Great White Lands Angler in Hot Water

A YouTube video posted by someone with the username Ograza 13 may come back to bite him in the posterior. On Tuesday, Orgraza 13 posted a video of someone catching an immature great white shark off the Huntington Beach Pier.

• Watch: Angler Reels in Great White Shark [Warning: Profanity]

The shark was gaffed with a three-pronged rope gaff, hauled up and slammed down on the pier. As it bled and chomped its teeth, it was dragged around the pier.

Great white sharks have been protected in California waters since 1994. Unlawful take and possession of these creatures is a misdemeanor that can bring heavy fines and jail time.  

Capt. Dan Sforza from the state Department of Fish and Game told Pete Thomas Outdoors that the evidence is mounting.

“We have the shark and we've identified who caught the shark," Sforza said. "We are investigating and nobody is going to get away with anything.”

Sforza would not release the name of the angler who caught the shark.

As the shark was being caught, there were a lot of surfers nearby. Statistically, they were in very little danger. Juvenile white sharks feed mostly on halibut, rays and smaller sharks, as well as smaller fish. When they reach about 10 feet, they migrate offshore and begin to feed on sea lions and other pinnipeds. 

This is not the first time that a YouTube video has been used as evidence in a Fish and Game violation. Jon Apothaker caught a protected black sea bass on Jan. 3 off the Balboa Pier. Several bystanders posted his catch on YouTube, and he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service.

Redondo Beach Crew Member Loses 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 .

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

San Diego Tuna Bite Explodes

The San Diego tuna bite continued at a furious pace this week 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 have 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 eight- to 25-pound range and appear to be moving closer to San Diego. More dorado are also moving into to this same area.

Bluefin tuna have been caught roughly 80 miles from Point Loma and range from 12-50 pounds. It is best to be on a one and a half-day trip with an earlier departure to ensure adequate fishing time.

Giant Black Sea Bass Released at Catalina Island

The Gale Force and Capt. Chris Batts have been catching lots of calico bass, along with some barracuda, perch, sheephead and rockfish—but that's not all. Earlier this week, one angler brought an estimated 200-pound black sea bass to the surface after a formidable battle.

While the black sea bass has made a remarkable recovery in California, it was 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 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.

Twilight Trips Produce Results

The 6 p.m. 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 five to 10 sand bass per angler on 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, along with some good bass fishing and a few halibut, on the evening runs.

Sharks Sighted in Marina del Rey

On Aug. 18, Ed Barbosa, Bob Willis and Francziska Stegall paddle boarded about one and one-half miles offshore when they witnessed a large 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 [and] passing under our boards. It was headed towards an area usually populated by seals, but none were present,” reported Stegall.

Recipe: Japanese "Poke" (Marinated Tuna Sashimi)

Captain Greg Vela sent this recipe in from Japan for tuna fishermen to enjoy. This is a dish that is both easy to make and delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 block of raw, sashimi grade tuna, or skipjack
• 1 white onion
• 3 shiso leaves
• 1 green onion, diced
• Soy sauce
• Spicy chili sesame oil (goma-rayu).

Directions

1. 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.
2. Next, thinly slice one white onion, and soak in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes. 
3. 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.
4. Finally, add the chopped shiso leaf, and green onions to the top of the mixture.
5. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes and serve.  No additional soy sauce or anything else required.

Quick Bites

• Boats fishing the Palos Verdes Peninsula have been catching good numbers of white sea bass, sheephead and calico bass. The Redondo Special reeled in 15 white sea bass on a recent trip, while the Slammer caught nine sea bass for six anglers on Tuesday. The Tradition caught lots of nice sheephead fishing the picturesque PV coast this week too.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

• Anglers have found calico bass fishing in the kelp beds from San Clemenete to Palos Verdes when water temperatures exceed 65 degrees. There has also been some white sea bass, halibut, rockfish and a few barracuda.

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