ForbesOnTech

Here They Come, Finnig up the Kelp-- Hey, Hey It's the Yellowtail off San Diego Now

From this morning's Ocean Fishing Catch Report in the San Diego Union Tribune:

Pt. Loma Sportfishing, H&M Landing, Fisherman's Landing: 19 anglers, two three-quarter day boats: 6 yellowtail, 12 calico bass, 7 barracuda

It's the beginning of the yellowtail season in San Diego.  grab your gear,buy a half scoop from either of the Everingham Brothers' Bait barges and head out to the kelp beds. My bet: the yellowtail catch soars over this weekend.

Off to the kep forest this afternoon--Jim Forbes 05/13/2009

Spring Time and the halibut Are Right Here Off Southern California

Warm mornings here in San Diego inspre me to get ready for the 2009 salt water fishing season.  Although newspaper fishing reports show that the majority of the early season catch are still limited to rock fish and the infrequent ling cod, experience has taught me that it’s about time to start fishing for halibut.

Hooking a 10-pound or larger halibut is a lot of fun.  They’re strong swimmers, and capable of turning a simple cast with a live anchovy on a two- point drop weight into an experience you’ll remember for the rest of the season. And, no one turns down free fresh halibut steaks.

A basic understanding of what type of bottom halibut prefer can turn a stop and drop boat trip into a productive day of halibut fishing. Halibut seem to prefer sandy bottoms and feed on changing tides. Three very productive halibut fisheries are right here in Southern California, off the San Diego and Orange County coasts.

In San Diego County, I’ve had considerable success fishing just off the inlet that connects a series of lagoons near Carlsbad and Del Mar with the Pacific Ocean.

Another good place to find keeper flatties is between the inshore kelp beds and the beach at the Torrey Pines Hilton.

Up on the Orange County Coast, the northern edge of the state park at Crystal Cove is a noteworthy halibut fishery, and it’s possible to catch  keeper halibuts there from the beach.

Spring time and halibut fishing is the perfect combination to kick off a new fishing season, I’ll be out this week, just as soon as I load up my reel with new line and buy some new wire leaders. Tight lines—Jim Forbes 03/19/2009.

Watching the Sea Temps Rise-- Waiting on the 2009 Yelllowtail Run, Along with The Seals.

As Spring daytime temps slowly inch upward, I spend a couple of minutes a day logged on to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s buoy weather and sea temp network, checking sea states and temperatures for San Diego. It’s a past time that leaves me hopeful enough to get my boat ready for the coming offshore yellowtail and tuna season— still several months away given low sea temps.

Growing up in east Los Angeles County, fishing San Diego waters was an occasional thing. I’d spend Thursday mornings looking over the Los Angeles Times Sport Fishing Reports drooling over stats showing high catch rates on all-day or overnight boats with light passenger loads. Occasionally, I’d arrange to take acouple of vacation days and head down to San Diego

to get a birth on an overnight albacore trip. I was seldom disappointed. And, I developed a taste for fresh smoked albacore.

Now, I live in San Diego and I’m much smarter about when and under what conditions I go fishing.  More importantly, I also have my own boat and I now understand that if the sea temps are right around 70 degrees ,the bait fish are fining around the kelp beds that stretch from Ocean Beach to Torrey Pines, it’s time to hook the boat up, check to make sure the gas tank is filled and the drain plug firmly seated and get out on the water.

One of the big joys in my life, is trolling up the kelp beds and seeing my rod tip fly downward, and hearing the line go zipping off my line. There’s nothing quite like a the sensation of a tasty yellow tail screeching three or four yards of monofilament from your reel as you work the fish closer to the side of your boat. And as you manfully fight the fish in, you sometimes feel unseen eyes watching.

Then just as you reach down with your net, you senses are overwhelmed by  blast of warm fishy smelling breath and watch a five-foot seal or even larger sea lion grab your fish and take off.I swear a little when it happens but end up smiling. The idea of a cunning predator that knows its lunch is but minutes away as it hides under my boat is just part of the mystique of San Diego offshore fishing.

The sea tamps need to come up about 18 degrees, and according to the fishing reports, the yellowtail schools are still about 120 miles south of me off the Baja California coast. But soon they’ll be here and when they are, my outboard will be tuned, I’ll have new 15-pound test on my favorite rod and reel and I’ll be out there in my Panga, catching yellowtail for the local pinipeds.—Jim Forbes 03/08/2009.

