Outdoor Notes : Southland Deer Hunters Need Their Walking Shoes
Deer season opens Oct. 7 in most of Southern California, where success usually means a short drive and a long walk.
“Water and hunter determination will be the key,” said Jon Fischer, State Department of Fish and Game biologist for Los Angeles County, which is Zone D11. “There are some good-looking deer in the San Gabriel Wilderness Area, and hunters can locate some decent four-pointers with spreads of more than 20 inches.”
But the annual success rate averages only about 5% in the Angeles National Forest, for two reasons: the area is so near a major population center that the deer retreat far into the forest, and it’s so dry that they can detect noisy hunters from great distances.
Fischer said hunting should be most successful in two- to five-year-old burn areas, such as Bear Creek north of the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, where considerable walking is required.
Tom Paulek, a DFG wildlife biologist in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, advises hunting where the deer go for food and water.
“Look for . . . springs and seeps for water and oak woodland areas for available food supply,” Paulek said.
Deer seek acorns, especially in the fall.
Paulek also advises using a Forest Service map in Western Riverside and San Diego Counties (D16) to avoid areas, such as the San Jacinto Wilderness, that are closed to firearms.
Hunting in the San Bernardino Mountains (D14) opens a week later on Oct. 14.
Paulek said: “Areas west of Lake Silverwood, including Cleghorn Mountain and Cajon Mountain, are generally productive.”
Dan Reeves--the shotgun exhibition shooter from Torrance, not the Denver Broncos’ coach--fell 29 birds short of a world record for the most clay targets in an hour Tuesday.
The record is 2,312 by Colin Hewish of England at the Street and District Gun Club in Somerset in May of 1988. Reeves made his attempt at Pachmayr’s International Shooting Sports Park in El Monte--with a twist. He shot from the hip, the way he performs his trick shots.
It was going well, with Reeves rotating on five guns and firing at two targets in the air every second, “as fast as the (skeet-throwing) machines could recycle,” he said.
But then the machines started to malfunction. Finally, judge Wes Justin, representing Lloyd’s of London, stopped the clock while Reeves moved to another field.
“It broke my rhythm and I lost my concentration,” Reeves said. “I never got dialed in again.”
Meanwhile, he said the guns “started out weighing seven pounds and ended up about 50.”
But he did establish a record for shooting clays from the hip.
“If I’d hit only one, that would have been a record,” Reeves said.
He plans to try again early next year.
When Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze learned that Secretary of State James A. Baker III was going to take him fly fishing on the Snake River after their talks in Wyoming last weekend, Shevardnadze had one request:
“I want Abel reel,” he said--or Russian to that effect.
That set the State Department to scrambling. Last week somebody contacted Jack Dennis, who operates a sports shop in Jackson Hole and guides fishing trips on the Snake.
“What’s he want?” Dennis said.
“He wants a reel called an Abel,” Dennis was told.
The fly reels, which are virtually handmade, have been manufactured by Steve Abel and his three brothers for only two years at their small factory in Camarillo. They emphasize quality, not mass production, and cost from $295 to $1,200.
Dennis phoned Abel, who said: “I can’t make up a special reel. It’s Wednesday. I can’t have it by Sunday.”
But he did--a gold anodized model in a red bag, delivered in time for the trip. Nevertheless, Shevardnadze was shut out during their 1 1/2-hour float down the Snake, while Baker caught three undersize trout.
How Shevardnadze knew about Abel reels is uncertain. Ben Mintz, who does public relations for the company, guessed word might have come from the Soviet fishing team that traded visits with a U.S. team under sponsorship of the Fly Fishing Federation and Trout Unlimited the last two years.
Or, Mintz said: “I do a heck of a job.”
Briefly
Raahauge’s Hunt Club in Norco will play host to the CHOC Padrinos/Jack Youngblood Celebrity Pheasant Hunt Nov. 14 to raise money for Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Cost is $300 per hunter. For more details: (714) 639-2252 or (714) 532-8683. . . . The Newport Beach Chapter of Ducks Unlimited will have its 20th annual fund-raising dinner Oct 5 at 5 p.m. at the Costa Mesa Community Center. Details: (714) 851-8610.
John Pride of the Los Angeles Police Department was in first place after the first day of shooting in the 28th annual national police shooting tournament at Jackson, Miss. Marc Cobb of Long Beach PD was third and Robert Kolesser of LAPD fifth. . . . The Department of Fish and Game will dedicate Blue Sky Ranch in San Diego County as an ecological reserve Oct. 7. The DFG’s Wildlife Conservation Board and the city of Poway combined to purchase the 410 acres of riparian terrain for $1.8 million.
