Action on Bases After Leadoff Storm Hits Sierra Resorts

With the season’s first significant storm sweeping across the Sierra Nevada last weekend, the question was posed to Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Assn.: What kind of winter can the state’s resorts expect?

“The omens are good,” he responded, via e-mail. “This is setting out to be a ‘typical’ season. Even my clients in Big Bear like the weather patterns they have seen thus far.

“While I personally prefer the Nino family, the last relative to visit [La Nina] was an underwhelming guest. At Tahoe, Boreal’s early opening [three-days in mid-October] and the first snowfalls have folks in a very upbeat mood. However, as the Dodgers and Braves know, it’s a long season.”

That it may be, but Mother Nature has delivered the first pitch, a wintry blast that signaled an early start for at least three resorts. Others are either waiting for more snow or still preparing for their planned openers later this month.

“We were all kind of caught by surprise,” said Rachel Woods, a spokeswoman for Alpine Meadows on Lake Tahoe’s north shore. Alpine Meadows got 26 inches last weekend and opened one lift Wednesday and plans to open another, a high-speed quad, Saturday.

Boreal on Donner Summit opened three lifts serving eight trails last Friday--before the brunt of the storm, thanks to previous snowfall and snow-making machines, and may expand operations this weekend.

Across the range at Mammoth Mountain, the call was made to slide Tuesday after last weekend’s storm dropped up to three feet on the upper slopes and more than a foot at the main lodge. The Eastern Sierra resort had originally planned to open next Thursday.

Broadway Express was the only chair in operation, but more lifts--and the half-pipe--could open this weekend.

With the jet stream positioned as it is, all of the Lake Tahoe-area resorts should be open before Thanksgiving and most have pegged Nov. 18 as opening day.

“Things are looking great,” said Nicole Belt, spokeswoman for Kirkwood, 35 miles south of Lake Tahoe. “We’ve had a ton of snowboarders hiking up and making fresh tracks down the [main] face. If they can do it, then it’s pretty much ready for people to ski.”

Locally, limited operations are possible as early as this weekend but it will take at least another foot of new snow to get the season in full swing. Of course, that’s just a ballpark figure.

BAJA BEAT

Nearly a week has passed since the Bisbee’s Black and Blue Marlin Jackpot Tournament in Cabo San Lucas, with a team aboard the yacht After Midnight $989,910 richer for catching a 500-pound black marlin.

And people are still talking about the one that got away.

Angler Bill Armstrong of Avalon reeled in the 500-pounder, but Jim Grimes of Homer, Alaska, reeled in a 534-pound blue last Friday evening aboard Minerva III.

The team and crew had a day to celebrate their new riches until it was learned, at the awards ceremony last Saturday night, that the fish had been disqualified because of a rule violation. The deckhand aboard Minerva III was charged with touching the line above the leader during the fight, which is against the rules of all major tournaments.

That charge is being disputed by the team, which acknowledged that the deckhand might have “brushed” the line with his hands during the heat of a nighttime battle in six-foot swells, but he did not pull on it or try to keep it from rubbing against part of the boat and therefore he had no bearing on the outcome of the battle.

The deckhand is allowed to grab the leader with his gloved hand, which usually signals the end of a successful fight.

Tournament director Wayne Bisbee, who has not wavered, said the team probably would not have been disqualified had Grimes, during a post-tournament interview by a trained polygraph examiner, not said anything about the incident.

“We would have had no way of knowing,” Bisbee said.

Grimes reportedly spent last Saturday night throwing up in his hotel room, he was so sickened by what had happened. And the controversy--one of many in the 20-year history of the event--has left a sour taste with many at Land’s End.

Because the vessel was not a fancy yacht from north of the border, but of Mexican registry and with a Mexican crew that could have used its share of the prize money, the locals are siding with the Minerva III team. One local fleet owner went so far as to say, “The feeling among the locals is that their people have been robbed.”

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The Bisbee extravaganza pumps about $5 million into the Cabo San Lucas economy every year and a portion of the prize money is set aside for local charities.

