Jesse's Hunting > Jim Matthews > January 2002 to June 2002

January 2002 to June 2002

MOJAVE, HUNTER SAFETY UPDATES -- matthews-ONS -- 26jun02

Mojave hunting: more bias

Several environmental groups have petitioned Secretary of Interior Gale Norton to close the Mojave National Preserve to hunting in the spring and summer months under the guise of protecting desert tortoises. They've asked that all hunting for coyotes and bobcats be banned, and that all hunting be stopped from March through August, when tortoises are most active.

Since I doubt there is a single documented incident where a hunter has shot a desert tortoise when hunting other legal game, it is fairly easy to see through the petition's stated reason for closing the preserve to hunting half the year and to restrict what game can be taken. This is an anti-hunting move, but none of them have the courage to simply admit hunting is the issue, so they try to backdoor the problem.

Here are the real issues:

1) Many of the people behind this petition are still fuming that hunting is a part of the preserve at all. They believe hunting -- all hunting -- should be banned, and this is their first step in that process. The tortoise is their excuse.

2) They find it especially deplorable that furbearers are still shot on the preserve. Some of them can swallow the idea that gamebirds and deer, which are eaten by hunters, can be taken, but the idea that we'd shoot predators for their pelts or the mere enjoyment of hunting a great game animal, sickens them.

3) They are against added water in the preserve -- guzzlers and cattle water -- not because they are concerned about their unnatural quality or truly believe there are environmental drawbacks. They even know that man-made water can be a part of the preserve under the diverse and often conflicting guidelines, but they want them removed because these water sources are maintained by hunters and encourage hunters to come to this game-rich area.

4) They want to use the tortoise to portray hunters as bad people who shoot anything out in the desert. I'm sure they will produce tortoise shells with bullet holes as "evidence" that hunters should be banned because we are bumbling Elmer Fudd's who blast away at everything and are careless. Hunters have guns. Here's a tortoise shell with bullet holes. Hunters must be to blame. That's their mentality, however ignorant, prejudicial and wrong it may be.

The outright dishonesty and self-righteousness these people display is frightening. Fifty or 100 years ago these environmental wackos would have been racists and focused their energy in perpetuating lies and control over ethnic groups, touting their own race as the superior one. Today, they are focusing on hunters, portraying us as lesser beings and their environmental cause as the superior one.

HUNTER SAFETY UPDATE: A recent survey of local hunter safety instructors has shown that their classes aren't growing proportional to the void left by the closure of the Turner's-Raahauge's hunter safety class -- formerly the largest in the state. The net result is that fewer new hunters get hunting licenses this year. With a steady, annual decline in hunter numbers, the Department of Fish and Game is making the problem worse.

The DFG effectively closed down the class by not allowing the budget -- specifically expenses for hall rental and advertising, even though both of those things are allowed under the guidelines for hunter education classes. Knowing there was nothing illegal done, the DFG has never issued a citation.

Now we have been told that the pressure to end the Turner's-Raahauge class came from Sacramento. Jack Edwards, the DFG warden in Sacramento who oversees the hunter ed program, said recently in a public meeting "we have been trying to close down the Raahauge class for 10 years."

This DFG fiasco has continued to spiral out of control. We understand now, that in an effort to cover their tracks, the DFG is auditing many other classes and expenses are being disallowed because instructors "are charging too much."

Instructors are not allowed to make a profit when running a hunter education class, but they can charge enough to cover legitimate expenses -- such as space rental, bookkeeping, postage, flyers, advertising, etc.

But apparently you can charge for these expenses only if the DFG decides by some arbitrary measure that it isn't too much.

CLASSES COMING UP: For those of you who have been left wondering where a son, daughter or hunting buddy can take a class this year, there are 32 classes slated in July at various locations throughout Southern California. Most are one-day, 10-hour classes, but there are also some two, four, and five-day classes that space the mandatory instruction out over several days. All these classes listed on the DFG's website at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/he_classes.html. You can also call the DFG in Long Beach at (562) 590-5185 for information.

RABBIT SEASON OPENER -- matthews outdoor column -- 19jun02

Rabbit season opener July 1

Most guys skip the open day of cottontail rabbit season on July 1 because it's always hot, and many people still buy in to the myth about rabbits being wormy this time of year. I think I look forward to this season as much as any other through the fall. Maybe more.

Maybe it's because the plums on the tree in my backyard are fully ripe by the cottontail opener, and I'm think about fall harvests (and a wonderful plum-garlic baste we make for game). Maybe it's because I hunt rabbits with my favorite rimfire rifles. Maybe it's because rabbits are so darn good on the barbecue. Maybe it's just because its the first hunting season of the year.

Hunters can get excited about the coming fall in May and June because of tag application deadlines, new hunting licenses, maybe the purchase a new gun and getting it ready for our big game hunting. But October and November still seem like a long way off. The rabbits provide an outlet, an excuse, to get up before first light and go sit at the edge of an opening or old burn in chaparral and glassing the edges of the brush for moving rabbits at first light. Or last light after a day at work.

The beauty of rabbits for me is that they are not expeditionary. Big game -- even upland birds and doves to some extent -- require more planning and time. Big game mandates that you prepare for success and have a myriad of gear and ice chests. It involves longer hikes into country further from roads. Bird hunting requires, at least for me, the packing of dogs and all their gear. Even short hunts often stretch into half a day or more. Rabbit hunting requires a .22 and about a hour of spare time first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. In 30 minutes, I can be hunting cottontails from just about anywhere in Southern California. I have some pretty good spots only 10 minutes from my house. The .22 stays in the truck this time of year. A guy never knows when he might get a chance to go.

The other thing is that I usually hunt rabbits alone. While hunting is traditionally a fraternal sport, which is one of the reasons we all like, I generally find myself by myself when hunting rabbits. I have hunting buddies who dearly love to hunt rabbits and get sidetracked when hunting quail if they find a pocket of bunnies, but I prefer to hunt rabbits like big game. Usually I sit with binoculars watching a small clearing with the .22, but the distances are usually short and if I don't have binoculars in the truck when I decide to go, it's not a big deal.

Sitting quietly with your own thoughts is not a bad way to begin or end a day. All the unimportant clutter filters out of your mind while you watch the scrub jays, hear the first coyote howl of the evening, and maybe even see a cottontail come out of the brush and feed its way along the edge of some chemise.

Sometimes I'll still hunt along a wash, rather than sitting, but I force myself to not cover more than 200 yards or so in that magic first or last hour. You take a step and watch for a black eye looking toward you, catch every movement and flicker. Another half step. It's not a whole lot different than sitting in one spot.

I don't bring a lot of game home hunting this way, but I suspect that's not entirely the point. It's the first hunt of the new season.

Rabbit hunting primer

Like with most other small and upland game, rabbits are creatures of their habitat, and good rain years generally translate into good rabbit years. Bad water years, like this one, seems to concentrate the rabbits in areas where the moisture and feed are best. Find the spots where the water and feed is good, and you'll find rabbits even in these dry years.

Scouting: That requires a little scouting. Since I often don't bother or have time to scout prior to the season, my scouting is usually done with a .22 in hand -- just in case. I mostly hunt Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land. Two to five-year old foothill burns in canyons that have seasonal or permanent water are usually hot spots because they allow for lots of fresh vegetation and -- more importantly for us -- enough openings for visibility. In more arid areas of our deserts, hunting rabbits like big game makes sense: focus on the northeast-facing slopes where there is more vegetation and cover. I focus most of my scouting in chaparral and pinon-juniper habitats, and driving dirt roads after dark is a good way to find areas with concentrations of bunnies.