Oh the Karma !; Failed Ying Yang Tie Dyes and Sartorial Elegance-- at the Bait Barge

Tie-dying doesn’t always yield success and great looking clothing. Sometimes, it takes several tries to tie a pattern correctly and then guess what colors to use.

Case in point: the supposedly simple Ying yang pattern, which starts out as two opposite small swirls offset from each other. I had great plans for this pattern until this evening when –after setting for 24 hours—I washed my shirts.

My first attempt was a yellow red ying yang combo. Wrong choice. I ended up with a yellow top and a red bottom with a barely discernable red swirl pattern.

Looking at the finished shirts, I can see where I need to make tighter swirls and learn to carefully follow the folds,  and only dye about one half of the swirled circles. I also think I’ll use a resist agent to separate the patterns on the next bunch of two shirts I dye.  Come to think of it, a plain white barrier between the ying and yang would like nice.

Finally, my choice of colors for this pattern are wrong,  I shouldn’t use dark primary or compounded colors, but instead go for somewhat vibrant (but color wheel opposite) pastels.

The nice thing about my hobby is that it’s less expensive than golf, somewhat rewarding, and your failures are just as wearable as your successes. No one cares, however, when you warp and tie off at the San Diego Bay bait barge here. Beside, the fish don’t care that the pattern of your tie dyed t-shirt isn’t precisely executed.  The seagulls at the barge, do notice the colors and scream their encouragement as they dive bomb your boat with fresh poop.—Jim Forbes on 02/12/2008.

Gyotaku:Making your Own Hand Painted Fish Prints-- First start With your Own Paper

 

Gyotaku fish painting, how to record your catch and have fun (photo: www.gofishanderson.org)

 

In addition to making tie-dyed textile, there’s another craft-related creative activity I've learned; Paper manufacturing.

No, I haven’t lost all my marbles. I’m not trying to make 20- or 24-pound bond typing paper.  What I'm creating are 20-inch or larger sheets of paper made from a mixture of finely minced cotton or linen and equally finely ground rice.

And why do I want to pursue this obscure crafts art form?

Simple reason: I like to fish and long ago, growing up among some pretty serious Japanese American fishermen I saw examples of hand dyed original prints of fishermen’s noteworthy catches. Called Gyotaku ( read about it here ), Japanese fishermen would keep what they thought was a good example of a fish they had caught in water until they got home.  Then comes the fu-- as defined by serious Japanese fisherman. Working by oil lamp or candle light, the fisherman would painstakingly mix dyes or paints to match the colors of the fish (leaving the eyes unpainted) and apply it on the best looking side of the fish. Then they would press the fish--dye side down-- on rice paper. But it doesn’t end there.

Where technical illustration and interpretative art meet in Gyotaku is the fish’s eye, traditionally inked in by hand.

The resulting prints are starkly beautiful and often formed the basis of  ancient Japanese household art collections.

            I first became interested in Gyotaku as a teen ager when I met a boyhood chum’s grandfather while he was dying a wild rainbow trout he had caught in the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.

         As trout go, this was a spectacular 21-inch specimen with a bullet shaped nose, vivid red lateral stripe underneath a emerald green scales that shifted to a chrome white, right above the red stripe. In the 45 years that have passed since that mid-Sixties Spring morning, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a finer example of a “wild” tail dancing rainbow.     

    And,the more I think about it, the more I’ve come to realize that using that fish as the basis for a hand colored print on custom rice paper  makes supreme sense.

And that’s why I wake up my household some mornings with the god-awful noise of me grinding small pieces of cotton or old linen napkins in the family Cuisinart, and then grinding about one-third of a cup of white rice and turning it all into a nice slurry that I pour into my hand made screen to produce 20-inch long pieces of high quality art paper. After removing as much excess water as possible from the sheets, I hang them to dry here in my office. Then, If I want a really flat  surface, I iron the paper with e medium  hot iron and add the sheets to my hermetically sealed stash in the vain hope of catching a fish worthy of a Gyotaku project.

