11.55 Pounds Converts to $50,000 for Texas Angler

Tournament favorite Larry Nixon caught an 11.55-pound limit on the final day and defeated 99 other fishermen for the $50,000 first prize at the recent U.S. Bass $2-million Bass Tournament at Table Rock Lake, Mo.

Nixon, from Hemphill, Tex., also won an $18,000 bass boat. Runner- up was Gary Klein of Oroville, Calif., who caught a 9.50-pound limit and won $39,000.

Livestock fencing is going up on both sides of one of Northern California’s premier wild trout streams, Fall River.

The Department of Fish and Game said that the project, with the cooperation of area land owners, will protect the stream from river bank damage caused by livestock and will permit regeneration of heavily grazed streamside areas. More than 3,000 feet of fence has been put up by inmate crews. Biologists hope eventually to fence all of the upper half of the 21-mile river.

The Sportfishing Institute Bulletin terms recent spawns of white sea bass at the Hubbs Marine Research Institute at San Diego’s Sea World a tremendous advance.

Potential brood stock white sea bass were caught by sportfishermen, kept alive and turned over to biologists at Sea World. The fish were kept in large tanks, with light and water temperature conditions adjusted to simulate spring spawn conditions. Eggs were hatched in special tanks. Biologists estimate that the fry will require six months of growth before they reach a releasable size of four inches.

The program is an effort to help replenish stocks of white sea bass, once abundant off Southern California, but depleted in recent years by both commercial and sport fishermen.

Warm, dry weather in Northern California may be the biggest reason hunters are experiencing a success rate 18% below last year’s pace, DFG biologists say. Tag returns are running behind 1984 success rates in 16 north state zones. Only the northeastern mule deer zones of X2, X3 and X5b show higher success rates.

Briefly The National Coalition for Marine Conservation will hold a Fish for the Future barbecue Nov. 16 at 5 p.m., at Sea World’s Nautilus Pavilion. Proceeds from $15 admission tickets will be used for kelp bass hatchery research. . . . Winchester has published a six-page steel shot guide for hunters, with lead-to-steel conversion tables. . . . Stage I fire restrictions are in effect for Angeles National Forest, meaning that fire permits are required to use portable stoves. . . . The Fish and Game Commission is considering emergency action to close Bear Creek in Merced County to fishing above the Highway 99 Bridge because of low water levels that have made spawning salmon unusually vulnerable.