Memories Are the Ones That Never Get Away
Snapshots left over from Saturday’s opening day of the Eastern Sierra general trout season:
* Put a cork in it: Rick Ortega of Covina is standing on the deck at Gull Lake, one of four sparkling gems on the scenic June Lake Loop. All but mummified in heavy clothing on a frigid, blustery morning, he poses next to a scale where hangs a trout weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces.
An 8-pounder brought in earlier at Gull will win another fisherman a sizable cash prize for being the biggest opening-day fish caught on the Loop. Ortega is miffed. His trout weighed 8.3 pounds on his hand-held digital scale out on the water, but then he recalls that it had oozed eggs continuously after being brought out of the water, as he and his group kept fishing.
“I guess I should have quit fishing and brought it in right away,” he says. “Oh well, at least I caught one bigger than my uncle.”
His uncle Ray caught a five-pounder.
* Fortieth time a charm: There’s no mistaking Charles F. Pitts in his cherry red jacket. Pitts, 77, of Irvine, is setting the timer on his camera so he can run in and pose for a family portrait outside the Gull Lake tackle shop. He had just participated in his 40th consecutive opener. With him are his son, sons-in-law and a grandson.
“That’s the best part about opening day,” he says, adding that all caught their five-fish limits not long after sunrise.
* By hook or crook: It’s 9:30 a.m. at picturesque Convict Lake, so-named because of an 1871 shootout here between a posse and six escaped prisoners from Carson City, Nev.
Pat Bauer, 45, of Long Beach maintains that a bandit is still at large.
“At exactly 5:01 this morning, a raccoon came down to the water and tried to steal my fish--he took the whole stringer,” Bauer says. “He nearly made off with it too, but some kids yelled and he ran off.”
Still dangling from his stringer is a 3.65-pound rainbow trout, which was caught on Velveeta cheese.
If you’re wondering about the escaped convicts, they managed to kill two in the posse and get away. Three of the six convicts were later captured in nearby Round Valley. Two of them were promptly lynched.
* Fishy business: It’s 1:30 p.m. at Crowley Lake Fish Camp. Fishing has been good and Curtis Milliron is on hand to determine just how good. The Department of Fish and Game biologist, through interviews, weights and measurements, is coming to the following opening-day conclusions:
Anglers are catching an average of 4.92 trout overall and keeping an average of 4.32. That’s an outstanding opener. They’re catching 1.18 trout an hour, exceeding the DFG’s target catch rate of one an hour. The average length/weight of rainbow trout: 14 inches and 1.12 pounds. The longest/heaviest: 25.5 inches and 5.4 pounds--caught by Harry Groff of Northridge.
* Cutthroat business: Ricardo Escobedo of Los Angeles has just weighed in a 2.3-pound cutthroat trout. It’s among the largest of two dozen cutthroats brought to the biologists’ table, and the scientists are as pleased as the anglers. Crowley’s rainbow trout fishery, with three strains, is its bread and butter.
But cutthroat trout are taking a solid foothold in the sprawling reservoir, thanks to the fall stocking in recent years of larger fish, which are less susceptible to predation by bigger fish and birds. The opening-day cutthroat catch is only 0.7% of the overall catch, but that’s an improvement over previous years.
* A sigh and a smile: These are the expressions of Jeff Conaway as he takes a breather in the dining room adjacent to Crowley’s tackle store. As Crowley’s new concessionaire, this is his first opener and it has come on the heels of a windstorm two months ago that tore apart some of his docks, and a fire that destroyed his storage shed and everything in it.
“Today, our biggest catastrophe has been backed up toilets,” he says. “Well, I’d better get back to work.”
* Firebug: It’s the day before opening day and this reporter is checking out the five-mile portion of the Owens River that was burned a month earlier by a fire some say was set intentionally to enable access to its banks. The Lower Owens is open year-round to fishing so this is a popular spot on a day with so many new anglers in town.
The reporter hikes downriver to escape the crowd, and finds another large burn area on both sides of the banks. He wonders whether indeed there might be a pyromaniac on the loose. Two days later, a day after opening day, another suspicious fire will burn 200 acres along the banks of the Owens near the Pleasant Valley Reservoir campground.
Wiggle room: It’s the day before the opener and the Big Pine High seniors, all 10 of them, have sold hundreds of cartons of worms to passersby en route to their opening-day hot spots (pardon the pun). They needed $2,700 to earn a trip to Maui but by late afternoon have surpassed that, with $3,096, and call it quits.
“We’ll use the extra money for activities,” class advisor Amy Steinwand says. “Some of the students want to mountain-bike down a volcano.”
Speaking of volcanoes, one fisherman nearly blows his top after counting his worms and discovering the count stops at one. When told later that one of the customers had been shorted, Steinwand explains, “The little jerks kept worming their way out of the little pinholes we poked in the cartons to give them air.”
Men Overboard
Four anglers from the Oxnard area were forced to abandon their 23-foot fishing boat last Sunday off Santa Cruz Island when a larger boat was closing in fast and showing no signs of stopping.
It was a good thing they jumped. The 62-foot Cat Special out of Cisco Sportfishing broadsided the little boat, causing “significant damage” to its hull, according to Coast Guard investigator Troy Rentz.
There were no reported injuries and the smaller vessel was piloted across the channel to the mainland. Cat Special skipper John Fuqua on Thursday said he would not comment until the investigation is complete.
Rentz wouldn’t speculate but said “the purpose of the investigation is to determine the cause of the accident and whether there was negligence on the part of the captain or any individual” aboard the Cat Special, which was carrying 35 passengers.
Seabass Strike
The Santa Catalina Island white seabass bite Southland anglers had been long awaiting erupted this week on the windward side of the island. One-fish limits were the rule through Wednesday, but on Thursday pressure seemed to get to the fish. They dived for cover and had not surfaced as of 3 p.m.
Winners’ Circle
* Pro surfing: C.J. Hobgood of Satellite Beach, Fla., reigning champion in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals, was the winner of the inaugural Foster’s Cup, held last Saturday at the famed break near San Clemente. Melanie Bartels of Oahu’s west shore was the women’s winner. The two-star World Qualifying series event was the first North American stop on the 2002 Foster’s Pro Surfing Tour.
* Halibut fishing: The winner of last weekend’s event was Steve Rondash of Lompoc. He caught a 33.8-pound halibut on a live sardine off Malibu, beating out 831 others. The top female angler was Karen Otterbein of Venice with a 27.5-pounder, and the top junior was Kumiko Homma, 7, of Torrance with a 17.3-pounder.
* Largemouth bass fishing: Aaron Martens of Castaic emerged victorious last Saturday at the Citgo Bassmaster Western Open, with the top weight of 67 pounds 15 ounces over three days of competition at Clear Lake in Northern California.
The victory was worth $35,000 and qualified him for the prestigious Bass Masters Classic July 25-27 in Birmingham, Ala. Also qualifying for the Classic was eighth-place finisher Mike O’Shea of Thousand Oaks.
Winding Up
The Newport In-the-Water boat show is in progress through Sunday at Newport Dunes Resort and Marina. Among the highlights is a “Survivor”-themed contest to see who can stand in a designated area and hold a rod and reel in a fish-fighting position the longest.
Ten finalists were chosen in a drawing and began their endurance test--with a $25,000 boat going to the winner--Wednesday at noon. By late afternoon Thursday, only seven remained. The lone female participant, Pamela Redcher of Costa Mesa, was first to drop out, seven hours into the competition.
