Outdoor Notes : Giant Yellowfin Tuna Are Taken South of Baja

While fishermen aboard mainland Mexico’s hotel boats have been targeting marlin, with a strong measure of success, anglers aboard San Diego’s long-range boats have been kept busy by an abundance of giant yellowfin tuna.

The Polaris Supreme returned last week from a 16-day trip to the Revillagigedo Islands, roughly 250 miles south of the Baja Peninsula, where 18 anglers caught 354 yellowfin, 152 wahoo, 137 grouper and a sailfish.

The boat’s first stop was at Socorro Island, where several tuna in the 50- to 70-pound range were caught.

“The bulk of the fish were caught at Socorro, which is amazing because it used to be considered a dead island,” said the boat’s owner, Bill Poole.

Fearful that the fish holds would be filled with those “smaller” fish, skipper Tommy Rothey traveled to the more popular Clarion Island, where the big tuna--many weighing more than 100 pounds--made an appearance. The biggest fish, caught by Los Angeles resident Sen Maruyama, was a 250.6-pound yellowfin.

Poole, who has been fishing in Mexican waters for 42 years, attributes the success--primarily at Socorro Island--in part to the fact that many commercial fishermen, from such places as Tahiti and Puerto Rico, have been doing well in waters close to home.

“There has been less and less pressure on the fish from the purse seiners (commercial net fishermen),” Poole said. “Before, seiners were all over the place. . . . They would fill their 400-ton holds in about 60 days. Now we’re not having those problems, and (the fishing has) been great.”

The Santa Monica pier, along with fishing piers at Pillar Point and Vallejo, has been awarded $731,000 in construction and repair funds from the Wildlife Conservation Board.

The board set aside $500,000 to help build a new 420-foot extension to be used for fishing on Santa Monica’s municipal pier, which was partially destroyed by storms in 1983.

Although the overall costs of reconstruction are set at $8.5 million, the funds from the wildlife board will help rebuild the west end of the pier, where fishing is the heaviest.

The extension will be 25 feet higher than the original pier.

Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources has proposed stocking Lake Powell with rainbow smelt to provide additional forage for game fish, claiming that striped bass have produced more young than the threadfin shad food base can support.

Shad are eaten primarily by juvenile striped bass while they are still in the nursery areas in warm water at the backs of canyons and bays. Adult striped bass, which require colder water at greater depths, cannot compete with juvenile striped bass, and because they have been undernourished in years of low shad abundance, have become increasingly scarce.

The average size of striped bass has declined from 25 to 15 inches in recent years.

Rainbow smelt, officials said, prefer deep, cool water and would occupy a separate part of the lake than shad, providing a more diverse food base in the lake. Officials say that smelt would be eaten by walleyes and adult striped bass in deep water, leaving shad for fish living closer to the shore.

The main concern over the proposal is the impact the smelt might have on the native fish populations in the lower Colorado River. Also, some people believe there are not enough nutrients in the Colorado River system to provide food for two separate forage species.

Wildlife biologists contend, however, that the current status of native fish would not be changed if smelt were introduced, and said smelt do not establish populations in river systems.

Briefly

The second annual Fish for the Homeless Derby will be held April 9 out of San Pedro’s 22nd Street Landing, with the day’s catch going to the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. Last year the event produced more than 800 pounds of fish, which the Rescue Mission said fed 2,000 people. For more information, contact Tony Salas at (213) 620-0380. . . . The 20th annual Anaheim Boat Show will run March 30-April 3 at the Anaheim Convention Center. . . . Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. research veterinarian Dr. Tom Thorne, who for 20 years has been researching ways to benefit wild sheep, has been named recipient of the 1988 outstanding achievement award by the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep.