After the Fall

Winter returned briefly to the Eastern Sierra this week, leaving some to wonder what impact the most recent storm will have on the trout-season opener April 29.

None, basically, unless you’re planning to ski or snowboard between bites.

Mammoth Mountain got two feet of powder at its base elevation and even more on top.

“It’s not like we had any bare spots with our 10-foot base,” says Joani Saari, a spokeswoman for the resort. “But it’s nice to freshen things up on the mountain.”

So, skiing should be almost as good as the fishing.

“We got about three inches, but the grass is still green and we’re already back in spring mode,” says Mickie Frederickson at June Lake Marina.

Which means trout, having awakened from their winter’s slumber weeks ago at lakes below 7,000 feet, once again can be seen pecking at insects on the surface.

The snow line is about 9,000 feet, and only above that did the powder amount to much.

There was concern at frozen-over South, Sabrina and North lakes, and atop Bishop Creek Canyon, that the snow would cover the blue areas indicating thin ice, making for a potentially dangerous situation on opening weekend.

“But it turns out the snow didn’t even cover the blue holes,” says Gary Olson, who has the concession at South Lake, about 10,200 feet. “I brought an old-timer along with me to check out the ice and he said it should be fine [to walk on], although people should double-check before the opener.”

Although colder weather associated with the midweek storm helped solidify the softening ice, there’s no telling what its condition will be eight days from now.

Last year, ice fishermen fared well, but it was the lakes below 7,000 feet that yielded one of the most productive openers in recent memory, despite heavy snowfall the night before.

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Department of Fish and Game hatchery trucks will take to the highways beginning Monday, weather permitting, putting the fruits of their winter labor into the lakes and streams throughout Mono and Inyo counties.

If all goes as planned, nearly 90,000 rainbow trout will be available to fishermen on opening day.

Raised at historic Mount Whitney Hatchery near Independence, Fish Springs Hatchery south of Big Pine and Hot Creek Hatchery near Mammoth Lakes, most of the planters are half-pounders, but mixed in are 1 1/2- to two-pound fish wearing DFG tags in their gill plates.

“The tags aren’t worth any money or anything,” says Mike Seefeldt, assistant manager at the Whitney facility, which will stock 500 tagged rainbows along with about 18,000 half-pounders throughout Inyo County. “They’re strictly for identification purposes, but I think the public will be pleased with what we produced this year.”

The DFG will stock only waters accessible by truck before opening day, and expand its schedule--planting the same waters every other week--as the snow melts in the higher country.

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It’s not known exactly how many will wet lines opening day, but Mike Vader, chief of the licensing and revenue branch for the DFG, says that about 160,000 California sportfishing licenses are sold during April alone “and we figure a good percentage of those people will be there for the opener.”

Total license sales by the end of April will be nearly 900,000 and the end-of-year sales will exceed 2 million, Vader adds.

And since licenses are required only of those 16 and older, these numbers do not reflect the thousands of children expected to be on hand opening day.

NEWS AND NOTES

* Spring skiing: Tuesday’s storm enabled Mountain High and Mount Baldy to reopen. Both local resorts received more than a foot of snow. Baldy is claiming 20 inches of new snow and will remain open through the weekend, with Chairs 1 and 2 operating. Mountain High is open day to day, with Blue Ridge Express servicing all trails, and is advising people to call ahead at (760) 249-5808.

* Northern Baja: There’s great news regarding the confusing tourist-permit issue. Word is that Banco Bilbao Vizcaya has opened a branch next to the immigration office in the secondary-inspection area at the border, operating 24 hours seven days a week. Assuming this is the case, it eliminates the need to find an open bank (and a place to park) in downtown Tijuana to make necessary payments.

The permits, which cost $170 pesos or about $17, are required of anyone staying in Mexico 72 hours or more, or traveling beyond San Quintin south of Ensenada.

Tourism secretary Juan Tintos Funcke remains optimistic that tourists eventually will be able to buy pre-stamped documents at selected venues north of the border, but doesn’t anticipate any significant developments until well after the July elections.