From paper making to an obscure Japanese artform ( with a brief stop on the banks of the East Fork),  all in about 500 words. I think my favorite teacher, Mrs. Ruth Trumble would smile.

            One final note: I once asked my boyhood friend (an avid fisherman and long time member of the Young Buddhist Association “how a Buddhist could morally justify fishing.”

His reply: ”It’s the fish’s karma to be caught and probably mine to catch it.”

PK, you’re one of a kind and your grandfather wasn’t just an artist and superb fisherman, he was also a grower of the best tasting Sequoia strawberries in all of Southern California.---Jim Forbes 12/22/2008

In Praise of the Common Catfish-- My Winter Fishing Strategy

            It's the time of the year when all of the plants in my vegetable gardens are uprooted, cut into manageable chunks and tilled back into the soil and when I'm forced to admit that nearly all of my favorite salt water game fish species have packed their getaway bags and finned off into the sunset looking for warmer waters.

            But this doesn't mean that I’ve given up fishing and gardening for very long. Instead it means that I spend more time outdoors prepping my gardens for next year and searching for a couple of five-fish limits of catfish in any of the three local lakes.

            I'm not ashamed to admit this: I enjoy cat fishing, which means I load up my coffee thermos, pack a sandwich, throw a book into my back pack and trek off for a night's fishing and reading under the sputtering glare of my old gas-fed Coleman lantern.

            Cat fishing keeps me honest. There’s no voodoo required, and no "secret" flies or lures. Success most often goes to the fisherperson who takes the time to visualize the bottom of a body of water and who is willing to experiment with a variety of proven baits.

            I have two catfish rigs out in the garage: a 7-foot spinning rod and reel combo with a medium tip, and a longer 9'-foot rod and reel combo. I bought both rigs on sale at the local WalMart. Both reels are loaded with about 100 yards of low visibility 8- or 10-pound test monofilament. I buy new line every year.

            I clean and lube my reels yearly (but more often if I go out to the Colorado River

because of all the silt in the air) and I clean the line guides and tip to reduce friction, which helps me cast more accurately.

            I’m not ashamed to admit that I always stop at a local bait shop and ask what bait they suggest. The one universal bait for California catfish is cut mackerel, which,  given the amount of time I spend on saltwater, is always on hand. I've been known to indulge in chicken livers on treble hooks, hell divers (at the Colorado River) night crawlers and even stink bait. But my standards are cut mackerel and night crawlers.

            My preferred terminal rigs are laser sharpened single or treble hooks, and slider leaders attached to one half-ounce weights. I cast, let the line settle, tighten it, then five it six or seven inches of free line and start reading a book. I sometimes hang a bell on my rod or add a "tell" to the line between the reel and the first guide, to alert me of a bite. My personal strategy is to let the catfish take about one-foot of line before I rip its lips and set the hook. It seems to work well.

            Cat fishing is fun and can be productive. MaForbes rises to the occasional catfish fry with delicious home made slaw, and fresh cornbread slathered in wild honey.

            But I live in Southern California, so when the yellowtail and tuna take off, I become a well read cat fisherman. And in Southern California , snow is something you see on the news. -- Jim Forbes off to nearby Lake Hodges on 10/26/2008.

Following Thermoclines and finding Delicious Dorado in 72 degree water

I’ll always remember 2008 as the year I successfully transferred freshwater fly fishing basics – location, location, location, plus knowledge of idiosyncratic species behavior to my salt water fishing.  No, I haven’t become a genuine salt water fly fishing lip ripper. I’ve just become a much more successful fisherman by using technology that’s on my boat and a little knowledge that’s stored in my head.

Two species you find offshore here in San Diego mid to late summer  are Dorado (hippurus Coryphaena) and Yellowtail (Seriola lalandei). Both are seasonal migrants to the local waters and both are a lot of fun to catch, particularly if you’re willing to use light or medium grade rods and reels.

    Most of my life, I’ve caught yellowtail on a hit or miss basis. Mostly, it’s been the latter for me. But that changed early this summer when I began using water temperatures and sea state reports as predictors of success in my quest for the three top inshore game fish here in San Diego, the aforementioned Dorado, yellowtail and the infrequent fishing reel destroyer, aka the Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri).

