Some Risky Business on a Road to Ruin

Today is moving day. Thousands will be heading north on U.S. 395 to take part in Saturday’s Eastern Sierra general trout-fishing opener, and the California Highway Patrol will be out in force.

It’ll be no picnic for those in the black-and-whites. Their motto is, “We don’t need the business,” said Sgt. Gary Parrott of the Bishop office, but they’re aware that business will be brisk today.

The day before a trout opener is unlike any other. The vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, and travel at speeds ranging from dreadfully slow to exceedingly fast, which is a potentially deadly mix.

“If they’re all traveling fast, that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Parrott says. “But when you have fast vehicles suddenly coming up on very slow vehicles, the results can be ugly.”

He referred particularly to “weekend warriors” in old, overloaded recreational vehicles that have a particularly tough time making the uphill climb into the high country.

Parrott asks drivers of these vehicles to use their flashers as a warning to others while creeping up steeper inclines such as Sherwin Grade. He says citations will be issued to those failing to pull over when five or more vehicles are backed up behind them, just as they’ll be issued to those traveling at exceedingly high speeds.

To illustrate the importance of driving responsibly, Parrott points to five accident-related deaths on Eastern Sierra highways so far this year. Fatal accidents typically occur when one vehicle drifts into oncoming traffic, but also during unsafe passing attempts.

“We’re seeing too many of these grinders, where people get impatient and try to pass a mile-long string of cars and ... wham!” Parrott says. “People aren’t aware that there are dips in the highway deep enough to hide a Mack truck. You’ll think it’s clear and start passing, only to have one of these trucks appear right in front of you.”

On the bright side, construction crews have been busy--especially in problem areas--working toward the ultimate goal of providing a divided thoroughfare with two lanes drivable in either direction, which will eliminate the head-on collisions for which U.S. 395 has become notorious.

“Only when that’s completed will I be truly relieved,” Parrott says.

Scorched-Earth Policy

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has posted no-vehicle-access signs around a five-mile portion of the Owens River seared by a fire last month.

The river’s banks, made accessible by the fire, are sure to be attractive to fishermen, but they are being asked to keep their vehicles on existing roads and to tread carefully to enable a speedier recovery of riparian habitat.

The cause of the fire was never determined, but suspicions remain that it was set intentionally to provide foot access.

Those witnessing suspicious activities on the Owens River are asked to call the DWP at (760) 872-1104, or the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department at (760) 873-7887.

On Thin Ice

If you intend to ice fish, you’ll basically be risking death. This is the assessment of authorities throughout Inyo and Mono counties, who credit unseasonably warm weather recently with creating dangerous conditions at the usual opening-weekend ice-fishing lakes.

Daniel Paranick, director of emergency services for the Mono County Sheriff’s Department, warns, “The life expectancy when falling through the ice is sure death unless someone can pull you out or they can pull themselves out, which is highly unlikely.”

One of the most popular ice-fishing destinations is South Lake, at 9,800 feet atop Bishop Creek Canyon. “I have bad concerns,” concessionaire Gary Olson said. “The inlet is open water and the pools by the springs area in Boiler Cove are showing. There is a lot of water beginning to show around the edges and [Southern California Edison] is beginning to raise the level of the water. It is rising slowly, but this will cause the ice to crack.”

With any luck, Edison and Mother Nature will have combined to eliminate the desire someone might have to try to walk on water. Nearby Lake Sabrina is free of ice and North Lake is mostly open water. Twin Lakes in the Mammoth basin has mostly open water and Lake Mary above Twin is breaking up.

Local Freshwater

* Concessionaires at Orange County’s paid-admission lakes are using various means of luring anglers away from the Eastern Sierra. Irvine Lake, for example, has stocked 10,000 pounds of rainbow and steelhead trout, and is giving stuffed tackle boxes to the first 125 kids Saturday and Sunday. Nearby Santa Ana River Lakes has gone strictly big fish, stocking 4,000 pounds of trophy-size trout for its annual Sierra Grand Opener, which began Thursday. Corona Lake in Riverside County also has a Sierra Grand event in progress.

* Catch of the week: It weighed only 3.7 pounds, but by red-ear sunfish standards, that’s a monster. San Diego’s Phou Aphaivong reeled in the big perch from San Vicente, a San Diego city-run lake. The catch is a county record.

Local Saltwater

* The focus for many this weekend will be on halibut. Going up against the Eastern Sierra opener is Saturday and Sunday’s Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby, with the top prize a two-week fishing and sightseeing expedition in South Africa. Cost is $50. Details: (310) 450-6556.... A charity tournament benefiting the 976-TUNA youth fishing program is scheduled May 4, with boundaries from Point Fermin on the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Huntington Pier. The weigh station is Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. Cost is $35 per person. Details: (562) 435-4093, or www.sycoflb.com or www.976tuna.com.

* Catch of the week: This week’s whopper required a trip all the way to Clipperton Island off Costa Rica. It’s a 268-pound yellowfin tuna landed by Charlie McGhee of Encinitas during a long-range trip aboard the Red Rooster III out of San Diego. The boats are still fishing Clipperton because Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands remain under a government closure.

Wave of the Future

There’s a new surfing tour in town. The Foster’s Pro Surfing Tour kicked off this week at Lower Trestles south of San Clemente with the Foster’s Cup, a two-star Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Qualifying Series event and the first stop on the inaugural Foster’s tour.

The spectator-friendly event continues through Saturday and involves some of surfing’s best. Among the top names in the lineup: reigning ASP world champion C.J. Hobgood of Satellite Beach, Fla.; 2002 champion Sunny Garcia of Kauai, Hawaii; and a slew of local surfers ranging in expertise from world class--Pat O’Connell, Taylor Knox, Mike Parsons, etc.--to up and coming.

Day of the Seal

The Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro is holding its annual International Day of the Seal fund-raiser and open house Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It will be an eye-opening experience for many as the staff and volunteers have their hands full with dozens of sick animals, mostly sea lions suffering from domoic acid poisoning, a natural event caused by toxic algae blooms that occur to some extent annually in offshore waters.

The event will feature narrated lectures of the work that goes on, as well as information booths, activities for kids and a fund-raising raffle. Admission is free but donations will be accepted. Details: (310) 548-5677 or www.mar3ine.org.

A Day for the Dogs

Rattlesnakes are out early this year, so the timing of this weekend’s San Gabriel Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited’s annual Snake Avoidance Clinic for Dogs is perfect. It’s Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Sierra Vista Dog Park in Sierra Madre. Cost is $55 per dog. Details: (626) 355-3832.

Winding Up

The catch last weekend of an 815-pound tiger shark off Australia’s eastern shore was both impressive and startling. In its stomach was a human skull, arm and pelvis. Police on Wednesday said the bones belonged to a 52-year-old Sydney resident who was washed into the sea while fishing from rocks on April 2.