This Might Be Salmon Season Fit for a King

Fishermen will be lined up in the predawn darkness at public launch ramps from Port Hueneme to Santa Barbara on Saturday, which can only mean:

1. Saturday is the opening of the ocean salmon season;

2. There are actually salmon in local waters.

Normally, fishing for Chinook, or king salmon, is done along the Central Coast and in Northern California.

But every few years, conditions allow the flashy game fish to follow the currents and bait fish into Southland waters.

It’s too early to tell if this will be one of those years, but local anglers eager to pull--and chew--on something other than rockfish have reason to be optimistic.

Reports of incidental catches of king salmon are already filtering in and one angler claims to have incidentally caught 28 one day last week off Oxnard.

One of those fish was estimated at 30 pounds.

Another good sign is the water temperature, which has been unseasonably cold at 54-56 degrees.

“That’s salmon country,” says Russ Harmon, owner of Cisco Sportfishing in Oxnard.

Harmon is reserving his enthusiasm until a season actually becomes a reality, however. But he and other landing operators will have boats available for salmon fishermen on opening day.

The last season of substance this far south was in 1995, when party boats from Oxnard to Santa Barbara logged about 23,000 fish and private boaters landed about 15,000 more.

Meanwhile, excitement is building up north as well, and some of the best salmon fishermen on earth have already gotten a jump on those waiting for opening day.

“Last week off Monterey, a pod of about 100 killer whales was observed gorging on salmon by people on nature trip boats and rock cod boats,” said Roger Thomas, captain of the Salty Lady out of Sausalito.

IN HOT WATER

Last week it was reported here that commercial fishermen from the Mexican mainland had pitched camp on a remote East Cape beach in southern Baja, where they were illegally fishing with gill nets.

Now comes word from the Van Wormer family, which owns three popular resorts in the area, that the poachers have been run off.

“We followed them in a boat past Cabo Pulmo and the last we saw of them, they were headed back to Sinaloa,” said Bobby Van Wormer Jr., 31. “They were in one large boat and towing several [skiffs]. They were [setting] their nets at night and pulling them in early in the morning. They said they were mostly after snapper [also called pargo] and we caught them with half a ton.

“We told them we don’t want to see them again anywhere between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. They didn’t argue.”

Van Wormer had some persuasion on his vessel, a fisheries official and two policemen with rifles.

Poachers show in the area almost every year during Lent in an attempt to satisfy the increased demand for fish on the mainland.

A few years ago they devastated stocks of roosterfish in the Cabo Pulmo area, taking several tons. This year, they said they were after pargo, but gill nets are indiscriminate and witnesses said they also were hauling up sierra mackerel.

All three species are popular game fish that migrate to southern Baja each spring and summer, attracting thousands of angling tourists.

BIGHORN BLUES

The state Fish and Game Commission has taken emergency action to list Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep from a “threatened” to an “endangered” species in response to a petition filed by the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation last month.

The reason is a dramatic decline in the numbers of this sub-species of bighorn--from about 300 animals to as few as 100--because of mountain lion predation and diseases carried by domestic sheep.

John Wehausen, a researcher at the White Mountain Research Station in Bishop, said he expects the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to follow suit in a week or so, listing the embattled bighorns under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Wehausen, who has studied bighorn sheep in the area for 25 years, said the mountain lions have not only reduced bighorn populations by predation. They have forced the animals to higher elevations, where harsh living conditions have played a part in their demise.

If they become listed as a federally endangered species, it will “provide the tools necessary to deal with the mountain lion problem,” Wehausen said.

What he means is, problem lions will be killed, which is normally against the law. Prop. 117 allows the killing of mountain lions only after they’ve attacked livestock or pets on private property, or when they pose a threat to public safety.

Sierra bighorns exist in five populations along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

CAT BITES DOG

Bighorn sheep and deer aren’t cougars’ only prey in the Eastern Sierra.

Late last week, a small collie fell victim to a cougar attack in Lee Vining Canyon while its horrified owner helplessly watched.

Lauren Davis was walking her two collies on a dirt road near Lee Vining Ranger Station when one of the unleashed pets ran into the brush after a covey of startled quail. The dog then started yelping.

“At first I thought a coyote had grabbed her, and I thought I could scare away a coyote, so I started running toward her,” Davis said. “But then I saw over the sagebrush that it was a mountain lion and I just stopped, and my other dog stopped.

“Then I saw that the lion had my dog by the neck and was crushing the neck. That’s when the yelping stopped.”

There was no attempt to track and kill the cougar because the incident did not occur on private property and it was determined--for the time being, at least--that the animal was not a threat to public safety.

The Lee Vining Canyon area, south of Bridgeport, is home to one of the five herds of Sierra bighorn sheep. The herd is down to five ewes, or female sheep, and at least two have fallen prey to recent lion attacks.