Outdoor Notes : The Pacific Heats Up Off Mexico; Fishermen Are Ones That Benefit

Spring fishing is off to a good start in the waters off mainland Mexico as a northerly equatorial current has raised water temperatures and vastly improved the fishing.

According to J.D. Doughty at Bisbee’s Tackle shop in Newport Beach, the water temperature off Manzanillo--roughly 400 miles south of Cabo San Lucas--has risen into the 80-degree range and has been as high as 85 degrees 200 miles south at Zihuatanejo.

All of which means an increase in the quantity and size of the fish.

“It has just occurred in the last two weeks,” said Doughty, who maintains radio contact with fishermen in the area. “The water has settled down, it’s clear, blue and enriched and has brought with it an abundance of yellowfin tuna, sailfish, striped and blue marlin.”

Ron Cox, owner of the sportfishing boat Tex, recently reported catching blue marlin in the 200- to 400-pound range and yellowfin tuna up to 175 pounds.

“Yellowfin tuna (mostly in the 50- to 85-pound range) have been abundant and so have all the other smaller game fish,” Doughty said. “The current has also been pushing into the Sea of Cortez, bringing yellowtail and improving the fishing there.”

Cabo San Lucas has apparently started to benefit from the warm-water current as well. “The water is freshened and warmed,” Doughty said. “Where the boats have been catching one or two striped marlin apiece (on the Pacific side), they can now expect to catch three or four per boat . . .the potential is there for better fishing.”

The Department of Fish and Game has concluded that a flock of 50 California bighorn sheep in the northeast part of the state has perished, apparently because of pneumonia the sheep caught from a stray domestic sheep.

As a result, only between 250 and 300 California bighorns are believed to survive in Mono and Inyo counties, according to Dr. Dave Jessup, a wildlife veterinarian at the DFG’s laboratory near Sacramento.

Several hundred Nelson bighorn sheep still live in the Old Dad and Marble mountains of San Bernardino County.

The 50 bighorns that died in December and January were part of a colony established by the department in 1980 near Eagleville in eastern Modoc County near the Nevada border. The flock was formed in 1980 with 14 sheep moved in from other regions.

“It’s pretty discouraging,” Jessup told the Associated Press, adding that efforts to establish bighorns in Modoc County’s Warner Mountains probably are at an end. “It seems like the risks outweigh the potential for success,” he said.

A previous pneumonia outbreak almost wiped out a small flock at Lava Beds National Monument in 1980.

Thousands of bighorn sheep once roamed California’s mountains. Hunting them was outlawed in 1873, after early settlers almost exterminated them. The law was revised in 1986, and a limited hunt for nine Nelson bighorns--also called California bighorns--was allowed in San Bernardino County last year.

Trout fishermen may find improved fishing at many lakes and streams this spring as more trout will be stocked than in previous years.

An allotment of 2,690,000 catchable-size rainbow trout will be raised and planted by the DFG’s hatchery personnel--an increase of 152,000 fish from the 1987 allotment for Southland waters.

One reason for the increase is a 56,500-fish reduction at Los Angeles County’s Pyramid Lake, which because of a problem of striped bass predation on hatchery raised trout, is undergoing a tagged-trout return survey to determine the practicality of future trout plants.

Los Angeles County waters to benefit from the increase include Castaic Lake and Castaic Lagoon, which will receive 18% more trout, and Malibu Creek, which will get 30% more than last year.

Eighty-two lakes and streams in eight Southern California counties are scheduled in 1988 to be stocked with trout from the Mojave River Hatchery at Victorville (San Bernardino County) and the Fillmore Hatchery (Ventura County.

The International Game Fish Assn., after processing 842 record applications in 1987, has approved 519 world game fish records.

Among those approved were 92 all-tackle records (the heaviest catch of a species), 331 line class records--201 saltwater and 130 freshwater--and 95 fly rod marks, 60 for fresh water fish and 35 for marine species.

Briefly

Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach will run nightly twilight fishing trips from 5:30-11 p.m. beginning April 30, and has resumed day shark fishing on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (night shark fishing trips will start May 2). . . . For his help in winning federal protection for northern California’s Kings River, Congressman Rick Lehman (D-Sanger) has been awarded California Trout’s Golden Trout Award, presented each year to a government official “who has made the most distinguished contribution to the protection and restoration of wild trout, native steelhead and their waters.” . . . San Diego’s Lake Hodges opens April 13 and fishing will be allowed Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; El Capitan Lake opens April 15 and will operate Friday through Sunday. . . . Sibylle Hetchel will host The North Face-sponsored presentation on climbing and travel in the Soviet Union at the South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court April 14 at 8 p.m.