NOTES : Victorville Hatchery May Get a Reprieve

A victim of budget cuts, the Mojave River state fish hatchery was ordered closed last month, its 200,000 pounds of rainbow trout earmarked for premature release into Southland reservoirs. A new stocking schedule was drawn for future plants: reductions by half at some locations, elimination at others.

It was sad news for trout fishermen.

But now comes word that the hatchery at Victorville, the primary facility for Southern California waters, may not close after all. In fact, chances are good that it won’t, thanks to the legislature’s last-minute passage Saturday of two bills.

“If those bills are enacted (signed by the Governor before Sept. 30) and they restore the amount of money that we were at the time estimating--in the neighborhood of $8-$8 1/2 million--we would agree to allocate some of that restored money back to keeping the Mojave hatchery open,” said Vern Goehring, legislative coordinator for the DFG.

Assembly Bill 3158, if signed into law, will set up a fee structure for environmental reviews performed by the DFG under the California Environmental Quality Act and bring to the department additional revenue from fine and user increases, part of which would be an increase in the price of one-day fishing licenses.

Starting Jan. 31, AB 3158 will raise about $4.6 million for the current fiscal year. In a full year, the DFG estimates this source to be worth $10.6 million.

AB 2126 would take effect Jan. 1 and would increase commercial fish business license fees and fishing fees and generate an estimated $3.5 million this fiscal year. AB 2126 has a one-year life--written as such to help gain its passage--and Goehring said another bill must be introduced next year to assure this source of revenue.

Both bills were passed in the final hours of a legislative session that lasted into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Goehring said the Mojave River hatchery would receive an estimated $800,000 annually from these added sources, representing 80% to 90% of the necessary operating costs, and the department would allocate the rest.

About half of the hatchery’s trout have already been dumped into various reservoirs as the facility was trying to empty its ponds by the Oct. 1 closing deadline. But now orders have changed and the hatchery is returning to “as normal a stocking schedule as possible,” said Ken Hashagen, hatchery coordinator for the DFG in Sacramento.

Duck populations remain near all-time lows. Therefore the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to continue restrictive hunting regulations this fall, and Southern California figures to be one of the more restricted areas.

The projected fall flight index--based on surveys of duck breeding populations--of 64 million ducks, about the same as last year, is the third lowest since the FWS began making projections in 1969. Prolonged drought conditions in prairie nesting areas and destruction of wetlands throughout the continent are responsible for record low duck populations in the 1980s.

Hunters in the Southern California zone face the likelihood of a split season, from Oct. 13 to Nov. 7 and from Dec. 6 to Jan. 6; shooting hours from a half-hour before sunrise to sunset; a daily bag limit of four, including no more than three mallards (only one hen), one pintail, and either two canvasbacks, two redheads, or one of each. Hunters may have eight ducks in possession.

Goose season figures to run between Oct. 13 to Jan. 13, with hunters allowed six a day, six in possession, not more than three white or three dark, of which not more than two may be Canada geese.

Briefly

SHARKS--A record 328 tags from 19 species of sharks were returned in 1989 as part of a 27-year-old National Marine Fisheries Program. Highlights--as printed in the International Game Fish Assn.’s bi-monthly newsletter--for a year in which 5,623 sharks were tagged include:

--A sand bar shark that had spent more than 24 years at liberty since being tagged in Delaware Bay on Dec. 29, 1965. It was recaptured by a long-line vessel in the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 5, 1989.

--A bigeye thresher shark that had traveled 1,400 miles, and an oceanic whitetip shark that was recovered 1,200 miles from its tag site.

--A blue shark that had traveled at a rate of 44 miles a day. About 10% of blue sharks recaptured had traveled more than 1,000 miles.

Recreational fishermen accounted for 66% of the sharks tagged in 1989.

SALTWATER FISHING--Albacore are still being taken by fishermen aboard San Diego’s overnight fleet, but the bite is anything but wide open. Those aboard the Pacific Dawn returned Tuesday morning with 19 of the long-fin tuna in the 20-pound range, 30 yellowfin tuna to 30 pounds, 48 dorado and a few yellowtail. John Shull, the boat’s owner-skipper, said some of the floating kelp paddies found 55 miles south of the landings are holding tremendous volumes of fish underneath, while others are not. “It’s just a matter of finding the right paddy,” he said.

FLY FISHING--At Bob Marriott’s store in Fullerton: Phil Eubanks teaches 1 1/2-day introductory classes each weekend in September; Charlene Hanson, basic fly tying Monday nights and advanced classes Friday nights. Details: (714) 525-1827.

SHOWS--Newport fall boat shows at Lido Marina Yachting Center in Newport Beach: used boats, Thursday-Sunday; new powerboats and sailboats, Sept. 12-16.