U.S. Shows Decline in Fishing Licenses

The Sportfishing Promotion Council, an arm of the American Sportfishing Assn., reports that California led the nation in licenses in 1992 with 2,070,046.

On a different scale, that’s only 7% of the population, compared with the 64.3% of Alaskans and 56.2% of Wyoming residents who owned licenses.

Nationally, while the population grew 5.3% in the years 1987-92, license sales increased less than 1% and the percentage of Americans with licenses dropped from 12.5% to 12%.

Also, 85% are freshwater anglers, 15% saltwater, but 32% of the freshwater anglers fish only one to five days a year--an argument for California to convert to something between a one-day and an annual license.

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Another good reason for a proposal requiring California anglers to wear their fishing licenses next year: Jerry Stroner of Huntington Beach is still angry about having to pay a $150 fine for not having his license with him while fishing Pleasant Valley Reservoir with his grandson a few weeks ago.

They had parked their car and bicycled into the reservoir. When questioned by a warden, Stroner thought his license might be in his truck. The warden allowed him to look. It wasn’t. Stroner took the citation to Justice Court in Bishop and was told the fine would be $650.

Later, after showing his valid license, the fine was reduced to $150. But Stroner said: “It’s only $10 to be caught without your driver’s license, if you can show a valid license in court.”

Mike Grima, the DFG’s deputy chief of enforcement in Sacramento, said that in such a case, “The court may reduce the fine to $50.”

The state, frustrated by revenue lost to scofflaw anglers, changed the law a couple of years ago to upgrade the fine for fishing without a license to a meaningful minimum of $250 or a maximum of $1,000, or $500 to $1,000 for a second offense. But it also allows courts to add on up to 170% for “court costs,” of which the state gets nothing.

So, theoretically, an angler could be fined $2,700 for fishing without a license. “The reality is that that doesn’t happen,” Grima said.

Nor did the court reduce Stroner’s fine to $50.

“I would not have paid $650,” Stroner said. “I would have gone to jail. I really would.”

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Anglers seeking trout at Silverwood Lake in the western San Bernardino Mountains were disappointed when the California Department of Fish and Game scheduled its first trout plant in three weeks last week, then failed to show.

“We’ve had more than 100 phone calls the last two days,” marina manager Kevin Howard said Tuesday.

The problem, Mojave Fish Hatchery manager Dick Uplinger said, was that “people got sick and there wasn’t anybody (qualified) left to plant fish. We will plant Silverwood this week.”

Uplinger couldn’t say exactly when, because that’s against DFG policy. Otherwise, anglers would be waiting to pounce on the trout faster than Silverwood’s striped bass do--and that’s another problem: How to keep the stripers away from the trout when they are planted.

Earlier this year, the DFG shifted the planting site from the launch ramp to Cleghorn Canyon three-quarters of a mile away, but the stripers quickly caught on. So did the striped bass anglers, who know that the best attraction for stripers is a fish truck.

“It probably didn’t make any difference,” Uplinger said. “I see that they’re catching stripers up in Cleghorn, too.”

So he planned to plant back at the ramp this week.

Briefly

FRESHWATER FISHING--The Zebco Corp. is sponsoring a competition for the largest crappie caught in any of the 48 contiguous states ($250) or in the nation ($25,000) from Jan. 1 to Aug. 15, 1994. Entry fee: $10. Details: (800) 883-2292. . . . “Pathways to Fishing,” a free seminar for children 5-15, is scheduled Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Santa Ana River Lakes in Anaheim. Equipment provided. Details: (714) 649-2996.

MEXICAN FISHING--Cabo San Lucas: Striped marlin returned in large numbers to the Golden Gate. Total of 39 boat days had 67 hooked and 56 released. Brett Toliver, Ogden, Utah, released four in one day from the Andrea. Also, John Marcus, Los Angeles, took a 407-pound blue marlin aboard the Ursula. Dorado slowing down after three strong months.

HUNTING--The San Gabriel Valley chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation invites prospective members to its next meeting Jan. 11, 6:30 p.m., at the Sizzler in Pasadena at Foothill and San Gabriel Blvd. Details: (818) 352-6344.

ROCK CLIMBING--The Access Fund’s board of directors has reversed its steering committee’s support of a civil disobedience proposal to force a reversal of Joshua Tree National Monument’s wilderness bolting ban. The action was advocated by Tustin attorney/climber Randy Vogel. Instead, Friends of Joshua Tree is polling members on a course of action: (1) sue; (2) civil disobedience; (3) defer action.