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Sports

Great Grandma Wins Derby, More Shark Sightings, 200-Pound Bass and a Yummy Tuna Recipe

Yellowfin and bluefin tuna continue to bite and move closer to San Diego while local fishing remains good.

San DiegoTuna
The San Diego tuna bite continued at a furious pace with excellent fishing for yellowfin and bluefin tuna. The yellowfin tuna bite has been best 130-miles from San Diego where big schools of ahi been biting with reckless abandon.

Five fish Mexican limits of the hard fighting gamefish have been common except on days when the weather has been rough. The yellowfin tuna have been in the 8-25 lb. range and appear to be moving closer to San Diego. More dorado are also moving into to this same area.

 The bluefin tuna have been taken roughly 80 miles from Point Loma and range from 12-50 lbs. It is best to be on a 1.5 day trip with an earlier departure to ensure adequate fishing time.

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 San Clemente Island
Calico bass fishing has been excellent with lots of bonito and a few yellowtail on most trips. The Thunderbird from Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach had 21 yellowtail earlier this week on a single trip.

 Catalina Island– Giant black seabass released
The Gale Force and Captain Chris Batts have been catching lots of calico bass along with some barracuda, perch, sheepshead and rockfish. Earlier this week, one angler brought an estimated 200-pound black seabass to the surface after a formidable battle.

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While the black seabass has made a remarkable recovery in California, they were once on the brink of extinction. A ban protecting the mammoth fish went into effect in 1982.

The fish that was brought to the surface on the Gale Force was in desperate need of resuscitation so Captain Batts enlisted the help of a nearby diver to aid in the safe release of the extraordinary creature. The diver swam down with the giant until it was able to swim away by itself.

Kelps beds
Good calico bass fishing in from San Clemnete to Palos Verdes when anglers find water temperatures exceeding 65 degrees. There has also been some white seabass, halibut, rockfish as well as a few barracuda mixed in.

Thresher shark fishing
The thresher shark bite continued strong with sharks being taken from La Jolla to the Santa Monica Bay. Very good fishing for 40-80lb. threshers just outside of the red buoy off Dana Point as well as lots more around San Clemente, Newport Beach and Corona del Mar.

 Twilight trips
The 6 pm to midnight runs are still producing good sand bass fishing along with sculpin and barracuda. The Gale Force out of Long Beach Sportfishing has been catching 5-10 sand bass per angler on there recent trips.

Boats out of Newport Beach have been taking bass, barracuda and lots of sculpin.

 The Tradition out of Redondo Sportfishing has had good barracuda fishing on the evening runs along with some good bass fishing and a few halibut.

 Surf fishing
Surf fishing remained good on beaches from Baja to the Channel Islands. A variety of species are being taken now including corbina, barred perch, leopard sharks, halibut, yellowfin and spotfin croaker as well as some big bat rays.

Redondo Beach crew member looses battle to cancer
Highliner crew member Wes Neally passed away from cancer this week leaving a void in the hearts of so many who had fished with him. Neally spent the last 15-years working on the Highliner out of Redondo Sportfishing.

Wes Pierson posted the following in a Facebook post. "I fished with Wes several times on the Shogun and on the Highliner. Very sad news. Wes was a great guy and will truely be missed,"

 Blue whale update
Lots of krill have kept the blue whales around with sightings from Baja to Santa Barbara. Dana Wharf, Harbor Breeze in Long Beach and the Condor Express in Santa Barbara continue to see multiple blue whales on most trips.

 93-year old great-grandmother wins the Silver Salmon Derby
Pete Thomas Outdoors reported that a 93-year old great-grandmother was crowned Queen of the Silver Salmon Sisterhood when she recently out-fished nearly 800 entrants. Lenore Groundwater, visiting from Arizona, won the Silver Salmon Derby with the catch of a 16.58-pound salmon in in Valdez, Alaska in this women’s-only tournament.

 Marina del Rey shark sightings
On August 18, Ed Barbosa, Bob Willis and Francziska Stegall paddle boarded about 1.5 miles offshore when they witnessed a 10-15 foot shark leaping out of the water.

 “We turned to see a big splash about 200 yards away. He said shark...we all looked, waited a few seconds and then a shark 10 – 15 feet in length leaped way out from the water a second time, did a back flip and half twist then back in it went,” wrote Stegall on Pacific Coast Shark News.

 The trio then headed back towards Marina del Rey only to encounter another shark near the Marina del Rey breakwall. “The second shark swam towards us, heading South passing under our boards. It was headed towards an area usually populated by seals but none were present,” reported Stegall.

 Japanese “Poke”—marinated tuna sashimi
Captain Greg Vela sent this recipe in from Japan for tuna fishermen to enjoy. This is a simple to make dish, that is both easy to make, and delicious. To make this dish you will need:

1. One block of raw, sashimi grade tuna, or skipjack

2. One white onion

3. Three “shiso” leaves

4. diced green onion

5. Soy sauce

6. Spicy chili sesame oil (goma-rayu).

Preparation:

Take a paper towel, and pat down your block of tuna to remove excess moisture.  Using a very sharp knife (so as not to “crush” the delicate tuna), cut the block into bite size cubes.

Next, thinly slice one white onion, and soak in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes. 

Mix the cubed tuna, and white onions in a serving bowl, and douse liberally with soy sauce, and a touch of spicy chili/sesame oil.  Mix well with chopsticks, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Finally, add the chopped shiso leaf, and green onions to the top of the mixture.

Refrigerate briefly…for about 10 minutes, and serve.  No additional soy sauce or anything else required.

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