Bear Hunters Keep Right to Use Dogs

The bear bill is dead. The Senate Natural Resources Committee stopped it in Sacramento on Tuesday, 5-4, meaning that hunters may continue to use dogs to hunt black bears in California. For now.

SB 67 was sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Petris (D-Oakland). What made it interesting was the apparent support of Boyd Gibbons, director of the California Department of Fish and Game, in a personal and controversial opinion.

However, at Tuesday’s hearing the department stated its official opposition to the bill.

Animal-rights groups indicated that if the bill failed, they would mount an initiative, as they did to ban the hunting of mountain lions. There also is a chance that the Fish and Game Commission will ban dogs, which is what Gibbons implied was the subtle point of his stand: that Fish and Game should make the fish and game rules.

However, commission President Al Taucher of Long Beach said Tuesday: “I can’t speak for the rest of the (five commissioners), but I would not ban dogs. It’s the start of picking at us to eliminate all our hunting.”

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The DFG’s effort to build a case against the Southern Pacific railroad for the 1991 toxic spill that killed aquatic life in the Upper Sacramento River may be scuttled.

The $5-million project to study the ecosystem and document damages already has become a casualty of the state Assembly’s moves to trim the state budget for the next fiscal year and could fall under the Senate’s ax. That would leave the DFG virtually powerless to press Southern Pacific for further financial settlements in court.

“There wouldn’t be compelling science to support litigation,” said Mark Stopher, who heads the project. “We need another year.”

Apparently, the Assembly didn’t think the DFG could win back the $5 million or more--money that could have been spent for restoration. Meanwhile, Southern Pacific has Entrix, the company whose fishery studies are highly respected but subject to the slant of the client’s interpretation.

For example, Stopher said, Entrix’s studies so far have focused on the good recovery of insect life, “which we can’t argue with,” Stopher said. But the diversity of flora and fauna affected on the Upper Sacramento is much larger than bugs.

Briefly

MEXICAN FISHING--Cabo San Lucas: Several striped marlin reported, but the only blue marlin was a 275-pound catch by Stephen Greer of Orange, using a green and red lure in a two-hour fight at outer Gordo Bank. Lorraine Oresko, Woodland Hills, and Steve Hipchuck, Seattle, each caught four wahoo to 40 pounds in the San Luis area. Amberjack, cabrilla and pargo also in abundance. Jim Roy, Beaumont, Tex., took a 210-pound blacktip shark. East Cape: Striped marlin abundant. Frozen squid recommended in lieu of live bait. San Diego long-range: John T. and Pete Peterson, son and father from Lancaster, were 1-2 in the jackpot with yellowfin tuna weighing 190.1 and 166.9 pounds aboard John Grabowski’s Red Rooster III, 16 days to Clarion Island with 22 anglers. Trip totals: 273 tuna, 121 wahoo, one sailfish (released).

FISHING INSTRUCTION--Ronnie Kovach will preside at the freshwater bass and trout Penn Fishing University tonight, 7-9:30 p.m., at the Sport Chalet in West Hills. Admission: free. Details: (818) 710-0999. . . . Art’s Fishing Tackle in Gardena will conduct a calico bass-inshore clinic Saturday. A fishing trip will follow Sunday. Costs: clinic free, trip $85. Details: (310) 323-3339. . . . Guide Bob Brink will tell the Fly Fishers Club of Orange County about opportunities in northern California Thursday night, 6:30, at the Revere House in Tustin. Dinner is $15. Details: (714) 373-2721.

Pro angler Ron Cervenka will teach Introduction to Bass Fishing in Southern California at College of the Canyons’ Valencia campus on four consecutive Tuesdays, 7-10 p.m., starting June 8. Fee: $47. Details: (805) 259-7800. . . . Guide John Williams will tell the Streamborne Fly Fishing Club about fishing the Sierra for golden trout June 3, 7:30 p.m., at Pomona Federal Savings in Rowland Heights. Details: (310) 943-4431. . . . Bob Moyer will teach beginners fly tying June 12, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at the East Fork Fly Fishing Store in Irvine. Cost: $50, including lunch. Details: (714) 724-8840.

HUNTING--Wild-pig hunters will do Riverside County and the DFG a favor if a plan to eradicate an overpopulation of the feral animals in a section of the Santa Ana River bed goes through. The pigs are rooting up private lands and threatening the Hidden Valley Wildlife Area. According to DFG wildlife biologist Jim Davis, the pigs have never been hunted--”not legally . . . (although) I’m sure they’ve been poached.” The limited hunt, tentatively scheduled June 8-9, would be assigned by a DFG lottery among qualified applicants, who would pay $100 each and be restricted to the use of shotguns with slugs.

FRESHWATER FISHING--The Bassing for Abused Kids tournament at Lake Piru last weekend raised $12,000 for the Royal Family Kids’ Camps of Costa Mesa and the Santa Clarita Child and Family Development Center. The team of Mike Hart, North Hollywood, and Mike Carpenter, Canyon Country, won $580 with five fish totaling 18.69 pounds, topped by the tournament’s big fish of 7.95 pounds. All 69 fish were released alive. Michael Montella, 4, won the kids’ Trout Derby with three fish totaling 2.52 pounds.

The Silverwood Lake marina will close next week until a new concessionaire reopens in late June. In the meantime, there will be no tackle store, no snack bar, no rental boats. . . . Aaron Assaraf of Lancaster is claiming a Quail Lake record for striped bass--40 pounds--and nobody is arguing. Although no records are listed for the tiny lake, locals could recall no fish that large. Assaraf caught it May 14 with a live shad on 12-pound-test line and weighed it at a tackle store in nearby Quartz Hill. He is having it mounted.

ADVENTURE--American Motorcycle Tours and High Mountain Outback Adventures offer guided motorcycle tours of the Sierra/Lake Tahoe area. Motorcycles provided. Details: (916) 541-5875.