THE OUTDOORS : Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : Woman in Hawaii Catches 950-Pound Marlin on Birthday

Louise Ann (Angel) Bowles decided to go fishing on her birthday recently for what she said was a very good reason.

“I wanted to go fishing on my birthday because I knew I was going to catch the big one,” she said from her home in Honolulu. “I was fully prepared and I was expecting it. It was just one of those things.”

After fishing through the night with no luck, however, time was running out on Bowles. Skipper Steve Roney had turned the sportfisher Holiday homeward to be back in time for his next charter at noon.

It was about 11 a.m., about a mile out and south of Hawaii’s Kailua-Kona Harbor, when Bowles noticed a marlin trailing her lure. “I saw the fish tracking my lure and I knew from the tail that it was a huge fish,” she said.

The fish missed a few times, then inhaled the lure, and the contest was on.

“The fish began to dance immediately,” Bowles said, claiming it jumped out of the water at least a dozen times. “It was very active; so powerful. I could feel it churning through the water.”

Bowles, at 5 feet 3 inches and 108 pounds, fought the fish with all the might she could muster for about two hours before successfully adding to her memories her most precious catch to date, a 950 1/2-pound Pacific blue marlin that should put her in the record books, and keep her there for a while.

The fish has been submited to the International Game Fish Assn., and Bowles need only await confirmation before it officially becomes a world record.

“From what I can tell, it’s indeed a legitimate record,” said David Grobecker of the Pacific Gamefish Research Foundation in Kona, Hawaii, adding that the fish lost a considerable amount of weight during the fight, body fluid loss from the gaff, and dehydration.

Bowles’ catch nevertheless easily surpassed the current women’s 80-pound-test line record, a 674-pound blue caught in 1978 off Waikiki, and even the women’s all-tackle record, a 737-pounder caught off the Kona Coast in 1981.

After the fish was safely boated, Bowles, 51, sipped champagne and celebrated with friends while en route back to port. The Los Angeles born angler--she boasts of having caught giant black marlin off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and of fishing for most of her life in such exotic locations as Fiji, Japan, Guam and Samoa, to name just a few--had cashed in on her intuition.

Wildlife Conservation Board members have approved the expenditure of $5.5 million donated from various funding sources for the enhancement of wildlife in California.

Almost $2 million will go to implement fish and wildlife projects in Southern California and the eastern Sierra, and the three-member panel approved seven projects for Inyo, Mono, Orange, Imperial and San Luis Obispo counties.

In Mono County, more than $16,000 was provided for stream rehabilitation projects for Slinkard and By-Day creeks, both of which are experiencing declining populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout, a threatened species.

Other expenditures will range from enhancing trout habitat at various locations, to repairing fishing piers, to acquiring critical properties to establish reserves and to protect them from developers.

The catch of a 2 1/2-pound largemouth bass during opening weekend at Lassen County’s Eagle Lake has officials worried that someone illegally planted the fish, and possibly others, which could jeopardize the future of the lake’s trophy trout fishery.

It has been about 50 years--when a reduced water level boosted the lake’s alkalinity, killing off all other game fish--since any game fish except the unique Eagle Lake rainbow trout has been able to survive and reproduce in the lake.

“Our hope is that the water quality of the lake continues to be inhospitable to fish other than the native Eagle Lake rainbow and that anglers will help us identify people who try to produce their own favorite game fish population at the lake,” said DFG biologist Don Weidlein.

Once near extinction, the Eagle Lake rainbow trout subspecies currently thrives under a DFG management program.

Two organizers of a catch-and-release fishing contest in Hamm, West Germany, were fined $700 apiece for cruelty to animals after a court ruled that fish feel pain when hooked and pulled from the water.

The decision grew out of a suit filed by an animal-rights group against an angling club that staged a fishing contest two years ago.

Civil court Judge Horst Brinkmann based his decision on testimony of experts called in to determine whether or not fish feel pain when hooked, and if they suffered during the time they were out of the water.

Four wildlife experts testified that an increased heart rate and labored breathing of the fish after they were pulled from the water indicated that they do feel pain.

Brinkmann ruled that fishing was permissible if fish were quickly killed, and if they were caught for useful purposes. But he added that simply catching the fish to weigh and determine which angler was more skilled subjected the creatures to unusually cruel treatment.

Briefly

California anglers can fish without a license Saturday, which DFG Director Pete Bontadell has proclaimed “Free Fishing Day” to coincide with National Fishing Week, observed June 6-12. . . . Tag applications for deer, bear, bighorn sheep, mountain lion, elk and antelope are available at sporting goods stores and Southern California offices of the Department of Fish and Game, as are the 1988 California hunting regulation booklets and hunting licenses. Hunters are advised to check with the DFG for the respective application deadlines that begin as early as late June.