OUTDOOR NOTES : Warden’s Dragnet Snares a Big Catch

The wild trout in Piru Creek can present quite a challenge for even the most experienced fishermen, but then there are those who find it quite easy to catch the fish. They use nets.

Law enforcement officials from the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Fish and Game made the latest bust Sunday, issuing citations and confiscating at least one net, according to DFG Patrol Lt. Eric Sterbinsky.

Sterbinsky said Tuesday that Cindy Adkins, the warden involved, did not provide details on the incident. Adkins also was in on the citing last June of five men for various violations of the Fish and Game Code, among them using Hawaiian throw nets, which caught 236 trout--or an estimated 6.8% of the population of fish in the 1.3-mile stretch of river, which in 1990 was designated as a wild-trout fishery.

Fishing along the wild-trout section of Piru Creek is restricted to catch and release by artificial lures or flies with barbless hooks.

Sterbinsky said Sunday’s bust was the second involving throw nets on the fishery this year.

A Lake County man who caught a baby rattlesnake while fishing died after being bitten on the lip while examining his catch, authorities in Santa Rosa said.

The San Francisco Poison Control Center said five people in Northern California were bitten last week by rattlesnakes. There was just the one fatality.

The increase in rattlesnake sightings in Northern and Southern California is being attributed to heavy rain during the winter and recent hot weather.

E.M. McCracken Jr., president of the California Fish and Game Commission, abruptly resigned late last week, eight months before his term officially expires, leaving the five-member board responsible for governing the use of the state’s wildlife two members short.

Commissioner Albert Taucher experienced complications from heart bypass surgery and has not attended any commission meetings since the weekend of April 2-3. Taucher remains hospitalized and although his condition is said to be improving, it is not known when he will return to the commission.

McCracken, 73, without being specific, cited mounting frustration with a job he said “was supposed to be part time.”

“You can’t make resolution on any issue and make everybody involved happy about it,” he said. “Over the last five years, the job seems to require more and more time.”

Gov. Pete Wilson has not indicated when he will appoint a replacement.

Briefly

SALTWATER--The local fleet continues to find concentrations of calico bass, but the presence of barracuda, averaging six pounds, off the Catalina coast has generated more excitement.

Seminar: Kit McNear of Sportfishing Seminars, Inc., will feature calico bass, white seabass and yellowtail Saturday aboard the Islander out of 22nd St. Landing in San Pedro. Details: (818) 762-5873.

Cabo San Lucas: Blue marlin are showing better each week, but striped marlin, tuna and dorado are still providing most of the action. Live bait is getting most fish and the supply is good. Water temperatures are nearing 80 degrees.

East Cape: Striped marlin and large tuna--between 40 and 80 pounds--are keeping things busy. Dick Villinger of Stockton, in three days, took 12 tuna, two stripers and three dorado, according to reports out of Hotel Palmas de Cortez. Largest fish of the week: a 148-pound striper by Scott Turner of Newport Beach.

Loreto: The transition from yellowtail to dorado is in progress. Both species are slow, with dorado picking up, especially south of Carmen Island. Red snapper and cabrilla, meanwhile, are plentiful.

FLY-FISHING--Nick Curcione, a pioneer of saltwater fly-fishing, will present a program on local and foreign waters Friday at Trout Unlimited’s noon luncheon at the Los Angeles Hilton. Details: (213) 612-3920; at TU’s South Curcione also will appear at the Coast Chapter’s meeting May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Crown Sterling Suites Hotel in Santa Ana: (714) 497-2495; at the Wilderness Fly Fishers’ May 19 meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Los Angeles: (310) 280-3459; then at the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers’ May 21 meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Encino Glen: (818) 785-7306.

SHOOTING--The World Championship Lead Bullet Rifle Match will run through the weekend beginning Thursday at the Angeles Shooting Range in San Fernando, capped with a salute to the history of guns. Sunday’s Wild West Adventure, promoters say, is an attempt to briefly trace the history of our country and the importance guns have played in that history. “We won’t have covered wagons, but we will have the Civil War,” program director Bob Bowman said. “We’re trying to get a little bit of history into this event and maybe make people realize that this is not such a bad place.” A cannon match at 700 yards will take place at 10 a.m. Among other exhibitions: the firing of an authentic Gatling gun; a historical gun fight re-enactment, a Civil War skirmish, quick draw demonstrations and trick shooting. There is a suggested donation of $5, which Bowman says will go to institute legislative action on the behalf of gun-owners.

MISCELLANY--Snow Summit in the Big Bear area will be the site of the National Championship Mountain Bike Race Series’ season opener Friday-Sunday. Practice sessions for the National Off-Road Bicycle Assn. event will be held Friday, cross-country races Saturday and downhill Sunday. . . . The United Anglers of southern California will hold a fund-raising banquet-auction Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. Proceeds will go to a white seabass hatchery project aimed at enhancing the fishery. Details: (714) 891-5055. . . . More than 35 of the West Coast’s best offshore powerboat racers will compete in the Ventura Channel Dash for D.A.R.E., to benefit San Buenaventura Police Dept.’s D.A.R.E. program, Friday and Saturday at Ventura Harbor.