The first tournament of the 2025 season is the MONTH LONG HALIBUT / WHITE SEABASS TOURNAMENT, June 1 through June 30. MBMC Member entry fees have been eliminated for this year. Yes!, the tournament is open to all MBMC Members by just submitting an Entry Form. This is a Largest Fish Prize Tourney; Cash/Gift Card worth $500 for 1st Place, $250 for 2nd place, and $100 for 3rd place.See attached Entry Form and Rules for details.
This tournament is open to MBMC Members only and all fishing must be from a Member Boat. There should be no excuses not to participate. You can’t win if you don’t have a bait in the water!
June Seminar
The first seminar features Mike “The Beak” Hurt to be held on June 7, 2025, at Bay Park Fish Company. Often considered the “Godfather” of modern sport fishing in Southern California, Captain Hurt was one of the first captains to consistently catch billfish in his native waters off San Diego before the days of depth sounders and GPS. Today, Hurt continues to shape the industry by sharing the knowledge and experience he has gained from 50 years on the water.
The seminar includes a Taco Bar Lunch FREE to members and $20 fee at the door for non-members. See attached flyer for details.
April hasn’t been the kindest month as far as fishing opportunity goes as the colder than normal sea temps combined with several strong and consistent wind events have kept most boats at the dock or on the trailer save for the avid rock cod angler. There has been no reliable surface action at all other than a rare yellowtail showing off La Jolla and the ocean has been too cold to get the Calico Bass going either. The Lower 9 mile bank has been hot and cold recently with strong underlying currents making it difficult to get your bait down on the right spot on some days.
The Bluefin Tuna came within 1 to 1.5 day range early in the month around the 1010 Trench/295 spot but the fish didn’t really turn on until they moved up to the Butterfly Bank a week later and 2 – 3 day limits on 40-80 pound tuna were common with most fish taken at night on jigs @200-300 feet. A few fish were taken during the day on flyline and sinker rigs however the fish were still hesitant from showing on the surface after being chased and netted by the Mexican Seiner Fleet as the annual quota was increased 80% recently as the Global Fish Councils have determined the Bluefin have rebounded from their previous decline. The American Commercial take has also been increased up to 65% over last years quota however I believe it’s doubtful for them to increase our measly 2 fish daily recreational bluefin limit.
No fish were submitted for the April Fish of the Month.
As Scott mentioned in last month’s OOPSLINE, this will be the final year of the Mission Bay Marlin Club so the Board Member’s primary agenda will be to get the Club’s Financial Records and Non Profit Corporation Status closed out and reported properly while determining the best way to redistribute the existing Club Funds back to the participating members via Club Tournaments, Free Seminars, and amazing Club raffles including the Grand Raffle as part of the MBMC Marlin Tourney scheduled for September 12-14.
There will be no reason not to enter any of the 6 proposed tournaments this season as all MBMC Member entry fees are eliminated. Tournaments are open to Members only and all fishing must be from a Member Boat. To spice things up a bit the Board has recommended a $500 largest fish gift card prize, $250 2nd place, and $100 3rd place prize. You can’t win if you’re not in. More Tournament Info in an additional email later this month. The 2025 Tournament schedule is as follows and all Tournaments, except the MBMC Marlin Tournament, are of the entire month variety:
November 1-30 Rockcod (With a separate Lingcod Division)
Seminars – So far we have scheduled 2 seminars. The first is with Mike “The Beak” Hurt to be held on June 7, 2025, at Bay Park Fish Company. It will also include a Taco Bar Lunch FREE to members and $20 fee at the door for non-members. See attached flyer for details. The second seminar will be with Kenny Shilling on August 23, 2025, also at Bay Park Fish Company, with details to follow in future flyers in the OOPSLINE. Just another way your Club has chosen to give back to its members so please take advantage of it!
May your May be filled with many hook ups and few break offs – Let’s get this thing going!
