Balboa Angling Club’s junior tourney underway

Balboa ... The 50th anniversary of the Junior Angler tournament

started this week and will continue through August 10. The tournament

is open too all junior anglers competing in two separate age groups,

there is no entry fee and membership in the Balboa Angling Club is

not required. The purpose of this very popular Southland tournament

is to allow kids to compete in a friendly angling tournament while

having a great fishing experience.

The age categories for the juniors are up to age 10 and the Senior

Division are youngsters from 11 through 15 years of age. There are

divisions for boys and girls and awards will be made to first and

second place in each category. There is a long boundary for fish

entered in the contest that extends north to Point Conception and

south to the 31st parallel. To make it easy for children to enter

their legally caught fish, a number of weigh-in stations have been

established. For Newport Harbor area anglers a fish can be taken to

the Balboa Bay Club, J.D’s Tackle on Balboa Island and there is a

weigh-in station in Huntington Harbor. Catches can also be taken to

Avalon, Dana Point Fuel Dock or any location with a certified scale.

Weigh-in slips must be mailed to the Balboa Angling Club in order for

the catch to qualify at 200 A Street, Balboa, Calif., 92661.

A minimum size of at least one pound has been set and all Fish and

Game rules and regulations apply. The species list of qualifying bay,

coastal and off-shore water fish includes: Albacore, barracuda,

calico, sand and spotted bay bass, bonito, corbina, yellowfin,

spotfin and black croaker, dorado, halibut, Mako sharks, Thresher

sharks, marlin, released marlin, tuna (any species), yellowtail and

white seabass.

This very popular youth tournament is sponsored by Angler’s Center

in Newport Beach, Davey’s Locker in Balboa and J.D. Tackle on Balboa

Island. The awards banquet will be held on the Balboa Angling Club’s

porch on Thursday, August 21. For more information contact Dara or

Jack at the BAC, 949-673-6316, which is open daily from noon to 5

p.m.

Locally, fishing has busted wide open now that warm water currents

have moved into coastal waters. The barracuda bite has been very good

for anglers fishing on sportfishers and private boats within a half

mile of the coast. The bite took off early this week between the

Huntington Beach Pier all the way down to Abalone Point. These are

big log barracuda with catches ranging up to 9.5 pounds included in

gunny sacks.

According to Davey’s Locker spokesman, Captain Norris Tapp,

barries are stacked up and finding them has been no problem. “Look

for bird schools, breezing fish or meter marks on the sonar to

indicate schools of barracuda. Anglers are catching limits on chrome

jigs and live bait,” stated the veteran Newport area captain.

The fast six pack sportfisher Bongos II based out of the Pavilion,

ran an exploratory albacore trip earlier this week and came back

without locating any longfins. Captain Joe Bairian of Newport Beach

fished an area some 85 miles from Newport’s twin jetties and despite

good water conditions they just couldn’t get a jig strike. It’s

looking like it will be closer to the Fourth of July before the

albies get within one day range of Newport’s fleet of sport and

charter boats.

This outdoor writer boarded the deluxe sportfisher Prowler,

running out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego last weekend, and we

got into good early season albacore fishing some 100 miles southeast

of Point Loma. Water conditions were a little rough but that’s

albacore fishing and despite high winds and a rough chop this lucky

angler was able to start the season off right by landing three albies

weighing to 23 pounds, passed off another hooked albacore to a

fishless passenger and topped off the trip by decking an 18-pound

yellowtail taken from under a kelp patty.