Outdoor Notes : Water Sources Important to Deer Hunter’s Success

If unusually hot, dry conditions continue, Department of Fish and Game biologists predict that successful hunters on the Aug. 10 opening day of the Zone A coastal deer hunting season will be those who locate seeps, springs or other water sources in canyon bottoms.

At least the opening days of the 44-day season in Zone A are expected to find deer concentrated near water sources, biologists said this week. Last year, 73,947 deer tags were sold for Zone A and 6,751 bucks were taken. This year, more than 45,000 tags are expected to be sold by opening day.

The DFG reminds hunters of extreme fire dangers in most hunting areas and to check with U.S. Forest Service personnel regarding fire restrictions. Zone A, stretching from Mendocino County to Los Angeles County, is the state’s largest deer hunting zone.

Lynne Cox, 28, a channel swimmer from Los Alamitos, will begin a series of swims in her “Swim Around the World in 80 Days” tour Aug. 1.

She will start the tour with a Queen Mary-to-Seal Beach swim. Next will be a five-mile Potomac River swim to the monuments area in Washington. Other swims are planned for Iceland, the straits of Gibraltar and Messina, in China, on Lake Yamanaka in Japan, Alaska’s Gastineau Channel and San Francisco’s Golden Gate.

Mike Folkestad of Norco won the $50,000 first-place prize money at the recent U.S. Bass-Tropicana U.S. Open national bass tournament at Lake Mead, defeating 251 other bass pros in the four-day event. Folkestad won by catching 31.77 pounds of largemouth bass.

The Angeles National Forest office advises weekend visitors that Stage II fire restrictions are in effect, meaning that the forest is closed to any kind of fires except at drive-in campgrounds and picnic areas. Off-road vehicle use is restricted to the Rowher Flat, Littlerock and San Gabriel ORV areas.

A 7,200-acre fire at Camp Pendleton has ended deer-hunting opportunities for half of all civilian hunters who would have had access to the base this fall for a special either-sex hunt.

There were to have been 160 tags issued to civilians for the September weekends-only hunt. But the Department of Fish and Game says the Marines have asked that the tag allotment be cut in half because so much deer habitat was destroyed by the fire.

Briefly

Utah’s Wildlife Resources Department expects more than 30,000 hunters to participate in the August and September archery deer and elk seasons. . . . Nevada biologists hope the peregrine falcon will soon be reestablished there. Three young peregrines from the Predatory Bird Research Group in Santa Cruz, Calif., were released in Elko County July 9. . . . The California Boating and Waterways Commission has approved a $500,000 loan to Avalon to make improvements at Avalon Harbor, and a $370,000 grant to Huntington Beach for new construction of its boat launch facility in Huntington Harbour. . . . The REI store in Carson will present clinics on walking for possible fitness programs from July 25 to Aug. 4. . . . Showtime: Don Bullock’s Santa Monica Gun & Collectors’ Show, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Saturday and Sunday. . . . The National Shooting Sports Foundation of Riverside, Conn., has published a brochure with a state-by-state listing of hunting resorts open to the public.