Pat McDonell

Pat McDonell

Champion of tournaments, sportfishing, outdoor reporting and philanthropy

If there were a Mount Rushmore of California outdoorsmen, Pat McDonell would be at the center, wrote one of the nominators of this inductee.

Sportfishing was and remains his passion. When commercial fishermen were depleting near-shore populations of game fish off California through their use of gill nets, McDonell helped lead the long fight to secure over 200,000 signatures and raise $1 million in 1990 to fund Proposition 132, the Marine Protection Zone and Gill and Trammel Net Prohibition Initiative. McDonell was one of the founding board members of United Anglers of Southern California which championed Prop. 132.  In due part because of their efforts, the initiative was approved by a margin of 55.76%. Since then, white sea bass, halibut and other species have rebounded along the California coast.

McDonell began directing fishing tournaments and leading fishing trips to Alaska and Cedros Island near Ensenada while working at Western Outdoor News. Among the more than 60 tournaments which he directed is the world’s largest tuna tournament, the Cabo Tuna Jackpot (CTJ). 

Impressed after competing in one of the Bisbee tournaments, McDonell and Kit McNear founded CTJ, described by McDonell as, “one that was fun, cost less money to enter, and in a tuna format.” Since then, their creation awarded over $19 million in payouts and hosted as many as 158 teams. Over its lifetime, CTJ has welcomed tens of thousands of anglers and partiers. Its motto, after all, is “Fish Hard, Party Harder.”

From its beginning, CTJ was designed to benefit local children. The latest beneficiary has been Smiles International (SI) which helps children with facial cleft deformities. As a result, thousands of kids have “become more normalized and functional with abilities to enter their societies with the ability to speak, eat, hear and breathe properly, as well as having beautifully functioning SMILES as they complete their lives.” wrote SI’s Dr. Jeffrey Moses. Nearly a half million dollars has been raised for charitable causes by McDonell-led tournaments throughout his lifetime. 

Pat McDonell has fished in ten countries, including Australia, Panama and Canada’s British Columbia. For the past 23 years, he has led fishing trips to Sitka Alaska, Cedros Island and Costa Rica, taking thousands on “life’s list” expeditions. McDonell was among the first outdoor writers to write extensively about Baja California and its sportfishing, traveling throughout Baja (including its most remote spots) more than 80 times.

For three decades, he wrote for and was Editorial Director of Western Outdoor News (WON). His articles and columns were so popular among sportsmen that one of California’s most celebrated outdoor editors said, “Readers would tell me Pat’s columns were the first thing they’d read upon opening Western Outdoor News.”

A lifelong journalist and sportsman, McDonell began writing for the student newspaper at San Diego State University. After joining WON a few years later, he covered fishing and hunting issues, personalities, destinations, tactics and anything else worthy of a headline. 

He is most proud of “Erik Sinking; Two Survivors Tell Their Story,” an investigative article that he wrote about the tragic loss of eight souls who were on the Mexican sportfishing boat Erik which sank overnight out of San Felipe. That poignantly written and carefully researched column took First Place in the 2012 Outdoor Writers of California Craft Awards and influenced the Mexican government to tighten lax enforcement of safety standards and the accessibility of lifevests on charter boats, saving untold lives.

McDonell was also one of the first regular guests to broadcast sportfishing news on various radio and TV broadcasts to promote fishing, tournaments, conservation efforts and the Fred Hall outdoor shows. He began these appearances in 1988 and continued his radio reports for over almost four decades, often appearing on “Let's Talk Hookup.” 

Saltwater sportfishing hasn’t been his only outdoor passion. He was a rated beach volleyballer; summit-ed two Sierra Nevada 14ers - including Mt. Whitney; hunted Mule deer, wild boars, turkey, dove, pheasant and waterfowl in California and Mexico; skied and snowboarded the Sierra; surfed the Pacific; cycled European roads; competed in half marathons, marathons and triathlons; SCUBA dived; and perennially held court at festivities the night before the Eastern Sierra trout opener, after which he’d break away to wet a fly. He was twice an IGFA all tackle world record holder; caught two world record fish, and landed seven tuna weighing over 200 lbs, including a yellow fin that still has his arms aching (and that’s a fish story).

Pat McDonell’s life has been filled with outdoor adventure and accomplishment. He stands as one of California’s most knowledgeable and storied outdoorsmen. And yet, he is the first to say, “No matter how much you know, the fish know more.”

Cabo Tuna Jackpot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpcy4niisIo

Friedman Adventures Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxDNXXE0Fvg

Let’s Talk Hookup - https://letstalkhookup.com/podcast/lets-talk-hookup-7-8am-pat-mcdonell-from-western-outdoor-news-2/

DAVE HURLEY

Dave Hurley, Stockton, is a lifelong northern California angler with deep roots in the California Delta.

His love of the Delta was enhanced by his close relationship with the late Jay Sorensen, founder of the California Striped Bass Association and member of the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

A lifelong educator, he started the Young Anglers of Morada Middle School to provide opportunities for underserved youth in the outdoors. He has testified as an expert witness before the State Water Board on Delta issues and has presented to the California Fish and Game Commission on numerous occasions. He is a strong advocate of catch-and-release of striped bass in excess of 10 pounds, and he additionally has written articles on the peril of excessive take of white sturgeon. Hurley has been writing stories on outdoor adventures for the past twenty years for a variety of publications including his own Hurley Chronicles, and he is a strong advocate for water issues as a board member of the California Sportfishing Protection Association, Water4Fish, and the California Inland Fisheries Foundation, Inc. 

