FROM THE FIELD: SAN DIEGO TUNA ARE `EXTRAORDINARY'.

Byline: BRETT PAULY

There are certain times of the year that operators of the Southland's saltwater-sportfishing fleet look back on and shake their collective heads.

It has been one of those weeks in San Diego.

In the midst of the biggest glut of yellowtail in years, the region was blessed with the earliest run of albacore tuna in half a century. To top it off, anglers hooked a smattering of bluefin tuna, a species usually restricted to waters much farther south, showing up only in summer, if at all.

``Extraordinary,'' said Katrina Rutkauskas, manager of San Diego's H&M Landing. ``It's been a very early season, and totally unpredicted for the tuna. Albacore traditionally show up after July 4.

``And we have been catching hundreds of yellowtail, which is also very early. We started catching them the last part of April; usually it's not until late May or June.''

Yellows, albies and blues are all showing in small, scattered, puddling schools on or near kelp paddies from 40-60 miles south of San Diego in Mexican waters, according to Bill Roecker of the San Diego Sportfishing Council. That is easily within reach of full-day party boats, which depart port at 11 p.m. and usually return the next day between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Roecker, who caught two bluefins on Tuesday, said the blues are in the 20- to 40-pound range, the albies, or longfins, are 15-20 pounds and the yellowtails are 2-20 pounds with the majority, known as firecrackers, weighing in at 10 pounds or less.

The San Diego fleet broke the 1,000-fish single-day milestone for yellowtails this week. ``Any time you get 1,000 of one species in one day, that's tremendous,'' Rutkauskas said.

Roecker called it the biggest run of yellows in recent memory, ``and nobody knows why.''

Rutkauskas offered a partial explanation in that biologists are predicting an El Nino effect - an abnormal warming of surface water that attracts yellowtail and other exotic fishes - for later this summer. Schools have been prolific from Ensenada to the Channel Islands.

The tuna, however, may be following an influx of cold water in the same region that was not forecast, she said. The last major run of albacore out of San Diego was in 1987.

While it appears the yellowtail are here for the summer - ``If it's been a fluke, it's been a whole month,'' Rutkauskas said - the same may not necessarily be said for the tuna.

``The albacore thing may go away in a hurry, like the way the salmon season petered out,'' Roecker said.

The only way to find out for sure is to get on the water - in a hurry.