Reports From the Bridge

Mike, Jake, and Myself;

Would like to thank everyone who stopped by the booth last week at the Fred Hall show.

It’s very gratifying to see so many old friends and to meet the youngsters that are just getting started fishing.

We all have HI hopes for the coming season. The reports of large schools of Yellows moving up the coast and the first catches of Sea Bass had everyone excited.

For those of you who thought that OKUMA reels where just another second class offering from over seas. You got to see and handle their new offerings. Most of you we talked to after handling them where quite impressed with the quality of workmanship and innovation showen in the entire line.  Mike and the crew can’t wait to give them a try.

For those of you who didn’t make it up to Long Beach we will be at the Del Mar show                              March 24 to 28. stop by and say hello and we can exchange sea stories.

Remember if you purchase $200 worth of OKUMA tackle at the show you will receive a 50% off coupon for any BIG GAME 90 2010 trip and be entered into a drawing for a  trip. on the BIG GAME.

If you can’t make it to the show you can still save 50% on selected trips if you book one before April 15 see our show special add on  biggame90.com

tight lines and good times
IRV

Anybody who has followed the MLPA process shouldn’t be surprised that these shenanigans are coming to light.  It’s mostly surprising that the arrogant SOBs thought they could get away with it.

Here’s something written by Jim Matthews that you should read and share.  Jim is a well known and respected outdoor writer (and apparently investigative journalist too).  Jim gave me permission to post it in its entirety here.

ONTARIO — The first wave of hard evidence documenting the corruption and conflict of interest that has guided the implementation of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act surfaced at the meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission at the Double Tree Inn adjacent to Ontario International Airport on Wednesday.

The Commission accepted public testimony again on the so-called Blue Ribbon Task Force’s recommended ocean fishing closures and protected areas along the Southern California coast before adopting a final plan. During this testimony documentation was provided that proved that two members of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, Bill Anderson and Greg Schem, lied to the Commission at a recent meeting about having a business association, and Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California who has been involved in the entire MLPA process, said there was evidence that both members agreed “to sign off on everything else” in return for not putting a reserve on the Rocky Point area between Redondo Beach and Long Beach where both had marinas and business interests.

Fletcher and others at Wednesday’s meeting say this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sportfishing groups are gathering evidence on three other issues that have plagued the process.

First, Michael Sutton, a member of the Fish and Game Commission and a key support of vast closures, has been charged with conflict of interest and repeatedly asked to recuse himself on all MLPA issues. Sutton works for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which stands to benefit financially from Department of Fish and Game funding to help implement and monitor marine protected areas. But when a complaint was filed with the state Fair Political Practices Commission last year, it wasn’t investigated. Sportfishing groups are looking into tampering with the issue from the governor’s office.

In an incredible case of irony, Sutton is also on the FGC’s Marine Resources Subcommittee with Commissioner Richard Rogers, and recused himself recently when the issue was collection permits because his employer, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, has a vested interest in the collection permits.

Second, there is growing evidence that former Fish and Game Commissioner Cindy Gustafson, was asked to resign when she, along with two other Commissioners, questioned the science involved in some of the proposed MLPA recommendations. She was replaced by Don Benninghoven solely because of Benninghoven’s support of the most restrictive MLPA designations, giving the closure supporters a 3-2 majority on the Commission. Benninghoven came to the Commission after a two-year stint on the Blue Ribbon Task Force.

Third, at least 12 of the members of the MLPA science advisory team are fully or partially financed by grants from the Packard Foundation and Ocean Protection Council, both which have been outspoken proponents of the MLPA process’ most restrictive protections, including vast areas closed to all fishing. This is a massive conflict of interest that has led to egregious recommendations. For example, the science advisory committee refused to consider catch-and-release sport angling and sport take restrictions as a management option that was less damaging to the marine environment than unrestricted commercial fishing. A catch-and-release angler fishing barbless jigs for calico bass was the same as a commercial gill net to the majority of the science advisory team.

“They’re all pro closures. Of course they are, that’s the way they’re making their dough,” said one sportfishing industry representative.

Sportfishing interests have said the whole public process was a sham after the Blue Ribbon Task Force essentially ignored the proposals from the three volunteer study groups who labored for 18 months before forwarding their own recommendation to the Fish and Game Commission, which was a breach of what the volunteers had been assured would happen at the outset.

The Blue Ribbon Task Force has also refused to take into consideration the state’s economy and budget, and how closures will affect business and recreation in the region. Its members repeatedly exhibited a cavalier attitude toward the very real economic impacts.

Fletcher said it was likely, with the state’s budget crisis, there won’t be funding to finance the MLPA. Last year, the legislative budget office stripped all funding of the MLPA implementation out of the Department of Fish and Game’s budget, but its funding was continued by from the governor’s office by backfilling with Proposition 84 funding. This year, the budget office is again likely to recommend that funding be stopped — and that Prop. 84 are not used again.

