ESPN Saltwater

Editor's note: Based in North Puget Sound and operating from Alaska to Baja, Joel Shangle has been a news junkie on the West Coast saltwater scene since the 1990s, first as editor of California Fishing & Hunting News' and now as editor of California Sportsman, which hits newsstands in October. He's the host of Northwest Wild Country, a popular fishing and hunting radio show airing throughout western Washington, and has the deepest source list this side of the Library of Congress. In other words: if you're catching fish on the West Coast, just try to get away from him.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego's legendary long-range fleet starts to stretch its legs in early September as fish gradually migrate south, forcing the fleet out of its summer schedule of 3- to 5-day trips and into the 7-day season where Pacific Ocean "bucket list" destinations like Alijos Rocks become part of the regular rotation.

Not that the fleet is anxious to abandon closer-to-port spots like Cedros, San Martin and Guadalupe islands.

"Yellowfin tuna running 60 to 80 pounds, lots of albacore 25 to 30 pounds," was the on-the-grounds report Monday from Capt. Frank LoPreste of the Royal Polaris on the way in from a 5-day run to Guadalupe.

But when favorable currents push 160 miles offshore halfway down the Baja Peninsula, past the trio of volcanic stone sentries that jut up out of the open Pacific, this general area becomes a go-to spot for San Diego boats in search of massive yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, dorado and wahoo.

"Whenever we've gone out to Alijos this summer, we've caught tons of wahoo and tuna," LoPreste said. "Over the next three or four weeks, we'll start to focus more on the Rocks, and I think it's going to be a helluva season out there."

And Los Rocas Alijos are truly out there. Spiking up out of Pacific depths roughly 160 miles west of Baja — 480 miles south of San Diego — the North, South and Middle Rocks are technically volcanic islets that are part of a 12,000-foot seamount. The three spires are actually just the flashing neon sign that screams "Tuna! Here!"

The shallow shelf structure surrounding the Rocks is the buffet table, lying at the transition zone where the Pacific Current veers westward to meet the North Pacific Trans-Oceanic Current in one of the most diverse underwater environments in the Western Hemisphere.

In English: big fish live here, and lots of 'em.

"When the currents are right, (Alijos Rocks) is a fabulous fishery," Steve Carson of Penn Fishing University said. "There are always tuna there, no matter what time of year. Wahoo being more migratory warm-water fish, they're not always available, but they'll be more available now as the currents become more favorable around Alijos."

Over the next several months, boats like LoPreste's 113-foot Royal Polaris, Bill Poole's 124-foot Excel and dozens of others from Fisherman's Landing (www.fishermanslanding.com), Point Loma Sportfishing (www.pointlomasportfishing.com) and H & M Landing (www.hmlanding.com) will make the 2-day run down the Baja coast and fish between Alijos Rocks and a spot further inshore known as the Ridge, sometimes cherry-picking kelp fields in between the two locations for dorado and tuna when conditions are right.

"Literally some of the best fishing I can ever recall in my life is when fish are spotted in the kelp between the two spots," Carson said. "A lot of the time the boats will pull anchor and travel at night, but that's a situation where running in daylight — when you can have people spotting the kelp while you run — can be really productive."

San Francisco Bay charters reeling after IPA decision

One month after the California Fish & Game Commission approved a plan to close or severely restrict part of the Golden State's north coast to fishing and shellfish harvest, San Francisco Bay Area saltwater anglers are still wondering: "Now what?"

On Aug. 5, a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hand-picked a new member to the five-member body that creates and implements the state's fish and wildlife policy, the Commission voted 3-2 in favor of the North Central Coast Blue Ribbon Task Force's "Integrated Preferred Alternative" (IPA), a wildly controversial plan to create 24 marine-protected areas that will severely restrict fishing in several near-coastal locations scattered between Cedar Creek in southern Mendocino County and northern Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County.

The IPA includes the creation of two marine parks, nine marine conservation areas, 11 marine reserves and two marine recreational management areas in several traditionally productive fishing and abalone-diving areas, all of which translate into restrictions (and in the case of marine reserves, complete closures) on recreational, commercial and tribal groundfish and shellfish harvest in some of the Bay Area's favorite waters.

"We're devastated," said Capt. James Smith of California Dawn Sport Fishing, a charter that runs out of Berkley and Martinez Marinas in San Francisco. "Fishermen look at ourselves as the shepherds of the sea. By creating these zones, they're almost eliminating voices that are proactive in support of good water, good fish stocks and good management. This is just all bad."

Included in the IPA are marine reserves in the Farallon Islands — the North Farallon State Marine Reserve and Southeast Farallon State Marine Reserve — which will prohibit "all take of living marine resources" in two key sport fishing areas projecting northeast from North Farallon Island and southwest over Southeast Farallon Island.

"Those are two of our more productive areas," Smith said. "They're real popular areas for rockfish and ling cod, especially North Farallon. The area (south of) the islands is a good winter spot that we fish when the weather is bad. They're not telling us 'You can't fish', but they're telling us 'You can't fish where the fish are.' "

Veteran Santa Barbara skipper David Bacon of WaveWalker Charters, who has witnessed similar closures in productive waters around Southern California's Channel Islands, doesn't sugarcoat the effect of long-term closures on the health of the fishing industry. However, he also warns against a "sky is falling" attitude, which further darkens the public perception of the overall health of California's marine fisheries.

"Once those closures happened around the Channel Islands, I started answering all the phone calls from people asking 'Are there any fish left? Is there anyplace to find a fish anymore?'," Bacon said. "The closures impacted business before they were even in place, so I feel (Bay Area charters') pain. Once the public hears that some of the old, fabled fishing spots are closed, they go 'What? That place is closed? Well, heck, why even go fishing?' That's a difficult battle for us in the (fishing) business to fight."

Footing the bill: Schwarzenegger's zero-hour appointment of Donald Benninghoven to the Commission (Benninghoven ultimately cast the swing vote in favor the IPA) has been vigorously flamed as "corrupt" in editorials and blogs throughout the state, but with the final votes already cast, the next major sticking point comes down to the dollars and cents of the North Coast's new restricted areas. As in, who's going to foot the bill to monitor and enforce the IPA?

The California Fish & Game Wardens Association asked the Commission publicly to suspend new enforcement mandates associated with new IPA restricted zones, and commissioners Jim Kellogg and Dan Richards voted against the IPA partly because they were concerned about the state's ability to pay for monitoring. As reported by fellow ESPN columnist James Swan, the Golden State already has the worst per-capita ratio of enforcement officers in the U.S., with a budget deficit resembling a black hole.

"I'd like to see us call the state on their promise not to implement anything without adequate monitoring and enforcement," Bacon said. "That price tag is up over $30 million, but the state is still moving headlong putting it in place without any idea of how we'll pay for it. The state is breaking their promise. How can we implement (the IPA) until we can be shown where that money, over the long run, will come from?"