Binoculars: I learned a long time ago that you see more game by looking than walking. This is just as true with rabbits as big game, and I hunt with a binocular around my neck. Since most game is spotted at first or last light, I like binoculars that have an exit pupil of at least 4 mm (divide the power into the diameter of the object lens to determine exit pupil), which lets out most compacts for me. The greater exit pupil allows you to see better in low light, allowing you to peer into deep brushy shadows and see game at last shooting light.

Rifles and Ammo: One word here -- accurate. For more of my rabbit hunting, I use one of two rifles, an Anschutz Model 1516 in .22 magnum or a Ruger M77/22 in the regular .22 rimfire round. Both bolt rifles are accurate. I know that I can hit a rabbit in the head at 50 yards with either gun. In fact, I'm pretty confident with the .22 mag on out to 125-yard shots. I find most shots are from 20 to 40 yards, almost always on sitting game. There's not a lot of meat on the front quarters of a yearling rabbit, and if you are more comfortable with this bigger target, instead of the head, use the front quarters as your aiming point. Both shots will anchor a rabbit quickly and humanely. With the .22 mag, I generally use Winchester Supreme 34-grain load, Federal's Premium 30-grain load, or the new CCI 30-grain TNT load, while with the .22, I use Winchester Power Points or Remington Yellowjackets.

Game Care: Try to clean and skin your rabbits within two hours after you shoot them. If you happen to shoot them in the guts, clean them quicker. Don't leave them in a game bag or truck bed half a day. I like to get them cleaned and in marinade within an hour and have them the next day, or that evening if it was a morning hunt. If you want to save up three or four rabbits for a bigger gathering, rabbits retain their wonderful flavor even after freezing. I would recommend a vacuum freezing system to eliminate freezer burn, or you can freeze rabbits in those hefty freezer bags filled with water so the rabbit is completely encased in ice. That helps eliminate the contact with air that causes freezer burn.

I like rabbits just about any way they are prepared -- in stews (with big shitake mushrooms, ummmmm), grilled, fried, or even baked. I probably barbecue them (after soaking in one of several simple marinades) more than any other method. They are better than chicken.

WHERE BIG CATFISH COME FROM -- matthews column 12jun02

Giving a new meaning to the term `trophy cat'

The four men slipped into the waist deep water, wading around in the dark with huge nets. The muddy bottom sucked at their feet. Tropical birds shrieked out their night calls and then a lion roared. A huge Egyptian goose, flushed from its night-time bed, startled by the men struggling with a large fish in the net. Repeatedly, the night sounds would send fear into the men's throats, goosebumps ran down their spines. Were there crocodiles in the muddy water? Hippopotamus?

The four were netting huge catfish that would be transferred to one of four popular fishing lakes in urban Southern California -- Santa Ana River Lakes, Anaheim Lake, Corona Lake, or Irvine Lake.

But they weren't in Africa or Asia doing their netting, they were in Southern California. The catfish were 30 to 60-pound fish that were to be the centerpiece of summer angling for several years at these lakes, and some are almost certainly still swimming in these waters today. But the true story of where those trophy catfish came from could never be told before because the men catching them were sworn to secrecy.

Today, Bill Andrews, who along with his partner Doug Elliott, own and manage the recreational fishing programs at Santa Ana River Lakes, Anaheim Lake, and Corona Lake, and formerly ran Irvine Lake as well, will tell the story of those trophy cats.

Do you remember Lion Country Safari and its water rides? Well, all of the canals where those boats cruised were filled with huge catfish. Sometimes the cats would get caught between one of the boats and its rail track, damaging the boat and tipping people into the drink. The big catfish also would horrify visitors by eating ducklings in the spring. Kids would be feeding the birds, and "sploosh" a duckling would disappear in a swirl and splash.

"They wanted us to get them out of there but didn't want anyone to know because some people treated them like pets and fed them. So we would get in those canals at night with seines and catch those huge catfish. It was the eeriest darn thing to catch those fish with all those birds calling and lions roaring," said Andrews.

"We got tons and tons of fish from them, and I don't think there was anything under 25 pounds and there were 50 and 60-pounders. They wanted them out, so we eventually cleaned `em out," said Andrews.

The story can be told since that Lion Country Safari closed its doors. Anglers now know those big trophy cats they caught at Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona grew up listening to the calls of African wildlife and eating baby Egyptian geese and mallards. Hot dogs and popcorn made them heavyweights.

Now, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story.

Because of the size of those fish, many of them have survived for years in Corona Lake, which continues to produce a few monstrous cats each year. The biggest catfish caught at Corona was a 55-pounder landed by Mike Bradshaw of Riverside, and Smokey Wilson of Los Angeles nearly broke Bradshaw's record with a 54.6-pounder. The same week Wilson caught his fish in Oct. 1999, a 68.4-pound cat was found dying at Corona Lake. The fish had an array of lines and hooks in its mouth.

At Santa Ana River Lakes, the record catfish was a 67 1/2-pounder caught by Lee Porter of Los Angeles -- one of those Lion Country Safari cats. That fish that might have made the trip back and forth between Santa Ana and Anaheim Lake a time or two before it was finally landed by Porter. Both of those lakes are drawn down for maintenance each year and fish are netted and moved to the other lake. There are still a few big ones that make the trip each year, but the numbers have grown fewer each year and most of the super trophies are almost gone.

Andrews is nostalgic about those old days when he, Doug Elliott, his brother Craig Elliott, and Louie Cervantes netted those Lion Country cats.

"There were a couple of summer's there where we had 40 and 50-pounders caught each week," said Andrews.

Now the biggest catfish he can buy from suppliers are mere 10 pounders. No one is raising bigger fish.

"We're going to put in the biggest fish we can find this year," said Andrews. But then he sighed. "But the best we can get right now are only 10 pounders -- and they're rare. The fish growers we work with in the state grow lots of two and three pounders, and we can get lots of five and six pounders, but those eight to 10 pounders are rare."

Now most anglers are thrilled with five and six pound catfish, but Andrews and Elliott have spoiled anglers with their stockings of Phil Mackey's Mt. Lassen Trout Farms rainbow trout. Each of the past two years, Santa Ana River Lakes tackle shop alone weighed in over 500 rainbows bigger than 10 pounds. In fact, there were over 1,000 trout over 10 pounds at SARL last season and right at 600 this season, including six trout bigger than the current state record rainbow of 23 pounds. Add in Corona Lake's whoppers and there have been around 2,000 rainbows over 10 pounds caught at the two lakes the past two years.

So you can understand why Andrews is little wistful about catfish season. He'd like to have 20-pound and bigger catfish available for his fishing customers. Andrews will hint that Phil Mackey is working with catfish now and expects that Mackey will be growing 60- to 100-pound catfish someday.

Hundred-pounders! It won't be this year, but it will happen. This year anglers will have to be content with fish up to a mere 10 pounds -- along with one of those occasional Lion Country Safari fish that has managed to survive over the years. Perhaps these veteran fish pull harder and fight harder than regular hatchery fish -- after all, they did grow up in the jungle. These were catfish listening to the roar of lions.

Popular San Diego sportboat captain Manny Silva dies at 88

SAN DIEGO -- Captain Manny Silva, a rare man who touched the lives of many people during his 50-plus year career in the sportfishing industry, passed away Saturday at the age of 88.

Manny began his career in 1938 as a deckhand aboard Mel Shear's sportfisher Mascot III which operated from H&M Landing's original location at the foot of Broadway. He had arrived in San Diego from his hometown in Tulare, Calif., where he spent his youth working on his family's dairy farm. At 24 he decided that fish and people, not cows, would be his life work.

