New Low for Dolphin Half Day Boat

[risentidefishing]

On Wednesday the Dolphin Half Day Boat kept 121 Corvina from San Diego Bay. They have routinely been fishing the bay this spring and have been pushing farther and farther into the back bay. While totally legal it’s a pretty embarrassing look for the Dolphin considering rockfish season is open and there are plenty of other more sustainable options to get clients on fish. Reach out to Fisherman’s Landing and let them know what you think about these trips!

[YNW_FISHY]

Disgusting and disgraceful the only guys fishing off sport boats dont have the talent to find and catch the fish themselves from shore

[Bwood]

Prob starting to spawn. Not throwing gas on the fire but I bet they aggregate like WSB this time of year.

[risentidefishing]

They are definitely starting to spawn which makes it even more cringy. Not to mention the fact they don’t even know what species they are catching and are likely submitting incorrect fish logs to Fish and Wildlife. And people wonder why they want to close our fisheries down….

[risentidefishing]

Prob starting to spawn. Not throwing gas on the fire but I bet they aggregate like WSB this time of year.

10 scoops of sardines will make them aggregate real quick

[YNW_FISHY]

We need more regulations and MPAs

sport boat logic: if it swims, kill it and harvest it

[KamWalsh]

Half day boats are a plague. Their business model of needing to not only catch, but harvest as many fish as possible in order to support the deckhands' incomes with filet dollars may have done more to negatively impact California's coastal fisheries than any other type of recreational fishing. I've been on that boat and was literally yelled at when I tried to release a fish. That same day they were keeping rockfish no bigger than 4" in length. They do this for decades on end and then when yet another fishery collapses or California implements another MPA they blame Newsom or "the liberals." I don't know what the solution is, aside from paying or tipping the deckhands more so there's less of a need for filet dollars. It is a myth that recreational fishing has no impact on fish populations. Although a lot of recreational fishermen like to blame commercial guys for everything so they can sleep better at night (I used to do this), the reality is that for a lot of recreationally targeted fishes in California, recreational pressure either dramatically exceeds commercial or is the only substantive form of fishing pressure on that species.

I remember George petitioned for CDFW to start actually regulating Shortfin (not Orangemouth) Corvina and they rejected the proposal, as little to no research has been done on the population dynamics of this fish to justify making any sort of change. The unfortunate reality is that since Corvina aren't an important commercial species, they won't be deemed as being worth the funding, time, and resources needed to gain enough understanding of them to make informed decisions on their management. Fisheries scientists frequently write in scientific papers and books about how it's important to study and assess a species before it's heavily fished, but hardly anyone ever seems to actually do so until a species has been heavily fished or has already collapsed. No, I don't think one day of keeping 121 Corvina is going to collapse the fishery, but if they do this again and again over a sustained period of time it will almost certainly have some sort of impact.

[maraxus]

That's really a shame and embarrassing

[Jussdone805]

My son and I did the bay cruise on The Dolphin at Day at the Docks. The captain was pretty verbally abusive to some of the crew, in front of families and little kids. Not a good look on a day that's supposed to bring awareness to the industry and show everyone a good time. I asked him if he would ever be interested in doing a fishing trip and he said, "not on this boat with that guy as a captain."

[twin22s]

I have written CDFW on the Corvina topic, the response was basically that the fish doesn't belong here, we are on the fringe of its range and that any regulations they implemented wouldn't make any difference to the population as a whole. but obviously overlooked the fact that they would no longer be in Mission and SD bay if everyone kept 10 a day. like who care, right? they weren't there before anyway... SMH.

I Don't blame the Dolphin(unless he starts doing this on the regular), its a great tasting fish and fun to catch, I don't think they should be allowed to fish in the harbor at all and size/bag limits should be implemented for corvina, but those are the rules right now. call CCA, write CDFW, complaining on the internet never solved anything.

[pescado paul]

I actually agree with Kam when he stated that the half day boats are a plague. That being said, I am actually booked to go on the next Dolphin SD Bay trip on 5/1. I fish SD Bay extensively on my Waverunner, and do pretty well on the bass species, but have caught few halibut. I am hoping to learn where some of the best halibut spots in the bay are, and will release any fish I catch, other than possibly keeping one legal halibut. I have never understood why so many SoCal anglers (and many of the sport boats) do not release more fish. I actually do not call them sport boats. I call them kill boats.

Paul

[Carpkiller]

Move it to the lounge.

Look, people taking legal limits shouldn't be an issue. It costs a lot of money to go out for a half-day, and keeping legal limits helps offset that cost.

And slamming someone who fishes half-day boats because they don't have whatever skill or time or what method you think is proper...no thank you.

That being said, yeah, maybe a five fish limit for corvina. I'd sign a petition or whatever for that.

Let's not hold a fish sacred and slam people who choose to catch and eat them. We don't need more divisive attitudes among the fishing community. #PutALargemouthInYourBucketAndI"llKillYou

[risentidefishing]

I’m sorry but people need to be slammed for doing ignorant stuff like that. Legal limit or not, keeping 121 of a sensitive species in the middle of their spawn just so you can make a few extra filet $’s is exactly what’s wrong with our fishing industry. Not to mention they didn’t even know what species they were catching. CADFW has been contacted by multiple people but I’m not holding my breath for them to make any changes

You’re entitled to your own opinion. You don’t target them as much so it doesn’t affect you but the half day boats fishing the bay is a slippery slope. Would you have the same opinion if they were cleaning out all the keeper spotted bay bass and halibut from your favorite channel by the Cays and cutting off your drift?