    Early this summer I began using an important feature of my fish finder; the ability to show color coded temperature band displays below and to the side of my boat. While I’ve always known that specific species of fish prefer and follow thermocline boundaries, it wasn’t until this year and four hookups with Dorados that I came to realize how important this information is.

    My awakening was pretty exciting. I noticed a couple of nearby big returns on the fish finder, glamced to the shore side of the kelp and saw a big blunt faced green fish with a dorsal fin  running the length its body.

    I shouted “holy shit, Dorado!” and grabbed my seven foot rod and Ambassdeur  bait reel and immediately rerigged it with a green plastic squid jig  with a white skirt and began trolling up the kelp line. It didn’t take me more than a couple of minutes to note that the fish appeared to stay in a band of 72 degree water near the kelp.

            I made three trips up and down the patch of warm water, saw bait erupt on the surface and within seconds saw an heard about half of my rod slam down in its rocket launcher beside me. 15 minutes and about 150 feet of line taken and retrieved later I watched as the male dorado lit up , it’s sides going from green to a medium yellow as my hopes began to soar.

            I didn’t see the five foot blue shark arc up until it tore the Dorado was ripped from my hook and terminal gear.

            Oh well, "where there’s 72 degree water and appropriate structure and prey, there’s bound to be another Dorado," I hoped.  I was right and 30 minutes later I boated a nice Dorado whose sides were a brilliant yellow by the time he was in my net, bound for my aft storage locker.

            Since that day last week, I’ve become a big believer in following 70 degree or warmer thermoclines alongside kelp beds on the

San Diego coast. The pay off for me has been more Dorado hook ups and a whole bunch more yellowtail steaks in my freezer.

    So if your business brings you to San Diego this summer do set aside a day and treat yourself to a three-quarter or all day fishing trip from Point Loma, H&M Landing, Seaforth or anyone of the other Ports with open births and great fishing fleets.

Who knows? You too might discover what it’s like to catch a big slashing fighter like a Dorado, or a bullet-train fast local yellowtail.  Or you might catch two ore three albacore or a speedy Wahoo. And once you’ve hooked a Wahoo, you’ll understand how it got its name. Or maybe you’ll have to replace your reel.

    But I wonder, what else can I read about my Fish Finder to become a more productive fisherman.--Jim Forbes 08/10/2008.

Yum Yum Yellowtail-- They're Off San Diego in Quantity

Yellowtail on plastic waiting to be cleaned

 

Growing up in Southern California, I’d wait patiently for the Thursday edition of the Los Angeles Times and it’s Sports Section.  In addition to a regular column by the late sports columnist, Jim Murray, it also had sport fishing catch reports from ports up and down the California coast.

            My belief that San Diego was the place I wanted to drown anchovies from is rooted in those long ago catch reports. And right now—in Mid June, 2008—is all the proof I’ve ever wanted.

            I tentatively launched my boat yesterday mid morning from the ramp at Dana Landing in Mission Bay and motored out to the Everingham Brothers Bait Barge to pick up a half scoop of active big sardines. Given a choice between a $20 half scoop of sardines or the anchovies, I’ll go with sardines every time.

            I left the harbor and steamed for the seaward side of the help beds that line the coastline from Torrey Pines to Imperial Beach on the Mexican border. I plopped an active sardine into the water, cut back the throttle to maintain steerage and watched my unweighted line unwind as my bait made for free water about 50 feet off the port side of my bow.

            I wasn’t exactly ready for the first strike. My line took off and I barely prevented creating a rats nest on the spool of my reel by clamping down with my thumb. I thumbed the reel in gear, reared back on the rod and the fish took off for the kelp. The run for the kelp, and the strength of the fish immediately made me confident I had hooked a yellowtail.  This gutsy, but oh so tasty Thunnoid family member is a school fish, so when you catch one yellowtail, you can be very sure there are others nearby.

            Very soon I had the fish next to my boat, which is when it decided it wanted me to do laps around the deck.  But very soon, after not letting the fish wrap the line around my outboard, I slashed down with the boat hook and brought my yellowtail on board.

            Slowly making my way north on the outside in a flat calm sea, I lost five more sardines to slashing attacks from fast hitting fish. But by noon I had two nice “big schoolies”—15 to 20 pound yellowtail-- on board, and was listening to fishing boat skippers trade reports of limits of barracuda and big legal white sea bass (which are making a strong comeback here on the San Diego coast) as well as fishermen catching limits of calico bass and the infrequent sheepsheads.