He served in the navy from 1942 until 1946 as bosun's mate in World War II on assignments that took him throughout the Pacific. He returned to San Diego, got his skippers license and took the helm of the Mascot III in 1948. It was aboard the Mascot III that he met his wife Louise where she worked as the galley cook.

Over the next five decades, Manny served on 15 sportfishers including the Miss California, NuGaGa, Worrier II, Worrier IV, Worrier VII, Sportfisher V, Aztec II, Mascot IV, Speed Twin and Malihini. When he retired in 1988, it was estimated that he had steered more than 500,000 anglers into some two million fish during his illustrious 50-year career.

Manny loved the sea and enjoyed the daily challenges of finding fish and working with people. Through he years he helped many new crewmen up through the ranks, sharing expertise and information generously. He was a gentleman, a living legend who was recognized by all for his soft spoken manner and his willingness to go out of way to help others.

Captain Ben Griffin of Morning Star Charters, like so many others, remembers Manny as a very special man who always had a smile and a helping hand.

"When I got my first helm on the Sabre in 1966, Manny would go out of way. If he found fish, he'd readily share the information. There not one person I can imagine that has anything but praise for Manny Silva," said Griffin.

Phil Lobred, owner of H&M Landing said, "Manny was the nicest man I ever knew."

Doug Warriner, a friend of Manny's for more than 20 years said, "I've met a lot of people in my lifetime, Manny was the very best I've ever known."

Manny is survived by his son Phil and his wife Kathy, grandson David, all of San Diego, and his sisters Mary DeMello of Hesperia and Francis Schaffenberger of Colorado.

A celebration service is planned for 10 a.m. Monday, June 17th, at the Sacred Heart Church of Ocean Beach. In lieu of flowers the family suggests a donation to the American Cancer Society.

SPORTS FAIR FOLLOW AND MORE -- matthews column 5jun02

Exhibition shooters were worth price of admission at Shooting Sports Fair

NORCO -- It wasn't planned, but when three of the finest speed handgun shooters in the world found themselves together giving individual exhibitions at the same show this past weekend at the Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair, something was bound to happen.

What happened were two of the most amazing and entertaining impromptu shooting events ever seen in Southern California. Rob Leatham, Todd Jarrett, and Jerry Miculek, probably have won every major handgun shooting event in the nation between them, multiple times. When they get together, it is usually in a competition. It usually comes down to one or the other winning the event.

At the Shooting Sports Fair, they couldn't help themselves. They set up an informal competition between the three of them as an exhibition. Fair schedules were adjusted and crowds gathered to watch. The game was pig. One of the shooters would make up an event, shoot, and the other two would have to beat his time. You lose, you get a letter. Lose three times. You're the pig. The slow pig, as it were.

"You know what we do with pigs in the South," drawled Miculek, a Louisiana native and known as the world's fastest revolver shooter. "We make `em squeal."

He said that after putting six shots from his revolver on a paper target in just over a second, beating the other two shooting their autoloading pistols -- which Miculek called "bottom feeders" -- by a slim margin.

Those of us watching went from being in awe to laughing as the trio shot and heckled each other. Miculek, the elder statesman of the trio, won the fun competition on Saturday and Jarrett won on Sunday. Leatham, who acted as ringleader both days, finished last both times -- graciously and with a sense of humor. If he missed a steel target, he'd shoot an extra time or two, then peak around at the crowd to see if anyone noticed that he'd taken an extra shot.

The exhibition ended on Sunday with the trio in a "gunfight" with about 20 falling steel targets that were mowed down in less than three seconds. It was worth the price of admission.

Turner's Hunter Safety Class Closure

With the closure of the Turner's Outdoorsman hunter safety classes, formerly the largest classes in the state, there will be some 2,000 students a year who will need to find a class in Southern California. At least three of the course instructors in the region are gearing up to try to field the additional students they expect to come to their classes. Jim Everitt (909-874-2449) of the West End Gun Club said they normally teach 25 to 30 students, but could handle up to 100 at the clubhouse in Ontario. Blaine Allen (909-781-4868), who runs classes at the Inland Fish and Game range in Redlands, said they could probably double their normal student class size. Tom Harris (909-987-0811), who runs classes at his home in Rancho Cucamonga, could field up to nearly 200 students if needed, but normally has classes that are much smaller.

For a complete list of classes available, first-time California hunters should check the DFG's website at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/he_classes.html. You can also call the DFG in Long Beach at (562) 590-5185 for information on classes.

Bart Crabb Passes

Bart Crabb, a rabble-rousing outdoor writer from the Midwest who settled in Southern California to write about bass fishing, died after a long illness this past weekend. Crabb was most well-known as the author of "The Quest for the World Record Bass," an amazing compilation from across the nation of big fish data and interviews with anglers who pursue trophy largemouths. Crabb chronicled all the information around every big bass caught each year, as much for his own use as for any story. Bart wanted to catch that big one, too, and he figured the more he knew gave him an edge.

Many who knew Bart didn't know his biggest largemouth was a 15-pound, 9-ouncer, but his biggest battle was his win over alcoholism. I admired him for both. He was a buddy, and I'll miss him.

Sports Fair attracts big crowds over three days

NORCO -- The Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair, the largest hands-on gun show in the country, attracted its biggest crowds ever this past Friday and Saturday, while numbers might have been slightly lower on Sunday, perhaps due to the Laker's playoff basketball game.

"Overall, it was the best show we've had in a long time," said Mike Raahauge of the annual three-day event.

The trio of exhibition handgun shooters -- Rob Leatham, Todd Jarrett, and Jerry Miculek -- drew tremendous crowds for all of their sessions, and the three shooters put on a group show Saturday and Sunday, jointly demonstrating their speed shooting skills with pistols and revolvers. They also had a series of competitive events, where each shooter choose an event. The three put on an amazing exhibition of speed shooting and had the crowd laughing all the way through.

"Those guys are simply amazing," said Raahauge. "I'm not much of a pistol shooter, and I really enjoyed watching them. That revolver shooter -- Miculek -- was amazing. Anyone who is in to handgun shooting and didn't come out and watch those guys shoot missed an amazing show."

John Cloherty's exhibition shotgun event was also -- as always -- a real crowd pleaser, especially his creation of the "half-acre salad" at the end of his show. Winds in the afternoon made the event like a Gallagher Sledge-O-Matic performance where folks downwind needed rain jackets or plastic sheeting.

In previous years, it was estimated something on the order of 1/2 million rounds of ammunition were fired over the two days. Raahauge said there were over 20,000 rounds of shotgun ammunition shot just on the five-stand and sporting clays courses, and Steve Johnson of Remington said they went through more than double the ammunition they shot last year.

The tentative dates for next year's Sports Fair are May 30, 31, and June 1.

California Deer Association has first banquet slated for June 22

NORCO -- The Southern California Chapter of the California Deer Association will have its first banquet-auction Saturday, June 22, at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises to raise money to fund deer habitat work in the Golden State. CDA is working with the Mule Deer Foundation to jointly fund projects in California, allowing both organizations' money to have more impact on the ground, according to Glen Tessers, CDA committee member for the SoCal Chapter. The group has already funding controlled burns, studies on deer herd migration, mountain lion predation in California, and one of the groups in a coalition battling to keep cattle water flowing on the Mojave National Preserve. In all, since it was formed in 1996, it has put over $1 million into on-the-ground projects.

