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By Ed Zieralski , San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 3, 2003
Hoop-netting for lobsters clearly is an art, and on this particular day hoop-netter extraordinaire Jimmy Fernandes wasn't giving up any of his secrets.
Jimmy Fernandes and his 5-year-old son, C.J., show off the 12.5-pound lobster caught in San Diego Bay. DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune
But then who can blame Fernandes? When a man can go out with his niece and land a couple of limits, 14 lobsters, including a 12½-pound red dinosaur with a shell, he has the right to keep things to himself.
The 12½-pound lobster was the talk of Fernandes' Point Loma neighborhood Tuesday afternoon as friends and neighbors, some in carloads, paraded by to see Sir Jimmy and "The Catch."
"If you want to get to know your neighbors, catch a big lobster like this," said Fernandes' friend Richard Chargas.
Fernandes, 50, has been hoop-netting for lobsters for more than 20 years, so he has it down to a science, so much so that he even impresses good friend Bill Sardinha, his former boat partner and now a tuna boat manager.
"He wasn't this good a fisherman when I was partners with him on the boat," Sardinha said. "The only thing I got then was the bill for the boat payment. But he's really gotten sophisticated since then, with all the special bait holders, hoop nets, the whole thing. He's got it down."
Fernandes and his niece, Janine Alioto, a sheriff's deputy, caught the lobsters Monday night in San Diego Bay at a location Fernandes did not divulge. On that night he said he set eight hoop nets, two fewer than the boat limit, during a typical run in the jetty. He was having luck catching legal-sized, 1½-2 pounders, when suddenly one pull became a lot tougher than the others.
"I felt him in the net, and I could barely get the net up to the boat," Fernandes said. "I knew it was something bigger than normal."
The lobster measured 37 inches from the tip of its antennae, which looked to have been broken off and growing back, to the base of its huge tail. It was almost as tall as Fernandes' 5-year-old son, C.J., and it sported a 21-inch girth.
Fernandes' niece wanted to let the big bug go. After all, scientists believe it takes lobsters seven to 10 years just to reach the legal size of 3½ inches from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell. This one probably was older than Fernandes. It was still alive late Tuesday night, nearly 24 hours after it was caught.
"I really don't want to kill it," Fernandes said. "I tried to donate it to Scripps (Institution of Oceanography) or SeaWorld, but because of the holidays I couldn't get anyone there. I donated an 8-pounder Brent Young and I caught in 1998 to Scripps. But this is the biggest one I've ever caught."
Fernandes planned to take the meat out of the tail and then freeze the carcass. He's going to have a mount made of it at Lyons & O'Haver Taxidermy in La Mesa. When it's done, the lobster will hang in his bar, the P.B. Pub in Pacific Beach, where it will be the biggest spiny lobster on the wall, but not the biggest crustacean.
"I've got a 35-pound Maine lobster on the wall at the bar," Fernandes said. "It was caught by John Nebes, the father of a friend of mine, in 1956."
Noteworthy
Lobsters aren't the only good catches in the bay right now. Spotted bay bass, sand bass and calico bass are biting in good numbers. George Tuthill and Douglas Yoshida landed a combination of 40 of those on Monday.
January 3, 2003
Hoop-netting for lobsters clearly is an art, and on this particular day hoop-netter extraordinaire Jimmy Fernandes wasn't giving up any of his secrets.
Jimmy Fernandes and his 5-year-old son, C.J., show off the 12.5-pound lobster caught in San Diego Bay. DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune
But then who can blame Fernandes? When a man can go out with his niece and land a couple of limits, 14 lobsters, including a 12½-pound red dinosaur with a shell, he has the right to keep things to himself.
The 12½-pound lobster was the talk of Fernandes' Point Loma neighborhood Tuesday afternoon as friends and neighbors, some in carloads, paraded by to see Sir Jimmy and "The Catch."
"If you want to get to know your neighbors, catch a big lobster like this," said Fernandes' friend Richard Chargas.
Fernandes, 50, has been hoop-netting for lobsters for more than 20 years, so he has it down to a science, so much so that he even impresses good friend Bill Sardinha, his former boat partner and now a tuna boat manager.
"He wasn't this good a fisherman when I was partners with him on the boat," Sardinha said. "The only thing I got then was the bill for the boat payment. But he's really gotten sophisticated since then, with all the special bait holders, hoop nets, the whole thing. He's got it down."
Fernandes and his niece, Janine Alioto, a sheriff's deputy, caught the lobsters Monday night in San Diego Bay at a location Fernandes did not divulge. On that night he said he set eight hoop nets, two fewer than the boat limit, during a typical run in the jetty. He was having luck catching legal-sized, 1½-2 pounders, when suddenly one pull became a lot tougher than the others.
"I felt him in the net, and I could barely get the net up to the boat," Fernandes said. "I knew it was something bigger than normal."
The lobster measured 37 inches from the tip of its antennae, which looked to have been broken off and growing back, to the base of its huge tail. It was almost as tall as Fernandes' 5-year-old son, C.J., and it sported a 21-inch girth.
Fernandes' niece wanted to let the big bug go. After all, scientists believe it takes lobsters seven to 10 years just to reach the legal size of 3½ inches from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell. This one probably was older than Fernandes. It was still alive late Tuesday night, nearly 24 hours after it was caught.
"I really don't want to kill it," Fernandes said. "I tried to donate it to Scripps (Institution of Oceanography) or SeaWorld, but because of the holidays I couldn't get anyone there. I donated an 8-pounder Brent Young and I caught in 1998 to Scripps. But this is the biggest one I've ever caught."
Fernandes planned to take the meat out of the tail and then freeze the carcass. He's going to have a mount made of it at Lyons & O'Haver Taxidermy in La Mesa. When it's done, the lobster will hang in his bar, the P.B. Pub in Pacific Beach, where it will be the biggest spiny lobster on the wall, but not the biggest crustacean.
"I've got a 35-pound Maine lobster on the wall at the bar," Fernandes said. "It was caught by John Nebes, the father of a friend of mine, in 1956."
Noteworthy
Lobsters aren't the only good catches in the bay right now. Spotted bay bass, sand bass and calico bass are biting in good numbers. George Tuthill and Douglas Yoshida landed a combination of 40 of those on Monday.
