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Sports

Two Days Left to Catch Rockfish

Rockfish season closes on January 1 so you better get out before Sunday

Anglers are scurrying to get out on the water as the rockfish season closes on Sunday. The bite has been excellent lately with sunny, warm days and flat calm seas. The Westerly and Native Sun were out of Long Beach Sportfishing on Wednesday catching good numbers of the fine eating rockfish. Westerly Captain John Ackley showed the “Fishing with Phil” group a gray whale and humongous pods of dolphin on their way to the rockfish grounds off Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes.

The bite was excellent for big vermillion rockfish, some fat boccaccio and lots of other rockfish. David “The Stick” Malcahy from Wilmington won the jackpot with a 5-lb. boccaccio and bagged several other nice bottom fish.

“You just can’t get fish this fresh from any market,” said Captain Jeff Jones who was on board the Westerly. Besides, it’s just great to be out on the water.”

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A quick check at one fish market was selling fresh rockfish for $14 per pound. That was three filets for over $20. Bill Swift from Downey caught a limit of 10 beautiful rockfish or 20 filets. Not only was it a glorious time to be out on the water but if you do the math, you can see that a local rockfish trip can really pay off.

On board the Native Sun, anglers were also treated to a variety of the tasty bottom dwellers.

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“We had over a dozen different species including a monster cabezon that fell back in to the sea,” said skipper Gabriel Miranda. “The angler tried to hoist the fish over the side and it was just too heavy.”

Other landings up and down the coast were having great success too as this has been an exceptionally good fall/winter bite. Just a few more hours left so get out soon.

Fishing with Phil

The final “Fishing with Phil” trips for 2011 are Friday, 8am-3pm on board the Westerly and Saturday, 7am-4pm on board the Native Sun both out of Long Beach Sportfishing. Saturday is the final day of the rockfish season so it’s your last chance to catch some of the finest eating fish in the sea. Raffle prizes will be given out on both trips. For more information, call 424-237-0250 or e-mail PhilipFriedmanOutdoors@gmail.com .

Killer whale sighting off the Palos Verdes Peninsula

Volunteers from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center saw killer whales near a fin whale on Tuesday.

“We tried to get out with the killer whales off Pt. Vicente today, but they disappeared into the sun glare 30 minutes before we arrived on the scene; they had been with a fin whale - slowly headed west,” said Alisa Shulman-Janiger, Director of the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project.

Fishing closures go into effect on January 1

The New Year brings with it Southern California’s newly established marine protected areas. They go in to effect on January 1, and it will be up to anglers to know where and where they cannot fish.

The Department of Fish and Game, in a news release, stated that wardens will be on the water and "will take appropriate enforcement actions, which could include education, warning, citation or arrest, depending on the violation."

Anglers can find maps at www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scmpas_list.asp. They can also access information about the closed and restricted on their iPhones, iPads and Android devices by visitinghttp://www.dfg.ca.gov/m/MPA and following instructions on the MPA mobile website.

With the App they can look up marine parks, reserves and conservation areas by name, or find these areas by county. They can look up maps and regulations, and can also track their location using the GPS on their mobile device, to see if they've crossed an MPA boundary.

Anglers should take this all very seriously as the DFG will not be amused if you don’t know the rules.

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