Don’t Worry About Name: Clipperton a Real Winner

Frank LoPreste calls it a Godforsaken island “truly in the middle of nowhere,” and that it may be.

But Clipperton Atoll, a tiny French-owned parcel of land 1,450 miles south of San Diego and 550 miles west of Acapulco, is usually worth the trip.

LoPreste’s latest multiday voyage--his third to the atoll this season--ended Tuesday morning when the Royal Polaris pulled into its San Diego port amid dozens of gawking onlookers.

On its deck, standing on their noses and stacked three-deep against the stern rail, were some of the beefiest yellowfin tuna ever to arrive in such fashion. Among the display were four titans topping the magical 300-pound mark, and an unprecedented 38 weighing more than 200 pounds.

“It’s unprecedented since we’ve been keeping track, anyway,” said LoPreste, the boat’s owner and operator. “I can’t tell you how elated I am. I’m very happy right now.”

Indeed, 1,450 miles is a long way to go to have the bite spoiled by sharks--as occasionally happens--or by cold, green water. Clipperton is so remote that if conditions aren’t up to par anglers are left with no place else to go and little else to do but collect coconuts and stroll around with birds such as blue-footed boobies.

LoPreste has been fortunate this season, having encountered schools of hungry yellowfin on both of his previous trips--but not nearly as fortunate as he was during his latest.

With virtually no sharks in the area, his passengers were able to use live skipjack for bait, attached to 130- to 200-pound monofilament with hooks “as big as those the three-quarter-day boats use as gaffs.”

Among the fishermen hitting the 300-pound mark was Stas Vellonakis, 44, a Torrance machine shop owner who took second place with a 309-pounder.

“The skipjack is already hauling, and when a [yellowfin] that big bites it’s like somebody is all of a sudden trying to jerk the rod out of your hands,” Vellonakis said. “It’s like somebody takes a giant sledgehammer and just smashes the skipjack.”

Vellonakis’ trip was certainly smashing. Adding the 295-, 231- and 211-pounders he muscled in, he has more than half a ton of tuna to his credit and, despite the usual donation to charity, he figures to be eating fish for quite a while.

That is if he has regained strength enough to lift a fork.

The biggest of the trip was a 331-pounder caught by Florida’s Ken Verderame, a former Navy test pilot who subdued a 325-pounder in 1998. The all-tackle world record yellowfin is a 388-pound 12-ounce specimen pulled from the Revillagigedo Islands, a four-island chain well north of Clipperton.

Said LoPreste: “I think we may have a new frontier. Right now everybody has been giving Clipperton a bad rap, saying there are no 300-pounders there and that all of the big fish are at the Revillagigedos. Well, there have only been two 300-pounders in 55 trips [this season] to the Revillagigedos.”

And the Royal Polaris got one of them.

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LoPreste will be a guest on the “Let’s Talk Hook-Up!” radio show on XTRA (690) on Saturday from 6-8 a.m., discussing the details of the Clipperton journey.

The show’s co-host, Pete Gray, can boast too, after catching a 52-pound white seabass Monday aboard his kayak off La Jolla.

“It made a run toward the kelp, but then turned around, went down and started swimming in circles,” Gray said. “I was doing doughnuts in my kayak for about 15 minutes. It was totally wild.”

Seabass continue to bite well at Santa Cruz and Catalina islands, and are popping up from time to time along the coast (Santa Monica Bay was a hot spot again Thursday), but as the water warms squid is becoming more scarce, and as the squid go, so generally go the seabass.

Gray, however, caught his on a live mackerel.

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A good run on albacore generally opens the flood gates as anglers head south toward San Diego to get on a boat and get in on the action.

But so far this season, fishermen are being fickle. Despite news of the longfin tuna moving well within range of the overnight boats--they were biting as close as 32 miles this week--the landings have had to cancel a few trips and keep their rates down on others.

The best score was Wednesday aboard the Prowler out of Fisherman’s Landing, as 17 people sacked 102 tuna. Of those, 50 were caught on one stop only 32 miles from port, according to Capt. Buzz Brizendine. A landing spokesman said Brizendine was fishing in U.S. waters, but would not say where. In any event, it seems only a matter of time before the Southland fleets start encountering schools of albacore east of San Clemente Island.

