We’ve Got Tunas in Time For Tuna & Tiaras Tournament
By Scott Lenox
Posted on June 12th, 2025
It was a warm one today, and with little wind it and sunny skies it felt down right hot. There was some fog to contend with on the ocean for most of the morning, but thankfully there are some tuna within striking distance now and that’s good news for this weekend’s ladies only tuna tournament Tuna and Tiaras. 63 boats will be competing for bragging rights and over $143,000! Good luck to all of you lady anglers and teams!
Captain Dale Lisi of the Foolish Pleasures is back to fishing after an offseason of boat work and his angers are happy to see it. Captain Dale fished the Washington Canyon today and used plastics to troll up five nice yellowfin tuna for the fish box.
Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters had a good time with the bluefish in the OC Inlet today.
The Ocean Princess had a great day with their long fish to the tilefish grounds with some very nice blue lines going home in coolers.
Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfisihing had an angler with a nice 19″ keeper flounder on a Deadly Tackle Deadly Double, and then this afternoon there was some good shooting for rays on the southern bay.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a good day with the sea bass despite this morning’s fog.
Busy boat this morning. Sold out with a lot of regulars aboard; also had Andy from MPT and his cameraman – my friend Nick Caloyianis who has done so much for bringing the underwater world to screen. (Seriously – look up Nick’s ‘demo reels’ on youtube. Amazing marine encounters after a lifetime of u/w work with NatGeo and Discovery.) We also had two state ‘fish counters’ aboard. No individual has screamed louder than I have about bad catch data. Having em on the rail gives statisticians a leg up. Trust me – no estimate based on today will send Party/Charter over quota.
Visibility was fine as we cleared the inlet.
Didn’t last.
Was just after noon when I turned off the radar. Visibility 25 yards at times – yet saw several targets running at 25+ knots..
Rather courageous I think.
I’d seen them coming on the four mile ring. Closer and closer – no change in bearing. 1995? Signaling not with CG required ship’s bell while at anchor (from the age of sail?) ..I well remember laying on the OC Princess’s kahlenberg horns (could hear them in Berlin while at Shantytown dock with an east wind) and had mates with razor sharp serrated knives ready to cut anchor lines. A forty-five ft boat making 20+ knots was holding hard into my stb side.
As they pulled her back and turned hard to starboard the boat’s wake slapped my hull..
I’d been within a second of cutting both anchors and coming hard astern when I’d watched them turn on my smallest scale – an eighth of a mile.
A very loud horn blaring continuosly had saved me a ton of paperwork – maybe a lot more too.
They idled off my bow a good hour or so until we were done fishing. They had no radar and I did – our near collision found them wanting an escort.
Radar is a funny beast. No sure bet;
security via electronics can be an illusion. Have to be able to tune them too – and recognize some small boats just don’t ‘paint’ at all.
The late Capt Bruce Bartlet (my dear friend Doug Ake told him, “You’re a pirate born 250 years too late!”) ..Bruce spent many nights in our canyons commercial tuna fishing in a fairly small boat.
Still back in the 1990s; this hearty skipper was coming in as I was headed out – I hailed him on the VHF radio: “Bruce, I have my radar dialed in tight and set to ‘fry’ – but I cannot paint you.
Said he wondered why ships seemed to ignore him – lot of close calls.
He bought radar reflectors like sailboats often use – ships saw him from then on.
Capt Bruce died beneath that boat. A huge tuna pulled him over…
Ahhh! Back to today’s venture.
Young misters Gage & Henry were our guest reef builders today. They dropped a perfect shot on the newly named Gratitude Reef.
Fishing began well enough. Caught fish where I marked em. Some good keepers; even a fluke came over the rail.
Then my drift changed.
Holy Hanna did the bite turn tough! From catching cbass where there shouldn’t have been any, to a super-slow pick along the rail with 15 – even 20 ft of sea bass on my machines..
At 11:15 I tried yet another fresh piece of bottom – marked fish great – they just ignored our offerings.
I do mean completely ignored!
Jigs, three kinds of bait – flounder rigs with fluke belly – nada.
Ran several miles more to another spot: same greeting.
Brutal.
Picked up again – another run. Something had changed – if just a little. In stacks of sea bass that would normally be wonderfully entertaining ..we found a few that would bite – including Irving’s awesome double with the pool winner.
An extra hour and some helped a little. Won the pool at least!
Being late gave us a taste of the airshow to come as well.
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