For the first time in FIB’er history, we held a Spotted Bay Bass tournament in Mission Bay, and 10 teams rose to the occasion. The 5:30AM “lines in” start meant that most teams were up at 2AM and on the road by 3AM. The sacrifice of sleep was rewarded with most teams reporting that they caught a lot of fish before the weigh in at noon.
The winning 3-fish limit was caught by Eric and Jerry Bent
Big Fish: 2.83#
Total Weight: 6.91#

Coming in 2nd Place was Jayson Quimby & Ron Withers
Big Fish: 2.64#
Total Weight: 6.40#

Finishing in 3rd place was Jim and Jeanie Kiech
Big Fish: 2.30#
Total Weight: 5.73#

More pictures from the event:

Our final bass tournament of the year is coming up August 27th – “The Long Beach Calico Coastal” Check out the Tournaments page for more information!!

Rules

Spots:

Cool Article on lures to use for Spotties in Mission Bay:
Plastic Navy.com

As we stood in front of Newport Landing office, Tom Handzus and I looked at each other and felt the SW wind blowing against our backs. SW winds at Newport are not a good thing. We boarded the Amigo, with Captain Tom at the helm, all the kids were very excited and ready to go. Heading out to the bait receiver the rods were being prepared, with the help of Connor on deck. At the receiver we held our opening greeting, introduction and prayer time. A good load of sardines was put aboard, too bad they were not anchovies. First thing Captain Tom did was head out to the bell buoy to look at sea lions and had all the kids meet him up at the bow. He wanted to tell them not be on the bow on the way out, it was going to be very wet up there. Captain Tom believes a wet cold kid is not a happy camper. A very wise skipper. The boat headed down the coast toward Laguna. It was a little rough with stiff wind blowing. As we were traveling down the coast a great breakfast was served in the gallery by Ichrio – breakfast burritos, my favorite! The first place we stopped we had the wind and current opposite. The next spot had the right conditions, we started picking at fish, the bite was slow all day, but all the kids did get to pull on fish. The big fish for the trip was 2lb. 2oz. calico caught by Joe Cameron. There were other calicos caught, besides sand bass, tree fish, china perch, sculpin, and a lizard fish(boy they have a lot of teeth). Also we were mack attacked. As the bite slowed down toward the end of the morning, I heard one of the FIB’ers say, “If the fish won’t bite I will,” next thing we could smell burgers in the galley. Many new friends were made by both the Kids and the adults. As we started back up the coast the kids enjoyed their time on the boat, their new friends and the burgers. As we entered the harbor we had our closing prayer and gave the crew a grand cheer. Raffle prizes were given out to the lucky Jr. FIB’ers. We then took our group picture up on the bow. Captain Tom was great with kids. Good job to the crew of the Amigo, as usual. It was a really really fun trip, every one had a good time, and the fishing was soso. May God continue to bless the FIB’ers.

On Thursday night July 21st ,we held our annual fish cooking demonstration with chef Daniel Mattos, who is director of the Art Institute of California Culinary Arts school. The atmosphere was lively and festive as we eagerly waited for Daniel, who was working away in our kitchen, to present another of his delightful creations using the fish we provided along with the natural seasonings he carefully adds.
After announcements and a great devotion given to us by Del about the importance of always being ready to share our faith in Christ (God uses men to reach men), Daniel was ready to begin his demonstration on how to prepare Garde Manger, or in fisherman’s terms, “cold fish roll”. He took us thru step by step how to prepare several dishes. Along the way, he entertained us with chunks of unflavored gelatin which he playfully tossed to the audience so we could feel the unusual consistency of this common ingredient which was used as a glaze over the garde manger.
After completing the demonstration, we all were able to taste his creation, along with a green salad that he had prepared as well. It was a great evening and having Daniel as our guest is always a real treat. You can view the menu and all about the restaurant “50 Forks”, which is the Institute’s place to offer to the public the culinary creations of their students at: www.50forks.com.

