Albies on the runAfter the long winter...

Albies on the run

After the long winter doldrums comes a welcome phenomenon right out of early summer: albacore fever.

It began three weeks ago when Excel skipper Shawn Steward saw jumping tuna 140 miles from San Diego, while returning from a long-range trip to Mexico.

Satellite imagery showing bands of warm water much closer has lured fishermen to areas of tuna as close as 60 miles.

Last Wednesday, skipper Richard DeLuna of the Blue Horizon, which runs from Islandia Sportfishing in San Diego, logged the first party-boat catches of the season: seven albacore to 22 pounds, three bluefin tuna to 30 pounds and 15 yellowtail to about 15 pounds.

“I was pretty shocked at what I saw out there,” DeLuna said. “There were jumpers and puddlers [boiling fish] everywhere. Some private yachts were also there and did quite well, heading home with their [five-fish] Mexican limits by 11 a.m.”

Fishing wasn’t nearly as good last weekend under windy conditions. Capt. Bill Cavanaugh of the Pacific Queen called the early-season albacore “weather sensitive” and predicted an upsurge when winds cease.

How unusual is an albacore run in mid-March? “I don’t remember a score like this ever in March,” said Phil Friedman, who has been monitoring offshore fishing for more than 15 years. The information is posted on his website, www.976tuna.com.

Steve Crooke, a Department of Fish and Game biologist, said albacore have remained in the eastern Pacific year-round for the last few years, although they previously stayed farther offshore during winter. He said the early showing is the result of low winds, which allowed surface temperatures to reach 65 in spots.

Passenger loads remain light so far, but interest is mounting, said Brennan Orndorff of Islandia. “People are frothing at the mouth over it. When the Blue Horizon made its first run, I must have answered 30 phone calls by noon from people asking how they were doing,” he said.

Big bucks for elk

Mike Malik describes elk as “majestic and unbelievably beautiful -- especially when the chase is on.” The chase will be on next fall, and the Michigan developer hopes to end it with a clean shot through the heart, “but only if I get the animal I’m looking for,” he says.

Some may criticize him, but who’s doing more to benefit wildlife?

His special New Mexico hunting tag, auctioned off recently at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s annual convention, cost $90,000. It was the top bid -- a Northern California tule elk tag sold for $25,000 -- and double his winning bid for the previous year’s tag.

“We’ll be happy to put his money to good use,” says Marty Frentzel, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, explaining that the revenue will help fund conservation projects.

Malik, 50, has made a habit of acquiring special tags “because it gives me the opportunity to contribute to a good cause and chase my goal of hunting a world-class bull.”

The New Mexico tag gives him a full season, instead of five days allowed ordinary licensed hunters, to bag an animal.

He says he’ll pull the trigger only if he believes the bull has at least 400 inches of rack atop its head. “A goal in my life is to hit that mark,” he says.

Last year he shot one from 495 yards only to have it come up six inches short. The previous year in Arizona he did not register a kill.

“I shoot because I want a [record book]-type animal,” he says. “I’m not just into the killing. Part of the excitement is to just be out there seeing these animals.”

Collared cougar

An adult mountain lion was killed by wildlife experts earlier this month after it had twice attacked dogs near the community of Mammoth Lakes.

It had been one of 14 cougars wearing active radio collars used to track their whereabouts as part of a program to keep them away from Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.

Becky Pierce, a Department of Fish and Game biologist charged with monitoring cougars throughout the Eastern Sierra, said the 7-year-old male “looked a little thin” but had otherwise been healthy.

It was collared southeast of Mammoth Lakes in July 2002 and had recently been traveling between June Lake to the north and Crowley Lake to the south. It had been preying on deer until it discovered a more convenient food source -- coyotes, raccoons and dogs -- closer to town.

It is the second collared lion killed by Pierce’s crew in the last year: The other was a 9-year-old male shot last August after it had begun preying on bighorn sheep in the Wheeler Ridge area between Mammoth Lakes and Bishop.

Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, which exist in five herds from Lone Pine to Lee Vining, are an endangered species.

To e-mail Pete Thomas or read his previous Fair Game columns, go to latimes.com/petethomas.