OUTDOOR NOTES : Some Big Fish, Bigger Names at Tuna Club

What did Zane Grey, Winston Churchill, Stan Laurel and George S. Patton have in common? Author, statesman, comedian and general--all were members of the world’s oldest big-game fishing club, the Tuna Club at Avalon on Catalina Island.

Pictures of them with big fish grace the walls of the 75-year-old clubhouse, recently designated as State Historical Landmark No. 997 by the California State Historical Resources Commission and also placed on the list of National Historic Places by the Department of the Interior.

The first clubhouse was built in 1906 but burned down in 1915. It was rebuilt on the same site in 1916 to become a landmark of the bay. Member Charlie Davis led the campaign for historical recognition, which will protect the site from development when the club’s lease expires in 2000.

Membership over the years has been exclusive but not terribly expensive, as such recreational clubs go. The initiation fee is $1,500, with annual dues of $650, but Davis said: “You can’t apply. You must be invited to join.”

And even a member doesn’t qualify for voting rights until he catches his first “button” fish--one of the designated species, on designated weight line, weighed on the Avalon Pier. Some members have gone for years without qualifying. But when one does, he is awarded a button and the asterisk is removed from his name on the membership roster.

The current roster is at the limit of 200 members. The president is Dr. J. Gordon Bateman of Long Beach. Club policy encourages light-tackle fishing and the tagging and release of fish to enhance the marine resources.

Tuna Club members all, no doubt, have fishing licenses, but even they should be aware that if they haven’t bought a Marine Resources Protection Stamp recently, they’re fishing illegally.

The stamps, which cost $3.15 each at a license agent, are to support Prop. 132, the anti-gill-net initiative that California voters approved last November. All revenue from the extra stamp will be used to buy out commercial gill-netters by 1994.

Because of the short time since the initiative’s passage, the stamps were not immediately available this year, so the Department of Fish and Game’s wardens were not requiring them. But the stamps were distributed to license agents--tackle stores, landings, etc.--in February, and the DFG’s licensing division has informed the enforcement division that there is no longer an excuse for anyone not to have one.

A saltwater license bought from an agent costs $26.80, including $22.60 for the basic resident license, $3.15 for the MRP Stamp and $1.05 for the Ocean Enhancement Stamp. The total is $1.30 less when the license and stamps are bought at DFG offices.

Without the stamps, the penalty is the same as fishing without a license: a minimum $250 fine, which can escalate to $600 with repeated offenses and penalty assessments.

The stamps are not required for freshwater fishing.

FLY-FISHING--Jeff Boghosian, who is a guide in the Central Valley, reported good fishing with “normal” water levels on the Upper Kings River. Details: (209) 229-5640. . . . Author, guide and fly tyer Bob Krumm will tell how to fish Montana’s Bighorn River at the Pasadena Casting Club, 415 South Arroyo Blvd., on April 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The $20 fee will include lunch. Details: (818) 343-5605. . . . All proceeds from “Fly-Fishing the 90s” at the Airport Marina Hotel in Westchester Saturday and Sunday will go to local conservation work and scholarships. The show, organized by the Southwest Council of the Fly Fishing Federation, will include seminars, casting and fly-tying clinics and displays by guide services and vendors. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: families $15 for both days, $11 Sunday only; individuals $12 for both days, $8 Sunday only. . . . The South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited will have its second annual National Conservation Banquet on May 18, 6-10 p.m., at the Disneyland Hotel. Tickets $40, or $50 with TU membership fee (normally $20) included. Details: (714) 724-8840.

CONSERVATION--A project for the first big-game guzzler, or artificial watering hole, to be built in California in two years is scheduled April 13-14 on the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center northeast of Twentynine Palms. Also, flash floods have prompted an emergency project on April 20 to build a dam near the Old Dad Peak guzzler in the Eastern Mojave Desert. Volunteers for either project may phone (213) 256-0463. . . . The U.S. Forest Service, California Wildlife Federation and the Public Lands Restoration Task Force seek volunteers to help plant 17,000 willows, cottonwoods and sycamores along six miles of stream bank in the Pine Creek Wilderness on April 13 and April 20-21. Details: (800) 654-0364. . . . The Eastern Sierra sage grouse tour, featuring a colorful courtship ritual, is scheduled north of Crowley Lake on April 13. DFG biologist Ron Thomas will start the tour at 5 a.m. at the Little Green Church at the intersection of U.S. 395 and Benton Crossing, 35 miles north of Bishop.

BAJA FISHING--The Vagabond, on a three-day trip to Guadalupe Island with 20 passengers out of Pt. Loma Sportfishing, reported catching 18 yellowtail, 100 calico bass and 50 rockfish. James Phillips, Escondido, caught a 31-pound yellowtail, and Greg McCloud, Seal Beach, caught a 26-pounder. . . . Chuy Valdez of Spa Buenavista reports some boats getting 10-15 dorado daily. Yellowfin tuna 20-150 pounds also being taken. Pete Durner, Hesperia, and two friends caught 7-8 dorado daily, five tuna, two stripers and two roosterfish. Tudor Jeley, Anaheim, caught stripers of 130 and 140 pounds.

SHOOTING--Moore-N-Moore Sporting Clays in San Fernando plans a fun shoot for St. Jude’s Research Hospital June 1. Entry donation is $100. Details: (805) 526-8722.