Dear Members,

Hopefully the weather starts to cooperate and boats can get out to fish more.  Not much precipitation, but windy. . The Rockcod fishing is now open in U.S. Waters.  Be sure and read through the latest Regulations as they have changed this season.  There is some quality out there to be caught. . . Bluefin sign @ 50-160 miles, but are biting hot and cold.  Daytime biters on bait and colt snipers, nighttime knife type jigs.  Water at the Islands is not too pretty, but it is holding Yo-Yo yellowtail.  Look for the counts to get better as the wind lies down. 

April will be the start of our Tournament schedule.  Our first tournament of the year will be our Bay Bass Tournament. This is scheduled for April 22nd and 23rd (fish both or just one day).  Let’s make this a great start to the year.  Get your friends and family out on the bay for a fun day of fishing.  Take a kid fishing, we’ll be sure and reward them for their effort.  Remember that Non-Members can fish this tournament provided  they are signed up by a member. 

The Halibut/White Seabass (May) and Yellowtail (June) Tournaments will be One Month format Tournaments this year .  Rules will be worked out shortly for this new layout we are trying.  Even if you are not entered in a Tournament.  Come weigh-in fish at the Dana Fuel Dock and get a Certified Weighslip filled out (Fuel Dock Staff will assist you).  This will give you a great chance to win FOM (fish of the month) if you are entered in this.  We had NO fish weighed in for January, February, and March.  So, whoever weighed in a fish would have taken that month’s FOM prize. 

Member Directories and Cards are available now.  Big thanks to Kent Yamada for putting this together again.  We would also like to give a huge thank you to outgoing President Shane Hurt, longtime Board Member Billy Vitale, and Jerry Lively (two-time past President, Boardmember, and Member of many years).  With outgoing Board Members, we would like to bring more people into the mix on the Board.  Please do not hesitate to contact any Board Member regarding this.  Contact info. is available in the Member Directory.  The more people that get involved, the more we can do for the Club. 

This past weekend we had the annual Member Meeting and included a Seminar.  John White from Dana Landing Tackle  graciously offered to speak at our seminar.  He offered his insight on Mission Bay inshore fishing.  We heard great tips on areas to target, best conditions to use different techniques, and of course the latest hot gear that is getting bit.  There are many new bay techniques and gear that are hot.  If you missed the Seminar, visit Dana Landing Tackle for advice.  Those people fish EVERY day and know what’s biting and on what.  The Raffle had a lot of great new gear for the Bay Bass Tournament.  Everything from Japanese Swimbaits to Alabama Rigs, much of which was generously donated by John White @ Dana.  Big thanks goes out to them!  The Member Meeting was good as we now have new Board Members sworn in.

President:  Ken Yasuda

Vice President:  Paul Himmelberger

Secretary:  Scott Paul

Treasurer:  Tommy Baronner

Tournament Directors:  Jim Kelly / Kevin Yamamoto

Social Director:  Scott Paul

Weighmaster:  Kevin Yamamoto / Jim Kelly

Our next big event will be the MBMC 51st Anniversary Celebration.  We are planning on having two ORIGINAL members, Paul Himmelberger and Jim Valentine speak at the celebration.  Stay tuned on details for this.  In the meantime, we are working on updating our website to modernize and add some features.

Another reminder if you have not signed up yet for the 2023 year, the dues will be increasing to $150.00 on June 1st.  Get renewed by May to save the $25.

As always please share the MBMC with your friends and family and get involved with these great Seminars and Tournaments.  Send us your pics of having fun fishing, we would love to post them.  Look forward to seeing everybody in the 2023 fishing season.  

Tight lines,

Scott Paul

Secretary

Hello Members,

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of Spring.  Sounds like the on and off storms will be coming to an end.  Time to go fishing!

I would like to remind everyone that we are having our Yearly Member Meeting along with a Seminar on Saturday, April 15th.

It is being held at Sardina’s Restayrant on Morena Avenue and includes an Italian Buffet with Antipasto Salad, Chicken Marsala, & Lasagna.  This will include a Seminar by John White of Dana Landing Tackle.  He will be giving us pointers on Bay Bass, Halibut, & White Seabass fishing.

Please flyer included in recent email for details.

Hope to see you there.

Kevin Yamamoto,

MBMC Board

Dear MBMC members,

First we would like to wish everybody a happy New Year!  Hopefully this year we have another epic year of fishing.  With all of the Post-Covid madness, we did not have a MBMC 50th Anniversary Celebration last year.  Yes, the Club was founded back in 1972. We would like to catch up and have a nice 51st year Anniversary Get- together.  The details will be worked out and we will send out information so keep an eye out for this.

