OUTDOOR NOTES / RICH ROBERTS : News Is Good, Bad for Some Boaters

The day after last week’s election President Bush vetoed H.R. 11 calling for new boating and other taxes.

The bill would have imposed a tax of 20.1 cents per gallon on diesel fuel used only by about 400,000 recreational boaters, according to the Boat Owners Assn. of the United States. The day before the election, Bush signed legislation to repeal H.R. 2152--the so-called boat “user tax” that opponents claim would not have benefited boaters at all. Enacted two years ago, it will be phased out into 1994, smaller boats first.

But BOAT/U.S. President Richard Schwartz said, “The bad news is that a 10% tax on boats costing over $100,000 remains on the books.”

That tax calls for a 10% surtax for the cost of a boat that exceeds $100,000. As predicted when it was enacted several years ago, the tax has devastated the boat-building industry, according to Schwartz. The rich it sought to tax stopped buying boats, costing thousands of boat builders their jobs.

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Instructor Ronnie Kovach of Huntington Beach was on skipper Steve Giffin’s Holiday with one of his Eagle Claw schools on a 2 1/2-day trip from San Diego last weekend when the boat found tuna 124 miles south and about 30 miles off the beach.

It was almost dark at 4:30 p.m., so Giffin turned out the lights and put out a sea anchor. Until 7:30 the next morning, under a bright full moon, the 31 anglers and instructors hauled fish until their arms went limp--310 yellowfin tuna, 310 yellowtails, six bigeye tuna to 80 pounds, 69 dorado to 20 pounds and a 160-pound marlin by Roger Abercrombie of Orange.

“People were thrashed,” Kovach said. “They were sleeping in shifts. I’ve never been on a stop that lasted 15 hours.”

Kovach thought that with the lights out, the fish probably thought the 85-foot boat was a kelp paddy.

“And we destroyed two myths,” Kovach said. “One, that local tuna won’t hit at night and, two, that they won’t bite in a full moon.”

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Paul Tucker, 72, of Laguna Niguel landed a 273-pound blue marlin on the first day of last week’s “For Pete’s Sake” Black and Blue Marlin Tournament at Cabo San Lucas--ultimately, good enough for third place.

However, on his second day out on the Suzy T, Tucker suffered a heart attack and died.

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Arizona’s Proposition 200--perceived by its foes as the “anti-hunting” initiative--lost, 62.2% to 37.8%, but its proponents might yet win the day.

Author Gil Shaw had said all he really wanted to do was to ban steel-jawed leg-hold traps, not outlaw hunting and fishing, although opponents said the initiative’s language indicated otherwise.

Since the defeat, however, Gov. J. Fife Symington has reiterated that he opposed the measure only because of the hunting and fishing implications and would put a bill before the state legislature to ban the traps.

Now that Arizonans seem agreed that most of them like hunting and fishing but nobody likes the traps, maybe they can finally get it right.

Briefly

BAJA FISHING--Cabo San Lucas: Counts surged upward after the last of the season’s tournaments--the all-charity “For Pete’s Sake” Black and Blue Marlin Tournament. Largest blue marlin of the week, but not in the tournament, was a 473-pounder landed by Tyler Sterling of National City. Forty-five boat days netted 31 blues, including four releases, plus 236 dorado to 50 pounds. Jeff Morton of San Diego won the tournament at 349 pounds. Jim Manfredi of Fairfield won the release class with three. Tuna and dorado are reportedly plentiful, centered near the arches to north of Cabo Falso. Pangas are reporting 9-17 dorado each daily, most released. Also, Steve Auerbach of San Diego caught an 88-pound wahoo near the arch. Gordo Banks has been unfishable because of northern winds, but Cabo has been flat and calm. East Cape: Windy, but the La Paz Mosquito Fleet reports very good sailfishing at Las Cruces. Hotel Spa Buenavista reports dorado are peaking at 10-35 pounds. San Diego long-range: The American Angler, on a 10-day trip to Uncle Sam Bank with 23 passengers, took 360 yellowtails, 111 wahoo and two marlin, both released, along with 150 other species. San Snyder of Glendora caught a 106-pound yellowfin.

FRESHWATER FISHING--Don Stehsel will give an audio-visual presentation on Bear Creek and Deep Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains for the South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited Thursday night, 7:30, at the Crown Sterling Suites Hotel in Santa Ana. . . . Guide and fly shop owner Chuck Rizuto will talk to the Pasadena Casting Club about “Fly Fishing the San Juan” Thursday night, 7:30, at the Masonic Temple in Pasadena. . . . Fly-fishing guide Duane Milleman will discuss “The Future of California Angling” at a dinner meeting of the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers Thursday night, 6:30, at the Encino Glen in Encino. Reservations: (818) 785-7306. Milleman also will address the Wilderness Fly Fishers next Tuesday, 6:15, at the Ramada Hotel, 1150 S. Beverly Drive. . . . The team of Larry Stewart of Torrance and Norm Ferm of Murrietta won the American Bass Assn.’s Super Team Championship Fishoff at Lake Castaic with six bass totaling 14.31 pounds. Kelly Cook, LaMont, had the largest fish at 10.17, released alive.

A recent report on large catches of dorado by Gary Ritchie of Rancho Palos Verdes, based on information from Victor’s Pangas at San Jose del Cabo via Jig Stop Tours in Dana Point, was misleading. Ritchie said he kept only three fish in four days--five fewer than the allowable limit. All others were released.