FISH OUT OF WATER; EL NINO BRINGS GIFT FOR ANGLERS.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

As the Betty-O returned to port, an unmanned fishing rod dragging a lure went vertical.

Something - something big - was hooked.

``Big fish!'' yelled Garett Yamaki, the Betty-O's first mate. ``Holy ----!''

After a tug-of-war, Yamaki reeled in a fish not home to the waters plied by the Marina del Rey-based sport-fishing boat. At rod's end was a bonito, a sleek, silvery-blue fish normally found off the Mexican coast.

Up and down the West Coast, such unusual catches are fueling fishing fever.

El Nino has turned local waters into an angler's paradise, luring exotic fish farther north than normal with its warm Pacific currents.

Marine biologists say only the freakish global weather pattern can explain why a fisherman in Seattle two weeks ago caught a marlin, marking a first for Washington.

An angler on a boat out of Newport Beach on Aug. 20 caught a tripletail, a rare perchlike fish typically found about 1,000 miles south of the waters between Dana Point and San Onofre, where it was caught.

The catch stunned Fish and Game officials, who said it was only the second time in recorded history that the tripletail, distinct because of its large trailing dorsal and rear fins, had been fished out of area waters.

In an early sign that the fishing was going to be far from normal this year, anglers in Orange County started catching albacore in April. That fish usually doesn't appear until at least June, fishermen say.

Closer to home, locals liken fishing in Santa Monica Bay to angling in Baja with all the mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna and boatloads of yellowtail they've been catching.

And around here, hooking a marlin - a feat that used to accord fishermen bragging rights - is getting downright common.

``There are a lot of crazy things out there right now,'' said angler Romeo Bandoy, a hotel security guard from Eagle Rock. ``There could never be enough boats on the water to catch it all.''

Surge in action

Nevertheless, with these warm-water El Nino conditions, sport fisherman appear to be at least trying to ``catch it all.'' The state Department of Fish and Game reports a 20 percent increase in saltwater fishing licenses this year.

The last time so many exotic fish were hauled onto boats was during the big El Nino in 1983, which was rated one of the best years ever for sport-fishing in the Southland.

That El Nino, dubbed ``El Nino of the century,'' also brought monster storms to California, causing at least 33 deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Weather forecasters don't know whether this El Nino will pack the same destructive potential, but a startling temperature rise in a large patch of the Pacific Ocean suggests a whopper is on the way.

Whatever trouble it brings this winter, this El Nino will have been a bonanza for sport-fishing.

During the last El Nino, sport fishermen hauled in 178,000 yellowtail - a fish that is caught more abundantly during warm-water spells - out of California waters south of Morro Bay.

This year, anglers have already caught 300,000 yellowtail, and this fluky fishing season isn't even over yet, scientists say.

``The water is not showing any signs of cooling off at the moment,'' said Ron Dotson, a research fishery biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla.

It was a quest for yellowtail that prompted Bandoy on a recent weekday to take off work to go fishing aboard the Betty-O.

``I've been fishing for nine years, and this is the first time I have heard of so much yellowtail,'' Bandoy said. ``Usually you have to go to San Diego or Mexico to catch it, and now you go out on Santa Monica Bay and hook 20- to 30-pounders.''

Bait scarce

As Bandoy and about a dozen other anglers prepared to board the Betty-O, skipper Mike Reinsch informed them of the downside of fishing during an El Nino year. The supplier that Reinsch uses couldn't find any live bait.

With water temperatures in some places off the coast of Los Angeles hitting as high as 72 degrees - about four degrees above normal - standard bait fish such as anchovies that favor cold water have made themselves scarce.

``They move north or they go into deeper water,'' Dotson said.

Grumbling as they shuffled on deck with their rods and tackle boxes, the fisherman resolved to try their luck with the frozen squid the Betty-O carries in a pinch like this one.

``I'd like you to at least get some dinner,'' Reinsch told the anglers over the boat's PA system.

But these anglers weren't just looking for a meal.

``I'm looking to catch my first yellowtail,'' said Leffridge Deloney III, a truck driver from Mission Hills.

