THE OUTDOORS : Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : Sport Boats Record First Catches of Albacore Off Baja California Coast

The first sport catches of albacore have been recorded after medium-range boats from San Diego’s sportfishing fleet, eager to save what has been fast turning into a dismal season, converged on the area where a commercial bait boat reported catching eight of the popular tuna last week.

The Molly N, a commercial bait boat en route to Cabo San Lucas, discovered the fish last Friday while passing through an area 200 miles southeast of San Diego and 50 miles offshore. Since then, San Diego boats making three- and five-day runs to the area have posted some impressive numbers:

The Vagabond, arriving on the scene Friday and reportedly fishing with only two paying customers, caught 19 albacore. The Searcher, which had been on an exploratory run 200 miles southwest of San Diego when skipper Art Taylor heard of the Molly N’s findings closer to shore, raced to the area, where its customers caught 98 albacore Saturday.

The Polaris Supreme reported catching 155 and the Royal Star 77.

All of the fish weighed between six and 10 pounds.

“There’s not much going on this morning,” Carol Sandner of H&M; Landing said Tuesday. “But that’s because boats are leaving and traveling (to the area).”

Ron Dotson of the National Marine Fisheries Service said last week that water conditions are favorable and said he saw no reason to believe the fish wouldn’t migrate farther north, which is what they generally do if conditions allow.

Sportfishing for albacore has been extremely poor during the last three years and the fleet has had to rely on the yellowtail bite at the nearby Coronado Islands and the late-summer tuna bite offshore to pay its bills. This year, after a sizzling start, the yellowtail bite has shut off, leaving the fleet scrambling after any bit of good news it can find.

Baja fishing: Conditions have vastly improved off Cabo San Lucas after recent tropical depressions pushed clear blue water “right into the harbor,” said Didier Van Der Veeken of the International Game Fish Assn.

Van Der Veeken said the best fishing is five miles offshore, with sailfish, striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna common sights at the scales.

As for billfish, anglers aboard hotel boats are averaging between two and five hookups a day. The prized blue marlin, however, are still about 10 miles offshore, but are expected to move closer with the warmer water, already more than 80 degrees.

Farther north in the east cape region, the Hotel Spa Buena Vista reports a wide open bite for striped marlin, sailfish and dorado. Richard Castaneda, a representative of the hotel, calls the bite “the best in recent years,” with some boats reporting between eight and 20 billfish a day.

Blue marlin have shown and there have been unconfirmed reports of an 800-pounder being caught last week slightly offshore, and a confirmed catch of a 425-pound blue.

“Some fishermen are returning to the beach by noon exhausted from catching so many fish,” Castaneda said.

One of those fish was a 76-pound dorado caught by Richard Wagner of Fontana.

At the Midriff region of the Sea of Cortez, the water has warmed to 86 degrees and the yellowtail are averaging more than 20 pounds at the north end of Smith Island, according to Ken Stewart of Sportsman’s Caravans. Stewart said bigger yellowtail, including one 48-pounder, are being caught at La Guardia Island. Dorado have moved into the area and a few sailfish have been seen. Cabrilla and grouper make up the rest of the catches.

Talking turkey: Missouri’s turkey hunters shot a record 35,688 turkeys during a two-week season that ended May 7, but not without incident.

Gene Denton, the chairman of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s board of directors, was slightly injured while hunting turkey in Texas County, Mo., by a man who thought he saw a turkey.

Denton was sitting at the base of a tree making a turkey call. When he didn’t get a response he stood up, and was hit, “luckily by the edge of the pattern (of the shotgun blast),” he told Turkey Call Magazine.

The next day, in Benton County, Mo., Mark Grenoble of Warsaw, Mo., was shot in the neck and face by a man who, he said, “saw the white of my face and thought it was a turkey.”

Mary Grenoble, an outdoor writer from Altoona, Mo., was hunting in Huntingdon County near Raystown Lake when she was reportedly stalked and shot several times by two brothers from about 35 yards away.

Having mistaken her for game, one of the men shot her in the face, then, according to reports, continued to fire as she screamed and tried to crawl away.

The two men later helped the woman, who escaped life-threatening or blinding injuries, to a nearby road to await assistance.

She, too, had been calling turkeys, when, seeing the two men approaching, decided to stand. An editor’s note in Turkey Call, which reported the above incidents, cited the National Safety Council and National Center for Health Statistics when it reported:

“Consider that, per 100,000 persons in the U.S., motor vehicles take 34 lives annually and home accidents 13. The list went down the line until it mentioned that firearms accidents take just one life per 100,000.

There were no fatalities during the two-week season, the magazine said. And the 21 non-fatal accidents were down from the previous year, when one person was killed hunting turkey and 28 injured.

Briefly

Capsized and sunk during the fierce January storms of 1988, the City of Redondo, one of the Southland’s most historic and popular half-day party boats, is renovated and back in business at Redondo Sportfishing. . . . Stage 1 fire restrictions are in effect in the Angeles National Forest, which means campfires are restricted to developed, drive-in campgrounds with stoves or barbecues. Portable stoves can be used only with permits. . . . John Bedwell of Stockton caught an accumulated total of 42 pounds, 9 ounces of largemouth bass to win this month’s West Coast Bass-Las Vegas Open at Lake Mead. Bedford’s catch during the three-day period was worth $15,000.

The new South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited will hold a pretrip meeting Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the California Youth Center in Corona del Mar. Topic will be a conservation project to stop the spoiling of Fish Creek--considered a key a golden trout habitat--on the Kern Plateau in the Sequoia National Forest. The group is seeking volunteers for the Labor Day weekend project and asks those interested to contact Brian Botham at (714) 846-7608.

The Sixth Annual Longcasting National Championship will be held July 25 at 5 p.m. at the Sahara Country Club in Las Vegas. . . . For the record: In The Times’ Monday feature on Bahia de los Angeles, the location of Ken Stewart’s camp was incorrect. It is 10 miles north of town.