Anglers Will Want to Thumb Through This Book

Shaun Morey isn’t all thumbs, but he does have three--his two and one that used to belong to Robert Lindsey.

Lindsay lost his thumb one day after falling overboard when a wake almost flipped his ski boat on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which winds along the Utah-Wyoming border. The boat ran over Lindsay and the propeller chopped off a thumb.

Seven months later, a newspaper carried a story about an ice-fisherman who found a thumb inside a six-pound mackinaw trout he had caught.

“I cut open the trout’s belly and out fell the thumb,” the angler said.

He took the thumb to the sheriff’s office and the sheriff took it to the coroner.

Lindsay read the article, contacted the coroner and later identified the thumb as his.

Lindsay kept the thumb in a jar of formaldehyde for a while, then was contacted by Morey, who had run across the story while researching material for his recently released book, “Incredible Fishing Stories” (Workman, $8.95). Morey persuaded Lindsay to turn it over and has since mummified the thumb in acrylic and takes it with him “all over the country, because that’s one of the most incredible stories I’ve come across.”

And Morey says carrying around a severed thumb is not morbid.

“You’ve seen scorpions in paperweights? Well, it’s kind of like that,” he said.

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Another of Morey’s favorite stories--all of them have been verified, he says--is of the Guinness-record 37-hour battle between Bob Ploeger and a king-sized king salmon in Alaska’s Kenai River in 1989.

But Ploeger didn’t land his fish. Near the end of the fight it made a run to the river’s edge and stopped, apparently as exhausted as Ploeger. A try was made to net the fish, but the net hit Ploeger’s leader and the line snapped. The current swept the salmon downriver and out of sight. Ploeger fell back, “staring helplessly into the river.”

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Hal Neibling of Long Beach merited an entry in the book for catching a marlin off Cabo San Lucas--from a surfboard.

Neibling and Curt Herberts, aboard a sportfisher, had hooked up at the same time but the fish took off in opposite directions. The skipper could only follow one, so he helped Neibling onto the board and handed him the rod before taking after Herberts’ fish.

Neibling, straddling the board, was immediately towed to sea by the fleeing billfish.

“The only frightening moment was when I started thinking about sharks,” he said. “I decided to put my feet on top of the board and I nearly capsized.”

Herberts tagged and released his marlin after a 45-minute fight, then the skipper spotted Neibling through binoculars, still holding his rod tip high. Neibling had his fish nearly to leader when the boat arrived. The crew handed Neibling the tagging stick and he inserted a tag before cutting the leader and turning his billfish loose.

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Sobering fact: As many as 60 will die on July 4 as a result of boating accidents--and at least half of those deaths will be alcohol-related.

The Fourth of July is not only one of the busiest boating days of the year, but one of the more festive. And a boater with a blood-alcohol level above .10 is more than 10 times as likely to be killed in a boating accident than a boater who has not been drinking.

Says Richard Schwartz, president of the Boat Owners Assn. of the United States: “Alcohol abuse contributes to more boating fatalities on the Fourth of July than on any other day of the year.”

Briefly

HUNTING--The first game of the 1994-95 hunting season? Rabbits. The season starts Friday and will run through Jan. 29. Cottontails are most popular among Southland hunters, who are allowed to shoot five a day. Wildlife experts suggest that hunters stay near water and areas with lots of cover and do their hunting at dusk. Conditions are good throughout the Southland and Eastern Sierra, but bring lots of water, for drinking and dressing. Says biologist Kevin Brennan of the Department of Fish and Game: “You need to dress rabbit quickly, before the meat spoils, and then keep it in a cool location, especially when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees.”

FISHING--As squid go, so goes the white seabass bite at Catalina. And with the water warming as fast as it is under the sizzling sun, the squid are becoming harder to find every day. Overnight boats are departing local landings at 9 p.m. instead of 11, giving anglers time to jig for the squirters, and it is paying off for some. Catch of the week: a 56-pound 8-ounce white seabass by Thomas Castvera of Montebello on Sunday aboard Long Beach Sportfishing’s Aztec. Meanwhile, the barracuda bonanza continues. The fish are so plentiful from Palos Verdes south that fishermen aboard twilight boats are having trouble reaching the bottom, where the sand bass are.

Cabo San Lucas: An influx of blue marlin and sailfish has begun, though striped marlin are still the prime attraction, showing in good numbers at Golden Gate Bank. Yellowfin tuna ranging from 30 to 70 pounds and smaller dorado are common catches as well. Wahoo, dorado and tuna are the primary catches at high spots and the Gordo Bank in the gulf. East Cape: Striped marlin and tuna are being caught daily by anglers aboard most boats. Dorado fishing is picking up.

MISCELLANY--Seal Beach Pier, badly damaged by a fire on May 22, has reopened. The half-day boat, City of Seal Beach, and the three-quarter day-twilight boat, Enterprise, will be back in operation on Friday. Details: (310) 598-8677. . . . The first annual Mammoth Trout Races-auction, in which large rainbow trout will race to a pellet tied to a line at the other end of a 16-foot tank, will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. in Mammoth Lakes at Minaret and Main streets. An $8,000 boat, donated by Allison Marine, will be raffled off on Sunday. Some of the proceeds will be used to help build a college. . . . “Inside Sport Fishing” makes its TV debut next Wednesday with an episode on long-range fishing for giant tuna aboard the Polaris Supreme. The program will be shown Wednesdays at 6 p.m. on Prime Ticket. . . . Eagle Claw Fishing Schools is holding an all-day limited-load session aboard L.A. Harbor Sportfishing’s Sport King on July 10 at Horseshoe Kelp, targeting school barracuda, bonito, bass and yellowtail. Cost is $99. Details: (714) 840-6555.