THE OUTDOORS : Outdoor Notes / Pete Thomas : Hot Weather Taking Big Bite Out of Salmon Run in Sacramento River

State biologists say low water levels and warm temperatures in the Sacramento River and its tributaries could decimate California’s largest salmon run in 40 years and devastate an $80 commercial fishing industry.

Dick Daniels, an environmental supervisor for the Department of Fish and Game, said last week that few of the salmon spawned will survive if the weather remains hot and dry.

“It is really touch and go on a daily basis,” Daniels said. “It is the top problem we are dealing with. Sixty to 70 percent of all the salmon harvested in the state originate in the Sacramento system. A week of high temperatures could wipe them out.”

On the American River, a main tributary to the Sacramento, temperatures will almost certainly be too warm for the natural spawners to survive, officials said.

Last year, warm flows in the American River destroyed 80% of the salmon eggs taken from fish that migrated to the hatchery. Fish and Game officials made up for the loss by borrowing eggs and small fish from the Feather River hatchery.

Folsom Lake is at its lowest level since the 1976-77 drought and water temperature at the hatchery last Friday was 72 degrees, much warmer than the 60-degree water needed for the salmon spawn, said Patrick O’Brien, state fisheries manager. O’Brien said the only hope for fish this year is cold weather in September and October.

Commercial and sportfishing groups and environmentalists say the federal Bureau of Reclamation underestimated what it would take to keep rivers habitable. They are critical of the agency for not cutting water deliveries to farmers.

The salmon run is poised off the Central California coast, where commercial fisherman caught 9.6 million pounds of salmon, the largest catch since 1945, said Zeke Gryder, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns.

Biologists say the large run may be because of the floods in 1986, which could have washed more young fish to the sea and encouraged good feeding conditions in the estuary.

Mike Manley of North Little Rock, Ark., fishing the night of Aug. 6 at Arkansas’ North Fork River, caught a 38-pound 9-ounce brown trout, which if approved by the International Game Fish Assn. would become a world record.

The fish was 39 inches long and had a girth of 27 3/4 inches, according to Jim Lowe of the state Game and Fish Commission. Lowe said the fish was a male and was between 15 and 20 years old.

The current record brown trout is a 35-pound 15-ounce fish caught in Argentina in 1952.

Manley, 26, used corn and marshmallows as bait and landed his fish on a 5-foot ultralight rod and reel and 6-pound test line.

When asked how long the fish fought, Manley told the Associated Press: “I don’t know how long, but I smoked two cigarettes during the battle.”

Numbers of striped marlin weighed this season at Southern California’s three main stations:

San Diego Marlin Club, 129; Balboa Angling Club, 116; Avalon Weigh Station, 57.

Results are in from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 1986 Pacific billfish survey, which had its largest response in 18 years.

--A total of 15,932 days were reported in the Pacific and Indian oceans by recreational fishermen, who caught 8,422 billfish.

--Catch rates were similar to 1985: 0.52 billfish caught per fishing day and an average of 1.89 days required to catch a billfish.

--The Pacific yielded 6,949 billfish in 13,711 fishing days, the Indian Ocean 1,743 in 2,221.

The catch rate for striped marlin off Southern California was slightly lower than in 1985, with 0.11 billfish caught per fishing day.

Mexico’s Baja California--primarily the tip area--was high, as usual, with 1.36 fish caught per day fished.

Hawaii reported increased blue marlin success, with 2,826 fishing days producing 836 marlin, almost double the 1985 rate.

Australia reported a slight decrease in black marlin fishing success, with one fish caught for every 1.33 days fished.

The catch rate for sailfish in most areas remained the same as in 1985 but dropped slightly in the waters off Costa Rica for the second straight year.

The DFG announced it has canceled a drawing for mountain lion hunting permits until legal proceedings against the hunt are resolved.

The $5 fees paid by applicants of today’s scheduled drawing will be returned if the court rules against the hunt after it reviews the issue Oct. 8., said Paul Jensen, department deputy director.

Jensen said a drawing will be held and the hunt will proceed if the court rules in favor of the 79-day season on mountain lions that was blocked last year by a San Francisco court.

Mountain goats introduced to Washington’s Olympic National Park by sportsmen in 1925 now number about 1,200, proving their ability to survive in the area.

However, Outside magazine reports in its latest issue that the animals have worn out their welcome and will be eliminated because they are competing with native wildlife for food and they are accelerating erosion by eating and trampling plants indigenous only to the area, thus interrupting the “precariously balanced ecological chain.”

The National Park Service has already captured 80 goats --two died --and transplanted them to the Rocky Mountains in Utah and central Canada. A spokeswoman for the service said it will continue the live-capture program until 1991, when sharpshooters will fly in by helicopter to finish the job.

A large percentage of the animals are expected to be killed because of their elusive nature and the rough terrain they occupy.

Briefly

The Blinker Sport and Game Fish Club of Hamburg, West Germany, won the 30th Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, which featured 81 clubs from 23 countries. The Beverly Hills Yacht Club No. 1 placed second. Beverly Hills club member Bob Hemmings, 71, caught the largest fish of the five-day tournament, a 732-pound blue marlin. . . . High Sierra fishing guide Fred Rowe will be the guest speaker for the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers’ Aug. 18 meeting beginning at 6:30 at the Odyssey Restaurant in Mission Hills. For more information call (818) 785-7306. Angler’s Tackle Box in Seal Beach is holding a seminar on fishing for marlin Aug. 25 from 6:30-9:30 p.m., with marlin fisherman Mark Wisch as the primary instructor. The Colorado Division of Wildlife reports that much of the state’s high country has been spared the wrath of the drought and predicts “one of the best big game seasons in recent memory.”