Tessers said that more than 200 people signed up to become members of the new Southern California Chapter at the International Sportsmen's Exhibition in Pomona earlier this year, and the group will have a booth this weekend at the Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair in Norco. Banquet tickets are $60 per person or $95 per couple. Juniors 15 and under pay only $35. For more information on the dinner, contact Tessers at (310) 973-8148 in the evenings or via e-mail at glen.tessers@trw.com. You can learn more about the CDA at its website at www.caldeer.com.

Quail Unlimited snake avoidance clinic set for June 29 in Riverside

The Riverside Chapter of Quail Unlimited is hosting a June 29 snake avoidance clinic for hunters and other pet owners who take their dogs in the field. The class is a proven method to snake-proof dogs and prevent dangerous snake bites. The class is conducted by experienced Nevada dog handler and trainer Bob Kettle. Cost for the class is $50 per dog, and the pets must be at least six months old. Classes will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are required. For more information, contact Lee O'Donnell at (909) 735-7748.

August 6 deadline to apply for SoCal upland bird hunts

LOS ALAMITOS -- There will be three special dove hunts and one special quail hunt held this year as part of the Department of Fish and Game's Game Bird Heritage Program, designed to increase hunter opportunity in the region, and the deadline to apply for these hunts is August 6. For the dove opener, there will be hunts on September 1 in the Cuyama Valley in Santa Barbara County, Peace Valley near Gorman in Los Angeles County, and the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve in San Diego County. There will also be a Sept. 2 (Labor Day) hunt at Rancho Jamul, and an Oct. 19 and 20 (quail opener) hunts at Peace Valley.

There will be morning and afternoon hunts at each location each day for the dove opener, while the two quail hunts are morning-only events. To apply, hunters need to send in a standard-sized postcard which includes each applicants name, address, day and evening phone numbers, and 2002-2003 hunting license number. Up to two people may apply together. You must also specify which hunt and time period you prefer. You may apply only once for each hunt, but you may submit a postcard application for each hunt. Postcards should be sent to Department of Fish and Game, Game Bird Heritage Special Dove/Quail Hunts, 4665 Lampson Ave., Suite C, Los Alamitos, CA 90720, attention Scott Sewell. For more information, contact Sewell at the 24-hour game bird hotline at (562) 590-5100.

SPORTS FAIR SPEED SHOOTING -- matthews column 29may01

Sports Fair features hot handgunners

In the real old West, the frequency of high-noon faceoffs at 25 paces, made famous in B-Western movies, only happened on occasion and usually among contestants who had been drinking too much.

There is apparently a true but embarrassing tale of two coattail relatives who retired to the street, drew their guns, blazed away at each other from only a few paces until both revolvers were empty, and not a wound administered. The two stood in silence while the adrenaline. drained from their bodies and the smoke from the event cleared from between them. They both came to realize that neither was worse off. Finally, one broke the silence by suggesting that they both go home and get axes, something a man living on the frontier probably used more frequently than his revolver. They started laughing and ended up going back into the saloon to get drunk together, both vowing eternal friendship and to practice more with their guns.

The few real gunfighters of the old West would turn ghostly pale and probably decide that leaving the county was a good idea if they could have seen the likes of the three handgun shooters -- Jerry Miculek, Todd Jarrett, and Rob Leatham -- who will be giving shooting exhibitions this Saturday and Sunday at the annual Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair in Prado Basin in Norco.

Jerry Miculek has the title of the fastest revolver shooter in the world, actually setting a world record by placing eight shots from his Smith & Wesson on a target in one second. One-thousand-one. That long. Eight shots on target.

Todd Jarrett is considered by many to be the best handgun shooter in the world, and he has won five national championships and held the world championship title four consecutive years in practical handgun shooting competitions. Practical handgun shooting events are kind of set up like gunfights or combat situations, but those terms are politically incorrect so the events are called "practical." Practical for military, police, and 7-11 clerks.

Rob Leatham can beat either Miculek or Jarrett on any given day and might actually have more titles than either of the other two shooters -- including at least 12 national titles and three world titles -- also in these "practical"-type shooting events.

The first time I saw Leatham shoot was in at the Steel Challenge event over a decade ago. This is a neat event where you have to draw and shoot a series of steel targets at different distances and of different sizes. The clock starts at a buzzer and ends when the last plate falls. There are several stages, and I'm fuzzy now on all the rules. I do know that you can throw out your worst time on each stage. Well, Leatham had the best time on one stage and still had to shoot it again. What-the-heck, he decided to pull out the stops. I don't remember the actual time he completed the stage, but if you blinked you missed it. I remember everyone who was watching jointly say, "ouuuuu." It was like some quiet Eastern chant arose from the spectators. The sounds of the slugs hitting each target seemed to come all at once. Other competitors shook their heads in disbelief. A guy sitting next to me said "that's impossible." He was looking around for a grassy knoll, sure there was a second shooter.

That was the first time I thought that the gunfighters of the old West wouldn't have had a chance.

Muculek's feats convinced me even more because he was using a revolver. Not a whole lot different than the cowboys. Eight shots in a second on a single target is one thing, but he also put two shots each on four different targets in 1.06 seconds. That's the whole Earp clan mowed down. The third world record he set back in 1999 was 12 shots on one target in 2.99 seconds. With a revolver. He had to fire six shots, reload, and shoot six more times. It took you more time to read that last sentence than it did for Miculek to accomplish the feat.

"I can't say [what spectators will see] will be that fast, but it'll give `em an idea of what can be done with a revolver," said Miculek about his daily shows on Saturday and Sunday.

Does he see himself a steely-eyed sheriff from the old West misplaced in time and space? Would he have been the protector of Tombstone if he'd have lived in that time?

"Well, I'd probably have been like the rest of the guys back then where you sneak up behind the bad guys and shoot `em in the back. You lived a lot longer that way," laughed Miculek.

[On both Saturday and Sunday, Leatham's shooting exhibition begins at 1 p.m., followed by Jarrett at 2 p.m., and Miculek at 3 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults with kids 14 and under free. The Shooting Sports Fair is the largest hands-on gun show in the nation where those who attend the event can actually shoot all of the latest firearms -- rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Show hours are noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information or directions, call Raahauge's Shotgun Sports at (909) 735-7981.

SPORTS FAIR STORY PACKAGE -- matthews-ons 29may02

`Hands-On' Shooting Sports Fair to be held May 31-June 2 at Raahauge's

NORCO -- The 2002 version of the Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair -- the original hands-on gun show -- will be held May 31-June 2 at Raahauge's facility in Norco. The Sports Fair remains not only the first but the largest hands-on gun show in the nation where you can actually shoot nearly everything on display. This is the ultimate test drive because you can shoot dozens of different firearms at the same place.

In addition to the opportunity to shoot just about any firearm made today, the Sports Fair will have a whole host of shooting related activities, seminars, demonstrations and displays that have made many visitors decide to come back for a second day when they found they couldn't do and see everything at the show in a single day.

The top seminars for this year's show include:

Exhibition shooting displays will be put on each day by three of the finest pistol shooters in the world -- Rob Leatham (who was at the show last year), Jerry Miculek, and Todd Jarrett.

"This is the best collection of exhibition pistol shooters ever gathered in one place at one time," said Mike Raahauge, show organizer.

John Cloherty, one of the most versatile trick shooters who uses rifles, handguns and shotguns, will put on daily shooting exhibitions that include creation of the half-acre salad in a dazzling display of shotgun shooting.

For enthusiasts of new firearms, here are some of the new products hunters and shooters can see at the Sports Fair along with other activities worth noting:

-- The hottest new varmint and rimfire round going -- the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire -- will be at the fair. Both Ruger and Marlin are expected to have their new guns in this caliber, and you can ogle the new ammo at the Hornady booth. Hunters who have been shooting the new round are already calling it the "sexy .17 rimfire."

