Outdoor Notes : No-Fishing Sign Put Out for San Gabriel’s West Fork

The West Fork of the San Gabriel River, one of a handful of wild trout streams in Southern California, has fallen victim to a low-rainfall year. Because of low water levels, the Fish and Game Commission recently closed the San Gabriel Mountains stream to fishing, effective June 1 through Oct. 31.

The fishing closure extends from the second bridge upstream from the Highway 39 bridge to Cogswell Dam. The five-mile stretch of water, managed as a catch-and-release fishery, is one of four Southland waters managed as wild trout streams, along with Sespe Creek in Ventura County and Deep Creek and Bear Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Chuck Marshall, Department of Fish and Game fisheries supervisor for L.A. County, said the stream’s wild trout population will face inordinate stress this summer due to water temperatures up to 80 degrees. He said trout survival comes into question when water temperatures exceed 75 degrees.

Marshall said the L.A. County Department of Public Works reports the 1986-87 water year to be the third driest since 1935.

Signs of rebounding populations of sage grouse have led the DFG to propose limited permit hunting for the birds in three eastern California areas.

Sage grouse, or sage hen, hunting hasn’t been allowed in California for four years due to a low number of birds. The DFG recommended to the Fish and Game Commission recently that 400 permits be issued for a portion of eastern Lassen County, 300 for northern Mono County and 250 for southern Mono and portions of Inyo County.

The proposed two-day hunts would be held Sept 5-6, with a bag limit of two birds. The commission will rule on the proposal at its Aug. 7 Sacramento meeting.

The DFG is also calling for slightly shorter band-tailed pigeon and dove hunting seasons for 1987-88.

The National Park Service expects about 375,000 people at Lake Mead and Lake Mohave during the Memorial Day weekend, and reminds visitors that marine officers will be on patrol. “We are especially concerned about boaters from California who may not be familiar with Nevada boating law,” said Cliff Jett, warden supervisor foe Nevada’s Department of Wildlife. “Bow riding, under certain circumstances, is legal in California. It is never legal to ride on the bow of a boat in Nevada.”

A plan calling for the transferring up to 250 California sea otters to San Nicolas Island has been proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The relocation for the federally threatened species could begin by mid-August and could take about five years. Under the plan, no more than 70 otters would be captured and moved from their existing range in any one year.

The transplant proposal, biologists say, would disperse the otter population, offering the species greater protection in the event of a major oil spill.

Briefly Mike Boyce, of Reno, recently paid $56,000 for the first bighorn sheep hunting tag ever auctioned off in Oregon. California wildlife officials hope to raise more than $100,000 at a July 11 auction of a bighorn tag as a kickoff event to the first bighorn hunt in California this year in 114 years. . . . All Yosemite Valley campgrounds and the Hodgdon Meadow Campground on Highway 120 are reserved for the Memorial Day Weekend, Yosemite spokesmen said. Park visitors are advised not to visit the park during the holiday weekend unless they have confirmed camping or lodging reservations. . . . Defenders of Wildlife is holding its International Wolf Symposium, beginning today at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. Showtime: Don Bullock’s Gun-Knife Show & Sale, May 30-31, Anaheim Convention Center.