OUTDOOR NOTES : Sportfishers Hope for Modified Rules

Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California, returned from Mexico City on Tuesday, confident that new regulations banning commercial fishing in Mexican waters and severely limiting the take of sportfish--of specific concern, tuna--by the San Diego fleet will be modified satisfactorily.

Fletcher, Bill Poole, who operates long-range boats out of San Diego, and Alfonso Susarrey, captain of the Ensenada fleet, met Monday with Oscar Gonzalez-Gonzalez, the Mexican undersecretary of fisheries.

Gonzalez-Gonzalez’s superior, Maria de Los Angeles Moreno Uriagas, announced the new regulations last month that would limit a sportfisherman to two tuna a day--not worth his investment of about $2,000 for a three-day trip to the Revillagigedos Islands and a threat to the survival of the long-range boats.

“They caught us off guard,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher showed Gonzalez-Gonzalez reports from the California Department of Fish and Game and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission showing that the resource is healthy and not endangered. He proposed a limit of five fish of any species, an overall limit of 10.

Fletcher also showed financial reports from the San Diego fleet citing fee permit payments to Mexico of $400,000 in 1989, $700,000 in ’90 and a projected $1 million this year, and pointed out the peripheral business generated by anglers who are dropped off to spend time in Cabo San Lucas or elsewhere before flying home.

Susarrey, who said he shares San Diego’s concerns, might have carried some weight. Gonzalez-Gonzalez seemed agreeable to establishing an advisory committee on fisheries, with Susarrey and Fletcher as members.

“It looks encouraging,” Fletcher said Tuesday. “We could support the program with some minor changes. They’re now interested in going to San Diego and learning more about the operations.”

Bob Bryant of Yuba City, president of the California Fish and Game Commission whose term has expired, will not be reappointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, Bryant was told last week.

That leaves the five-member commission with two vacancies, after the recent death of Jack Murdy of Newport Beach, and gives Wilson an early opportunity to satisfy the demands of environmentalists and anti-hunters for a commission not dominated by hunters.

Old antagonists, the Department of Fish and Game and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, are talking about the possibility of rewatering the Owens River Gorge, a historic trophy trout fishery that went dry in the ‘50s when the DWP diverted water from Crowley Lake through a series of three power stations.

It became an issue last month when the pipeline broke and the DWP had to jury rig a flume system to continue feeding water to fisheries downstream, rather than back into the gorge. Fred Worthley, DFG Region 1 manager, last week conducted a meeting attended by DFG regional environmental services supervisor Bruce Eliason and Jim Wickser and Bernard Palk of the DWP. They plan to meet again in about two weeks.

Briefly

BAJA FISHING--Pete Merritt of Yucaipa, fishing out of Spa Buenavista, reported the finest yellowfin tuna fishing he’s seen on the East Cape in six years. . . . Chuy Valdez said dorado fishing continues excellent with catches from 20 to 40 pounds, and striped marlin are returning. . . . Dick Cristy of Oxnard reported a successful trip to Hotel Punta Colorada on the East Cape. His son caught a 129-pound striped marlin and his friend, Ralph Fox, got a 112-pound striper. They also hit a school of dorado for 23 fish and some tuna about 24 inches in length.

Dave Eggelston reported dorado being taken 20 yards off the beach in front of Hotel Palmas de Cortez, and catches of pargo to 60 pounds. . . . Marlin and dorado are reported slow at Deportilanchas del Cabo, but small-game angling for roosterfish, amberjack, grouper, pargo and red snapper is excellent.

FLY-FISHING--Rob Ransom, recipient of the Ross A. Merigold Memorial Complete Angler award, will talk about the Eastern Sierra’s Arcularius Ranch at Thursday night’s monthly meeting of the Pasadena Casting Club, 7:30 p.m., at the Masonic Temple, 3130 Huntington Drive. The club paid a roast tribute to Dan Reed, who has stepped down after two years as president.

JURISPRUDENCE--Nam Tuan Tran, a Los Angeles fish market operator, was fined more than $7,000 and put on two years probation for selling undersize abalone to Southern California businesses, the Department of Fish and Game reported. The operator of Sea Win Inc. was convicted on six counts. DFG Warden Helen Carr said the 1,595 pieces of pinto abalone imported from Alaska were under California’s legal limit of four inches and some also were under Alaska’s limit of 3 3/4 inches.

NECROLOGY--Alfred Charles Buck, developer of the folding Buck hunting knife, died at his home in El Cajon. He was 80. Buck retired in 1980. His son, Charles T. Buck, heads the company. Buck Knives Inc. employs about 400 people in El Cajon and does about $40 million a year in business.

HUNTING--The Department of Fish and Game reports that bowhunting for deer is growing in popularity, having sold 16,998 “archery only” tags last year, compared to 15,290 in ’89. But the success rate remained low: 3-7%, compared to 10-20% with firearms.