-- You've read all the hype about the new short magnums from Remington and Winchester, well both companies, along with Browning, will have a variety of short mags there to see and shoot in the latest rifles -- from the .270 WSM to the .300 Ultra SA.

-- You've read about the new ultra-lightweight Smith & Wesson scandium or Taurus titanium handguns in .357 magnum or .44 Special and the idea of such a light, powerful gun appeals to you, but you weren't sure if you could handle the recoil or muzzle blast from such a light gun. Well, here you can shoot a couple of cylinders-full of ammunition and make an informed decision

-- You can shoot a round of Sporting Clays or Five Stand using the latest shotguns from Winchester, Browning, and others. And do it at bargain prices that include ammunition and targets ($10 for a round of 25).

-- You will want to stop by the California Sporting Goods Association's booth and spin the wheel of fortune a time or two. For every $5 spin you win a prize of that value and have a chance to win much more.

-- Pick up a copy of the Turner's Outdoorsman coupon book -- available only to fair goers -- that has more than $10,000 worth of savings on shooting, hunting, and firearm products. It's free and the coupons are good for the month or two after the show.

-- Nostalgia freak? You might want to go just to shoot a genuine, restored Gatlin gun, cranking out a 20, 50 or 100 rounds. (We don't want to know what you're imagining when you do that.) Or Learn about Cowboy Action shooting and fire authentic guns from the old West, or watch the mounted posse show how the cowboys did it in the old days from the backs of their steeds.

-- Or maybe you just want to shoot the new Ruger .480, one of the most powerful handgun rounds in the world. Maybe you have an elk hunt scheduled for this fall and want to actually shoot one of the new Remington Model 700 7mm Ultra Mags before buying one. Or do you want to test the new Marlin .450 lever gun to see if it truly lives up to its billing as the ultimate bear and pig gun.

-- For sure, you'll want to visit the kid's Red Ryder air rifle booth. It is a blast for both kids and adults. Joel DePaoli, who has run the booth the past several years, has expanded the booth size so the lines don't get too long and the kids can shoot even more at this free shooting booth.

-- Or take the family to the Turner's Outdoorsman Women's and Youth Shooting Booth allows women and youngsters an opportunity to shoot .22 rimfires and 20 gauge shotguns while getting instruction in gun safety and shooting techniques. These two are good first stops for families before heading to other shooting stations.

Admission to the show is $12 for adults per day, and parking is free this year. There is a $5 fee for preferred parking, with all of the proceeds for this parking fee going to the California Sporting Goods Association to battle anti-gun politicians. You can pick up a $2 off admission discount coupon at all Turner's Outdoorsman stores. On Friday, women are admitted free, and kids 14 and under get in free all three days.

There will also be National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) booths outside the show grounds, and if you sign up for NRA and/or GOA memberships, you will gain free admittance to the show. Show hours are noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information or directions, call Raahauge's Shotgun Sports at (909) 735-7981.

SHOOTING SPORTS FAIR: JOHN CLOHERTY FEATURE -- 29may02

John Cloherty sees the world through rose-colored glasses

NORCO -- John Cloherty buys aspirin by the hundreds but he doesn't use them to ease the pain of headaches. In fact, he might give a few headaches as he shoots the aspirin out of the air with a .22 rifle. But he also likes to blast clay targets in flight with his revolver, and he prefers making his tossed salads with a shotgun.

While some people might see this activity as a bit odd, Cloherty is seeing the world through rose-colored glasses -- both figuratively and literally. The 47-year-old Pasadena resident has the reputation as one of the finest exhibition shooters in the West, reviving the era when all of the major firearm manufacturers had traveling road shows with trick shooters who used shotguns, rifles and pistols in their often incredible displays of marksmanship. It's like living a dream for the long-time shooter and hunter.

"This career has developed well past my wildest dreams," said Cloherty, who will be returning the weekend of May 31-June 2 to the place where his career was launched 15 years ago. "I watched Dan Carlisle, one of the best exhibition shooters in the world, perform here. I was just amazed, and 10 minutes later I decided I wanted to learn how to do some of those tricks."

Cloherty had watched Carlisle, an Olympic medalist in shotgun shooting, at the Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair. This year, Cloherty will return to the Sports Fair as the headlining exhibition shooter at this annual event. And he's adding some new twists to the succession of outstanding exhibition shooting programs that have been a benchmark of this show since its inception.

"I'm trying to bring a wider range of guns into my act than has ever been done in recent years,'" said Cloherty of his daily performances. "Using shotguns, rifles, and handguns hasn't been done since the 1920s and 30s."

Cloherty, who set a world record at the Sports Fair for the most clay targets broken in one hour at 4,551, also sees his exhibitions as a benefit to the shooting sports and gun ownership in general.

"This is a way for all people to see that those of us who like to use guns are not insane whackos in a tower some where. We are just people who like to go out with their guns and have fun," said Cloherty.

He uses the booming growth of sporting clays shotgun shooting, as an example of a tremendously fun and safe sport that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

The Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair, which was the first firearms show in the nation that was a hands-on affair, allowing those attending the show to both look at and shoot the latest in firearms, has never had an exhibition shooter that used anything other than shotguns in his program. Cloherty uses a .22 rifle to break a succession of smaller targets in the air, finishing with Alka-Seltzer and aspirin tablets. He also uses a .45 auto handgun to break aerial targets. But shotgun shooting is his specialty. His trademarks are a brilliant-colored gun and an over-the-head shooting style. He can also break targets shooting between his legs like a football center, while holding the gun upside down. He calls this stunt the "quarterback's nightmare."

The perennial favorite of his program is something all of the shotgun exhibition shooters call the "quarter-acre salad." There is something about watching cabbages and watermelons explode that delights an audience. Attendees of the Shooting Sports Fair have watched Dan Carlisle, John Satterwhite, and Tom Knapp do their versions of the salad in the past. Cloherty says "I do believe that I'm 10 times messier than anyone who does it. It just has gotten messier and messier over the years. I go through a supermarket now and wonder, `how would that blow up?' Everyone loves it."

Cloherty brings more than a visual element to the show. He has found that shotgun-exploded onions add a wonderful aroma to the program.

In fact, it brings tears to your eyes.

But for Cloherty, who wears rose-colored shooting glasses, they are tears of joy because it has allowed him to turn his avocation into a career.

[Cloherty's shooting exhibitions will be 3 p.m. Friday, and noon both Saturday and Sunday. Admission to the Sports Fair is $12 for adults with kids 14 and under free. Show hours are noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information or directions, call Raahauge's Shotgun Sports at (909) 735-7981.]

Quail Unlimited snake avoidance clinic set for June 29 in Riverside

The Riverside Chapter of Quail Unlimited is hosting a June 29 snake avoidance clinic for hunters and other pet owners who take their dogs in the field. The class is a proven method to snake-proof dogs and prevent dangerous snake bites. The class is conducted by experienced Nevada dog handler and trainer Bob Kettle. Cost for the class is $50 per dog, and the pets must be at least six months old. Classes will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are required. For more information, contact Lee O'Donnell at (909) 735-7748

August 6 deadline to apply for SoCal upland bird hunts

LOS ALAMITOS -- There will be three special dove hunts and one special quail hunt held this year as part of the Department of Fish and Game's Game Bird Heritage Program, designed to increase hunter opportunity in the region, and the deadline to apply for these hunts is August 6. For the dove opener, there will be hunts on September 1 in the Cuyama Valley in Santa Barbara County, Peace Valley near Gorman in Los Angeles County, and the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve in San Diego County. There will also be a Sept. 2 (Labor Day) hunt at Rancho Jamul, and an Oct. 19 and 20 (quail opener) hunts at Peace Valley.

