THE OUTDOORS : Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : After Poor Start, Four Days of Success Send Royal Polaris Home Full

After an unpromising start, Frank LoPreste’s Royal Polaris returned to San Diego last Saturday from a 23-day trip to Clipperton Island off Costa Rica with its holds full and its passengers happy.

Clipperton, generally considered a fisherman’s paradise, yielded little more than one yellowfin tuna at 170 pounds and a few wahoo in a day and a half. LoPreste chose to backtrack to the Revillagigedo Islands off mainland Mexico, where fishing conditions at first also were less than outstanding.

But in a major turnaround, the anglers tied into a fantastic bite that lasted for four days and nights at Socorro Island, and filled the boat with eight hours to spare before the scheduled return.

The boat returned to Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego with 455 yellowfin tuna to 250 pounds, 307 wahoo, 303 grouper, 24 cabrilla, 15 pargo, 12 yellowtail, 10 African pompano and three rainbow runners.

Although California’s big-game hunting seasons are still months away, the Department of Fish and Game reminds hunters that application deadlines for this year’s hunts are fast approaching.

Applications must be received by the DFG’s license and revenue branch in Sacramento by 5 p.m. June 26. The public drawing for California’s limited hunts will be held July 8 beginning at 9 a.m. in the department’s Resources Building auditorium.

This year’s hunting license, like the 1989 fishing licenses, will be substantially larger and for the first time will seek confidential information about the purchaser. The re-designed license will measure 5 3/4 inches by 3 1/2 inches and must be folded twice to fit into a wallet. The traditional hunting license measures 3 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

Although optional, the DFG will ask hunters, who will pay $9.75 for a 1989-90 license, to list their Social Security and California driver license numbers.

The goal, department officials said Monday, is both to crack down on violators and better communicate with California hunters about changing regulations.

After three months at sea, Erik has arrived in the Sea of Cortez.

The 250-ton Norwegian government survey ship has found a new home at San Felipe, where it has been added to Baja Fishing Tours’ fleet of converted shrimp boats, mother ships for panga fishing at the bountiful Midriff Islands.

Erik will become the first and only satellite-equipped, air-conditioned charter vessel in what can be an inhospitable part of the world.

Built for the rough waters of the North Sea, the steel-hulled Erik will have little trouble plowing through the 20-foot gulf seas that occasionally toss the Mexican shrimp boats.

“It’s in a whole other league,” Gus Velez of the La Mesa-based Baja Fishing Tours said of his new addition.

Velez plans to station Erik at San Felipe and fish the Midriff through the spring and summer months, then move to La Paz in the early winter, giving fly-in fishermen the opportunity to fish Cerralvo Island.

From January through March the boat will be docked at Cabo San Lucas, where it will make regular runs to the popular Revillagigedo Islands and fish for giant yellowfin tuna and wahoo.

Currently, those islands are accessable primarily aboard one of San Diego’s long-range fleet, which requires a 16-day round trip to the unpredictable fishing grounds.

The 1989 World Jet Ski Tour begins this weekend at Long Beach Marine Stadium, where Californians Jeff Jacobs and Brenda Burns will seek to defend their titles.

Jacobs, 18, of El Cajon, began competing at 14, when he won the novice championship. He won the expert championship the next year and took the pro men’s world championship the last two years.

Burns, 23, of Redwood City, began competing in 1981 and has won the women’s world titles in 1987 and ’88.

The Long Beach event, Sunday and Monday, is the first of a 10-race tour featuring closed-course, slalom and freestyle racing.