Anglers’ Angst : Fishing May Get Even Worse as State Budget Cut Strains Hatchery

Ventura County anglers may have to reel in their lines now that Gov. George Deukmejian has signed the state budget.

An estimated $1.8 million will be cut from the state Department of Fish and Game’s budget for freshwater fisheries alone, which will probably force the closure of a hatchery in San Bernardino County and another in Imperial County, said Mas Yamashita, assistant hatcheries coordinator for the state.

Although the Fillmore Fish Hatchery would be left intact, the closures elsewhere would divert a major portion of the rainbow trout grown there to lakes and streams outside the county.

“We feel the state should be doing more to enhance the fisheries. It really is a sad turn of events when we hear they’re going to be decreased,” said Jim Donlon, fisherman and chairman of the Ventura County Fish and Game Commission. “I’ve just given up going because the fishing is so bad.”

Many local fishing holes are stocked by the 48-year-old Fillmore Fish Hatchery, which already faces hardships because of layoffs, manager Jim Adams said.

In May a part-time secretary and two seasonal workers were laid off, Adams said. He was promoted from assistant manager to manager in January but has not filled his former position.

Running with only 8 1/2 paid staff positions, the hatchery, south of California 126, breeds about 400,000 pounds of rainbow trout every year. Most of the stock is earmarked for freshwater lakes and streams in Kern, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

This reduces the number of trout the hatchery can stock in eight lakes and streams in Ventura County, among them Lake Casitas and Lake Piru. Fillmore’s hatchery is one of the largest of the 11 trout-hatching facilities in the state.

Ventura County anglers are used to fishing grounds that are regularly stocked with rainbow trout for at least half the year.

Jim Wagner, park superintendent for the Lake Casitas Recreation Area, said that since 1968 Ventura County fishermen have depended on the state and county fishing groups to stock bass and trout.

The Department of Fish and Game has a cooperative agreement with local fishing associations to match the number of fish stocked at local lakes, Wagner said.

Last year, for example, Lake Casitas was stocked with 27,100 pounds of rainbow trout supplied by the state, Adams said.

But, Donlon said, the number of trout already planted each year by the state has not kept pace with demand. Soon after the trout are stocked, most of the fish are caught, he said.

But with the impending cuts, Donlon predicted that fishing would get worse.

Up to a third of the 75,000 pounds of fish usually planted each year in Ventura County may go to areas normally supplied by other hatcheries, said Mike Haynie, supervisor of regional fish hatcheries for the Department of Fish and Game. That means Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties may get their supplies of trout from Fillmore.

“We would be moving fish around the state. . . ,” Yamashita said. “It’s going to be a problem everywhere.”

The Fillmore hatchery houses breeding ponds where the fish grow in four 1,000-foot-long tanks until they weigh about a third or half a pound. Mature fish are then trucked to bodies of fresh water around Southern California.

Adams said the layoffs have left the hatchery short-staffed to feed the fish and care for the tanks. He said hatcheries have long been a neglected program in the state budget.

“Historically, hatcheries may not have been the highest priority, but hatcheries produce the product that sell licenses,” Adams said.

Licenses bought by fishermen statewide provide the $700,000 that finances Fillmore hatchery operations each year. Without fish to catch in local lakes, Ventura County anglers are unlikely to buy a $21 license, he said.

In spite of the cuts in staffing, the Fillmore hatchery will be open to visitors every day, as it has for years, Adams said. On one recent weekend, Adams greeted busloads of tourists, while simultaneously tackling clerical work that had piled up since the secretary was laid off.

The hatchery is open even on Christmas and New Year’s Day, Adams said. “You never close when you have 1 million mouths to feed.”