There will be morning and afternoon hunts at each location each day for the dove opener, while the two quail hunts are morning-only events. To apply, hunters need to send in a standard-sized postcard which includes each applicants name, address, day and evening phone numbers, and 2002-2003 hunting license number. Up to two people may apply together. You must also specify which hunt and time period you prefer. You may apply only once for each hunt, but you may submit a postcard application for each hunt. Postcards should be sent to Department of Fish and Game, Game Bird Heritage Special Dove/Quail Hunts, 4665 Lampson Ave., Suite C, Los Alamitos, CA 90720, attention Scott Sewell. For more information, contact Sewell at the 24-hour game bird hotline at (562) 590-5100.

MOJAVE PRESERVE CONSIDERING KEEPING WATER -- matthews -- 22may

Cattle water developments may be preserved in Mojave to support native wildlife

KELSO -- Cattle water developments that have supported wildlife for up to 100 years in the East Mojave may be retained even as cattle allotments are retired. Sportsmen came away from a meeting Tuesday with the National Park Service and Department of Interior staff heartened that there was now at least a dialogue that could lead to the retention of important water sources for wildlife.

But no one was holding their breath.

Cliff McDonald, a Needles sportsman who pulled together a diverse coalition of sporting groups who applied pressure to retain the cattle water development locally and through Washington D.C., said he was disappointed that some water sources already shut down would not be restored during this drought year. But the door was left open to retain other water sources and even to restore those in Carruthers Canyon.

"We got a lot of people together who should be on this issue," said McDonald of the representatives at the meeting, which included Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, Safari Club, the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, the Mule Deer Foundation, California Deer Association, Quail Unlimited, Western Gamebird Alliance, and California Varmint Callers. "I feel that we made a point -- that we're not going to roll over and just let this happen."

But it was also clear that park superintendent Mary Martin didn't believe the cattle water was either necessary or even allowed under rules that guide her management of the preserve. Under the biological opinion written for the endangered desert tortoise, all cattle water must be turned off in tortoise habitat when cows are no longer on an allotment.

Paul Hoffman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, was less pessimistic about what could be done. "We want to take all of this information back and see what we can do to work this out. Hopefully, we can work this out to benefit everybody and get a win-win situation."

Hoffman said there were a lot of competing uses and conflicting regulations and guidelines that the park service must follow, but that "there are a lot of flexibilities built in" that would allow for artificial water to be maintained on the preserve.

The meeting was held at the Hole-In-The-Wall Visitor Center in the middle of the preserve. Afterward, I drove up Wild Horse Canyon and saw four mule deer adjacent to one of the still-functioning windmills, and the area was tracked up with deer sign. According to my maps, the nearest open water for deer was a natural spring nearly four miles away. There's no doubt in my mind, these deer would use that spring water if the windmill and stock tank were moved, but it would reduce the available habitat these deer could use and probably would result in lower numbers overall. Deer, like cattle, tend to stay close to their water sources. With lots of water they distribute and move, making their impact on the habitat more general, making predators' jobs tougher. Their numbers increase. This isn't rocket science.

Some of us fail to see how this is a bad thing, especially if you can't document significant negative impacts with the added water. It's not like we want to add water into an environment that doesn't have any? There are over 100 natural springs on the preserve, and the preserve staff have agreed not to pull out the 133 small game guzzlers and six big game guzzlers. How is the historic cattle water any different?

The park service sees the additional water as "enhancing" the area unnaturally for wildlife. Some would even like the guzzlers to go. Sportsmen conservationists see enhancement and mitigation as our role. We need to help restore some of the historic water sources and wildlife populations that once existed in these areas. If one in six canyons has a natural spring, what's wrong with adding water to two or three more canyons with windmills and water tanks feeding small drinker boxes?

At the meeting, one of those against "artificial" water suggested that perhaps adding water for bighorn sheep wasn't a good idea. It didn't seem to matter than on a range of mountains in the preserve that once held only an occasional group of sheep now has a population of over 200 thanks solely to the addition of water. It didn't seem to matter that bighorn sheep once numbered over a million in the West and now the number is a tiny fraction of that. Adding that water was artificial and somehow wrong.

The difference is philosophy. Neither side is really right or wrong, but it comes down to how you feel about our role in managing and protecting resources. Some of believe that in today's world of impacted environments we should be "enhancing" places like the preserve for all 300 species of plants and animals that live there -- not just endangered species, not just game species, but all of them. The removal of cattle and burros will be a boon for plant species and other species that depend on those plants. Closures of many of the dirt roads will benefit tortoises and many other species. Controlling raven numbers (at 1,500 percent of historic levels) would help so many species, protecting them from the ravens' increased predation.

But the decision to be proactive is sometimes the hardest one. Burros and ravens need to be shot. That would be hugely controversial. Vegetative management and plantings may be needed for some plant species. But the hands-off crowd is against that. Herbicide use on non-native plant species would be a good thing -- but impossible because of political constraints. Removing some cattle water may even prove to benefit some species. We don't know that to be true now, but we do know that the water helps many species. The preserve is an incredible resource now, it could even be better with aggressive management that includes enhancement. With an ever shrinking natural world, we need to optimize what we have for wildlife. That requires a change in management philosophy for the National Park Service, and there's not a place better for that to start than on the Mojave National Preserve.

AMMO TAX, SPORTS FAIR -- matthews column 15may02

New tax: 5 cents for each round of ammo

Members of the California legislature are proposing a constitutional amendment that would charge a five-cent tax on every round of ammunition, or ammunition component, sold in the state to pay for medical expenses of victims of illegal firearm activity. So, those of us who use firearms responsibly would be forced to pay exorbitant prices for ammunition because of the illegal activity of a minuscule few?

Rimfire ammunition costs less than $2.50 for a box of 50 rounds. Many brands sell for a $1 to $1.50. The tax would more than double the price of the ammo. That five cent tax would also be charged for each primer or bullet sold to reloaders, and potentially -- depending on how literally our state attorney general would construe the law -- for every pellet bought for shotshell reloading. When you consider that a one-ounce load of 7 1/2s has 350 of those tiny pellets, the cost of reloading a single trap load would really get exorbitant -- at $17.50 just in taxes for the shot.

There is something on the order of 5 billion rounds of just .22 rimfire ammunition sold and shot in the this country each year. That 5,000,000,000. Add in centerfire rifle, pistol, and shotgun ammunition shot each year and the number of rounds sold and shot probably triples. How much of all that ammunition is used illegally? If you count the ammunition just in guns held by crooks, shot or not, it still probably only amounts to a few thousand rounds. I'm pretty sure I shoot more ammunition recreationally, legally each year than all criminals combined do illegally.

So you don't own a gun or shoot and don't care? How about this: Lets charge a $2 per gallon tax on gasoline to pay for death and damage caused by arson fires set with gasoline. Oh, now you'd howl. Proportionally, the tax on rimfire ammunition would be about the same as a $2 per gallon tax on gasoline. And proportionally, there's probably about the same amount of gasoline used to set illegal fires as ammunition used in crimes. But what correlation is there between the gas you use in your sedan and some yahoo setting fires in Bouquet Canyon? It's the same for ammunition. None.

This is brain-dead legislation. I would find it difficult to vote for a legislator who can't see the bias and prejudice in this amendment. How rational and sensible would they be on other issues? It's not just bad law, it's a scary mind-set.

