Offshore ocean fishing could be on the verge of breaking loose after reports yesterday about albacore being caught at the top edge of the West Butterfly Bank, about 61 miles southwest of Point Loma.
The report was sketchy, but radio chatter early in the day indicated a private yacht and possibly one other found 15-to 18-pound albacore on a 240 heading out of Point Loma. If the reports are true, the fish covered nearly 200 miles in a couple of weeks.
“They're coming,” said Tommy Gomes of Catalina Offshore Products. Gomes said he was in a spotter plane two weeks ago and saw pockets of albacore heading north from Guadalupe Island, 150 miles off the coast of Baja, about 250 miles south of San Diego.
“This is classic late spring, early summer type fishing,” said Gomes, who, in addition to working for Catalina Offshore Products also manufactures Uni-Goop and Uni-Butter. “Bonito, barracuda and threshers are biting, and there's yellowtail at the Coronados. We've got this high pressure going right now, and there's a foggy bank just offshore. It's the right water and the right conditions for this stuff to pop.”
Early reports yesterday indicated the first boat that landed the longfins was heading back to the Balboa Angling Club to weigh in the club's first albacore of the season. Bob Markland, weighmaster at the club in Balboa, confirmed he had heard about albacore catches, but he didn't know if the anglers were from his club.
“We have no confirmation as of yet,” Markland said at 4:15 p.m. yesterday. “I heard some radio scuttlebutt, but no confirmation. I'd hate to report on radio fish to you right now.”
Markland said a report on JD's Big Game Web site (www.jdsbiggame.com) indicated albacore were landed on trolled jigs around 9:30 a.m. yesterday. The fishermen said they were fishing for bonito when albacore struck, and one boat reported a quadruple jig strike on black and purple lures.
Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Association of California, was in contact early yesterday morning with members of the fishing community who had heard the reports on the radio. He said they came from Steve Crooke, a former Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist who had heard the news from John Lloyd of Zuker Lures. Fletcher said Lloyd picked up the information while listening to radio chatter.
It was enough for Fletcher to alert the sportfishing landings, and at least one, Seaforth Sportfishing, has put one boat, Captain Shawn Trowbridge's Legend, on line tonight to go to that area in search of albacore.
“We have the Pacific Voyager out right now on a 2½-day trip, and (Capt. Mark Oronoz) reported 30 yellowtail in the 8-to 12-pound range and limits of bonito,” said Mike Gauger of Seaforth.
A check of the landings indicated no sport boats had reported albacore.
Ken Wehinger at H&M Landing said the Producer was on a 1½-day run, but he had not heard any reports from the boat's captain, Jim O'Brien.
“We have six boats out today on three-quarter-day trips, and all of them have reported that they've caught some yellowtail,” Wehinger said. “But we haven't heard a word from the Producer. They took Mexican fishing permits Friday night, but we don't know where they went or if they've caught anything yet.”
Gomes said it makes sense for albacore to show at the West Butterfly Bank right now after moving up from Guadalupe.
After disappearing in the early-to mid-1990s, albacore started showing up off the Southern California coast in 1997 when the Point Loma-based one-day fleet landed 36,429 albacore. It jumped to 60,028 in 1998 and 122,084 in 1999. After peaking at 239,801 albacore in 2002, the longfins dipped each year until bottoming out at just 6,714 in 2006. But they came back again last year, with boats landing 37,446 albacore as captains began predicting good things for 2008.
For the last month or so, veteran captains like Chuck and Bob Taft at H&M Landing and others have been pointing out the amount of bait in the water, the fact that the water temperature is cooler and more conducive to albacore and that the water looks to be cleaner over a wider span of ocean.
If the longfins do show as close as 50 and 60 miles like this, it will help boats save on fuel. Diesel now costs over $4 a gallon.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
