Outdoor Notes / Rich Roberts : Anglers Will Need a Little More Patience to Get Their License to Fish
Mike Johns, manager of Toms Place store and cafe at Rock Creek north of Bishop, advises anglers to buy their 1989 licenses at home before heading to the Eastern Sierra for the opening of the trout season Saturday.
“They’ll save themselves a lot of time and trouble,” Johns said.
The new licenses introduced in January are larger and more complicated than the old ones--the price of the California Department of Fish and Game’s finally entering the age of automation.
The licenses, measuring 5 1/2 inches by eight inches, require name, address, description and Social Security and driver’s license numbers, with little blank boxes for individual letters and numbers. They come in triplicate. The buyer gets a copy, one goes to the DFG in Sacramento, and the seller keeps the other.
“It takes about eight minutes to fill out,” Johns said. “And you have to fold it eight times to get it into your wallet. I’m going to have to hire a girl to do nothing but sell fishing licenses this weekend.”
In two test purchases by The Times, the entire transactions required six and eight minutes, including payment and folding. Some people print faster than others. The price remains the same: $19.25 for California residents, plus $3.50 for a striped bass stamp and $1 for an ocean enhancement stamp to fish south of Point Arguello.
The sellers were issued five-page booklets on how to sell the new licenses, and they aren’t thrilled about serving as file clerks for the DFG.
Olga Carmichael, director of the licensing operation in Sacramento, said the forms are designed for optical scanning.
“They shouldn’t take much longer,” she said. “There are only two new pieces of information we’re requesting. You do have to print in the boxes, and you may have to print a little bit slower, but it’s basically the same procedure.”
The sellers receive 50 cents a license, but Johns isn’t sure it’s worth the trouble.
“The old way, you’d just put a new stamp on it and you’re out the door,” he said.
The change was made to establish a data base of license buyers, Carmichael said.
“The Department of Fish and Game has never had a record of who our license buyers are,” she said.
The check was in the mail: From Bassin’ magazine, sponsor of the Big Bass World Championship, comes the hard-luck story of Dan Kadota of La Palma, who missed a shot at $46,000 because of the U.S. Postal Service.
Last Jan. 2, Kadota, who runs the charter boat Mustang out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro, mailed a check for $32.90 and an entry blank for the BBWC, which pays $25,000 for the largest bass caught during the year, plus $20,000 if the winner is a subscriber to the magazine and $1,000 for the largest bass in the state.
Six days later Kadota caught a 19.04-pound largemouth at Lake Castaic. If approved by the International Game Fish Assn., it will be a world record for 20-pound test line--but it won’t win the BBWC.
Bassin’ magazine never received his entry and check. Two weeks after he mailed it, the Postal Service returned what was left of them with an apology and explanation that they had been mangled in a sorting machine.
BBWC rules stipulate that it can’t be responsible “for lost, late or misdirected mail.”
Kadota thinks the fish would have held up through the year because most trophy bass are taken in the early months. Otherwise, the current leader is one of 11 pounds 8 ounces caught in Arkansas.
Said Kadota: “I’ve released three fish at Castaic this year that were bigger than that.”
Briefly
Instructor Dan Reeves of the U.S. Sporting Clays Assn. and veteran character actor Dub Taylor are sponsoring a celebrity invitational shoot Saturday to benefit Quail Unlimited. The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Green Valley Sporting Estates in the Cuyama Valley on California 33 north of Ojai, three miles north of Lockwood Valley Road. Entry fee is $100. Celebrities expected to participate include Jack Youngblood, Jerry Kramer and Johnny Rutherford. For details, call (818) 358-6256 days or (213) 325-1490 evenings.
A new, 13-week series, “Boating World” has been on ESPN for two weeks, with John Davidson as host. The show crams all phases of boating into a half-hour segment. Last week it featured ocean powerboat racer-restaurateur Rocky Aoki and a luxury cruise aboard an unusual sailing vessel with comedian Dick Van Dyke, along with various short segments. It’s on each Friday at 4:30 p.m., with repeats Monday at 10 p.m.
Encino lawyer Barry Gold returned from his annual trip to the Florida Keys claiming a “grand slam” for reef fishing: a 90-pound tarpon, 25-pound permit and four bonefish to 11 pounds. All were released. Of the 2 1/2-foot-long permit, taken on light tackle and 12-pound test line, Gold said, “I’ve battled billfish and tuna that didn’t pull as hard.”
Outdoor Safaris International will conduct a free seminar on how to rig a fishing boat for inshore and offshore fishing, Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at North Hollywood Marine. Experts, including pro bass fisherman Don Iovino, who will offer advice on electronics, bait systems and other special equipment. . . . Marriott’s Fly Fishing Center in Fullerton offers fly tying classes for beginners each Monday night in May. Details: 1 (800) 367-2299.
