Schools of Yellowtail Take Residence Off San Clemente Island

After a fantastic bite April 21 at Horseshoe Kelp, yellowtail have become somewhat reluctant to bite this week, with most South Bay boats picking up between five and 25 of the popular game fish a day.

Meanwhile, a two-week period of relative calm has ended at San Clemente Island, where huge schools of yellowtail are breezing about the island.

“When they come through we’re picking up 20 to 30 at a time,” said Norm Kagawa, skipper of the Shogun out of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing in San Pedro. “We just run from breezer to breezer. Most of the fish have been from eight to 12 pounds, with some to 20 and 25 pounds.”

Kagawa’s passengers boated 100 yellowtail Tuesday, the Top Gun’s anglers landed 144 and a few other vessels in the area reported similar results. And a similar bite was in progress Wednesday.

You can hardly call it a “run,” but there are some white seabass being taken locally and at Catalina, and Eric Koyanagi of Torrance took one of the heavyweights on light tackle.

Koyanagi, 31, was fishing at Horseshoe Kelp aboard the Monte Carlo out of 22nd Street Landing when the fish struck. He had just reeled in a yellowtail and thought he had hooked another, but the slower, steadier runs of the fish led him to believe otherwise.

“I thought I had hooked into a shark,” Koyanagi said.

After about a 10-minute fight the weary fish was brought to the surface. It was gaffed and hauled aboard and would later tip the scale at 49 pounds.

“It sure looked bigger than that to me; I held it up and it went up to my chin,” the 5-foot-7 Koyanagi said.

An impressive fish nonetheless, considering that he caught it on 12-pound test line.

Local knowledge seems to have played a role in last weekend’s Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby.

First and third place in the individual competition went to Marina del Rey anglers and first place in the team competition went to a Marina del Rey team.

Glenn Smith took individual honors--and won a trip to Alaska or Mexico--with a 32.9-pound halibut he caught using a scampi lure tipped with squid. Robert Kofmehl and his son Anthony won the team event with four halibut totaling 40.20 pounds.

Overall, fishing was slow as 1,140 anglers weighed only 143 halibut. But it wasn’t uneventful, as the fishermen had to brave strong winds and heavy seas on the first day of the two-day event.

“We had some rough seas Saturday, and even had a boat capsize,” tournament director John Bourget said. “There were too many guys in an aluminum boat and the waves were too high; they had to be rescued.”

A few hundred miles away, on a frozen lake nestled among the snow-covered peaks of the Eastern Sierra, stood three men named Mike--all from Long Beach--performing their usual last-Saturday-of-April ritual.

It was opening day of trout season and Mike Adams, Mike Brewer and Mike Clerkin, along with about 100 others, were milling about the ice that had formed on Lake Sabrina.

As they stood rubbing their hands in a collective shiver, rainbow trout tugged at their lines from the icy water below.

“I’ve been coming here every year since I was 2-years-old,” said Adams, 45, after pulling a trout from a hole in the ice.

The three would eventually catch their limits, but they were still one short.

“There are usually four of us,” Adams said. “And his name is Mike, too.”

What would you do if someone on your boat suffered a heart attack?

That is one of the questions that will be addressed Saturday during a “Medical Emergencies at Sea” program at the Santa Monica Yacht Club in Marina del Rey.

The program, sponsored by the Assn. of Santa Monica Bay Yacht Clubs, features five medical experts who are experienced yachtsmen.

Discussions will include prevention of medical emergencies, fractures, lacerations, head injuries and prevention and treatment of hypothermia.

Registration at 8:30 a.m.; $10. Information: (310) 372-6466.