For many years the MBMC newsletter was called the OOPSLINE!  In celebration, this year’s newsletters will again be OOPSLINE in celebration. 

The Board met on March 11th to start the ball rolling on all the Tournaments and Seminars that will be put on this year.  To start, we would like to welcome two new Board Members, Jim Kelley and Tommy Barroner.  Big thanks to Shane Hurt for his 2 years of serving as our President as well as Jerry Lively for his years of service, knowledge, & contributions to the Club.  Both Shane and Jerry will be stepping down from the Board this year.  Another thanks to last year’s Board Members for all the hard work and dedication that was put into the Mission Bay Marlin Club:  Shane Hurt, Jerry Lively, Billy Vitale, Ken Yasuda, Kevin Yamamoto, Ray Fear, and Scott Paul.

As we stated in the past, this is your Club.  Please give us your feedback or suggestions on things you would like to see from the Club.  This year we would really like to see more kids get involved.  So please bring your kids and their friends into the Tournaments or Fish of the Month.  There will be a lot of prizes and giveaways for them.  They are the future of fishing.  Also, we would love it if Members would submit Fishing Pics throughout the year.  It would be great to include these in the Monthly emails.  Fishing, catching, or just having fun on the water.

Last year the MBMC saw its membership grow to 90.  Thank you everyone.  This year as of June 1st, 2023,  the dues will be raised by 25 dollars to $150.00 for Adults.  Spouses & Children under 18 remain at $40.00.  Still a great deal compared to other fishing Clubs in the area.  So get signed up before the deadline and save 25 dollars.

The next Event this year will be the Membership Meeting / Bay Bass, Seabass, & Halibut Seminar on April 15th, 2023 (see attached flyer).  These are always fun and informative.  So come out, meet fellow anglers, and maybe pick up a few new tips.  Our presenter is John White from Dana Landing Tackle who is a wealth of knowledge.  It is being held at Sardina’s Restaurant, a great venue in the Morena/Bay Park area. 

The first tournament of the year will be our popular Bay Bass Tournament.  The date has been set for April 22-23 (see attached flyer).  A few changes have been made to this year’s tournament formats.  As you know September is the start of the Roy Lively Month Long Marlin Tourney.  This year we will be following the same month long format for the Month Long Halibut / White Seabass Tournament in May and the Month Long Yellowtail Tournament in July.  We are hoping to get more anglers involved with this change in format.  We are working out the details and more information will follow in the coming months.

The end of the year MBMC Awards Banquet was another huge success. It was held at the beautiful Tom Ham’s Lighthouse. 35 members with wives and significant others attended.  The food was exceptional as always.  A lot of good fishing stories of the past year.  The early bird winner of the Penn fathom 30 2 speed reel was Brent Hargraves Jr. Congratulations to him.

Ann Thompson and “To the Limit” (Dan Muslin) earned the 1st Marlin release flag and Ryan Kohler with team “Una Mas”(Jeff Winters) scored the 1st capture flag for 2022.  Nicely Done!

 Largest Species Awards:

• Halibut-39.1 lbs – Billy Vitale
• Lincod-24.8 Lbs – Ken Yasuda
• Marlin-129.3 – Tim Honick
• Rockfish-6.2lbs – Billy Vitale
• Bluefin Tuna (M ) – 128lbs-Kevin Yamamoto
• Bluefin Tuna (F) – 47.4lbs-Shannon Carpenter

Great job anglers!

A quick recap of a few tournaments from 2022

MBMC Marlin Tournament 

• Ryan Kohleron the ‘Una Mas’ – 1st
• Tim Honickon the’ Doghouse’ – 2nd
• Kevin Yamamotoon the ‘Encounter’ drew 3rd.
• Team ‘Encounter’ hit it again when Alex Edwardsdrew the Tuna Prize.

Bay Bass Tournament

• Men’s winner – Bob Hargraves– Radar
• Women’s winner – Donna Hargarves– Radar
• Junior winner – Brent Hargraves Jr. – Radar

Hargraves dominated the Tournament, excellent work.

Rockcod Tournament

• 1st – Tommy Barroner– Tri-dent
• 2nd – Rodney Villalva– Tri-dent
• 3rd – Scott Paul– Tri-dent

Team Trident swept the prizes, way to go!