            By noon I was beginning to feel the effects of sun burn on the tops of my unshod feet, so I headed back to the ramp, loaded my boat on its trailer and headed home to Escondido to clean the one fish I kept for my household.

            I don’t remember a better yellowtail season in a non El Nino year and as long as the air temps hover around 90, I think the run is going to last through the summer. So, if your travels take you to San Diego, do take the time to go out on an all-day boat. Be prepared for fun but you may also want to pack some soy saice and wasabi in your tackle box. Yum,yum fresh yellowtail sushi for a boat lunch.  It doesn’t get any better for a summer Southern California fishing treat. – Jim Forbes 06/19/2008.

Perfect Trim on the Boat, Yellowtail and Fun Loving Seals-- Your Sense of Humor is as Important as Your Bait.

There is a natural rhythm to offshore fishing in a small boat that resonates with something that’s deep in my Southern California soul. It begins with the slow departure from the launch ramp and but rapidly builds as I leave the basin where the bait barge is anchored and then purr down the right hand side of the channel at the entrance to Mission Bay in San Diego and take a line for the leeward kelp beds that are just visible beyond the waves crashing on the breakwater.

            Going out of the harbor, I gently feed more power to the boat as I slowly push my throttle forward. But where the music really begins for me is when I pick up the incoming swells, kick my outboard up to about 2500 rpm and trim up as I leave the breakwater. Without any trouble, I find exactly the right combination of power and angle on my outboard and the magic suddenly happens; my boat is in perfect trim and I surge effortlessly along the edge of the kelp paddies under a perfect San Diego morning sun.

            Kelp cruising requires attention to detail.  I look for bait breaking the surface in clear parts of the beds or diving seabirds. Both of those things are signs that my favorite sport fish—yellowtail—are feeding below. Once I see evidence that the yellowtail are present, I unhook my trolling lure from the eye on my rod and stream the artificial bait about 100 yards behind my boat, as I chop the power to my outboard to about 1,000 rpm.

            For reasons that are unclear to me, I haven’t developed a preference for using lures or bait. Each has advantages.  If I see other boaters hooking up using lures I troll slowly up the kelp beds and keep one open for the sharp movement of my rod signaling a hit. The sound or sight of line spooling off my reel wakes me up faster than a cup of Yuban and is cause for me to walk quickly to the back of my boat to pickup my rod and reel to see if I have a fish on, or more often, have merely snagged a piece of kelp.

            Over the years, I’ve caught a lot of kelp. But even a four-foot piece of kelp has its purpose in my world. It gets reeled aboard and dropped into a bucket that collects things I add to my compost heap.

            Fishing is a past time of that rewards patient observation. Once I make the turn south of LaJolla and head back down the kelp beds towards San Diego, I keep my eye on the kelp for baitfish breaking the surface.  That’s the cue for me to unlimber my seven-foot rod with it Ambassadeur 9000 bait casting reel and impale a lively green sardine or wiggly anchovy on a sharp hook and then gently lob it into the kelp to swim unencumbered by weight. With any luck I’ll get a hit with 15 minutes as I bob about the ocean letting the bait swim through the kelp.

            The feel of a lightning quick hit on my bait and hearing the line spool off my reel is what keeps me out on the water. I don’t muscle fish to the side of my boat. I prefer to let them run and tire as I slowly keep pressure on the fish and recover line on my reel. If it’s meant to be, I soon glimpse color out beyond the point where my line enters the green gray Pacific inshore waters.

            If I’m fishing alone, I’ll take a moment to identify the species of fish and then reach down with my short handled gaff if I want to take it. Yellowtail are keepers, so are barracudas and big sand bass.

            But the one thing that can ruin an otherwise perfect experience is to sense something large cutting through the water, then hear a big exhale and witness the slashing attack of a seal ripping a 20 pound yellowtail off your line and then swimming happily away to enjoy its fresh hamachi.