HAPPY SOUNDS OF GUNFIRE: Sort of an antithesis to this mind-numbing bias against anything "gun," the annual Shooting Sports Fair will be held May 31-June 2 2002 at Mike Raahauge's shooting facilities in Norco. This event remains the largest hands-on gun show in the nation, where everyone who attends the event can shoot all of the latest guns from all of the nation's makers of sporting and personal protection firearms.

And there's so much cool new stuff this year. Well, at least things I'm interested in shooting. Ruger and Marlin will have rifles chambered for the first new rimfire cartridge in three decades -- the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire. Smith & Wesson will have its new ultralight Scandium-framed .357 revolvers to shoot. Ideal hunting and fishing vest or backpack guns, they weigh less than a pound. And Legacy Sports will have it's .454 Casull Model 92 Puma lever rifles there -- the ultimate wild hog and bear gun.

Something on the order of 12,000 of us will attend this show and shoot about a half-million rounds during the three days of the event. Hummmm.... If we all coughed up a nickel for every round we shot that would be $25,000 to fight the ammunition tax. Call it an investment in common sense.

For those of you who don't shoot, but have an open mind, I would bet you show admission that you and your family would enjoy the event if only for the shooting exhibitions. Each day, three of the world's finest handgun shooters -- Jerry Miculek, Todd Jarrett, and Rob Leatham -- will give speed shooting demonstrations that would make the gunfighters of the old West turn pale. And there isn't a person in the world who doesn't get a huge kick out of watching trick-shooter John Cloherty create his half-acre salad. He's sort of a Gallagher with a shotgun. There's just something fun about exploding fruits and vegetables.

Mark your calendar now. Show hours are noon to 6 p.m., Friday, May 30, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 1, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, June 2. Admission is $12 per person, but women get in free on Friday, and kids 14 and under are free all three days of the show. You can also get in free if you join the National Rifle Association or Gun Owners of America before you go into the show. For more information or directions, call (909) 735-2361.

I plan to be there all three days because there's too much to see and do in just one day.

HUNTER SAFETY CLASS FOLDS -- Jim Matthews column 08may02

DFG actions force largest hunter safety class in state to close

The largest hunter safety class in the state has been forced to close it's doors because the Department of Fish and Game wardens who oversee the program believe the class operators are charging too much money -- even though all the fees are justified under the DFG's own guidelines.

The cancellation of the Turner's Outdoorsman classes will potentially eliminate 10 percent of all the students who earn hunter safety certificates statewide because there is a severe shortage of classes now.

"I have people from Northern California fly into Ontario, rent a car, and come to our class because they can't get a class there," said Mike Raahauge, who helps administer the program with Turner's.

The cancellation of this program will leave a huge hole in the hunter safety program statewide and will almost certainly cost the DFG money in lost license revenue. And it's all happening because there are people within the DFG who don't have a clue about what it takes to run successful classes or how to gauge the actual costs involved.

Andy McCormick, Turner's Outdoorsman's public relations specialist who oversees the hunter safety classes, said Turner's has continued to operate the classes at $35 per student for years -- a fee that is increasingly less than it costs to run the program. Turner's has continued to do these classes because they recognize that it is good for their business and for the state to recruit and properly educate new hunter-conservationists so they will buy hunting licenses that support the state's wildlife programs and handle guns safely.

"We really believe in this program, which is why we've gotten behind it in such a big way over the years, but now everything's coming to a screeching halt due to the infinite wisdom of Fish and Game," said McCormick of the Turner's decision to pull the plug on the classes because the DFG won't allow them to charge the $35 fee.

As background, the Turner's Outdoorsman classes were held 17 times a year at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises in Chino and most classes had 100 to 150 students. Mike Raahauge said around 2,000 first-time hunters and new gun owners took the class each year.

The Turner's-Raahauge class attendance represents 10 percent of the total who take such classes statewide, according to warden Joe Gonzales, deputy chief of hunter education for the DFG in Sacramento. Gonzales said there are 1,400 to 1,500 "active" hunter safety instructors and that from 19,000 to 25,000 new hunters take the class each year in California. The total was about 21,000 in 2001.

"We're 10 percent of the whole program?" asked McCormick, when he learned how many students took the classes statewide. Then he got red in the face. "Gonzales sat in this office and lied to us. He told us some astronomical number. Now, I assume to make us feel like we were a minuscule part of the program."

This is an agency that just doesn't get it. Turner's five to eight volunteer instructors teach about 2,000 students a year, or about 250 students each That means the rest of the state's instructors average about 10 students per year. It's almost like the DFG is penalizing someone who's doing a good job.

"This is one of the best classes in the state. Our volunteers are mostly school teachers who believe in this program and have been doing it for 20 years," said McCormick. "We have one of the lowest failure rates in the state because our instructors do such a good job. We support these guys by filling their classes. Yet, the DFG wants us to do these classes at an even greater loss? There's a point where we have to say `that's it.' Well, we're there."

But several warden's I've spoke with somehow, ignorantly believe Turner's and Raahauge's are making a killing on this program. Perhaps it comes from never having a job in the private sector or tried to run a business.

"By law, [hunter safety instructors] are not allowed to charge for their services, but they can charge to cover fees," said Gonzales.

Apparently, they can charge for fees unless the DFG arbitrarily says you can't charge for fees or doesn't like them.

Hunter education coordinator Mike Wolter of Victorville in an April 23 letter to Jim Bozarth, one of the main volunteer instructors for the Turner's-Raahauge classes, refused to allow for two major expenses. One makes the class a success and the other allows it to happen.

First, Wolter said the $1,000 a month advertising fee that Turner's uses to put information about the classes in all of its advertising in 13 to 16 newspapers in the region each week, on its web site, and in flyers it distributes at its stores and events throughout the region wasn't allowed this year. The fee is a fraction of what it normally costs for co-operative advertising as part of a Turner's ad, and an even smaller portion of what it would cost to buy a separate ad in all of those publications each week.

Second, Wolter arbitrarily cut the hall rental fee where the class is held from $2,200 to $1,700, as if he could control what someone charges for their facility rental.

Yet, according to the DFG's Hunter Education Operation Manual hunter safety, while instructors cannot make a profit teaching the classes, they can charge students a fee to cover the expenses of running the program, including "range fees, ammunition, mileage, advertising, classroom and equipment rental," and other fees.

The real waste of money is paying the salaries of the DFG staff administering this program. They want the volunteers and those who support hunter safety in the private community to work for free and foot the costs of running a successful class. Yet, these same wardens draw their check each week. Maybe the wardens should not be paid for the time they spend working on hunter safety.

There's a better solution: Since the hunter safety program is federally funded with Pittman-Robertson funds (an excise tax on hunting and shooting equipment), it's time for the state legislature to turn the administration and operation of hunter safety over to a non-profit group set up to run this show. Get the DFG out of the program. I'd bet we'd save on administration, staffing, printing costs for all the materials the DFG provides to instructors, and increase the number of people who take the classes.

TROUT OPENER AND MORE -- Jim Matthews-ons 01may02

The Eastern Sierra trout opener has become increasingly less crowded. Once upon a time, over 20,000 anglers would crowd onto just Crowley Lake alone for the opener weekend, and in the early 1980s I heard estimates that there were 150,000 anglers scattered throughout the Eastern Sierra from Bridgeport to Lone Pine for this annual pilgrimage.

There was probably more hyperbole to that estimate than fact, but the crowds have thinned down, according to everyone who attended this year and also were veterans of the openers in the 1970s and 80s. Crowley was busy, but fishable. The June Lake loop was crowded but not uncomfortable. There were places where you could even find a stretch of water all to yourself.

