President’s Message – February, 2021

Greetings MBMC club members,

As we roll another month into 2021, I hope this letter finds you all well and healthy. We have been fortunate to enjoy a considerably mild winter that has provided many unseasonably nice days outdoors and on the water. I hope you have been able to make the most of it where possible. 

2021 MBMC Board Members:

To begin I would like to introduce the 2021 MBMC board members….their names should be familiar to most, if not all of you.

President & Secretary – Shane Hurt

Vice President & Membership – Ken Yasuda

Weighmaster – Billy Vitale

Tournament Director – Jarad Gilbert

Treasurer – TBD

….thank you to all the others working behind the scenes to make the club function throughout the year. Member participation is the only way we can keep the MBMC we all love to continue. As noted above, we are still looking for someone to wear the Treasurer’s hat so please let us know if you can spare some time to help out.

The bite:

I would not say the fishing has been on fire but there has been a steady show of Yellowtail in some of the standard locations along the coast. In fact, the January 2021 FOM honors were taken by fellow member Hugh Kollar with his sizable 35 lb Yellowtail! Well done Hugh! The occasional and always elusive White Sea Bass have also been reported from the La Jolla area. The bottom fishing for cod continued to produce for those willing to put in the time.

2020 Awards:

The awards for qualifying 2020 catches are nearing completion thanks to the hard work contributed by members Billy Vitale, Jarad Gilbert, and Jerry Lively. A special thanks goes out to these members for making these great looking awards happen! 

Membership:

A special congratulations goes out to our early bird membership raffle winner….Gina Galvas! Congratulations on your new Shimano Tranx 400 reel! Way to start off the year! We had a great turnout for the early bird membership and I would like to thank all those that sent in their renewals early….I believe we are up to around 60 members so far! Just a reminder, if you haven’t sent in your membership, Feb 28th is the cutoff for those that wish to be included in the 2021 MBMC member directory so get those renewals sent in. 

Upcoming events:

We are looking to kick off the 2021 MBMC club tournament series with the Bay Bass tournament. Your tournament director will be leading the way on how we best ease back into the tournaments we all know and love. Currently the date is slated for March 27th & 28th so be sure to check the club website for updates and entry forms. I believe there will also be entry forms available at Dana Landing Tackle center. As a reminder, any guest anglers will need to be signed up under a club member.

We are also working to hold a 2021 Membership meeting. Unless any drastic changes occur in the near future, we will most likely be holding this meeting via a Zoom call format. More details to come soon!

Reminders:

As we all come out of winter hibernation, I wanted to throw out a quick reminder to all those entered in Fish of the Month (FOM). Please be sure to let your weighmaster know if you have weighed a qualifying catch for FOM within 3 days of weighing in. This will ensure that your catch is followed up on and the proper paperwork is obtained by the weighmaster.

I think that about covers it for now. Wishing you all health, prosperity and tight lines.

Sincerely,

Shane Hurt