Climate is Right for Early Arrivals

The Climate Prediction Center said that the El Nio climate pattern will affect Southern California until at least until spring starts. El Nio is an abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean which causes wild swings in weather from Asia to South America. It can cause drought in some areas and torrential rains in other areas.

Fishermen have been seeing the effects of El Nio since the first of the year. In Costa Rica, Crocodile Bay has been reporting an early showing of marlin and sailfish. Shane Halle of Torrance was on a recent trip to Cabo San Lucas and saw the effects of the El Nio for himself. Halle caught and released a 175-pound black marlin while fishing with his father, Randy Halle, off the coast of Cabo San Lucas.

Shane Halle had never caught a fish over 40 pounds, so this was an angling milestone for the 19-year-old. He was sore the next day from pulling on the marlin, but he elected to go out again. Halle caught a second black marlin weighing 100 and two dorado weighing 40 pounds and 25 pounds.

Warming up: Closer to home, water temperatures are abnormally warm, there are Humboldt squid from Baja California to the Cordell Bank off of San Francisco. The white seabass bite has started early at Santa Catalina Island too.

Pete Gray from the “Let’s Talk Hook-Up” radio show caught three white seabass to 21 pounds on Tuesday.

“I’ve never caught a white seabass this early in the year at Catalina,” Gray said. “I am excited about what’s going to happen this year.”

And there are more and more yellowtail flushing in to San Clemente Island daily.

“This is going to be a wild ride,” said Icon skipper Shawn Morgan of Long Beach Sportfishing. “Look for some crazy stuff like a lot of dorado, yellowfin tuna and more early this year.”

Grunion time: The 2007 grunion run started early this month with another run set from Monday through Thursday.

Just like little surfers, grunion catch waves and ride them as far up on to the beach as they can. The female arches her body and digs a hole in the sand with her tail to make a nest. The female twists and turns until only her head is sticking up out of the sand. She then deposits her eggs in the nest. Females lay between 1,600 and 3,600 eggs during one spawn, with larger females producing more eggs.

Grunion may be taken by sport fishers using their hands only. No holes may be dug on the beach to entrap them and no devices such as nets may be used either. If you are over 16 years old, you will need a California Fishing license.

For more on grunion including the 2007 expected runs, go to www.dfg.ca.gov/Mrd/gruschd.html#facts.

Leopards spotted: Grunion are not the only critters invading our beaches; sharks are too. Pete Thomas of Redondo Beach has seen leopard sharks while surfing around Torrance Beach before and surfers are seeing them again now.

“When they move in, they are only about 15 feet off the shoreline,” Thomas said.

Spring is when leopard sharks spawn and more and more of these hound sharks have been seen in the past week. Leopard sharks are strong swimmers and like to travel in large nomadic groups. Conditions off Torrance Beach are perfect for leopard sharks now as they prefer cooler water and love sandy environments.

Leopard sharks pose little or no danger to swimmers.

You can reach Phil Friedman at p976tuna@aol.com. You can e-mail “Catch of the Week” photos to sports@dailybreeze.com or mail them to Daily Breeze Sports Department, 5215 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA 90503-4077.

(c) 2007 Daily Breeze. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.