Outdoors : NOTES : ‘Tis the Season to Go South for Yellowfin

It’s the time of year when serious fishermen board one of many San Diego sportfishers heading south in search of one of the ocean’s most powerful swimmers, the giant yellowfin tuna.

Skipper Frank LoPreste of the Royal Polaris and his 33 passengers are fishing one of the giant yellowfin’s favorite haunts--the Revillagigedo Islands chain a few hundred miles south of Cabo San Lucas.

Since arriving last Thursday, LoPreste has radioed word of his successes back to the landing on a daily basis.

The first couple of days were uneventful, he said, the fishermen catching a mere 200 tuna. They were rather small by Revillagigedo standards, between 50 and 80 pounds. “Scratchy at best,” was LoPreste’s description of the action.

On Monday at Clarion Island, however, the fishermen managed to catch 10 wahoo and 36 tuna. Don Ely of Los Angeles caught a 180-pounder, John Murakami, also of L.A., a 160-pounder. The smallest was a 60-pound “baby.”

But the search continues for the real giants known to inhabit the fish-rich waters, and LoPreste has since moved to Roca Partida in hopes of finding them.

Already this season, the all-tackle women’s record was broken at the Revillagigedos by a 310-pounder caught by June Pierce of Desert Hot Springs aboard the Red Rooster III. Ben Kita of Los Angeles was 30 pounds shy of the 12-year-old all-tackle men’s record with the 358 3/4-pound fish he returned with Monday.

Chris Hart came close to entering the record books with the 38-pound California halibut he caught last month on 15-pound test line. He missed that line-class record by a half-pound.

But the Santa Ana resident’s persistence appears to have paid off.

Having returned recently from trout fishing at Lake Arrowhead, Hart, 28, again visited the area in Santa Monica Bay where he had caught the near-record halibut.

Using an ultralight rod and reel spooled with four-pound test, Hart dropped his bait to the bottom and it was soon bit. “A total rod-bender,” was his description.

About 15 minutes later, he successfully brought the fish to the surface. It was gaffed by his partner, and the two thought he might have broken the record for four-pound test.

They motored in and learned that the four-pound line-class record was 13 pounds 10 ounces. It was off to the local meat market, where Hart’s halibut weighed 14 pounds 13 ounces, then a dash south to the official scale of the Balboa Angling Club: Same weight.

If approved by the International Game Fish Assn., the Orange County teacher will have tried, tried and finally succeeded in catching his world-record halibut.

All nine hunters issued permits to hunt bighorn sheep in the eastern Mojave Desert have succeeded in killing their quarry, despite anti-hunting protesters who tried to sabotage the hunt, the Department of Fish and Game said.

Since 1987 the DFG has authorized the kill of nine sheep a year in the Old Dad and Kelso Peak mountain ranges of San Bernardino County. The annual hunts have since been the scene of confrontations between the hunters and protesters.

The money raised from the bighorn auction and license sales goes into a special fund for preservation of the species. One hunter, Robert Senter of New Hampshire, bid $40,000 for the right to bag a sheep in California’s third such hunt in 114 years. The eight others were drawn from 2,545 applicants. Seven were residents, paying $200 apiece. One non-resident paid $495.

Jacqueline Young of Tustin wrote to Gov. George Deukmejian objecting to a note on the California sportfishing license that asks the licensee to enter “his” date of birth.

“There are women who fish,” Young wrote.

Told of Young’s complaint, Olga Carmichael, chief of the Department of Fish and Game’s license and revenue branch in Sacramento, indicated that the slight will be corrected.

“As a woman, I can understand her concern,” Carmichael said. “It’s a good point, and one that’s easy to correct.”

Briefly

Hunters after turkey, wild pig and quail can utilize the wilds of Camp Roberts in Monterey County Saturday and Sunday and on various dates through Jan. 1. Cost: $8 a day; no reservations required. . . .The fifth annual Lake Mohave Resort Parade of Lights is scheduled for Saturday at dusk at Bullhead City’s Katherine Landing. Entry information: (602) 754-3245.

No single cause appears to be responsible for the die-off of more than 400 white pelicans at the Eastern Sierra’s Lake Crowley since mid-October, and veterinarians and scientists say starvation was the apparent cause in half of all birds examined, but parasitic intestinal infestations were a contributing factor. The pelicans have since flown south for the winter.

Fallon Naval Air Station near Carson City, Nev., has launched a formal inquiry into claims that Navy pilots strafed bighorn sheep in northern Nevada. Helicopters are expected to sweep the desert bombing ranges in search of carcasses of the federally protected animals, according to base spokesman Olin Briggs. . . . Depredation hunts are under way to trim the near-record state herd population in rural Nevada, where bold deer with large appetites are overrunning some farms and ranches. Only residents may participate in the hunts.