Fishing Video Opens a Can of Worms : Politics: Sen. Hayden reveals tape of fish and game officials on outing with attorney seeking changes in law. Department spokesman says no state business was discussed.

Playing private detective for a day, state Sen. Tom Hayden’s staff captured Gov. Pete Wilson’s director of fish and game and one of his top deputies on videotape as they fished during business hours last week with a lawyer who is trying to loosen the state’s endangered species protection laws.

To Hayden, the American River fishing excursion--which featured two canoes, some sandwiches and soft drinks--was a serious example of the Wilson Administration’s cozy relationship with those they are supposed to be regulating.

State officials say that no business was discussed, that the anglers caught six shad in a little more than six hours, and that the whole affair is much ado about nothing.

Hayden, the Santa Monica Democrat who is running for governor, has made government ethics and reform the centerpiece of his campaign and has focused on the issue as a legislator.

When a whistle-blower tipped him off about the fishing trip, Hayden sent a staff member with a video camera to record the outing, which took place Friday afternoon before the Memorial Day weekend.

Fish and Game Director Boyd Gibbons and his chief department lawyer, Craig Manson, went on the trip at the invitation of Sacramento lawyer George Kammerer, who represents development companies that are trying to overhaul the California Endangered Species Act.

Kammerer offered the invitation in a letter to Gibbons in which the lawyer described the event as the “Second Annual Yuba River Shad Addicts Fishing and Policy Planning Conference.”

The men fished on a stretch of the American River about 20 minutes by car from the state Capitol. Also with them was Randy Collins, vice president of a Sacramento property management and development firm.

“This is very serious,” Hayden said at a news conference at which he played the five-minute tape. “This kind of closeness or clubbiness with lobbyists ought to end.”

He sent Wilson a letter asking the governor to ban socializing during business hours or personal time between state officials and representatives of industries they oversee.

Assistant Resources Secretary Andrew McCleod attended Hayden’s presentation and afterward said it was pathetic, specious and a cynical campaign ploy. He said Gibbons and Manson were on personal time and noted that Kammerer, although he represents industry as a lawyer, is not a lobbyist.

McCleod said the Administration supports legislation that would make it easier for the state to draft compromises with private landowners that protect the habitat of endangered species while allowing some development to proceed. He said Wilson opposes a competing bill that Kammerer drafted for the County Supervisors Assn. of California.

“No conversations took place on the river about the legislation,” McCleod said. “This was not improper.”

Kammerer could not be reached for comment.