Outdoor Notes : Hunter Who Paid $59,000 for Permit Kills First Desert Bighorn Sheep

A bow hunter from West Virginia, who paid $59,000 for his permit, claimed the first desert bighorn sheep of the second hunt in California in 115 years.

Jim R. Ryan of Madison, W. Va., bid that sum at an auction last March for the privilege of hunting alone, ahead of the eight hunters who drew tags in a Department of Fish and Game lottery and will start hunting Saturday at two sites in the eastern Mojave Desert.

Last year’s hunt ended a moratorium on bighorn hunting that had been in effect since 1873. Despite interference from anti-hunt activists, all nine hunters were successful, including Bob Howard of Palm Springs, who had bid $70,000 for the exclusive advance hunt. The money goes into a DFG fund for bighorn management.

Ryan, who operates a coal mining business in Danville, W. Va., shot an 11-year-old ram in the Marble Mountain area west of Needles at 3:15 p.m. of his third day out. Using a 125-pound-pull bow, he brought down the animal with one shot from 50 yards.

With the kill, Ryan, a bow hunter for 30 years, completed a personal “grand slam” of the four North American bighorn species: desert (or Nelson), dall, stone and Rocky Mountain.

Not one but two blind hunters were successful in Wisconsin’s deer season this month.

Melvin Marquardt, 63, of Lena took a 7-point buck with a 30.06 rifle near his home 30 miles north of Green Bay. Bob Schuh, 30, of Whitelaw, took a 106-pound doe with a slug-loaded shotgun shell on his parents’ land at nearby Kellnersville.

Schuh had campaigned for special laws for blind hunters in his state--one allowing them to have an either-sex permit, the other requiring they be assisted by a sighted companion who is a licensed hunter.

Schuh, who was blinded in a hunting accident 12 years ago, was assisted by his brother Rick, who looked over Bob’s shoulder through the shotgun’s open sights and signaled by touching his brother’s back as to where to aim and when to fire. Schuh, his gun resting on a tripod, felled the animal with one shot through the shoulder from about 50 yards.

“We’d been waiting 3 hours when we heard him moving through the leaves,” Schuh said. “Then we waited another 20 or 30 minutes until he came down the trail into the shooting lane. I feel we were lucky. A lot of guys wait all day and never get one.”

Marquardt, a retired auto mechanic who lost his sight in a welding accident at 32, was assisted by his son John, who sighted through a periscope-type sight over his father’s shoulder. He used 3 shots from about 125 yards.

Marquardt was hunting on public land, with 9 or 10 other hunters within an area of several hundred yards.

“They all know me,” Marquardt said. “We’ve hunted the same area for years, and I’ve preached safety for so many years that they weren’t worried. I would sure never shoot at noises.”

Bill Nott, longtime president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California, remains in guarded condition in St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, under treatment for complications from a heart problem.

Nott is in the intensive care unit. No phone calls or flowers, but cards are welcome.

The third annual Fish for the Homeless Derby will be held Dec. 11 aboard the Deluxe, an 80-foot sportfisher that operates out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro.

The fish caught will be donated to the Los Angeles Rescue Mission, which will freeze the catch and feed the homeless on consecutive Fridays until supplies run out. On the last trip, passengers fishing for yellowtail on the surface at Catalina Island caught 700 pounds of fish--mostly bonito--that fed 2,000 people.

This year, fishermen aboard the Deluxe will travel a bit farther offshore and fish the waters off San Nicolas Island for the various species of bottom fish, which make excellent table fare and are abundant in winter months.

“Our goal is to feed 3,000 of the Skid Row homeless,” Tony Salas, the event’s organizer and partial sponsor, said. Salas added that besides fishing for a worthy cause, the ticket price of $120 will include gourmet meals, guest speakers and $1,200 in jackpot prizes.

For more information, call (213) 543-5088.