Outdoors : NOTES : Hunting Pros, Cons Are Hot Topics in Burbank

“Hunters are being harassed in the field.

“Professional wildlife management is being attacked in the courts.

“Legislators are proposing piecemeal wildlife management measures.

“The state agencies authorized to manage our resources and our wildlife seem unable to function in this environment.

“Hear the facts . . . (and) help to devise a positive course of action to protect professional wildlife management and your right to hunt.”

So states a flyer setting the tone for Safari Club International’s Hunter’s Rights Symposium Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Pickwick Banquet Center in Burbank. Some participants are calling it a critical event for California hunters.

Speakers will include Loren Lutz, executive director of the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep; Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress); Mike Mathiot, western regional director of Quail Unlimited, and environmental attorney Pat Marley.

Also, the so-called “mountain lion initiative” on the June ballot will be discussed by Lee Fitzhugh, extension wildlife specialist at UC Davis, and Assemblyman Dick Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) will talk on “The Right to Gun Ownership.”

Attendance, including lunch, is $35; without lunch, $12. More information: (818) 797-1287 or (818) 351-0700.

When Bill Poole built the Royal Polaris in 1976, it became the world’s largest commercial sportfisher. He has since sold the boat to Frank LoPreste, who is about to become the owner of the second-largest sportfisher.

John Grabowski, president of the Louisiana-based Qualifier Corporation, has built and is preparing to bring the Qualifier Excel from its Louisiana shipyard to San Diego’s Fisherman’s Landing. At 120 feet long and 31 feet wide, the steel-hulled, $2.3-million boat surpasses in length and width the 113-by-30-foot Royal Polaris.

“We went a little bit bigger just to get the capacity we wanted,” Grabowski said. “Hopefully, in years to come, we’re going to try to fish out of Costa Rica, and the ultimate goal is to fish the Galapagos Islands.”

Grabowski said the boat, scheduled to depart Louisiana Feb. 20 and arrive in San Diego--barring a backup in the Panama Canal--in the middle of March, holds 35,000 gallons of fuel and has an estimated range of about 6,000 miles.

It is equipped with electronics not yet seen on any other sportfisher--including a telex system for the businessman and an onboard computer system for such tasks as bookings and inventory keeping.

Its maiden voyage, an 18-day venture to the yellowfin tuna grounds of the Revillagigedo Islands, is scheduled for April 2.

LoPreste is already planning to build another boat.

“Whether it will be bigger . . . at this point that’s not my goal,” he said. “Maybe just to be able to say that I’m bigger I might go a little bigger, but I’m not going to do it just on an ego trip.”

Briefly

The U.S. Forest Service will start charging a $3 processing fee this year for wilderness permit reservations to the Mt. Whitney and other quota trails within the Inyo, Toiyabe and Sierra national forests. Reservations will be accepted by mail or in person from March 1 through May 31. Prior postmarks will be returned. The Whitney trail, which usually sells out in the peak months, is 100% reserved, the others half-reserved and half-daily arrivals. For Whitney, write P.O. Box 8, Lone Pine CA. 93545. Details: (619) 876-5542. . . . The William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom is seeking volunteer adult guides to conduct nature walks for inner-city and handicapped children in the Santa Monica Mountains. Details: (213) 858-3834. . . . The National Fishing Lure Collectors Club will have its semiannual gathering Friday through Sunday at the Beverly Garland Howard Johnson Hotel on Vineland in North Hollywood. Sunday is open for guests.

The Bill Nott Benefit Fund Banquet at Balboa last week drew 420 people, including Gov. George Deukmejian and Pete Bontadelli, Dept. of Fish and Game director. The event raised $25,000 to offset medical costs for the former president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California. . . . The Royal Polaris, skippered by Phil Loomis returned to San Diego from an 18-day trip to Alijos Rocks, Clarion and Socorro with 19 passengers having landed 380 yellowfin tuna, 126 wahoo, 21 yellowtail, 92 grouper, two marlin and six amberjack. Butch Green of Los Angeles had a 274-pound yellowfin. The anglers also released more than 200 tuna weighing up to 170 pounds. Twenty-five anglers on a nine-day trip aboard Dan Sansome’s American Angler out of Point Loma brought back 372 yellowfin--25 over 100 pounds, the largest a 137-pounder caught by Kelley Paakkonen of La Mirada. . . . On his first trip to Cabo San Lucas, Bill Vavricka of Riverside caught a 198-pound striped marlin. Boats have been averaging 1 1/2 to 2 marlin each per day. Dorado are running from 10 to 30 pounds, and a few wahoo to 58 pounds are showing up. . . . Lee Clark and Joe Schortino won the American Bass Assn.’s first “Super Team” event at Lake Casitas.

Fly Fishing: Professional guide Denny Rickards will tell the Pasadena Casting Club about fishing Oregon’s Upper Klamath River Thursday night at 7:30 at the Masonic Temple, 3130 Huntington Drive. . . . The Sierra Pacific Flyfishers will conduct a free fly-tying course on Feb. 14, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Citizens Center, 5040 Van Nuys Blvd. Details: (818) 983-1880. . . . Jim Bashline, former managing editor of Field & Stream, will present a program on Atlantic salmon angling for the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers on Feb. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Odyssey Restaurant in Mission Hills. . . . Fly tyers Darwin Atkins and Bill Blackstone will give a free demonstration of fly-tieing their art on Feb. 17, from 1 to 3 p.m., at Greg Lilly’s in Tustin.. . . Master guide Barry White will show slides of fishing Alberta’s Bow River at Bob Marriott’s store in Fullerton on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. . . . White and Charlene Hanson also will teach fly tying each Monday night through February from 7 to 10 p.m.; Paul Brown will conduct four-hour flycasting classes on weekends, and Maggie Merriman will hold 1 1/2-day flyfishing schools each weekend. Details: (714) 525-1827.

Times staff writer Pete Thomas contributed to this story.