"A total of 31,307,692 individual fish (yellowfin) landed by the commercial fleet. Compare this to the 5,582 yellowfin landed by 869 passengers aboard long range vessels during the six-month, 2001 Revilla Gigedo season."

When you see a 300-fish boatload returning after a ten-day trip on his rig, says Ekstrom, remember that it "...equals 1.6 fish per day per angler...hardly excessive and...consistent with the term sport fishing."

Meanwhile, the ban on fishing at the Revillagigedos remains in effect, and San Diego boats are fishing at Clipperton Atoll and elsewhere, looking for big yellowfin tuna and wahoo. The coming weeks may reveal many productive "new" locations.

Southern California's local and offshore fishing appears poised for launching, with the water hovering near 60 degrees, and exotic, El Nino-associated critters like red crab and sailback jellies showing from Alijos to Point Conception. Some skippers reported baitfish massed through miles of water between Dana Point and Catalina Island.

Clipperton cows home
"This was another good experience," said Red Rooster III skipper Andy Cates on the dock April 19. "We went ashore at Clipperton Atoll and came back with no problems. We saw lots of mixed schools of 80 to 200-pounders. There were breezers, jumpers, big sonar schools, really a lot of life."

Charlie McGhee of Encinitas had the best yellowfin, a 268-pound tub that swallowed a live black skipjack bait.

"It bit at three in the morning," said McGhee, and fought for an hour and a half. He said his bait packed an 11/0 Mustad 7691 hook tied to 135-pound blue Izorline and 135-pound Spectra backing on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 755XH rod wrapped by P-Bod.

Scott McFarland of Walnut was second, for a 244-pounder. He also fished a black skipjack, on a 10/0 Mustad 7691S hook, with 135-pound Soft Steel Ultra and 135-pound Spectra on a Kofe-modified Penn 70 reel and a Seeker 6460XXXH rod wrapped by Bill Casper Jr. "It fought for 44 minutes," said Scott. "My best tuna before this one was a 212-pounder."

Ken Davis of Chino Hills used a mackerel to bait his 227-pound, third place tuna. "This was a mean fish," said Ken, who fought it for an hour. He said he fished with a 13/0 Mustad hook, 125-pound Big Game line, 135-pound Izorline Spectra, a Cal Sheets modified Penn 50SW reel and a Kimura custom Calstar 755XXH rod.

A fourth cow, a 226-pounder, was taken by Jay Hess of Phoenix. He wasn't present at the weigh-in. Co-skipper Jeff DeBuys said Hess fished with a mackerel, on 100-pound line, with a Penn 50SW reel and a Calstar 760H rod. Red Rooster III now goes in for annual boat work.

"Only in spring"
"You know the fishing has been good," noted Royal Star skipper Randy Toussaint April 16, "when the 25 to 40-pound yellows are biting full speed at 0400, and only three passengers get up to try for them. With limited effort we still landed 53 throughout the night. Tuna fishing was a little slower today but the overall grade was better. We ended up with 65 for the day and I would say 70% were 50 to 80 pounds. I have been marveling at our situation here, the rocks all to ourselves, with epic angling in flat calm weather. Only in the spring could you hit such a combination."

Toussaint brought his 21 Royal Star anglers home from the eight-day trip to Alijos on April 20, with limits of yellowfin and near-limits of yellowtail up to 51 pounds. Back in January, Mike Lackey's Vagabond fishermen found very good tuna fishing at Alijos, which makes one wonder if the fish weren't there all winter. Boats reported tuna while making bait enroute, but no trips fished at Alijos in February and March.

Denny Werner of Boise, ID won first place for a 99.8-pound yellowfin. "It was right after I worked an hour and a half on an 80-pounder," said Werner. "Then I had to fight this one for an hour." He said he fished a sardine on a 5/0 Mustad hook, with 40-pound clear Izorline, a Newell 533 reel with 5.5 gearing and a Calstar 665 rod.

Randy Makua of San Diego was second, for a 91.4-pounder, and Robert Hirsch of Santa Cruz was third, for an 88-pound yellowfin tuna. Jason Mavar of Palos Verdes got a 51-pound yellowtail, and posed with the jackpot winners with a pretty 40-pounder from Alijos Rocks.

Clipperton's first kitefish
"The weather at Clipperton today was from one extreme to another," wrote Frank LoPreste aboard his Royal Polaris April 14. The morning was absolutely beautiful with a nice breeze, mid day was very warm about 14:00 hours, it was beautiful again, and at 17:30 hours, we had a very heavy tropical rain. Our night bite started at midnight and we picked until 05:30 hours. Hot stick was Jim "WWF" Shoaf with 5 fish; largest was 150 pounds, taken on a Caballito. Jim got another on a live mackerel and 3 more on the chunks. Half of the 20 fish were taken on the chunks.

"Mid-day we caught some grouper for dinner and some jacks for chunk bait. The afternoon bite consisted of 3 fish. Ron Jew caught a 150-pound Yellowfin tuna on the chunk. The other two fish were caught on the kite. One weighs 225 pounds, caught by Frank "Whaz Up" Harbin. To my knowledge, these are the first kite fish at Clipperton. I have not heard of anyone else using the kite or getting one on the kite over 200 pounds. There is no doubt that we will continue to learn more as we continue to come to Clipperton Atoll. Tonight will be our last night of fishing and we will leave shortly after daybreak."

LoPreste moored at Fisherman's Landing early April 21, the morning of Day At The Docks. The second-largest tuna he weighed from the 18-day trip was a non-eligible 245-pound cow that bit a "pink and white, beat-up medium Marauder," trolled on 80-pound Soft Steel line with a TLD 20 reel by Lance McKay of Rancho Penasquitos. Lance also had a 215-pound tuna, which won third place. He posed with the brace.

Randy Hendricks of San Francisco won first place for a 249.8-pounder that came on a caballito, a 7/0 Eagle Claw 2005 hook, 100-pound Momoi line, 135-pound Spectra, an Accurate 50 reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod, after a one-hour tussle.

Dangling a squid under the kite provided the second-place tuna for Frank Harbin of Salinas. His tuna weighed in a 231 pounds. Harbin said he bagged his prize with a 12/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 135-pound Jerry Brown Spectra, 135-pound fluorocarbon, a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 760 H rod. His tuna fought for an hour.