When Reinsch anchored the Betty-O about eight miles offshore, the high rises of Santa Monica and Westwood had shrunk into tiny Lego-like blocks.

``This El Nino is something,'' said Reinsch, after climbing down the ladder to the galley for a soda break. ``It's turned some of my regulars who fish rock fish into tuna fishermen. They've gone out and bought new lines, new tackle, new everything.''

The last week in June, Reinsch's girlfriend fished a mahi-mahi out of the bay, making it the first time the captain of seven years had ever seen one locally.

Then on one outing last month, anglers on the Betty-O came back with three mahi-mahi, 24 yellowtail and 60 sand bass, Reinsch said.

And just two weeks ago, an angler on Reinsch's boat hooked a marlin that seized out of the water and thrashed back and forth in one big splashy convulsion before it snapped the line and swam away.

``It was so surreal,'' said Reinsch, a rhetoric graduate of University of California at Berkeley. ``It really caught me by surprise.''

Off the coast of Orange County, where the water temperature has climbed as high as 77 degrees, the fishing has been even more surreal.

Anglers getting limits

George Eddy of Newport Landing Sportfishing said his party boats this summer have been coming back early because it's been so easy for anglers to catch the maximum number of yellowtail allowed, 10.

``They're fishing the limits,'' Eddy said. ``There've been boats with 60 people on them that will come back in a few hours with 600 fish.''

El Nino has affected fishing not just in California, but also up and down the Pacific Coast with one of the more startling incidents being the recent marlin catch in Seattle.

It's not exactly like trapping a polar bear in San Diego, but close, fisherman say.

Before that wayward marlin, an angler had scored a mahi-mahi - a fish at home in the toasty waters of Baja - off the coast of Florence, Ore., in July, rocking the fishing world.

With limited space on boats and competition fierce to catch these prized warm-water fish, there have been reports of anglers in Orange County stealing each other's catches and of fishermen getting into tussles over whose boat got somewhere first.

``This boat is mellow,'' Deloney said of the Betty-O. ``If it came down to that, I wouldn't go out anymore.''

Unfortunately, the fishing was a little too mellow this day too. Without live bait, Deloney and the other anglers spent most of the day catching only fish found in the bay during a non-El Nino year such as white fish and rock fish.

The bonito catch, it turns out, was the only exotic fish caught that day.

It's the prospect of hooking an El Nino special like the bonito that Reinsch said explains why his business has picked up by a third over last year.

Eddy says the sport-fishing business in Newport Beach has also been strong.

``Generally speaking, after Labor Day you see your passengers drop off by half,'' Eddy said. ``This year, I haven't seen any change. It is still pretty much summer vacation atmosphere.''

Tough on marine mammals 

El Nino has been no vacation for marine mammals such as sea lions, harbor seals and elephant seals that are having a harder time finding food when the warm water drives sardines, anchovies and herring into colder water.

During the 1992 El Nino, which was smaller than the 1983 one, about 2,600 marine mammals were rescued or left to die after they became stranded on beaches because of malnutrition.

Marine mammal experts expect a similar problem this year. Young marine mammals cannot eat the bigger fish that the warm currents bring, said Joe Cordaro, coordinator of the California Marine Mammals Stranding Network of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Long Beach.

``It appears that it is just the young animals - eight months to two years of age - that are affected,'' Cordaro said. ``They don't have much practice going out to find the food on their own.''

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos, map

PHOTO (1 -- color) Garett Yamaki, first mate on the Betty-O, shows off a five-pound bonito caught on the way back to Marina del Rey.

(2 -- color) Yoshi Kamimura casts in hopes of an exotic catch.

(3 -- color) Anglers drop their lines as the Betty-O settles into a fishing spot about eight miles out of Marina del Rey.

(4) A fisherman holds a large yellowtail aloft on a boat that passed the Betty-O on its way out of the Marina del Rey harbor in search of big fish sent north by El Nino.

(5 -- 6) no caption (Mike Reinsch, captain of the Betty-O, fishing gear)

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

Map: Pacific coast

Graphic by Gregg Miller/Daily News