Fishing report wise. . . As you have all experienced, fishing since December has been tough due to the weather.  The last reports have yellows showing up at the islands. These are yoyo fish.  More volume seen than the counts reflect.  There also has been good quality of reds and lingcod across the border.  Do not forget the CA Fish and Wildlife has NEW regulations for bottom fishing in 2023.  Be sure and review carefully as dates and depths have changed.

Looking forward to another great year on the water. Again thanks to all Members and Board Members for making the MBMC such a great Club!

Tight Lines,

Scott Paul, Treasurer

Greetings fellow MBMC members,

I hope this message finds you well and Happy New Year to you all.

***IMPORTANT***

I want to start off with a reminder that the RSVP deadline for the 2022 MBMC awards banquet is this Sunday, January 15th. Get your RSVP in now!!! Awards banquet is scheduled for January 28th from 5-9 PM. Hope to see you all there. 

January 15th is also the early bird deadline for membership renewals to qualify for the Penn Fathom 2-speed reel. Get your renewals in now if you haven’t already.

I want to take a moment to congratulate Ken Yasuda for taking FOM for December 2022 with his 24.8 lb Ling Cod. Nice one Ken!

A special congrats goes out to Lou Hayden for taking a 37 lb Halibut on Dec 3. Great catch Lou! Lou would have taken FOM for the month, but he had already reached the annual limit of 2 FOMs for the year. Great year Lou! 

***As a reminder to all FOM participants, any one angler is limited to 2 FOM wins per year per club rules.

Not much else to report on the fishing front as far as I know. As we all know, the weather has not provided too many nice days so far this year. I’m sure we can all appreciate the rain we have been getting so enjoy the time to get some boat and tackle work taken care of. 

In closing, I did want to take a moment to thank the MBMC board for their efforts in making the awards banquet happen. They have planned a great event which I hope you can enjoy. Special thanks goes out to Billy Vitale for all his time and effort in putting together some great awards to be presented.

Tight lines and smooth seas,

Shane Hurt

MBMC President – 2022

Season’s Greetings fellow MBMC members……I hope this holiday season finds you all happy and healthy.

As we close out the 2022 year, I wanted to pass along one last download of what was a great fishing year overall. A plethora of quality gamefish and a nice spread of Marlin made this a year to remember. As most of you would probably guess, fishing has slowed considerably with weather turning less favorable during the winter months. I am not aware of any hot bites taking place aside from a handful of deep drop swordfish coming to those that put in the effort. I did also hear that Cod fishing was good in Mexican waters. I believe US waters close December 31st and remain closed until April 1st of 2023; refer to your Cal F&W regs before taking my word for it!

I’d like to congratulate Kevin Yamamoto for taking the November FOM honors with a nice grade 128 lb BFT. Well done Kevin!

Also a huge congrats goes out to Scott Paul on his boat Trident for taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place honors in the annual MBMC Rock Cod tournament. Excellent job to Scott and crew in taking home ~$500 in winnings!!!

Special thanks to those that put together and attended the MBMC 2022 End of Season social. A great BBQ spread at the Marina Deli was enjoyed by ~25 members spending some downtime to catch up on friendships and fish stories. A great time for sure!

*Important reminder! The annual MBMC Awards Banquet is fast approaching with limited seating so be sure to get signed up asap. Get your RSVP handled by January 15th. The event will take place at Tom Ham’s on Harbor Island on Saturday, Jan 28th from 5pm-9pm. Tickets prices are $60 for members and $70 for non-members. Flyer is attached.

I’d like to welcome new club member Kevin Mackinnon and his 51′ Sea Ray, “Tied Up and Twisted” to the club. Welcome aboard Kevin!

On that note, I wanted to remind you all to get your club membership renewals sent in asap. Club membership is currently at an impressive 91. The early bird renewal deadline is fast approaching on January 15th with a Penn Fathom 2-speed reel on the line for the lucky drawing winner!!!  You can renew online here , (pay via paypal and mail in the signed Release of Liability form)  or  pay by check using the linked Membership Application Forms.

I think that’s a wrap for 2022. I want to thank you all for making this a memorable year. Special thanks goes out to your MBMC board members. They did an amazing job putting together some great events as we pulled out of Covid isolation and they deserve a ton of gratitude from us all. Please reach out if you are able to participate in the board as any and all help is appreciated. Your participation is what makes this club all the more special.

Until next time….tight lines, smooth seas and the happiest of holidays to you all,

Shane Hurt

MBMC President – 2022