Anglers, Get Ready to Take a Powder

The winds of change blew hard this week. Snow fell for the first time this season in the Eastern Sierra. It didn’t stick, but it was enough to let campers and fishermen know that, while six weeks are left in the fishing season, it’s nearing time to pack up and head home.

“Business is dropping fast,” says Mike Herndon, a concession clerk at Lake Mary near Mammoth Lakes. “There are mostly just hard-core locals out on the lake now. This is their time.”

That’s more true during the week than during the weekends, as fall can be highly productive for late-season anglers venturing up from the Southland. But it’s becoming more true by the week, whether at Lake Mary or nearby lakes Mamie and George; at Convict Lake south of Mammoth or at Twin Lakes near Bridgeport.

At Convict Lake Resort, owner David DeSurra has purchased the last of Tim Alpers’ seasonal allotment of trophy-sized rainbow trout in hopes of luring more people to one of the true jewels of the region.

“We’re trying to encourage people to get their priorities straight and quit their jobs and come up and go fishing,” he says with a laugh.

As for the snow that fell all day Tuesday, there is none left on the shore but Mt. Morrison, which towers over the lake, is sporting a fresh layer of white.

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All Downhill From Here

In the Mammoth Lakes area, the shuttle to Reds Meadow has stopped running, although the road remains open.

At Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, whose upper slopes are no longer entirely barren, the mountain bike park has closed and scenic gondola rides have ceased as the staff prepares for a different kind of clientele: those with planks on their feet.

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End of the Trail

Half Dome enthusiasts can mark Oct. 14 as the last day they can take a hike up California’s most popular mass of granite. Yosemite National Park has announced Oct. 15 as the day it will bring down the cables linking the trail to the summit.

They’ll be put back up next spring.

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Still Going Strong

The same weather front that delivered snow to the Eastern Sierra sent high winds raking over the offshore tuna grounds, causing some sportfishing boats to turn back but doing nothing to drive away the albacore.

“Those that stayed out did really well,” John Yamate, manager of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, said of the early-week disturbance. “This has just been a terrific albacore season.”

The longfin tuna are averaging 15-25 pounds and biting mainly in an area 80-90 miles southwest of Point Loma. And with conditions holding steady, landing operators are probably right when they say they’ll run out of fishermen before they run out of fish.

How good has the season been? The San Diego fleet last Saturday set a record with a cumulative tally of 123,500 albacore. The previous high was 122,084 in 1999.

One reason albacore fishing has been so good in recent years is a reduction of gill-net fishing by Asian fleets for squid in the North Pacific.

“It’s generally accepted that the removal of that [incidental] mortality on juvenile albacore in the North Pacific has allowed the species to recover,” said Steve Crooke, a Department of Fish and Game biologist and avid albacore angler. “What’s tremendous was the year-class of albacore we had last year, the four- to six-pounders. Those are the 12- to 15-pound fish we’re catching now. I can’t wait till next year.”

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Northern Exposure

Late summer and fall typically mark the beginning of albacore season off the Central California coast. And the season is progressing as well as could be expected.

“Usually we start by catching the little bullets, the football-sized fish at 8-12 pounds,” said Joe Romley, a spokesman for Virg’s Landing in Morro Bay. “Then we get the 18- to 20-pounders and now the fish are averaging 22-26 pounds, but they’re going to get much bigger before the season ends.”

Virg’s last week posted some phenomenal scores: 595 fish for 51 anglers one day, and 555 for 41 the next. The biggest fish was a 62-pounder caught aboard the Fiesta.

Then came the big wind, which didn’t let up until Wednesday. The boats were back in business Thursday.

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Confusion in Cabo

Fall is peak season in Cabo San Lucas but not everyone is celebrating. The resort city at Baja California’s tip is the site of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit finale Oct. 20-28, and the grand affair has the whole town, as one hotelier put it, “in a state of confusion.”

Hotel owners months ago were asked to set aside approximately 8,000 rooms for dignitaries, their entourages and members of the media, yet many have not received payment for the rooms or news of who would be staying where. Fleet owners had hoped the international influx would mean lots of sportfishing business but so far most of the requests have been for free fishing trips.

“That’s pretty much the way things have been going. Nobody seems to know what’s going on,” said Randy Lehr, director of operations for the Hacienda Beach Resort.

The Hacienda, one of the oldest and most reputable hotels at Land’s End, was asked to hold all of its rooms but this week announced it was releasing 25% of them at a reduced rate of $99 per night “so we’ll have somebody in the hotel,” Lehr said.

Hotel Solmar, situated closest to Land’s End on the Pacific side of the peninsula, is releasing all of its rooms, as is the Mar de Cortez in town. Several others, including the Melia, are releasing at least some of their rooms.

APEC organizers seem to be favoring the “hotel corridor” north of town over Cabo proper, as some of those hotels are actually booked with APEC participants.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Lehr said.

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As for the Fishing ...

“It’s hot,” says Tracy Ehrenberg, owner of Pisces Sportfishing. Anglers aboard her vessels have been encountering a little of everything. A small group on the Tracy Ann, for example, caught and released three sailfish and boated five tuna and two dorado on Sunday. Blue marlin are increasingly making their presence known and striped marlin are in the area as well.

This is typical of October. What isn’t is the unseasonably cool weather. Mornings have been cool and the temperature has barely reached 90 the last several days.

Nobody is complaining about that.

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Keeping Score

The numbers are in: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that more than 34 million Americans fished, 13 million hunted and 66 million went afield to photograph, feed or simply observe wildlife last year, spending more than $108 billion in their collective pursuits.

Of that amount, $28.1 billion was trip-related, $64.5 billion was spent on equipment and $15.8 billion was spent on other items, according to the annual survey.

To lend some perspective, the USFWS says that hunters and fishermen alone “could fill every NFL and major league baseball stadium, as well as every NASCAR track, six times over.”

Perhaps a more fitting comparison: “More Americans wake up to the great outdoors than to the top 20 newspapers.”

FISH REPORT, D16