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Saturday is one of two state-sponsored free-fishing days (the other is Sept. 23) and the Department of Fish and Game is offering family outings throughout California. Two are in the Southland. At Belvedere County Park Lake in East Los Angeles, catfish will be stocked and trophies awarded for biggest fish in several age categories during a “low-key” derby from 6-11 a.m. Free lunches, free bait and live music are on tap. Details: (213) 260-2342. . . . At Santa Fe Dam Lake in Irwindale, a similar event is slated, minus the free lunch. It runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Details: (626) 334-1065.

BAJA BEAT

Observations from a trip last weekend to Cabo San Lucas:

A Mexican skin diver was watched repeatedly diving to the bottom and using his bare hands to uproot huge chunks of living coral at nearby Chileno Bay, presumably for eventual bleaching and sale to tourists. A dive master leading a small group of tourists may not have seen this partial destruction of a fragile reef and did not do anything to stop him, though a snorkeler diving on his own commented that a pair of cement swim fins would be suitable punishment.

More pleasing was the sight of Karen Morgan of Seattle reeling in an 8-pound 3-ounce sierra mackerel near a small point just north of town. The catch, on a Rebel lure, is being submitted to the IGFA as a world record in the women’s 20-pound line-class category. It’s the fourth pending record for Morgan, girlfriend of noted surf fisherman Jeff Klassen, who is guiding half- and full-day surf-fishing safaris out of Cabo. He can be reached via e-mail at jeff@jeffklassenfishing.com.

BAD NEWS BEARS

It was reported here last week that some hungry bears, fresh out of hibernation, are looking for trouble by looking around homes for food with more substance than berries.

Sure enough, they’ve found it. In Arizona, a camper at Mt. Graham near Safford last Saturday shot and killed a black bear that apparently got into his groceries. The case is under investigation. Also in Arizona, a homeowner near Roosevelt Lake shot and killed a bear he found eating from his dog’s dish. The bear had also apparently gotten into a neighbor’s freezer.

California has similar problems, mostly stemming from irresponsible people making food available, but a bear has yet to pay with its life.

“Oh, they’re showing up,” said Ron Thomas, a DFG biologist stationed in Mono County. “We’ve had several calls at Twin Lakes Bridgeport. There are at least four bears causing problems there. Farther south at Rock Creek we have one, likely two bears that are repeat offenders from last year. They’re mostly just turning over trash cans, but one broke into a car.”

Thomas said his Coleville home was visited by two bears this spring. The first one found some dog food. It returned the next night and found nothing but a barking dog, and didn’t return the third night.

The second bear showed up, snooped around, didn’t find anything and didn’t return.

“If they’re rewarded, they learn and come back, but if they’re not rewarded, they learn from that too,” Thomas said.

FELINE FURY

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a news release this week asking that house cats be kept . . . in the house.

Calling pet cats “ one of the greatest threats to wildlife,” the state agency said “free-roaming cats have had significant impacts on local wildlife populations and are a contributing factor in the decline of neo-tropical songbirds.”

Few agencies have examined the issue, but a Wisconsin study estimates that cats kill 39 million birds in that state each year.

WHITE SALE

There will be no traditional July 4 closing at Mammoth Mountain, which this week announced June 18 as closing day. The lower mountain (Broadway Express) will close Sunday afternoon.

“We’re going to stick by our closing dates,” spokeswoman Joani Saari said, referring to an unexpected storm that was adding significant fluff to already fair coverage Thursday. “I woke up this morning and thought somebody was playing a cruel joke. There were big, white flakes falling.”

Mammoth’s mountain bike park will open June 23.

WINDING UP

Top stars of the AVP notwithstanding, the Mervyn’s California Beach Bash 2000, in progress through Sunday at Hermosa Beach, has much more to offer than beach volleyball.

It’s a celebration of the California lifestyle, promoters say, which might be stretching things because how many Californians can soar 10 feet and do a back flip on a bicycle on a swimming pool-shaped wooden contraption called the “Soul Bowl”?

The extreme sports being featured--skateboard, aggressive in-line skating and bicycle stunt competitions--might be worth checking out between digs and spikes.