I noticed that 19 BSB were reported on yesterday's fish count for the Stardust (afternoon session). Can anybody verify this? This number of BSB is astonishing (especially for a 1/2 day)! Either they managed to run into a BSB nursery or the same dumb fish got caught 19 times. If this is true, this is worth telling the DFG about and perhaps marine researchers as well. I have not heard of this many BSB caught on one boat since the ban was established years ago. Although this may be an isolated incident, it could be a sign that BSB are on the comeback in certain areas.

There are many reports of big counts of C&R BSB, mostly at the islands, I know some guys that get 'em a lot off the Camp Pendleton area- I talked to a guy this weekend who lived on Catalina for awhile, knows it well, he claimed he caught over 200 BSB over the course of last year- I don't know if that's true or not, but they are out there. Be careful with them, they are one heck of a cool critter. Lots of times when you find one there are a bunch of them. Anyone hear about the big girl with a spear shaft in her side (a real big girl, couple of hundred pounds) at Cat that was seen many times this spring\summer? What kind of a-hole would even try that? It was actually featured on the news. I guess she fared well, was reported she was seen without the jewelery and recovering nicely.

That may very well be, but not on party boats (at least not ones that are reported). I follow the published fish counts very closely. It is rare for a party boat to get a C&R BSB. Every now and then you might see one or two reported on a trip, and they are usually pretty good about reporting them as "released". But 19 BSB for fishing the coast is extremely rare.

My buddy Mike went out on Saturday on the Stardust 1/2 day afternoon. He caught 2 BSB, one was estimated to be 100lbs. Caught it off of Padaro on a chunk of squid about 5 cranks off the bottom.

i was talking to some there deckhands yester day but
they only told me that there had been only a couple caught.
i think they might have caught some but they probably
just lenghthen there count. you should know if you pay close
attention. i personally know this from working on these boats.


harbor fish=harbor rat.

I just got off the phone with Jason. They did indeed have 19 blacks that trip and another 1 on the afternoon trip. They were caught on live squid and ranged from 5lbs to over 100lbs. They were all caught from shallow water and were released. Jason said there are a lot of fish in the area right now. They had some huge ones on today on anchovies that broke off. He said they are definitely not fishing for the blacks but that they are hanging out on the bass spots. In fact, he said the calicos won't get near the boat when the blacks are around because they're scared of getting eaten. Great to see that they are making a comeback.

thanks for confirming it i was thinking of calling luke.


harbor rat.

That's great news! Must have been very cool to see that many BSB come up. But what's the Stardust doing fishing with live squid? They never have squidlies at that bait dock.

It is nice to see the BSB fishery recovering! I think there was a 5 thousand reward (by the Body Glove founder) to find the jerk who speared that big BSB at Catalina? According to the above posts it sounds like the spear fell off, and the big bass is healing well!!

You dont know lukes number. lyer

not luke dechand luke who works in sealanding dummy