Enjoying an Uncommon Fish Story : Nature: Thanks to warm ocean waters, yellowfin and skipjack are numerous along the Southern California coast. Pockets of the tuna are 20 miles offshore, bringing them within range of anglers on day boats.

“Here they come!” a deckhand aboard the 65-foot Clemente yelled as Devin Kruse’s fishing pole bent violently forward under the force of the 28-pound yellowfin tuna he had hooked.

At first, the tuna dived. Then, with a burst of speed, it turned sharply right, forcing Kruse to make his way through a maze of anglers aboard the fishing boat, over and under a dance of poles and fishing lines. Boating etiquette was such that Kruse just screamed: “Hookup! Coming through! Coming through!”

After a 12-minute battle with his prey, Kruse, 36, of Dana Point, finally hauled in the tuna, considered a rare catch for day boats such as the Clemente, which found pockets of tuna only 17 miles to 19 miles offshore.

“This is a treat for day fishermen,” said the Clemente’s skipper, Thomas D. White, who operates out of Dana Point Wharf.

Already, skippers up and down Orange County’s Gold Coast are calling the tuna season--which is still young--very good for overnight boats and phenomenal for day boats, which can motor 20 miles offshore and then return before darkness after a day of fishing.

Anglers fishing for a good deal have scored in the past two weeks with day boats that only cost $35 to $40 per person. By contrast, the overnight boats, which leave at 10 p.m., fish all day, then return late the next evening, charge about four times as much--from $120 to $130.

“That’s why I got on this boat,” said Johnie Quinones, 32, a Laguna Beach restaurant manager who won the Clemente’s jackpot for the largest fish caught with a 30-pounder.

With 23 anglers aboard the Clemente, the day’s haul included nine yellowfin and 49 skipjacks.

What has made this year’s run better than normal is that offshore water temperatures were warmer than usual all summer, similar to conditions in 1992 when tuna were also found close to land, said Steve Crooke, senior biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.

Along the Southern California coast, yellowfin and skipjack are often found at this time of year, along with bluefin, big eye and albacore at times. But the tuna are sensitive to water temperature. Yellowfin and skipjack like the water warm, about 72 degrees. Bluefin and albacore prefer water in the mid-60s.

Albacore, the preferred tuna of most sportfishermen, are making a good run off Port Hueneme and Oxnard, Crooke said.

Tuna come up from the waters off South America, Central America and Mexico. To find them this far north and within 20 miles of shore is an angler’s dream, said Robert Fletcher, president of the San Diego-based Sportfishing Assn. of California.

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“What we have seen is that there are enough schools of the fish out there that most of the boats are having very, very good fishing,” Fletcher said. “We even had a boat out of Oxnard that came down beyond Santa Barbara Island and he picked up 20 or 30 skipjack and yellowfin tuna, and that’s really rare because it’s way [north] of Catalina.”

Locally, the tuna run started about two weeks ago, said Norris Tapp of Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach.

“When they started, the fish were anywhere from 40 to 50 miles offshore,” Tapp said. “They have come closer and have been holding in an area of about 20 miles. There’s a streak of water out there between 72 and 73 degrees and it’s nice and blue. Tuna prefer a true blue because they like clean water. Out there where we’re finding them, there’s a ridge at a certain depth and it creates a current or flow and the fish will follow that.”

Yellowfin range from 15 to 30 pounds, and skipjack are predominantly five to eight pounds, Crooke said, adding that there are 20 different species of tuna worldwide. While the largest is the bluefin, the yellowfin and especially the skipjack provide the best sportfishing, he said.

Kruse, still breathing hard after landing his yellowfin, said, “I’ve never had one fight that hard before. It kicked my butt, as they say.”

Dave Davidson, 35, of Foothill Ranch, said he heard about the run and was eager to take a day off from his computer business to fish.

“It took me a while to catch one,” Davidson said. “I mean I was going right and then had to go around some anglers and I did get hooked up with a girl, but they cut her line. But hey, with yellowfin, that’s what you want.”

At first, anglers hooked to the feisty tuna were hesitant to bark out orders, asking others to move. But as the day wore on, anglers such as Ed Ficher, 50, of Lake Forest became more abrupt.

After sinking the hook in the tuna’s mouth, Ficher went into action yelling, “Coming down! Coming down!” But when the fish changed direction, here came Ficher again: “Coming up! Coming up!”

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Unfortunately, Ficher’s line snapped after five minutes. As he sauntered back to the live bait tank, his only utterance was “Oh, well.”

Barbara Vazquez, 30, an Arcadia homemaker, had nibbles but could not land a fish until Kruse hooked into a tuna and then cavalierly handed his pole to Vazquez so she could get in on the action and reel a tuna in.

“Wow! Wow! WOW!” Vazquez cheered, as the tuna zipped and then zagged, sending her on a tour of the boat. “It was the most fun, even if I wasn’t the one who hooked into it. That was great.”

Crooke said the advantage for day boats is not only economic. He said they offer a learning experience for novice anglers.

“How long can the run last? If the weather’s not bad, to the end of October,” Crooke said. “What’s great about the run is that I can leave my home in Irvine in the morning at 5 a.m. and be back at five in the afternoon. In fact, I’ve got two days off coming up and . . . “