            There are days when I really hate seals! But at the end of my time on the water I can’t help but smile at an animal that’s figured out how to enjoy the benefits of someone else’s luck in catching fish in the morning sunlight of a perfect day on the Pacific.—Jim Forbes m06/02/2008/

Booming Barracuda Run Kicks Off 2008 Fishing Season-- Suggestions for a Tasty Treat

Here in San Diego, the water temps are coming up nicely, the bait fish are inshore and abundant and the sound coming out of most fishermen’s tongues on the boat ramps is a plaintive “Ba Ba Barracuda.” That’s right the 2008 season started out this week with sport fisherman cruising the outside of inshore kelp beds and watching their rods jink and dive with barracuda hook ups on live anchovies of lures that mimic big chovies.

My lord, there a lot of barracuda out off Pacific and Ocean Beaches and right off LaJolla. Hanging around the launch ramp at Dana Landing in Mission Bay late this morning It was hard not to notice anglers coming back with limits of ‘cuda. And the morning and evening cattle boats are coming back from five and six hour excursions with up to 95 legal cudas per boat. It’s been decades since I’ve seen a noteworthy barracuda bite of southern California, and I can’t remember ever seeing an inshore bite like the one happening on the southern California coast now.

I’m not a specialist fishermen, but I do love catching ‘cudas on the California coast they hit like freight trains, run forever and you have to fight all the way to your boat. There’s enough tussle in a legal barracuda to produce lifelong memories.

Most of how I fish for ‘cudas was passed on to me by a family friend, master fisherman, named Joe Cornejo and an Uncle, Bill Grandell, who owned a commercial fishing boat that was home ported in Wilmington harbor.How I was taught to fish for cuda was to use an extremely sharp hook, about 12 inches of wire leader and big active anchovies (or sardines if they’re available at the bait receiver). I use a six foot rod with a limber tip, an Ambassadeur 9000 bait casting reel and try to get the bait into clear water in kelp beds.  I don’t use any weight on the terminal tackle and let the bait take line from my reel, which I keep in it’s free spool mode.

I keep my eye open for bait on the surface, which generally means there are cudas hunting below.  There’s no mistaking a barracuda hook up. The line takes off as the fish scoots away. I prefer to set the hook firmly and fight the fish using minimal drag on my reel. What I love most about barracudas is they will fight you all the way to the rail of your boat, and they are lightning quick.

Cudas are school fish, so if you catch one, you should try to get your line back in the water as soon as possible.

I also enjoy throwing iron for barracudas.  I use an old Rapalla in an anchovy pattern and a variety of other shiny lures with dark green patterns that I throw  into open water in kelp beds and retrieve at a moderate speed—stopping occasionally to let the lure sink back down. My spinning rod is seven feet long and my reel is loaded with 10-pound test low visibility Stren line. Serious ‘cuda fishermen here in San Diego often use fresh water spinning outfits, which makes catching a 24-inch 8-pounder something you’ll remember for a very long time.

So, what do you do with the two or three cudas you bring home?

Start by removing the dark stripe of flesh you find along the fish’s side, then clean it as you would any other toothy fish. Barbequed or smoked barracuda is something many people enjoy, but to many southern California fishermen, the real joy of a ‘cuda is frying up tasty barracuda burgers, just like you had on the charter boats as a kid.

Here’s how you make barracuda burgers.

Catch and clean the fish. Remove head and dark flesh on sides. Mince up the meat from one or two fish. (Note, one fish makes four to five patties).

            Place minced fish meat in bowl.

            Crack open and mush in the contents of one lightly beaten egg per fish.

            Add several tablespoons of breadcrumbs to mixture at the rate of three tablespoons per fish.

            Medium dice one-quarter onion per fish and mince one stalk of celery.

            Add vegetable mixture to minced fish product.

            Season with one tspn salt and several big dashes of white pepper. (note, I like t o add one tbsp of minced fresh jalapenos to my patty mixture.

            Add three tsp fresh lemon juice (per fish) and one tsp each of olive or vegetable oil, one tbsp minced dill, 1-2 tbsp tartar sauce.

Thoroughly mix ingredients and form one-half-inch patties

            Cook in hot oil in a frying pan. Brown both sides of patties, serve on hamburger buns and enjoy.

            Tight lines and remember Barracudas have nice sharp teeth so have fun—Jim Forbes, wirelessly from the launch ramp at Dana Landing in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA on 05/11/2008 using an incredibly rugged ThinkPad X300..

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