“The whole process is rife with conflict of interest,” said Fletcher. “It has been hijacked.”

Hay Boys and Girls

Mike, Jake and I are off to the Fred Hall show In Long Beach

Stop buy the and say hello We will be next to OKUMA 

Check out some of the show specials we have.

tight lines and good times
IRV

The following letter read on Glenn Beck’s show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice. Once you read this, you will want to forward it to all of your friends.
 

 
A woman in Arizona wrote an open letter to our nation’s leadership:
“I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me.   Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.
There must be someone.. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written.
Please stand up now.
You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration…. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S.., I’m not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you NO, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three, Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balancesstopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on and ignoring our Constitution, and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down!  Fix only what is broken — we have the best health care system in the world — and test any new program in one or two states first.

Six, growing government control. I want states’ rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real (Constitutional)obligations. Why don’t you start there?

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes — how did they pull that one off?  Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, helloooo. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people.. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs — and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful…. (Have you ever ripped off a
Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends…. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in thechecks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not.
It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars…

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making.. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done.. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone . . . and we are now looking at you.
You have awakened sleeping bear, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come.. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office.
We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off.. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and ourConstitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more.. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.
 
If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be, one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.”
 
 
 ”The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain
 the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the
 government, lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
 
 Patrick Henry
 1736-1799
 

O K I HAD THE GUTS TO PUBLISH THIS WILL YOU PASS IT ON  ?

By Rush Limbaugh:

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving our country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don’t criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I can’t let the numbers pass by
because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of
this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you’re
going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of
$250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million..
If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action,
the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.

Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get
$833 a month until you remarry. And there’s a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a
screeching halt.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining
that it’s not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.. (Actually, soldiers are put in harms way by politicians and commanding
officers.)

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have
started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families
are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the
embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this is going, don’t you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It’s just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to
nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing.  Make sense?

However, our own US Congress voted themselves a raise. Many of you don’t know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. And most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn’t have to pay into the system. If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an
E-7, they may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who
placed them in harm’s way receives a pension of $15,000 per month.

I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.

“When do we finally do something about this?” If this doesn’t seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can.

NOW IT’S UP TO YOU!!!!!!!!!

Hello all

Thanks to Doc and Clay we have some really nice pictures of Doc’s charter last weekend.

For those of you who are new to the blog just click on                                                   YOUR TRIP PHOTOS and scroll down to trip # RF4

Doc is talking about a 3 3/4 day trip next year over president’s day weekend.

This will allow us to go a little farther down and fish the waters outside Geronimo Island and Sac. Reef.   These waters are virtually unfished.

 It’s like the fishing for Reds and Ling Cod  was 30 years ago. I’ll bet some of you fished with Doc and me on the China Clipper back then.  Remember how the Santa Rosa flats and San Miguel Island where. Well this area is every bit as good!!!!!!!!! 

If you are interested in going on a trip like this with one of the best charter masters and his friends around give him a call 805 983-3040 or email him   docski377@aol.com and get on the list.

Capt Mike and the BIG GAME crew returned this morning from a 2 1/2 day charter that fished down the Mexican coast.

Mike said that the weather was fantastic and the fishing was good also.

After stopping short and catching some giant squid Mike said  they had a nice surprise when they arrived at the high spot off collnett. Some of  the other boats where catching  yellowtail so Mike got the group rigged up with heavy yo-yo jigs and they managed to put 9 nice fish on the boat before the fish sunk out . After the yellows stopped showing they went looking for reds down cost  closer to San Martin. although Mike and the crew  put in a long hard day they didn’t produce much .It seems that when the giant squid  move in  the rockfish  move off the spots.  On the 2nd morning they where back at collnett trying to sample some more yellows but as so often happens the dammed fish didn’t show that morning. Mike spent the remainder of the day drifting the different high spots at collnett and managed to fill everyone’s bags with nice quality whitefish , reds and 4 ling cod.

 The final count was 200+whitefish 112 reds and assorted rockfish, 4 lings, 9 yellows and 93 giant squid

This was our last trip from San Diego until we return in the last week of June to start our summer trips.

We will be running our first trip departing from Long Beach Marina on March 17th a 2 day 976tuna charter.  To book a spot on this trip call Richie @ 310 328-8862.

Departing on Friday night March 19 @ 10pm for  fishing on  Saturday the 20th  will be our first 1 day open party trip of the season . For reservations call 562 598-6649 remember if you book at least 24hrs in advance 2 people go for $199 that is a $70 saveings

We will be running trips every weekend and  some weekdays as there is Demand

please call for updated trip schedules