NOTES : Soviet Union Boasts of Hunting and Fishing Paradise

Atlantic salmon to 30 pounds, a duck limit of 40 a day, $35,000 expeditions to hunt Marco Polo sheep--that’s the Soviet Union as hunting and fishing’s new frontier.

The picture was painted by nine Soviets representing hunting, fishing and travel interests in the Leningrad area and a new American company that will work with them to promote an exchange of cultural, study, adventure and sportsmen’s tours between the countries.

Meeting with outdoor writers at Newport Beach Tuesday, they outlined plans and opportunities for hunters and anglers in areas to be opened to foreigners--and, in some cases, Soviet citizens--for the first time.

Two small American groups fished separate areas in promising exploratory missions to the Soviet Union this year--one in Siberia, another on the Kola peninsula bordering Finland and Norway in the northwest corner of the country, north of Leningrad and near Murmansk.

Initial plans are focused on that latter area, which has been off-limits to foreigners because of military security. Murmansk is the home of the Soviets’ North Sea Fleet. There is no significant saltwater sportfishing anywhere in the country where it might compromise border security.

Bill Davies of Mesa, Ariz., is president of William Davies and Associates, promoting USSR commerce and travel. His partners are Herb Sutton and Bill Ray of Orange County, who were on Bob Marriott’s Siberian fishing tour last summer.

Over the last few years, Davies has worked closely with the Soviets. He is married to a Russian woman and says he is honorary grandfather of the two children of Andre Velikanov, a fisheries biologist. He believes that the Kola Peninsula, where salmon run the Umba River, can be a fisherman’s paradise and that Americans would be welcome.

“After being there three months, I guess they decided if we were spies, we weren’t very dangerous spies,” Davies said. “If it’s not the top Atlantic salmon river in the world, it’s certainly in the top 10.”

Davies said that whereas most anglers would be content catching one Atlantic salmon a day, “we were catching one per hour, up to 30 pounds.”

To hunt or fish, Soviet citizens must belong to one of the area societies that control the sports. There are about 3 1/2 million members nationwide. The Leningrad Oblast (state) Society of Hunters and Fishermen lists 90,000 members. Its chairman is Vasili Pokhomkov, a retired colonel of the KGB border guards, who was present Tuesday.

But much of the country’s potential has been untested because of the cost and internal travel restrictions, which may be loosening up.

Velikanov, who speaks English, said: “In Russia it is prohibited to have a gun unless you belong to the society.”

Visitors may bring in their own rifles, shotguns and ammunition simply by declaring them at customs, but handguns are prohibited.

The available game includes ducks--most of them mallards in the west, pintails in Siberia--geese and exotic animals such as the European stag, or red deer, which Davies said is “the prime trophy of Europe.”

There also are Marco Polo sheep and snow sheep in the east, with hunts going for $35,000 and $15,000, respectively, and not necessarily arranged by the longtime official government tour company, Intourist.

“It’s a new day in the Soviet Union,” Davies said. “The old monopolies are falling apart.”

Not only that, but Velikanov said: “In the future I think it will be easy for Russians to come to the United States.”

California’s third annual bighorn sheep hunt after a moratorium of 114 years officially opened in the eastern Mojave Desert last weekend. Robert Senter of New Hampshire bid $40,000 for the privilege of a two-week head start in pursuit of a trophy sheep.

“He’s out in the field and has seen some sheep,” said Vern Bleich of the California Department of Fish and Game.

The eight hunters whose names were drawn for permits from about 3,000 applicants start their two-week hunt Dec. 2.

In its first two years the hunt attracted anti-hunting protesters who attempted to disrupt the hunt by scaring the sheep away. A DFG spokesman said suspected protesters already have been seen in the area this year.

Briefly

DFG wardens were assaulted six times in 1988, according to figures released by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. That puts California in a third-place tie with Virginia, according to the study. Florida was first with 10 assaults, Texas second with seven. No wardens were killed. . . . How good is dorado fishing off Baja California’s East Cape Region? Bill McKenzie of Torrance, fishing with two friends, caught 43 dorado to 47 pounds in three days.

Former All-Pro Ram defensive end Jack Youngblood will present this year’s winner of the Weatherby Big Game Trophy, considered the hunting world’s premier award, Nov. 30 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach. Nominees include Bruno Scherrer of Los Angeles; Jim Brockie of Dallas, Tex.; Hans Buchsbaum of Austria; Robert Chisholm of Wichita, Kan.; Donald Cox of Fraser, Mich., and Andrew Samuels of Youngstown, Ohio. . . . The Department of Fish and Game is raising fees for California fishing licenses for 1990. Resident licenses will cost $21, up from $19.25.