Civilian Buck-Only Hunt Stops at Camp Pendleton

There will be no separate buck season this year for civilian deer hunters on the Camp Pendleton Marine base, but openings for civilians have been increased for the special either-sex hunt on the base.

The Department of Fish and Game said that the bucks-only hunt had been eliminated because of the poor success rate among civilian hunters, who were not permitted on base until a week after military personnel had hunted.

Civilian openings for the either-sex hunt have increased, however, from 120 to 160.

License agents will have this year’s regulations and applications for deer tags, including those for the Camp Pendleton hunt, by June 17, according to the DFG. Deadline for applications in Sacramento will be July 10 for a drawing July 12.

When Mike Hughes of Salinas sets out to do some serious catfishing, the result can be, well, record-setting.

Hughes had serious catfishing on his mind last month when he hit a stretch of the lower Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz. He was armed with heavy spinning tackle, including 40-pound test monofilament line.

Hughes caught only two fish, but one of them, a flathead, weighed 57 pounds 4 ounces on a certified scale, more than two pounds over the Arizona state record.

According to Hughes, the only thing light about the fish was the way it took the bait, a goldfish. “It hit like a two-inch perch,” he said. “It barely wiggled the end of the rod. Then it got heavy.”

Burke needed 45 minutes to land the fish, and twice had to get into the water to keep the flathead from taking all of his line.

Twenty minutes earlier, Hughes had caught a 43-pound flathead.

The DFG warns that the mussel quarantine, now in effect along the California coast, should be strictly observed. The quarantine, which went into effect May 1, forbids human consumption of sport-caught mussels until after Oct. 31.

Persons who eat mussels not grown commercially run the risk of getting paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can be fatal. State health officials also caution that the dark meat of clams and scallops should be discarded during the quarantine.

Briefly The state Fish and Game Commission will hold public hearings next Thursday and Friday in the City Council chambers at Palm Springs. Thursday’s meeting will begin at 1 p.m., Friday’s at 8 a.m. . . . Hal Janssen, fly fishing instructor and author, will present an audio-visual display of freshwater techniques at the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers’ dinner meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. next Thursday at the Nob Hill Banquet Center in Panorama City. . . . A watercolor of two kelp bass swimming in their natural habitat won top honors for Randall Scott, 22, of Escondido, in the second annual art contest sponsored by the Pacific Region of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation. Scott’s work will be auctioned June 14 at the coalition’s sixth annual dinner at the Irvine Marriott Hotel.. . . Guide Fred Rowe will tell where and how to fly fish for trout at the San Gabriel Valley Fly Fishers’ monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. May 22 at the Whittier Narrows Recreation Center in El Monte. Interested persons are welcome at no cost.