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Docks celebrate sportfishing
Annual day of celebration at sportsfishing landings is tomorrow
Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 26, 2003
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
Benjamin Choate, 7, helps gather his father David's tuna catch from a recent trip to Clipperton Island. San Diego's sportfishing industry celebrates it successes each year with the Day at the Docks festival.
There are times when Catherine Miller marvels at the success and longevity of Day at the Docks at the San Diego sportfishing landings.
Now in its 24th year, the event has grown from being a way to draw attention to a struggling sportfishing fleet coming off a terrible fishing year to a celebration of the fleet's good luck, its riches and its network of friends, businesses and fishermen.
Miller said Day at the Docks is like fishing in that no two years have ever been the same. There are always surprises, and there are always lots of people.
An estimated 50,000 people are expected to pass through the block-long festival tomorrow along Scott Street, one block south of Rosecrans. It goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
"The whole environment changes every year at Day at the Docks," Miller said. "Seminar speakers change. Tackle manufacturers break out new products. New companies come in. It all changes. It's a very dynamic industry."
The one constant in each of the 24 years has been Miller, owner of Catherine Miller and Associates, and one of the founders of the San Diego Sportfishing Council. She said her friend and restaurant business partner, Louie Martinez, who sets up the electricity and booth placements, joined her in 1984. And helping Miller this year is Vic Gamboa, second captain on the sport boat Contender and well-connected in the industry.
How excited is the sportfishing industry to play host to this springtime coming-out party?
Buck Everingham of Everingham Brothers Bait Co. has been collecting mackerel since November for the event, filling nine bait receivers with mackerel for the Kid's Fishing Adventure.
Everingham, who has been an outspoken advocate of fisherman's rights, delivers a seminar at 2:45 on the Main Stage titled, "Making Live Bait and Keeping It Alive."
"Some captains in the fleet are going to pull up a chair for that seminar," Miller said. "It's well-known that Buck has some of the best fishermen in the fleet making bait for him. They want to hear how he does it."
Miller said Everingham stocked the receiving pens next to H&M Landing Wednesday, so the fish are ready to bite for the kids.
The excitement actually started last Saturday when the Royal Star returned from an eight-day run to Alijos Rocks and the Royal Polaris pulled in with a load of huge tuna from its Clipperton adventure.
"It's wonderful to see the excitement around the docks every year as the day approaches," Miller said. "You can see the boats being spruced up for the Day at the Docks. And to think this all came from some very humble beginnings."
It was held in December at first, Miller said, until one winter the wind blew them out of the water.
There once was a yellowtail tournament, a junior fishing tournament, a three-day celebration that needed more focus, a little less testosterone and a lot less competition. The start of the yellowtail derby resembled the beginning of the Thunder Boat races in the bay.
"When we first started the San Diego Sportfishing Council in 1979, we were having a tough season," Miller said.
Fish weren't cooperating, and the Port of San Diego was raising rent.
Miller, Capt. Nick Cates of the New Lo-An and representatives of all the landings, along with hotel manager Dori Holiday, worked for a promotional fund grant of $10,000, and the boat owners matched that money.
Now the fleet has a marketing agreement with the Port of San Diego. The fleet receives $75,000 to cover promotional events such as Day at the Docks and fund marketing arms such as advertising and school programs.
The fleet also is in the 11th year of its program with the Partnership in Education. The fishing program, started by Miller and the San Diego Rod and Reel Club's members who are teachers, enlists 25 San Diego-area schools. Each half-day boat gives seven spots to the participating schools to cover two adult supervisors and five school kids. The spots are set aside on morning and afternoon half-day trips on Saturdays and Sundays from September to June.
The boat owners contribute the trips. The landings donate the use of the tackle. The kids and supervisors have fun being on the ocean and catching fish.
Miller said a group called the Dad's Club, which works with several elementary schools in the area, also has gotten involved as a way to get dads more involved with their kids' school work and after-school playtime.
"The trips are a reward for the kids and dads," Miller said. "The trips may be used in any fashion the schools deem appropriate. They can reward kids for high achievement, or give them to kids they feel need help."
If Day at the Docks celebrates one thing, it pays tribute to the men and women of the sea whose calling and passion is to take people of all ages out for a day, a week or more for fun, fishing and adventure.
Each year they open their boats and their hearts to this city and ask folks to come on down to see what they're all about.
