Former Mono County supervisor should get post

On this the first full day of the first full month of spring, we peer forward to glimpse what April may bring.

* Tim Alpers to be appointed director of the Department of Fish and Game?

Still unclear but the former Mono County supervisor and career public servant, a hunter/angler and trout farmer whose famously plump rainbows have lured millions to the Eastern Sierra, has interviewed and is a top candidate.

Alpers, 60, is personable and has a powerful work ethic. He understands environmental issues and wants to reverse a wide perception of the DFG as aloof and inept.

What’s Gov. Schwarzenegger waiting for? Activate him!

* Crowley Lake, Convict Lake and the four lakes on the scenic June Lake Loop – June, Gull, Grant and Silver – probably will be ice-free during the April 26 opening of the Eastern Sierra general trout fishing season.

Ice is already turning blue at Convict and June. “It’s ready to go any time,” says Mickie Frederickson, who runs June Lake Marina.

Gull, Silver and Grant are slightly behind and Crowley, more than any other, will require sustained winds to tear up the ice.

Expect an 11th-hour thaw at worse.

* Anglers entering Crowley probably will have to complete a survey and pass a vessel inspection before launching.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns Crowley, has recommended to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, which meets today, that these safeguards be in place before opening day.

Like every other water agency, the DWP fears quagga mussels will be accidentally introduced, multiply and clog the plumbing.

They’ve done this throughout much of the country and, more recently, in waters along the Colorado River and its aqueduct system.

If inspection is required, your boat must be clean and 100% dry or it will be turned away and quarantined.

* The Sierra thaw will slowly increase and rivers will swell, luring white water enthusiasts for what’ll be a wild beginning to a rollicking rafting/kayaking season.

When the Department of Water Resources releases its April report it’ll reveal a snow pack about 100% of normal in most areas.

“We got lucky this year, seeing as though it was supposed to be a dry La Nina year,” says Luther Stephens of Kern River Outfitters.

The Kern, above Bakersfield, is the nearest rafting destination to Los Angeles. Stephens said one-day trips on the Upper Kern – which is already running at 1,000 cubic feet per second – will begin as early as April 15.

* The weather will settle and two of the Southland’s most popular saltwater game fish – white sea bass and yellowtail – will erupt in feeding frenzies at Catalina and other Channel Islands.

High hopes were dashed over the weekend, though. “We had plenty of live squid” for bait, says Don Ashley, owner of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. “The only problem was that we just weren’t catching any live fish.”

But this is typical of early spring, as strong winds create upwelling that causes abrupt changes in water temperature. Once those winds subside and the water temperature stabilizes, the fish will respond.

Meanwhile, today marks the beginning of lingcod season. Limit is one per person, at 28 inches or longer.

* With another spring fishing season will surface a familiar problem: that of sea lion predation of hooked game fish.

The voracious pinnipeds, whose numbers have skyrocketed, are the arch-nemesis of fishermen from Washington into the Sea of Cortez.

No legal repellent works but anglers get creative. Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International, which specializes in trips out of La Paz, shares this tidbit in a recent report issued to the outdoors media:

“I don’t like to hurt ‘em permanently, but I don’t want them around either. That’s why I always try to keep a dead bonito or skipjack around.

“If the sea lion comes around, I fill up the inside of that dead fish full of the hottest sauce I can find and throw it at the seal. The seal gulps it and immediately goes ballistic flipping around the ocean. And [it] goes away!”

It may not be wise to try such a tactic on this side of the border. Harassment of marine mammals is against the law.

* Warmer weather also will lure more surfers and bodyboarders into the ocean. Someone will feel a bump or see a fin and yell, “Shark!”

Actually, these things have already happened off Orange County, prompting lifeguards to assure people that it’s safe to venture into the water.

Of course it is. Shark attacks on humans in the Southland are as rare as snowfall in the summer – they just don’t happen.

But there are sharks in the ocean. In fact, white sharks – the most notorious of them all – are among predators that feed locally.

Thankfully, though, they’re juveniles who prey on fish, skates and rays until they reach 10 feet or so. Then most of them migrate toward Northern California seal rookeries.

What remains unknown, says Christopher Lowe, a shark expert at Long Beach State, is whether large pregnant females enter local waters to give birth.

That’s a scary thought.

pete.thomas@latimes.com