It also generates lots of excitement, and nobody was as excited as a kayaker out for a morning paddle when the flare was fired to send 234 yachts and cruisers speeding to sea on Day 1 of the spectacle.

“A terrified guy in a kayak, who must have been the only person in town not to realize what was happening that morning, was right in the path of the departing vessels and raised his paddle high above his head, either in futile defense or to make himself visible,” Tracy Ehrenberg, owner of the Pisces Fleet, wrote in her fish report.

Another story involves the second-place angler, Dennis Lesinsky of East Los Angeles, fulfilling a dream by competing in his first Bisbee.

Lesinsky knew luck was with him two days after he lost his wallet, when a local woman recognized him by the picture on his driver’s license and returned it to him, cash and all.

Lesinsky gave the woman and her young son, who found the wallet, a reward and then had another stroke of luck when one of his fishing partners, “who was belligerent most of the time and really getting on my nerves,” lost his voice a day before the tournament.

Lesinsky won a 7 1/2-hour battle with a 472-pound blue marlin caught aboard Picante Express, and his team was honored with a check for $279,765.

“You can’t have beginner’s luck without being a beginner,” he said, lamenting the fact that he had not entered all the possible side jackpots, which would have increased his purse substantially.

HOT BITES

* San Diego long-range: A day boat stumbled on a large school of yellowfin tuna near the border Sunday, but the fish undoubtedly were heading south, toward warmer water. The only yellowfin likely to be caught between now and next spring will be taken by anglers aboard multiday boats. Some are slaying large tuna and yellowtail at the Alijos Rocks and Guadalupe Island. Joshua Garcia of Murrieta caught a 32-pound albacore--perhaps the last of the year for the San Diego fleet--aboard the Shogun.

* Morro Bay: The Pacific Queen had plenty of albacore plopping onto its deck earlier this week, but the weather turned iffy Wednesday afternoon and probably will remain so through the weekend.

* Cabo San Lucas: Boat pressure from the Bisbee event has had its usual negative effect on the fishing, but dorado and tuna are not too hard to come by. The tuna bite is better farther up the gulf at the Gordo Banks. Marlin are being caught mostly in the Pacific.

* Mazatlan: A dorado bonanza continues, with schools of fish averaging 30-50 pounds in great abundance, but the big news was the catch of a 253-pound yellowfin tuna by a New York angler aboard an Aries fleet boat.

* Costa Rica: A rare report from this destination, but a glowing one as the season is just getting underway. “If the off-season action we are still enjoying continues to improve at the existing rate into high season, the damned fish may well take over the country,” says Jerry Ruhlow of Costa Rica Outdoors in his weekly report. Tarpon are thick in the Caribbean just beyond the Rio Colorado river mouth, calba snook are flooding into lagoons and, in the Pacific, sailfish, tuna and dorado are putting on a daily show for offshore anglers.

DROPPING IN

* Northern California: The surfing season at Maverick’s south of San Francisco officially began late last week, when a north swell registered outside buoy-readings of 25 feet and treated a few brave souls to triple-overhead sets in rainy conditions that turned to mush when the tide came in. The waiting period for Quiksilver’s annual “Men Who Ride Mountains” event will begin Dec. 1. Maverick’s regular Darryl “Flea” Virostko won the previous two and will be defending his title against 20 others, including seven-time world champion Kelly Slater, last year’s runner-up.

* Hawaii: The Vans G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing is underway in Hawaii, with the Billabong Girls event scheduled through or before Nov. 10, depending on surf conditions at Honolua Bay, Maui.

WINDING UP

The Department of Fish and Game has reorganized its Southland offices and announced new phone numbers for the public. From Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, the South Coast Region can be reached at (858) 467-4201. From Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, Inyo and Mono counties, the Eastern Sierra and Inland Deserts Region can be reached at (562) 590-5216. For marine-related questions call the Marine Region at (562) 342-7100.

* FISH REPORT, D14