As a native of Stockton, he covers his beloved California Delta along many other locations as northern California editor for Western Outdoor News. His great grandfather, Guiseppe Busalacchi was a commercial striped bass, salmon, and sturgeon fisherman in the Delta and a partner in the P. Busalacchi and Sons Fish Market in Stockton. He grew up at the right hand of his grandfather, Frank Busalacchi, who instilled the love of fishing, the outdoors, and the California Delta. In turn, Hurley is a master angler with world-class command of the 1,000-mile waterways of the Bay-Delta, and with additional travels across California and beyond.

KEITH FRASER

Fraser is a sturgeon master, results-only conservationist, bird lover, educator, 40-year baseball coach, champion of youth and bait man. Bait and tackle shops come and go, but Fraser and his crew hit their 40th anniversary this weekend at his little shop, Loch Lomond Live Bait in San Rafael.

He's 6-foot-5, thin, razor sharp, gruff with politicians, kind to children and always old school, like Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino." His wife, Gloria, puts up with him.

Out on the water, his rod tip wiggled, and he just sat there with his arms folded. "Flounder," muttered Fraser, able to discern all species by their bites. "Damn flounder."

He reeled in the flounder, let it go and said, "Where's Mr. Sturgy?"

Big numbers

Before Fraser revealed his secrets, many anglers believed it took 20 to 40 hours of fishing to catch a sturgeon, a lifetime to get a 100-pounder. In my first three trips with him, we fished 11 hours, caught and released eight over 50 pounds. I caught 150- and 100-pounders on back-to-back casts.

Nobody believed any of this, so I asked Fraser to keep an exact count of his bites, sets and fish on his trips, which usually span just two to four hours, during the peak time of an outgoing tide.

The numbers tell the story: 41 trips, 86 sturgeon (keepers over 46 inches, two over 200 pounds), all released unharmed. Over this period, he missed only 10 sets, known at KFMPs (Keith Fraser Missed Pumpers). In one period, he had 26 straight bites without a missed set, which obliterated my best streak of 14 straight.

A key to Fraser's success is that he invented a rod cradle for sturgeon fishing. The rod sits on top of it. When you get a bite, it's often so quick that you're late, or you move the rod, spook the fish and it's gone. Instead, when a sturgeon starts to taste the bait, Fraser tips the rod forward, using the end of the board as an axis point, careful not to move the bait.

Waiting to pounce

Fraser then gets in strike position, like a gunslinger waiting for his opponent to draw. If the rod tip is pulled down the slightest bit, often so subtly the untrained would never see it, Fraser sets the hook home like it's a 250-pounder. Sometimes it is.

"What I love about it is that with every bite, you don't know if it's a shaker or a 200-pounder," Fraser said. "The anticipation is unreal as you get ready to set the hook. It's like sticking your finger in a light socket. And it's right here in the bay, 15 minutes from the dock."

Watching the bay-delta fisheries decline has been heartbreaking for Fraser, who dedicated much of his life trying to restore sturgeon, striped bass and salmon populations.

As the founding president of United Anglers, he was a results-only force who intimidated politicians, whom he scorned as life-forms equivalent to potted plants.

He was involved with victories that include the 10-year revival of the striped bass fishery, getting a ban on gillnets that kill marine birds and other sea life, reducing the dumping of dredged mud spoils in the bay, raising millions of dollars for all bay fisheries, and new laws to raise size limits to protect juvenile fish and create a maximum size limit to protect large spawning sturgeon. Of course, many people were involved in each of these conservation wins.

As a former English teacher with a degree from Cal, Fraser can deliver charged eloquence that stirs crowds into froths. A few of his gems:

-- On the decline of bay fishing: "The decline of fishing in the bay and delta will serve as a testimonial to future generations as to man's ability to screw up a good thing."

-- On the delta pumps: "Our government can put a man on the moon but can't design a screen to stop the fish from being sucked down the pumps."

-- On government's onus: "The state has taken the striped bass and salmon from our waters at the delta pumps, so why the hell shouldn't the state then assume the burden for replacing them?"

-- On closing fishing: "Shutting fishing down is like cutting off a guy's toe because his finger hurts. It's the ultimate government cop-out."

-- On studies instead of action: "We shouldn't have to wait until the patient dies before we prescribe the proper medication."

-- On lack of field expertise: "A seagull perched on the railing of a ship in the Mothball Fleet knows as much about the sturgeon population as (the Department of) Fish and Game and other so-called experts."

-- On money vs. nature: "There will always be poachers and polluters. Greed is a never-ending enemy to the well-being of our bay."

-- On water politics: "There is a never-ending supply of politicians who would gladly divert every drop of water from Northern California to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. All that concerns them is their cell phones, their deals and the almighty dollar."

Yet Fraser softens among children, birds and his dogs, like Rooster Cogburn getting his heart melted by Mattie Ross. He has donated hundreds of free trips to take youngsters fishing, has a flock of wild birds that he feeds every morning ("they have more personality than a lot of people"), and his little dogs, like Daisy and Salty, are always aboard for fishing trips.

On our trip, we put the set to a few fish, enjoyed the fight and then, like always, released them all. Because of Fraser's influence and knowing that sturgeon can live to be 70 years old and more than 400 pounds (my life best), I haven't killed a sturgeon for 25 years.

- Tom Stienstra