On March 15th we held the MBMC Annual Membership Meeting at Sardinas restaurant. With the beautiful weather, we were able to hold the event on the patio. The food as always was excellent and plentiful. We had 9 members present for the meeting. Of which 5 were existing board members.
As of today, 3 members have stepped up to fill Board of Directors vacancies. Longtime member Jeff Meeker has volunteered to take over my spot as OopsLine editor and assist with tournaments. John Kirhoffer has also volunteered his help after his return in July. And longtime member Billy Vitale has also volunteered.
Facing continued lack of member participation and not filling out the full Board to run the club, a motion was made and approved by the members in attendance to SADLY end the 51-year run of the Mission Bay Marlin Club. 2025 will be the last year.
We will have seminars and tournaments this year. Watch the flyers /dates/emails for future events. We welcome your comments and urge your participation.
Fishing has been limited again due to weather. Hopefully April will bring better weather and more boats will be out looking for the bluefin. Rock cod fishing will be open to US waters April 1st. Remember to check fish and game regulations for 2025.
No FOM weighed in for February or March. Hopefully with improved weather we will see more participation.
The Board has set the tournament and seminar schedule for 2025.
Tournament Schedule:
July – Month Long Yellowtail Tournament
August- Month Long Tuna Tournament
September- Month Long Jerry/Roy Lively Marlin Tournament
September 12,13,14 Mission Bay Marlin Tournament
November Month Long Rock Cod Tournament
Seminar Schedule:
June 7th – Legendary Marlin Fisherman Mike “Beak” Hurt will provide us with all his secrets for landing local marlin. The seminar will be held at Bay Park Fish Company from 11-3pm. Members will be treated to great food and seminar at no charge. Non members 20.00. As always Ray Fear will be putting together an extremely generous raffle.
Remember lets get our membership up. Time to renew and get your friends on board. It’s also not too late to donate your time to the board to help out your club.
Want to thank outgoing board member Kevin Yamamoto for all his hard work throughout the years in running our tournaments and serving as Weighmaster. Billy Vitale will become the new Weighmaster.
I have also stepped down as Secretary and Social Chairman. My duties will be taken over by Jeff Meeker. During my term on the Board, we have had several challenges and some trying times but my term on the Board has allowed me to meet and work with great people that I can now call friends!
The Mission Bay Marlin Club Annual Membership Meeting will be held March 15, 2025, at Sardinas Restaurant from 2-5pm. Food will be complimentary. As always Ray Fear will put together another great raffle. This will be a very important meeting for the future of the club. We will elect new members to the Board of Directors. As stated in the February 20, 2025, email – if there are not enough volunteers to serve as Board members and fill all vacant Board positions, the club will cease to exist at the end of this year.
FYI- MBMC has a new mailing address:
Mission Bay Marlin Club 5663 Balboa Ave, #456 San Diego, CA. 92111-2705
Fish Report – Fishing has been mainly deep. Whether you are calico, sand bass or rock cod fishing. Water has been cold and the wind has been generally up.
Remember rock cod fishing is closed in US waters until 4/1/25. If you are fishing Mexican waters, make sure to have all your permits. This includes the DFG importation document.
No fish were weighed for February Fish of the Month. The reel will be raffled off at the membership meeting.
The Annual Mission Bay Marlin Club Awards Banquet was held at Tom Hams’ Lighthouse on February 15, 2025. Seventeen members were treated to a delicious dinner of salmon, ribs, or chicken. A scrumptious German chocolate cake was served for dessert and artfully decorated with a hand-drawn boat and fisherman catching a marlin.
Jimmy Valentine , a member since 1974 won the early bird drawing for those who renewed membership by February 1st. Kevin Yamamoto handed out the 2024 Fishing Awards following the dinner. Many thanks to Kevin for putting together the Oscars and their plaques.
