Tuna are being caught by the thousands just south of San Diego.

Yellowtail are being taken consistently in the waters off the southern Channel Islands, and along the coast as far north as Malibu.

Obviously, Southland fishing is going strong.

Favorable oceanic conditions have been a factor, but so has been the steady supply of bait. Notable among the bait fish is the long, almost-lost sardine.

Bait tanks these days are loaded with them.

Take a trip on one of San Diego's overnight boats. Grab a four- to six-inch sardine and watch it perform like an anchovy on steroids.

It will run from the boat, almost immediately attracting hungry predators in the area. It will remain fresh and healthy until swallowed, although it is considered wise to change baits if there are no takers within a minute or so.

An anchovy is more likely to swim in circles near the boat and be torn from the hook by an attacking fish or the strength of the current. Or it may falter and die after several seconds' swimming with a hook through its nose or gills.

Anchovies \o7 are\f7 vital to Southland sportfishing fleets. They're ideal for such smaller fish as bonito, bass and barracuda, which keep the half-day operations in business. And they're the perfect chum, since they scale easily and remain close enough to the boat to keep the fish in the area.

But for bigger game, the sardine is the better bait.

"If we had pin-head bait (small anchovies) this time of year we'd be struggling," said Joe Chait, who owns and operates the Conquest, which runs out of San Diego's Fisherman's Landing. "We have these nice sardines, the fish love 'em and they're accessible for us."

The entire San Diego fleet is supplied by the Everingham Bros. Bait Co., which this season has kept the fleet in constant supply.

"If we ask for something, they try and produce it," Chait says.

And the company, with its fleet of seiners, bait carriers and airplanes, has been producing sardines--especially since this has been an extremely poor year for anchovies.

"It seems that whenever the conditions appeal to the sardines, it doesn't appeal to the anchovies so much, and anchovies kind of melt away and then the sardines become more abundant," Roy Everingham said. "One thing about this year, that I haven't seen in all my (40) years in this business, is the abundance of these little sardines, these four- to six-inchers."

Nor have fishermen up and down the coast.