By Del Brunning, Charter Master and Phil Diment
The two-day trip on Pacific Voyager, out of San Diego, was definitely one for all of us to remember. We cannot say enough good things about the captain and crew. They turned some very tough fishing conditions into a fun and enjoyable trip; and the food was outstanding!
On Monday morning, we were out about 60 miles south of San Diego. Captain Mark Oronoz had us trolling for Bluefin Tuna. His sonar was metering a lot of tuna out there, lots of jumpers, and fish in the 40-70 lb range. But getting them to come to the boat was a major challenge. He would chase them down and would try to slide in on them quiet-like but the second we got within casting range they were gone. Seconds later we would see them pop up 1/4 mile away – they were that fast! We trolled and chased them all day, as far as 90 miles south, because there appeared to be a lot of Bluefin in the area. However, the Albacore were a no-show all day. Captain Mark thinks they are just down too deep and have not come up yet.
We were fortunate on two of our stops to get a few schools of 15-20 lb class Bluefin to stay with the boat. With some very hard, and frantic, fishing on these spots, we were able to land 15 Bluefin on the trip. This was not without help from the deckhands. In one experience, Phil Diment was reeling in his second Bluefin and the fish was pretty hot and taking line. When Phil got it to the surface, he noticed a stream of blood coming from under his pectoral fin. Immediately, he realized that the fish was not hooked in the jaw, but instead, somehow side- hooked. Only heaven knows how that happened. Captain Mark and deckhand Matt, Mark’s 16 year old son, coached Phil all the way to get the fish to the boat. They got a gaff in him and there was the hook just barely penetrating the bone near his pectoral fin. Phil could not give enough high fives to the crew. The crew was great in keeping our multiple hook-ups away from each other to enable us to land most of the fish. We did lose some fish due to break-offs – but that’s fishing. (1st day jackpot fish was a 14lb 7oz Bluefin caught by Ted Porter).
Because fishing was so tough the first day, and some on our charter had not caught any fish, we opted to go into the Coronado Islands for day two. It turned out to be a wonderful decision as the fishing kicked into high gear.
During the night, Captain Mark kept some of his crew up to make squid, and at 1am in the morning they kicked the flood lights on and they soon had a squid float so thick you could almost walk on it. Instead of waking more crew to get the squid on-board, Don White, Santa, acted as crew and helped them get it on. (Thanks, Don!) They filled all the tanks with squid, caught a few hours of sleep, and at 5:00 am the next morning we were just south of the TJ Bull Ring on a reef where we had a wide-open bite of Barracuda and big Sand Bass. (Ted Porter caught a 6lb 10oz Barracuda there).The captain and crew joined us on deck to fish and we had an absolute blast joking around and just really scoring big on the bass. The power of live squid!! Can you say, “candy!” Then the captain made the smartest decision of the day and made a 1 hour move south to the Rock pile area. Wow! There were birds working this high spot and we immediately saw boiling Yellowtail. Pretty soon we had screaming reels with 25 lb class tanker yellows pulling drag! We managed about 21 yellows for the day with the biggest one at 33 lbs 7oz caught by Mike Kaneen (2nd day jackpot fish). They were all caught on fly-lined squid. There was also plenty of Calico Bass to catch under the Yellowtail and we caught fish until we had to depart for home.
I think this was one of the best trips of the year. The Lord truly blessed us with a wonderful boat, captain, crew, fun, fellowship, and a great catch of fish. We thanked the Lord for His bountiful blessings as our trip ended.

Round 5 went down July 11 from 10 PM until 6 AM – it was a true nighttime tournament. The last time this event was held was two years ago when the record for the heaviest 5 fish bag of bass was weighed by Team Oh-Son (31.77 pounds)! If you have not seen the Inside Sportfishing footage of this amazing bag, you can view it here: Inside Sportfishing (scroll down to the SWBA Long Beach 2009 section)
2 years later, almost to the day, the event was resurrected and the record was not only topped once with a 32# bag, but it was crushed with a 35.68# bag – Unfortunately it wasn’t a FIB’er team, but you can read their report: HERE!
Conditions for the night were very nice and all of the FIB’er teams weighed in limits of bass.
Dave and Jim landed in 13th place (first out of the $$) with 20.94#

Jayson & Ron ended up in 22nd place with 19.70#

Tom & Val ended up in 37th with 13.16#

Roy and Frank ended up in 40th with 12.90# (no picture available)

You can see the rest of the final results of the “Cyclone Flashback” HERE – Note how sometimes 5-10 spots are separated by less than one pound!!!

Going into the final event, it looks like all of the FIB’er teams stand a good chance of qualifying for the finale!!
Current overall SWBA Standings:
6th place: “Bassbusters” Jim Kiech and Dave Shill
10th place: “Shaka” Roy Fukushima and Frank Wong
17th place: “Reefrunner” Tom & Val Handzus
20th place: “Anchored” Jayson Quimby & Ron Withers

Report by Floyd Spangler
If you were not on the Jr. 1/2 trip, you missed a really good one. We left the dock right on time at 6:00 AM, and stopped by the bait receiver to pick up a great load of Ancohvies. Captain Bob on the Amigo started up the coast to the Huntington Beach Flats. As we slid on the first spot of Barracuda, we started to catch fish. The first part of the morning we moved from spot to spot of fish – catching between 5-15 nice sized Barracuda at each stop. All of the Jr’s got to pull on the logs. About mid morning we moved in to the beach and anchored up on structure and started to catch Sand Bass and Calicos. The Amigo did not have an afternoon trip so the Captain let us fish until noon, which is the usual time to be back at the dock. The big fish of the trip was caught by Luke Vanderyacht a 7 lb. Barracuda. Dean Herr caught a 3lb 11oz. Sand Bass and Desire Shill caught a 2lb. 4oz. Calico. On the way in we all watched as some dolphin put on a great show. This was a great way to end the trip. We thank the Lord for an excellent trip. We also thank the crew of the Amigo for all of their help and for the good time. God is GOOD!!