I’m not slamming people who fish on half day boats at all. I’m not even slamming people that keep some Corvina. I’m slamming the people running who run the Dolphin and show zero discretion for our fishery. Weather has been fine and rockfish season is open. No need to be pillaging the back bay. And these guys wonder why CADFW wants to close so many of our fisheries…… Might be time to look in the mirror

[Chris69]

Now I know why all the corvina just disappeared from the south bay. SO SAD!

[supfishingwill]

They fish right outside the sweetwater river mouth, chumming sardines as if bluefin were boiling. I don't know how many halibut and corvina (and whatever else in the area happens to enjoy sardines) were hanging out on those flats, but there will undoubtedly be less of them going forward.

Funnily enough, the dolphin removed its corvina posts from social media and the corvina numbers from the posted Fisherman's landing fish counts. If this is all totally all right, why hide it?

[Carpkiller]

1. There are far more corvina in the bay than people think. 2. MLPAs are the reason a sportfishing boat has to stay in the bay. The "protection areas" were selected by a political process, not a scientific process. Calling for more MLPAs without fixing the corrupt process by which they are selected will only hurt everyone's ability to fish anywhere in salt water. 3. Taking the corvina reports offline simply protects the operator from being bashed on social media by unfounded claims about how wrong it is to fish in the bay. Someone contemplating going on a half-day boat who can't separate the social media chaff from the wheat may decide that half-day boats are "bad for the environment," without actually having any information to support that conclusion. Cancel culture is real. All that having been said, I'd be disappointed if I paid for a half-day 'ocean fishing' trip, and never left the bay.

[pescado paul]

I went out on the Dolphin AM half day trip yesterday. The trip was planned and promoted as a bay trip targeting halibut. They have been running these trips on Wednesdays.

We fished the South Bay. The boat drifted the entire day, with no anchoring or chumming. The captain stated over the PA that our target species was halibut, but that we would also likely catch some bass and corvina. He further stated that many anglers like to release the bass and corvina.

The boat finished with 7 legal and 14 short halibut. All the bass I saw caught were released. Some corvina were caught, but I do not know how many were released/kept. As for me, I put no dent in the fish population. I got skunked.

Paul

[Roncador]

I personally don't have anything against the sport boats, if it weren't for them I wouldn't have a job or as many opportunities within the industry. I certainly don't see them as a plague and to say it takes no skill well that's just asinine. We also certainly don't need anymore mlpas especially in the bay. I could agree with sport boats not being allowed to fish the bay though.That being said this is indeed pretty heinous behavior and I was undoubtedly disappointed when I saw this on Instagram the other week.

It was the perfect storm really. Right in the middle of the peak of the corvina spawn and a grunion run in the same week. Not to mention they were near a source of freshwater, they spawn in brackish water. You'll probably never hear of something like this again unless they decide to start intentionally targeting them which I doubt. It's a good thing they are done with their halibut derby for the year.

This is why there needs to be a size limit preferably a slot. Sucked to see that 7lber on the end of that gaff. I personally don't keep them anymore but if your gonna keep a few, keep the ones between 15-20" and the ones that croak. The females do not croak, no pun intended.

Your only allowed to petition cfw every two years so I have another chance pretty soon. That being said it probably wouldn't go anywhere. There really isn't much scientific info on them outside a study done at the university of Sonora in Mexico. The study basically showed that they have the highest growth rates at 10ppt salinity the Pacific is 35ppt. Plenty of info showing that they are native though despite allot of people's idea that they are somehow invasive. They are native up to about Orange county and were first recorded here in the 1800's.

I hate to say it but this kind of thing might just get the states attention. If they keep it up next year I might just have a solid case to get them to regulate them. Only thing is at what cost. There are definitely more corvina than people think in both bays but not the same as it was back in the day. Seems like everyone I've talked to that is a hardcore vina hunter says that the best fishing was in the late 90's through early 2000's. Anyways rant over.

[Tailingloop]

Aside from any impacts on fish populations I have wondered about potential harm to the ecosystem.

A couple of times when we have been down there fishing and the Dolphin has been in the area we have heard the captain telling the passengers that they were in only 7 feet of water. It was a lowish tide. We could see that they were on the west edge of the channel, and based on what we heard ("7 feet") probably a bit up on the flat/shoal.

Given the draft of the boat and the power of the engines I wondered if they were tearing up some eelgrass patches. I have no idea what the draft of the Dolphin is but it has to be deeper than the typical recreational fishing skiff that folks use in the South Bay.

A friend of mine has a World Cat 295CC that he takes down there from time to time. It has a draft of 15" plus two 300HP Yamahas. He is a retired sport and commercial captain and also ran ships for Scripps. He only takes his boat down there on higher tides.

[camobass]

7 feet of water and when bumped in gear will definitely disturb the bottom. It’s really evident in 4 feet. My boss used to want me to drift into super shallow water on a 75 sport fisher. It was harry especially when one prop and shaft (of two) is more expensive than a new truck.. Been in some supers shallow situations down south with sand bars etc. some of those boats will churn mud up in 10feet