* Southern Baja: Reports of illegal commercial long-line activity have tapered off, but reports of poaching in the East Cape are filtering in. Fishermen aboard skiffs two weeks ago were seen harpooning mantas in the Punta Colorada area. Illegal gill-net fishermen from the mainland also have been seen, though on not nearly as large a scale as last spring.

* Albacore watch: The crew aboard Seaforth Sportfishing’s Legend on Sunday located two schools of albacore 84 miles south of San Diego, but couldn’t get them to bite. While kelp-paddy hopping, though, they boated 20 small yellowtail. The exploratory trip was scheduled after the catch two weeks ago of a few albacore 77 miles southwest of Point Loma. Another banner season is predicted.

* Uplifting: The Pete Lopiccola Memorial Foundation last Friday delivered a check for $120,000 to the UC San Diego Cancer Center. The money was raised during the “For Pete’s Sake” marlin tournament last November off Cabo San Lucas and brings donations from the event to nearly $750,000 over the last 10 years.

The annual tournament, not Cabo’s richest but certainly its most charitable, was founded in memory of Pete Lopiccola, a popular captain and marlin fisherman who died of leukemia in 1988. This year’s event is set for Nov. 2-5 at the Hacienda Beach Resort. Details: (619) 475-4636.

In a similar event on the slopes of Sierra-at-Tahoe, last weekend’s Boarding for Breast Cancer snowboard and music festival raised $115,000 for breast cancer research and educational projects.

* Celebrity watch: Capt. Rick Gaffney of Midway Sportfishing reports that Barbra Streisand and James Brolin stopped at the remote North Pacific atoll recently for a refueling stop and were so “enchanted” with the island that they made plans to return.

“We’re seeing about six business jets a month through Midway now and many of [their passengers] are making regular stops to fish after they discover what’s there,” Gaffney says.

What’s there is a gin-clear lagoon teeming with game fish and thousands of laysan albatross (a.k.a. gooney birds), star performers in their own right.

* The cowboy way: The annual End of Trail World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting and Wild West Jubilee will be held April 28-30 at Raahauge’s Ranch in Norco. More than 600 “authentically dressed” cowboys will compete for the championship, but promoters say the purpose of the jubilee is for families to celebrate the Old West lifestyle.

A Wild West encampment will be spread over 30 acres and scheduled are a show based on the life and times of Buffalo Bill Cody, historical reenactments, equestrian events, stunt shows, trick roping and more. Admission is $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under. Hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Details: (714) 998-0209 or at https://www.sassnet.com.

* Pedal power: The annual Southern California Bicycle Expo will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center April 28-30. One feature is an indoor dirt track for testing new models of mountain bikes. There also are tours through the city streets for kids (on a closed course) and adults. Details: (818) 407-6986 or at https://www.bikeshow.com.

WINDING UP

The winner of the Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby earlier this month, out of 1,271 participants, was Cerritos’ Steve Hix, who not only earned a trip to Alaska as grand prize, but set a probable world record.

His California halibut, caught on 12-pound-test monofilament, weighed 50.5 pounds. The 12-pound line-class record is a 52.8-pounder, but anglers can step up in line class for world-record consideration and Hix will try to claim the 16-pound line-class record.

His halibut beat a 50-pounder caught in 1996 by derby chairman John Bourget.

“How does it feel to have him break my record? It feels great because it happened during my tournament,” Bourget says. “All that’ll do, though, is make me go fishing more now to try to up that record.”

Hix caught his “flatty” on a sardine off the popular Twin Towers area.

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Trout Opener

* What: General trout season

* Where: Eastern Sierra

* When: April 29 through

Oct. 28

* Required: California sportfishing license for those 16 and older.

* Bag limit: Five trout per day, with special restrictions in some waters. Sportfishing regulations booklets are available at most sporting goods stores.

* Phone numbers: Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce, (760) 876-4444; Bishop Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, (760) 873-8405; Mammoth Lakes Visitors Bureau, (760) 934-2712; June Lake Chamber of Commerce, (760) 648-7584; Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce, (760) 932-7500.