The fourth annual free veteran’s fishing day sponsored by Point Loma Rotary Club for recovering vets from Veterans Village of San Diego turned into a fishing frenzy with contented anglers returning with big smiles along with their limits of fish.
It was a long, 12-hour day aboard the Malihini skippered by Capt. William Wilkerson on Oct. 6, as a group of a dozen or more vets from Veterans Village were treated by Rotarians to a fun day on the ocean. The military vets, from various branches of the service, are working through a live-in drug and alcohol recovery program at VVSD. The nonprofit, whose motto is “Leave No One Behind,” since 1981 has helped thousands of vulnerable vets to reclaim their lives through programs offering transitional and permanent housing, mental health counseling, substance-use treatment, and employment and training services.
The World War II-era Malihini, long since converted for sportfishing, docks at H&M Landing in Point Loma. The boat travels many miles out into the ocean in search of patches of kelp where game fish congregate.
As any good angler will tell you, there is a “huge” difference between fishing – and catching. On this day, the Malihini, working with fish-finding sonar, at first visited a handful of kelp beds without success – not even a nibble – on lines cast into the water with live bait.
But then the boat finally hit the jackpot: a whole school of dorado, warm-water fish otherwise known as mahi-mahi, “very strong” in Hawaiian. They are extremely colorful, have voracious appetites, and are extremely fast, swimming up to 57 mph, usually swimming within 100 feet of the surface.
Exciting and fast-paced described the harried action and impressive haul of more than 30 dorados that vets “landed” in about 20 minutes time. If they could have, fish would have been jumping into the 80-foot sportfishing Malihini. All of a sudden, seemingly everyone aboard was struggling to cope with a “big” one on their line, while Malihini’s crew scrambled to help them reel in and gaff the huge fish, which put up quite a fight.
Before embarking, Margret McDaniels, the cook for the Malihini, noted things were slowing down in October after the always-busy peak summer season, where she said the boat goes out “every day” adding “I was on an 18-day stretch before I got a day off in June.”
“We go for what’s biting,” noted McDaniels, adding dorado and any kind of tuna including bluefin and yellowfin and some Bonita were biting at that time.
Pointing out what is biting depends largely on the water temperature, McDaniels added water temperature can vary “by the day, by the hour.” She noted ocean water temperature around San Diego is unquestionably warmer than it has been historically. “Twenty years ago, if you asked what the water temperature was and they said 70 degrees, everyone’s heads would explode,” she quipped. “That was hot (then). We were talking summer water temperatures (then) in the 60s.”
Some people don’t believe global warming and climate change are happening. To which McDaniels replied: “They don’t work on boats. I’ve seen it in real life.”
Alan Brown of Point Loma Rotary went along for the ride and talked about the origin of the service club’s annual vets’ fishing day. “Before the pandemic hit Carter Shuffler, a devout fisherman, conned me into helping him take veterans fishing,” joked Brown. “So I started going around to the VA and VFW, and somebody said I ought to go to VVSD. So I had a conversation with them and figured out this (fishing trip) would be a perfect fit for them. So, for four years now we’ve been in partnership with them.”
Added Brown, “Typically we’ll have up to 40 vets from VVSD, and Carter and I through the Rotary Club raise the money to pay for the whole trip, the boat, the food, etc. Fish & Game gives us all the (fishing) permits free and H&M Landing gives us our gear free. They (vets) will take their catch today back to VVSD to be cooked for a big meal.”
On their maiden vets fishing day, Brown said a VVSD staffer told him, “This is the first time I’ve seen these guys get along and have so much fun together. We hope to do this until there are no more veterans.”
One of the vets out for the Rotary fishing trip was Dean Stratton, a formerly incarcerated Navy vet and skin diver who has traveled the world and now, in his 60s, is undergoing residential drug rehab at VVSD. “I love fishing,” Stratton said adding of VVSD: “It’s a blessing. It gave me a new start in life. And I’m so grateful that I went there, and for the people I met. I voluntarily joined the program and the therapy there is top-notch. It allows you to get the help that you need.”
Added Stratton, “Next month I’ll be three years sober. I was a functioning addict. But I’m now overcoming those struggles.”
On the voyage back to port around dinner time everyone aboard the Malihini got a real treat: an up-close-and-personal view of a huge school of dolphins. They even got a glimpse of a whale tail.
Good times were had by all.
For more information, go to vvsd.net or pointlomarotary.org.
