Fishing: Unusual Catch; Tragedy Strikes

A sportfishing trip out of San Felipe, Baja California on board the 105-foot Erik turned tragic early Sunday as the boat encountered heavy winds and two giant waves that capsized the vessel near the island of San Luis. Many passengers were tossed into rough seas where they held on to ice coolers and other debris for as long as 16 hours.

As of Wednesday morning, 35 crew members and passengers survived after swimming, paddling or being rescued by Mexican fishermen and Navy boats. Seven U.S tourists remain missing while another passenger, Leslie Kimwah Yee, 64, was found dead on a desolate beach.

Search teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican Navy are scheduled to dive the Erik to see if the missing were trapped inside the vessel when she sank.

Crewmember Catches Oilfish

On the Independence's most recent trip out of San Diego, crewmember Doug Brink skewered a jumbo squid on to a razor sharp hook and sent it overboard hoping for a bite.

“I caught a 125-pound opah the last time I did this,” he said. “You just never know what’s down there.”

After about 45 minutes, Brink saw his rod twitch and then load up; he was on. It didn’t fight that much, but it took a while to drag his prize up from the depths. Brink has caught some big mako sharks and is hoping to land a swordfish someday. This time, however, it was a 30-pound oilfish. Brink said it was just another denizen from the deep to add to his collection.

Quick Bites

• There has been some big yellowtail, white sea bass and good fishing for calico bass around Redondo and Palos Verdes. Bob Alvarez from San Pedro fished PV on Wednesday for lots of calico bass, sheephead, perch and cabezon. “No white sea bass or yellowtail but lots of action,” said Alvarez.
   
  

• The Fourth of July is the traditional start to the San Diego albacore season, but there's still no sign of any significant schools of the prized long-fin tuna.
   
  

• La Jolla to Oceanside is kicking out some fair sand and calico bass fishing with an occasional halibut and white sea bass. There have also been more yellowtail cruising around.
   
  

• Anglers are finding good thresher shark fishing off Corona del Mar as well as Newport Beach. There's very good calico action off Crystal Cove as well as some big white sea bass.
  
  

• Anglers on the Huntington Beach Pier continue to catch thresher sharks weighing more than 100 pounds. Pete Thomas from Pete Thomas Outdoors was on the pier this week the heads and tails of two thresher sharks. Farther offshore, the Huntington Flats have been good for barracuda and a few sand bass.
  
  

• The Westerly from Long Beach Sportfishing took two giant white sea bass to 50 pounds off Malibu on Friday along with great calico bass fishing. Kayakers in the area were also doing really well on both species. 
  
  

• Frank Rivera from Camarillo knew he had something big but he had no idea that he was reeling in the largest California halibut ever taken. The flat fish, taken on the Mirage out of Channel Island Sportfishing at Santa Rosa Island, is nearly nine pounds heavier than the current all-tackle record. Rivera used 25-pound test to wrestle the fish to the surface in about 10 minutes. Confirmation came when the monster was weighed on the landing's certified scale. The 67.1-pound fish may be a new world record.

• San Diego tuna fishing was still slow with lots of bluefin tuna spotted but just a few taken, but that didn’t stop Jolene Thompson from having fun on a Monday trip, as she explained in a Facebook post:

  “My charter on the Pacific Voyager yesterday was awesome!! First bite was at 2pm, only 6 hours of fishing with 28 caught. JP (jackpot) caught by a first time lady angler.”