season began to wind down at month-end. The last Marlin to be weighed in at the Club was on Oct. 24^th - a 180 pder taken on 20 pd. line by Board Member KEN MORRIS on the "Ken-Dan." This was a sleeper found in the tuna grounds near the 390.

The last fish to be reported by a member was a release by GARY JASPER on the "Wait-N-Sea" caught Oct 26^th at the Catalina East End.This fish was the "Wait-N-Sea"’s 14^th fish of the season. Not bad for the poorest season on record. New boat, but same old successful team of GARY and LYNN JASPER with Captain TOM SHANAHAN. Month-end brought other reports of an occasional fish at the East End, Clemente, 371 and 390 areas. So maybe there will be more to report next month.

Earlier this Fall we brought you information about two new concepts in Awards. First was a Boat-Competition Award recognizing angling success in a list of Club-sponsored or recognized local Tournaments. This list included the following:

Marlin Club Couples Tournament
Marlin Club Labor Day Tournament
Marlin Club Offshore Invitational Tournament
Balboa Angling Club Master Angler Billfish Tournament
Marlin Club Small Boat Tournament
Mission Bay Marlin Club "Heart" Tournament
Marlin Club I.L.T.T. (cancelled)

With fishing as poor as it was very few fish were actually recorded by Marlin Club boats. Based on the scoring of 1,000 points for a 1^st Place finish the results were:

"Skirt Chaser" ( Ken Schilling) – 1,000 points (Couples Tourn.)
"Drop Back" (Bob Woodard, Jr.) – 1,000 points (Labor Day Tourn.)
"October Rose" (Michael Berry) – 1,000 points (Small Boat Tourn.)
"Christina Lynn" (Bob Woodard, Sr.) – 1,000 points ("Heart" Tourn.)
"Capt. Hook II" (Todd Mansur) – 1,000 points (Offshore Invitational)
"Comanche" (Allan Sheridan) – 875 points (BAC Masters Tourn.)
"C Bandit" (Bill McWethy) – 750 points (Offshore Invitational)

"Skirt Chaser" had three fish, the only fish caught in that tournament. The next two each had only one fish with "Drop Back" and "October Rose" registering the only fish caught in those tournaments. "Christina Lynn" tied for 1^st in the "Heart" Tournament with one of two fish caught. "C Bandit" had three fish in the "Offshore Invitational," but finished in 2^nd place to the "Capt. Hook II"’s four fish. All other scoring boats in the "Offshore" had single fish worth 250 points each. "Comanche" had a fish on 16 (210 points) in the BAC Master Anglers Billfish Tournament compared to the 1^st Place fish on 12 (240 pts). Any one of these boats would have led the pack if they had managed to score in any one of the other tournaments. Ties are ties, but if we awarded but a single point for simply participating in a non-scoring tournament then the winner would have been BOB WOODARD, Jr.’s "Drop Back" for the victory in the Labor Day Tournament and then participating (even unsuccessfully) in the Small Boat Tournament.

The other special Awards are the Proficiency Awards (Angler and Boat) recognizing the fact that it is more difficult to catch heavier fish and it is more difficult to catch then on lighter line. In addition, scoring is weighted slightly in favor of releasing. For the boat award the original plan was to consider fish caught by Marlin Club members only. But with the low figures recorded it was decided to simply consider all fish reported by the individual boats. The Boat Award will consider boats with 4 or more fish. The Angler Award considers member-caught fish only. These figures consider, of course, fishing activity actually reported to the Club - through the end of October. In addition, the Angler scoring will reflect only those with 3 or more fish. Thus:

ANGLER AWARD:	BOAT AWARD:
GARY JASPER (5,5,7,5=5.5)	"Skirt Chaser" (4,6,5,6=5.25)
LYNN JASPER (5,5,5,5,5,5,5,6=5.1)	"Wait-N-Sea" (5,5,5,2,5,5,5,5,7,5,5,5,6,5=5.0)
KEN SCHILLING (4,6,5=5.0)	"No Excuses" (6,6,5,5,1,5=4.67)
	"Marlin Man" (5,5,5,2=4.25)
	"Capt. Hook II" (4,4,4,4=4.0)
	"C Bandit" (4,4,4,2=3.5)

MAG BAY REPORT: "Christina Lynn" departed Oct. 17^th for Benitos, Cedros and Mag Bay. On the way down they reported taking several Black Sea Bass from BOB WOODARD’s secret Bass hole. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.) They returned with glowing reports of an excellent trip catching a wide assortment of the usuals: Marlin, Dorado, Tuna, Wahoo, Grouper, Black Sea Bass, Yellowtail, etc, etc. No great numbers of Marlin and no bird/feeder schools, but enough to keep them busy and happy. And the return trip featured flat, glassy waters.

RICH & MARIE JOHNSON’s "Marie B" departed on Oct. 22^nd for Ensenada via San Diego (it’s a long story) and Mag Bay for, unfortunately, the new boat Blues struck requiring a turn-around and return for repairs, before starting out once again. MARK HENWOOD? Don’t leave home without one. The Mag Bay thing was part of the detour leading to their 90 day hibernation south of the border.

NEW MEMBER: The Club is pleased to announce that JIM DONOFRIO, Executive Director of the R.F.A. – Recreational Fishing Alliance, has joined the ranks, giving the Club a little more representation in the on-going battle against the commercial interests. His address is: P.O. Box 3080, New Gretna, NJ 08224

We have made it a policy to highlight one of theYear Book Full-Page advertisers each month. In going through the list we notice a name that is synonymous with the Marlin Club. Year in and year out – for many years – the name BLACKMAN has stood out in very phase of the Club’s activities. Blackman boats are famous up and down the coast, but DON & SHIRLEY BLACKMAN’s contributions to the Club are too numerous to list here. They have each served as Club President (SHIRLEY in 1983 and DON in 1992) and both have put in several years serving on the Club’s Board of Directors. They regularly support Club tournaments (ILTT, Juniors’, Couples, etc) and constantly donate many items to these various enterprises. And let’s not forget SHIRLEY’s contributions to the IGFA Record Book. Thank you, thank you and again, we thank you.