It's Purple Time

Drive down a major avenue anywhere in southern California this month and you'll see flowery spots of purple, almost a lavender color, pop out at you as you wheel along. Those are Jacaranda trees, and June is their month. I first saw them growing wild in the rocky hills where the desert meets the jungle near Mazatlan, or at least some form of acacia that looks like them. They're one of the most beautiful trees in the southland, although they make a bit of a mess when the blossoms fall.

Seeing that purple makes a lot of fishermen think of albacore. June is also the month when multi-day boats start to make good catches on the longfin, although anglers who can't get out more than 50 or 60 miles often have to wait for July to access the winged tuna.

Lately the wind has been so fierce at the 200-mile range it's been next to impossible to fish albies. But it's beginning to drop off, and American Angler skipper Sam Patella told me he expects it to lay down tomorrow. So now it may be game on for tuna fishing, and wouldn't that be a great thing? I'm headed out the 19th myself, for an eight-day trip on the Red Rooster III, and I hope to see something else that's purple. No, not skipjack, though that's a strong possibility. What I want to see is that deep purple pristine offshore water. That would be perfect for albacore, and other tuna as well.

Big Wind But A Dandy Catch

Sam Patella docked his American Angler at Pt. Loma Sportfishing May 5, after an eight-day Sports Chalet Charter with 19 fishermen aboard, including chartermaster Brad LeMoine.

The trip was very good for yellowtail at Cedros Island, but the offshore fishing was made tough by very windy conditions. About three dozen good bluefin tuna were caught, along with a few small albacore and at least one yellowfin tuna.

When Patella went to the scales, he weighed a long string of yellowtail that went 34-plus pounds. None of those made the jackpot.

Lucky Dennis Saylors of Long Beach won his second consecutive jackpot for a 37.2-pound yellow that imbibed a blue-green Tady Candy Bar jig. Dennis said he made short, five-minute work of the fish on 40-pound blue Izorline, a Daiwa 30 Saltiga reel and a Calstar 90 C rod.

John Dornellas of Templeton scored a 37-pound yellowtail on a Salas 6X Jr. jig in the classic blue/white color, good for second.

Dan Spiegel of Venice Beach won third place for the trip's best bluefin tuna, a 36.6-pounder he caught on a sardine.