Below are the MBMC AWARDS for 2024:
Fish of the Month Awards
January
Kevin Yamamoto
7 lb. Rockcod (Grouper)***
February
Chris Bailey
71.6 lb. White Seabass***
March
Pat Holmes
23.2 lb. Yellowtail***
April
Tim Honick
7.6 lb. Lingcod
May
Paul Himmelberger
6 lb. Rockcod (Red)
June
NONE
July
Jim Kelley
41.2 lb. Seabass
August
John Brudvik
146 lb. Bluefin***
September
Chris Bailey
Marlin Release (130pts.)
October
Nick Kane
18 lb. Yellowfin***
November
NONE
December
Ken Yasuda
12.6 lb. Lingcod***
*** Largest Species
LARGEST SPECIES OF 2024
Species
Size
Angler
Halibut
37.2 lb.
Jim Kelley
Lingcod
12.6 lb.
Ken Yasuda
Marlin
122.6 lb.
Paul Himmelberger
Rockfish
7 lb.
Kevin Yamamoto
Bluefin
146 lb.
John Brudvik
Yellowfin
18 lb.
Nick Kane
White Seabass
71.6 lb.
Chris Bailey
Yellowtail
23.2 lb.
Pat Holmes
Spotted Bay Bass
15-3/4″
Ken Yasuda
1ST TUNA FLAG
John Brudvik 146 lb. Bluefin Tuna
MARLIN AWARDS (OSCARS) for 2024
CHRIS BAILEY on “HAWK”
1st Release of year
1st SOLO release
1st Skiff release
1st Men’s 30 lb. release
2 RELEASED THIS YEAR
ANN THOMPSON on “TO THE LIMIT”
1st Women’s 30 lb. Release
2 RELEASED THIS YEAR
PAUL HIMMELBERGER on “ENCOUNTER”
1st Captured Marlin 121 lb.
2 CAPTURED THIS YEAR
Kevin Yamamoto on “ENCOUNTER”
1st Men’s 50 lb. Release
1st Men’s 80 lb. Release
2 RELEASED THIS YEAR
DAN MUSLIN on “TO THE LIMIT”
1st Men’s 20 lb. Release
Last Marlin (Release) of 2024
2 RELEASED THIS YEAR
“ENCOUNTER” and Captain KEN YASUDA
TOP MARLIN BOAT
3 RELEASED & 2 CAPTURED
Hope to see everybody at the membership meeting Saturday March 15th at 2;00pm..
Hope everybody has a great year of fishing. Scott Paul secretary/social
Happy New Year from the Board. Wishing you all a happy and healthy year.
Fishing has been dominated by rock codding. Yellowtail off La Jolla have been showing occasionally. Rock Cod fishing is closed in US waters till April 2025. Make sure you have the proper documents for fishing Mexican waters. Fish and Game has been checking.
The Mission Bay Marlin Club Annual Awards Banquet is February 15, 2025, to be held at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse at 5:00 pm. This is a great event in a beautiful setting honoring the angling accomplishments of the 2024 fishing season. Please RSVP by February 8, 2025 (Details in link sent via email). Cost is $60.00 for adults and $15.00 for children (16 and under).
Remember the 2025 Early Bird membership renewal deadline is February 1st. The Early Bird drawing will be held at the Awards Banquet on February 15th. Please renew by March 1st as this will be the cutoff date for the 2025 directory to go to print.
The MBMC Annual Membership Meeting will be held March 15th at Sardina’s Restaurant from 2:00-5:00 pm. As you all know this is a very important meeting for the club. We need to elect a new president as well as add two more board members. Of course, there will be a generous Raffle put together by board member Ray Fear. Save the date. Details to follow.
Future tournaments with date to be determined:
Rock cod tournament will be held in April
Bay Bass tournament will be held in May.
Fish of the Month went to Ken Yasuda on the Encounter with a 12.6-pound lingcod. Congratulations Ken!
Finally, the Dana Landing Fuel Dock will be removing all non-member phone numbers for fuel discount from their list on March 1, 2025. Make sure you renew your membership by March 1 to remain current on the list and ensure uninterrupted access to this valuable MBMC benefit.
Wishing everybody a great year on the water, Scott Paul Secretary/social
