A Good Trout Will Go a Long Way These Days
The deal went down in the dark of night, beneath a grove of tall trees rustling in the wind, along the shore of a jet-black lake twinkling faintly with reflected starlight.
Rick Mendoza had the check, made in the sum of $12,500. Dennis Blackburn had the goods: 5,000 pounds of big, beautiful rainbow trout, trucked in from the wild rolling hills of Bicknell, Utah.
The transaction was completed with surprising speed; the trout were flushed, after a few turns of a crank, from Blackburn’s tank into their new home; the check was passed as part of a handshake, and Blackburn climbed back behind the wheel, eager to leave the big city behind.
“There’s about 400 people that live in Bicknell, and about 2,000 people in our whole county, and there’s no street lights,” he explained quietly. “Here, you have eight-lane freeways going in every direction and they’re all full. I know my way in and my way out, and that’s all I need to know.”
With that, Blackburn was gone, and at dawn’s first light, as he was winding up his 1,300-mile journey, his rainbows were fulfilling their role in this operation quite nicely, dancing wildly on the hook, giving anglers a run for their money and Mendoza a sizable return on his investment.
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Blackburn made his delivery to Laguna Niguel Lake--his third of the season--Tuesday night, a few hours after closing time.
Anglers, many of them unaware of what had happened, arrived with their gear Wednesday and found the fishing better than usual.
Included in the mix of one-to three-pounders were hundreds of trout in the three-to six-pound range, dozens pushing 10 pounds and a few closer to 15.
Ordering the bigger fish was Mendoza’s way of ensuring a happy holiday season for his customers, who shell out $14 for the right to put five trout on their stringer. It also goes to show to what lengths concessionaires at private, or paid-admission fisheries will go, hoping to lure anglers from other waters.
Santa Ana River Lakes in Anaheim and Corona Lake in Corona, for example, buy their fish from Mt. Lassen Trout Farm in Northern California. Hatchery wiz Phil Mackey, dubbed by some “the mad fish scientist,” has planted rainbows to 23 pounds in those waters.
Irvine Lake has dumped Mt. Lassen for Calaveras Trout Farm at the headwaters of the Merced River in Central California, claiming to have found a better product, although a slightly smaller one.
As for Mendoza, 39, he’s happy with the trout provided by Blackburn, which is understandable. Judging from shoreline interviews conducted periodically since the Utah rancher made his first delivery in 1995, the 44-acre reservoir within sprawling Laguna Niguel Regional Park features a rainbow that is second to none locally.
“That makes me feel warm all over,” Blackburn says with a smile.
He buys his trout as fingerlings from Black Canyon Trout Farm in Idaho, and raises them in spacious earthen raceways at Pine Creek Trout Ranch, part of his 300-acre spread.
Blackburn spends his days growing and sorting fish according to size and, of course, hauling them to various clients, mostly in Colorado.
What makes his trout special, he says, is that they’re given plenty of space and raised in dirt as opposed to concrete, which given time, in crowded situations, can damage or erode fins and tails.
As a result, Blackburn’s fish develop in what resembles a natural setting. They’re full-bodied and broad-tailed, brightly colored on the outside, with a pinkish flesh similar to that of some salmon.
Mendoza first heard about Pine Creek Trout Ranch through a family connection in Utah and since his first visit six years ago, he and Blackburn have become close friends.
And just as Blackburn feels out of place in Mendoza’s bustling neighborhood, Mendoza feels out of place in extremely rural Bicknell.
“The first time they invited me for dinner, we had mutton and taters,” Mendoza recalls. “I didn’t even know know what mutton was [it’s sheep flesh] but I was a guest and at the dining table with their kids and everything, so I had to eat it. I’ll tell you, it’s a whole different world up there.”
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Competition between the local trophy trout fisheries is fierce, although Mendoza says he tries to maintain as low a profile as possible and does not offer the big promotions some of the other lakes use as marketing tools.
“I’ve got my niche here and pretty much just let my fish do the talking,” he says.
Across town, in the hills of Santiago Canyon at Irvine Lake, which is big on promotions, they’re trying to do the same thing. By switching from Mt. Lassen to Calaveras, Irvine now claims to have a livelier and more colorful rainbow trout. The first load went in Thursday, and future plants will include brown trout to about 12 pounds and brook trout to about five pounds.
Dave Noyes, general manager of the Irvine Lake concession, says he made the change--thanks to an escape clause in his seasonal contract--because of increasing complaints from anglers that the big fish raised at Mt. Lassen have lost their allure.
“Yes, I’m getting complaints,” Noyes said. “They’re complaining that the tails are worn away and that the fish aren’t putting up enough of a fight.”
To this Mackey counters that he has received nothing but positive feedback from local anglers he has talked to and adds, “I will put my product up against any of the others.”
Santa Ana River Lakes in Anaheim and Corona Lake, run by the same concessionaire, are now the lone Southland recipients of Mackey’s humongous rainbow trout and thus have a lock on the bigger-is-better market.
Meanwhile, it’s somewhat surprising that nobody has ordered any cutthroat trout, because cutthroat is what this business has become.
News and Notes
* Whale-watching: The season officially begins Wednesday and landing operators along the coast will be offering daily trips through much of spring. Though peak season in the gray whales’ annual southbound migration to Baja California’s lagoons isn’t for another month, whale sightings have already been reported by skippers of fishing boats and observers atop the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The American Cetacean Society’s Los Angeles chapter is sponsoring its popular “Super Whalewatch” day trip on Jan. 26 aboard the Monte Carlo out of 22nd St. Landing in San Pedro. Cost is $50. Details: (562) 437-4376.
* Saltwater fishing: Saltwater Sportsman magazine’s national seminar series makes its Southland swing Jan. 5, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at Long Beach State’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Instructors will be local experts Todd Mansur, Bob Hoose, Greg Stotesbury, Joe Bairian, Tom Waters, Mark Wisch and George Van Zant. Also on hand will be the magazine’s George Poveromo and Rip Cunningham. Admission is $45, which includes a textbook and magazine subscription. A drawing will determine the winner of a trip to the Bahamas. Details: (800) 448-7360 or https://www.nat ionalseminarseries.com.
* Skiing/snowboarding: Mountain High in Wrightwood opened its East Resort last Saturday, giving customers a choice of east or west. The construction of a learning center and the relocation of the quad chair Mountain High Express are the most noteworthy improvements at East Resort.
Snow began to fall in the local mountains about 1 p.m. Thursday, and the forecast called for three to six inches. Resort operators are reporting base depths of one to three feet.
* Surfing: Kauai’s Bruce Irons, 21, emerged the winner of the prestigious Xbox Pipeline Masters at the notoriously hollow break on Oahu’s North Shore on Monday. In the final, Irons edged six-time world champion Kelly Slater, who is surfing himself into shape for a 2002 tour comeback, after a three-year hiatus.
As usual, the Pipe Masters featured plenty of drama. Waves during the first round reached 15 feet and battered a few of the competitors into submission. Among them was local surfer Michael Ho, who suffered a dislocated shoulder.
“I got pinned flat to the bottom and the whitewater ripped me apart,” he said. “I’ve never been disjointed before--it was the gnarliest pain ever.”
Winding Up
The Department of Fish and Game has begun selling sportfishing licenses online and those for 2002 are available, for $30.45, at https://https://licenses.dfg.ca.gov.
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Fish, Ski Report D13
