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Sports

Tuna Invasion, Great White and Blue Whale Sightings and Dolphin Slaughter

Tuna move in to 1-day range of San Diego and bite with a vengeance and you just have to see this tiny sailfish.

Frenzied bluefin tuna action greeted anglers in one-day range of San Diego for the best bite of 2011. “We have been waiting for this all year,” said Buzz Brizendine of the Prowler from Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego. “It’s as good as it gets right now.” 

On Wednesday, several boats had there 5 fish Mexican limits of the tasty tuna by mid-day. The vast majority of the bluefin are in the 12-18-lb. class with a few fish near 50-lbs. In addition to the bluefin tuna, there has also been a few albacore, yellowtail and yellowfin tuna.

This has also opened the tuna door to Los Angeles/Orange County based landings too. Boats from Oceanside to San Pedro have been having good to extraordinary fishing on their 1.5 day trips. On Monday, the Amigo out of Newport Landing caught 80 bluefin tuna for 16-anglers while the Thunderbird out of Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach caught 43 bluefin for only 15 anglers. The Toronado out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach had 60 bluefin tuna for 24 anglers on their latest trip.

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While most of the tuna are being taken on live anchovy and/or sardines, one of the most efficient ways to take the hard fighting gamefish is on lures. Small heavy jigs, to use the vernacular, are super-effective in taking all members of the tuna family. Anglers should sink their jigs deep, to more than 100-feet and then retrieve them in a brisk fashion. To set the hook, never rear back on the rod. Just keep turning the handle of your reel until the fish pulls line against the drag for the best and most reliable hook-set. Tuna like lures with chrome in them so keep that in mind when adding to your fishing arsenal.

There are still lots of tuna for the multi-day fleet out of San Diego. Fishing 150-170 miles south of the border has been excellent and indicates that there may be more fish on the way up here.

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San Clemente Island
A few yellowtail are still being taken at San Clemente Island along with some good calico bass fishing. The Westerly from Long Beach Sportfishing had limits of calico bass including an 11.6-lb. giant that was caught and released earlier this week. Ron Sutter from Long Beach took a 27-pound yellowtail on the same trip. 

The Outrider out of 22nd. St Landing in San Pedro had 17 white seabass to 50-lbs as well as some good calico bass fishing too/

Catalina Island
Captain Chris Batts of the Gail Force reports good calico bass fishing along with lots of perch, sheepshead and some rockfish. The water temperatures are still warm at Catalina and that bodes well for a Fall bite.

More great white shark sightings
Captain John Ackley of the Westerly was about two miles off the front side of San Clemente Island when he came across several large mako sharks feeding on giant schools of sardines. Ackley estimated the mako sharks to weigh more than 800-lbs. That’s why he was shocked to see a great white shark that dwarfed the makos. “The white shark we saw was at least 15-feet and I would guess 2,000-lbs.

Private boaters filmed an up close and personal experience with a great white shark attacking a sea lion at Catalina Island in West Cove. The shark can be seen circling the boat trying to get at a second sea lion. (Warning: two f-bombs and footage not made for the quickly queasy, and the best footage is after 3:00).

Blue whales 3-miles off Long beach
Gail Force skipper Chris Batts was on his way to Catalina Island on Wednesday when he came across 4 blue whales lunge feeding and showing their flukes only 3 miles from port. “I called the guys from Harbor Breeze Cruises to let them know and they had a fantastic day of whale watching later on,” said Batts.

Dana wharf, Newport and Santa Barbara have also been great whale watching venues this week.

Dolphin slaughter at Taji

The blue waters in the cove at Taji Japan will turn red as the dolphin slaughter begins on September 1. It is estimated that over 22,000 dolphin and small whales are killed each year in remote bays in Japan. Sea Shepherd will be bringing a second wave of Cove Guardian volunteers to Taiji over the next six months.

Their goal for this time period will be to prevent the slaughter of as many dolphins as possible. “We will need aggressive, courageous, resourceful, and disciplined volunteers along with passionate and dedicated people to support them,” said a Sea Sheppard post.

Paul Watson from Sea Sheppard with be on Philip Friedman Outdoors on Thursday, September 8 from 9-10 pm on AM 830 Radio, live from Angel Stadium with an update on Taji.

Local bite slows

The coastal bite has slowed significantly this week. Slow to fair calico bass, a few nice halibut and some white seabass still around. Sculpin and rockfish have been filing the sacks in the meantime.

Rare catch of the week

Pete Thomas Outdoors reported a tiny member of the billfish family being taken off Cabo San Lucas this week. Chris Fuller was fishing aboard the Petrolero when he accidentally hooked the diminutive sailfish while targeting tuna. The billfish did an acrobatic display before being photographed and released. Its weight was estimated at about three pounds and scientists, after inspecting the photo, guessed its age at about 4 months. 

Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager of Pisces Sportfishing, which has been operating off Cabo San Lucas for more than 30 years, supplied Pete Thomas Outdoors the image for this story. She had heard of only one other tiny sailfish being caught, the other a slightly larger specimen in 2009.

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