It's worth the drive and worth the day . . . at the docks.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225 or ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
Annual day of celebration at sportsfishing landings is tomorrow
Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 26, 2003
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
Benjamin Choate, 7, helps gather his father David's tuna catch from a recent trip to Clipperton Island. San Diego's sportfishing industry celebrates it successes each year with the Day at the Docks festival.
There are times when Catherine Miller marvels at the success and longevity of Day at the Docks at the San Diego sportfishing landings.
Now in its 24th year, the event has grown from being a way to draw attention to a struggling sportfishing fleet coming off a terrible fishing year to a celebration of the fleet's good luck, its riches and its network of friends, businesses and fishermen.
Miller said Day at the Docks is like fishing in that no two years have ever been the same. There are always surprises, and there are always lots of people.
An estimated 50,000 people are expected to pass through the block-long festival tomorrow along Scott Street, one block south of Rosecrans. It goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
"The whole environment changes every year at Day at the Docks," Miller said. "Seminar speakers change. Tackle manufacturers break out new products. New companies come in. It all changes. It's a very dynamic industry."
The one constant in each of the 24 years has been Miller, owner of Catherine Miller and Associates, and one of the founders of the San Diego Sportfishing Council. She said her friend and restaurant business partner, Louie Martinez, who sets up the electricity and booth placements, joined her in 1984. And helping Miller this year is Vic Gamboa, second captain on the sport boat Contender and well-connected in the industry.
How excited is the sportfishing industry to play host to this springtime coming-out party?
Buck Everingham of Everingham Brothers Bait Co. has been collecting mackerel since November for the event, filling nine bait receivers with mackerel for the Kid's Fishing Adventure.
Everingham, who has been an outspoken advocate of fisherman's rights, delivers a seminar at 2:45 on the Main Stage titled, "Making Live Bait and Keeping It Alive."
"Some captains in the fleet are going to pull up a chair for that seminar," Miller said. "It's well-known that Buck has some of the best fishermen in the fleet making bait for him. They want to hear how he does it."
Miller said Everingham stocked the receiving pens next to H&M Landing Wednesday, so the fish are ready to bite for the kids.
The excitement actually started last Saturday when the Royal Star returned from an eight-day run to Alijos Rocks and the Royal Polaris pulled in with a load of huge tuna from its Clipperton adventure.
"It's wonderful to see the excitement around the docks every year as the day approaches," Miller said. "You can see the boats being spruced up for the Day at the Docks. And to think this all came from some very humble beginnings."
It was held in December at first, Miller said, until one winter the wind blew them out of the water.
There once was a yellowtail tournament, a junior fishing tournament, a three-day celebration that needed more focus, a little less testosterone and a lot less competition. The start of the yellowtail derby resembled the beginning of the Thunder Boat races in the bay.
"When we first started the San Diego Sportfishing Council in 1979, we were having a tough season," Miller said.
Fish weren't cooperating, and the Port of San Diego was raising rent.
Miller, Capt. Nick Cates of the New Lo-An and representatives of all the landings, along with hotel manager Dori Holiday, worked for a promotional fund grant of $10,000, and the boat owners matched that money.
Now the fleet has a marketing agreement with the Port of San Diego. The fleet receives $75,000 to cover promotional events such as Day at the Docks and fund marketing arms such as advertising and school programs.
The fleet also is in the 11th year of its program with the Partnership in Education. The fishing program, started by Miller and the San Diego Rod and Reel Club's members who are teachers, enlists 25 San Diego-area schools. Each half-day boat gives seven spots to the participating schools to cover two adult supervisors and five school kids. The spots are set aside on morning and afternoon half-day trips on Saturdays and Sundays from September to June.
The boat owners contribute the trips. The landings donate the use of the tackle. The kids and supervisors have fun being on the ocean and catching fish.
Miller said a group called the Dad's Club, which works with several elementary schools in the area, also has gotten involved as a way to get dads more involved with their kids' school work and after-school playtime.
"The trips are a reward for the kids and dads," Miller said. "The trips may be used in any fashion the schools deem appropriate. They can reward kids for high achievement, or give them to kids they feel need help."
If Day at the Docks celebrates one thing, it pays tribute to the men and women of the sea whose calling and passion is to take people of all ages out for a day, a week or more for fun, fishing and adventure.
Each year they open their boats and their hearts to this city and ask folks to come on down to see what they're all about.
It's worth the drive and worth the day . . . at the docks.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225 or ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
