OUTDOOR NOTES : Future Is Clouded for Fish and Game Director, Too

What the California Fish and Game Commission achieved by firing Executive Secretary Hal Cribbs earlier this week isn’t clear, but another power on the state wildlife scene may follow him.

As Cribbs served at the pleasure of the commission, Pete Bontadelli, director of the Department of Fish and Game, serves at the pleasure of the governor, and the state will have a new governor next year.

DFG directors have survived gubernatorial changes in the past, but this time may be different--even if George Deukmejian, who appointed Bontadelli in 1987, is succeeded by another Republican, Pete Wilson. The DFG, once relatively ignored and left to muddle its own way in the larger scheme of state government, is now in the spotlight--in trouble financially and under siege from environmentalists and those opposed to hunting.

And if the new governor is a Democrat, Bontadelli almost certainly will be replaced. Most observers close to the wildlife scene say that Bontadelli is the best director the DFG ever had, but his political past as a legislative aide brands him a Republican.

Fish and Game Commissioner Albert Taucher of Long Beach said: “I don’t know if Pete can hang in there. If Wilson doesn’t have his own guy, Pete may have a chance. But if it goes to the Democrats, Pete’s gone.”

As for Cribbs, Fish and Game Commission President Bob Bryant of Yuba City said Tuesday: “It was a personnel matter. It all started with the Little Hoover Commission (the state watchdog agency that investigated the DFG last year), and some of the (Fish and Game) commissioners had been hearing things from legislators that they had a problem getting along with our executive secretary. In light of that, it was time for a change.”

Cribbs said: “I have absolutely no regrets for the job that I’ve done for the commission. I’ve done a good job for them, and I don’t have any trouble looking in a mirror in the morning.”

Taucher noted that although there was standing-room-only in the hearing room at the State Water Resources Control building in Sacramento, there was no protest when Bryant announced there would be no public testimony in regard to Cribbs.

Bryant said that Cribbs’ top assistant, Bob Treanor, would become acting executive secretary when Cribbs’ ouster becomes official Friday at 5 p.m., and that staff member Ron Pelzman would remain to assist Treanor, who probably will receive the new appointment.

Cribbs was trained as a wildlife biologist and could move to the DFG in that capacity. Treanor and Pelzman are fishery biologists.

“We’re going to be right back in business,” Bryant said.

For now, the commissioners are secure in their six-year terms. Although the governor appoints them, only the Legislature can fire them, and nobody can remember that ever happening.

Bryant’s term expires next January, followed by those of John Murdy, Newport Beach, in ‘92; Everett McCracken, Carmichael, in ‘93; Benjamin Biaggini, San Francisco, in ‘94, and Taucher in ’95.

Bryant isn’t sure he wants to be reappointed. Most of the nine bills dealing with the commission that are pending in the Legislature would weaken the commission or expand and fragment it into special, deadlocked interests, rendering it useless.

“I think the environmentalists are going to come on loud and strong,” Bryant said.

The grunion will be off and running again Sunday night, after a two-month layoff for spawning.

The little fish--five or six inches long on the average--are scheduled to show up on Southern California beaches from 10:40 p.m. to 12:40 a.m. and about an hour later for each of three succeeding nights.

No one can guarantee which beaches they will hit, but these are the rules:

--Grunion can be taken only by hand (nets, poles, etc. are illegal).

--Everyone 16 years and older needs a fishing license.

--There is no limit, except it is illegal to take more than one expects to eat.

A schedule can be ordered from: Grunion Schedule, Dept. of Fish and Game, 330 Golden Shore, Suite 50, Long Beach, Calif. 90802.

Briefly

The 552 Club’s ninth annual charity stag shoot for skeet and trap shooters is scheduled next Wednesday, 7:30 a.m., at Coto de Caza in Trabuco Canyon, Orange County. The event will benefit the emergency services at Hoag Hospital. Last year it raised $30,000 for the Patty and George Hoag Cancer Center at the hospital. Details: (714) 760-5917.

Classes in offshore and big-game fishing will be conducted each Tuesday, 7-10 p.m., June 12 through July 3 at Cerritos College and each Wednesday, 6:30-9:30 p.m., June 13 through July 25 at Orange Coast College. . . . A $2,000 reward is being offered for 71 rare, live snakes valued at $71,000, stolen from the Tempe, Ariz., home of Tom Taylor of the Arizona Herpetological Assn.

Fly fishing instructions: Greg Lilly’s store in Tustin, starting Thursday night, $80 for full course, $20 beginners casting only. . . . Bob Marriott’s store in Fullerton--cast, canoe and float-tube for bass, Oso Reservoir each Thursday in June, 6 p.m. Fee: $35. . . . Charlene Hanson, basic fly tying each Monday evening, advanced fly tying each Friday evening, at Bob Marriott’s, through June. Also, Phil Eubanks’ 1 1/2-day introductory fly fishing classes each weekend.

Outdoor reading: “National Parks Fishing Guide,” by former National Park Service fisheries manager Bob Gartner, 484 pages, $14.95. . . . “Complete Guide to California Camping,” by outdoorsman-author Tom Steinstra, 1,500 sites listed, $15.95. . . . “Whitewater Rafting in North America,” by rafter-author Lloyd Armstead, 320 pages, $12.95. . . . “The Mountain Bike Repair Handbook,” by biker-author Dennis Coello, 150 pages, $12.95.