The fishing? It was generally pretty decent, but not great. That was mostly because of spitting rain and snow in places and lots of cold wind just about everywhere.

BROWNS GALORE: Jim Reid, owner of Ken's Sporting Goods in Bridgeport, was a little amazed about all of the quality brown trout that were caught in that region this year. There were none of the 15 to 20 pounders that once made the Twin Lakes at Bridgeport famous, but a lot of three- to six-pounders were weighed in at Ken's.

"We probably weighed in more brown trout than rainbow trout. I can't ever remember it being like that before," said Reid.

The best brown trout was a 7-pound, 6-ouncer caught by Ruben Black of Woodland trolling a new Tail Dancer Rapala with a rainbow trout paint job caught from Lower Twin. The best trout from Bridgeport Reservoir was caught by 15-year-old Brian Johnson of Goleta. The 6 3/4-pound brown made him "so happy he couldn't contain himself," said Reid.

The browns are particularly noteworthy because the Department of Fish and Game either doesn't stock these fish or they are planted only as fingerlings and subcatchables. That means they grew to those sizes on their own, eating wild aquatic insects, sculpin, and maybe even a few planted rainbows.

JUNE LAKE LOOP BIGGIE: The best trout taken in the June Lake Loop was an 8-pound rainbow taken from Gull Lake. It was one of the big brookstock rainbows the DFG plants each fall that survive the winter under the ice. It was caught by Wayne Wallace.

CITATION TALLY: The DFG sent 20 wardens into the field for this year's opener in the Sierra. According to Lt. Art Lawrence, with the DFG in Bishop, they contacted 4,181 anglers over the weekend and wrote only 62 citations -- three of them for possession of marijuana. The biggest number of offenses at 32 was for the use of bait or barbed hooks on special regulation waters. There were only 12 anglers who were cited for overlimits, but then Lawrence -- who patrolled the Bridgeport Region -- said the fishing was generally pretty tough except for the Virginia Lakes, where ice fishermen really scored.

PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T GO: No one at Santa Ana River Lakes would tell you this Orange County water is more scenic than Crowley Lake, although it might have been no more crowded. What the people who stayed home will tell you is that the fishing at this urban water was better than the Sierra. There were 58 rainbow trout over 10 pounds caught this past weekend Santa Ana, including perhaps the most incredible five-trout limit ever record. Carlos Ortiz of Buena Park had a stringer that weighed 95-pounds, three-ounces, and it included trout at 21-12, 21-0, 20-5, 19-5, and 12-13. Every one of those fish was bigger than the biggest trout landed in the Sierra for the opener.

2002 `Hands-On' Shooting Sports Fair to be held May 31-June 2 at Raahauge's

NORCO -- The 2002 version of the Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair, still one of the only hands-on gun shows in the nation where you can both handle and shoot all of the latest firearms, will be held May 31-June 2 this year at Raahauge's ranges here.

When buying a new firearm, a lot of us go through months of anguish worrying about whether or not a certain new gun is actually what we want. We drive our local gun shop dealer a little batty, showing up once or twice a week to get fingerprints all over the new shotgun or lightweight revolver, peering through the sights, checking its fit in our hands. If we could just step out back behind the gun shop and shoot a box of ammo, the deal would be cemented in our minds much quicker.

The 2002 Shooting Sports Fair is an opportunity for consumers to test drive the gun of their dreams. The Sports Fair remains the largest hands-on gun show in the nation where you can actually shoot the firearms on display. This is the ultimate test drive because hunters and target shooters can actually shoot dozens of different firearms at the same place.

Virtually all of the nation's major firearms makers will be in attendance and Mike Raahauge said the show's shooting line has actually been increased in size for this year and that there will be more exhibitors than last year. The show offers gun enthusiasts a unique opportunity to not only handle the products, but also to shoot them under supervised conditions to see how the guns will perform on the range and in the field. New shooters can get practical instruction and learn the fun of the shooting sports.

Just some of the reasons to attend the event:

-- You've read about the new .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR). Well, you'll be able to shoot at least Rugers and Marlins in this hot new rimfire round.
-- The new .270 Winchester Short Magnum will be on hand for shooting at the Browning booth. You will find it doesn't recoil much more than a regular .270 but offers a lot extra in performance.
-- Check out the new autoloading and over-and-under shotguns imported by Legacy Sports International, the Escot and Selma scatter guns. Or shoot the Puma Model 92 carbine in .454 Casull.

There'll be so much more. In addition to the opportunity to shoot just about any firearm made today, the Sports Fair will have a whole host of shooting related activities, seminars, demonstrations and displays that have made many visitors decide to come back for a second day when they found they couldn't do and see everything at the show in a single day.

Admission to the show is $12 for adults per day, and parking is free this year. There is a $5 fee for preferred parking, with all of the proceeds for this parking fee going to the California Sporting Goods Association to battle anti-gun politicians. You can pick up a $2 off admission discount coupon at all Turner's Outdoorsman stores. On Friday, women are admitted free, and kids 14 and under get in free all three days.

There will also be a National Rifle Association booth outside the show grounds, and if you sign up for NRA membership, you will gain free admittance to the show. Show hours are noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information or directions, call Raahauge's Shotgun Sports at (909) 735-7981.

California Deer Association has first banquet slated for June 22

NORCO -- The Southern California Chapter of the California Deer Association will have its first banquet-auction Saturday, June 22, at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises to raise money to fund deer habitat work in the Golden State.

CDA is working with the Mule Deer Foundation to jointly fund projects in California, allowing both organizations' money to have more impact on the ground, according to Glen Tessers, CDA committee member for the SoCal Chapter. The group has already funding controlled burns, studies on deer herd migration, and mountain lion predation in California.

Tessers said that more than 200 people signed up to become members of the new Southern California Chapter at the International Sportsmen's Exhibition in Pomona earlier this year.

For more information on the dinner, contact Tessers at (310) 973-8148 in the evenings or via e-mail at glen.tessers@trw.com. You can learn more about the CDA at its website at www.caldeer.com.

TROUT OPENER -- mud snail -- matthews-ons 24apr02

New Zealand mud snail expanding range in Sierra; fisheries could be harmed

The most serious threat to trout fisheries in the Western United States -- potentially far worse than whirling disease -- is being spread rapidly by those who generally fight to save fisheries.

The New Zealand mud snail is invading the West's premier trout waters at a rapid pace, most likely being carried from water to water in the waders and gear of traveling anglers. Once in its new home, the tiny snail reproduces so rapidly and prolifically, it becomes the primary life-form in streams and lakes, almost completely displacing all other aquatic invertebrates.

With trout season opening in the Sierra Nevada this weekend, biologists with the Department of Fish and Game are sounding the alarm for the second year in a row. In just one short season, the small snail has found its way into more Eastern Sierra waters, most likely the result of hitching rides with wader-clad anglers who visit the Sierra's best waters over the course of a weekend.

The snail was first discovered at one location in the upper Owens River in 1999. Since then, it has been found in the canals around Bishop, in the Wild Trout stretch of the lower Owens, and further downstream near popular fishing locations.

"It looks to me like its centered on areas of high recreational use," said Dawne Becker, an associate fishery biologist with the DFG in Bishop. "We only had a couple of sites in the Owens River last year. This year, we have really high densities of the snail at Five Bridges Road and in the Wild Trout stretch."

By where the snail is appearing, it is almost certain that anglers are inadvertently spreading the snail to their favorite waters.

The New Zealand mud snail has been in the Western United States since at least 1987, when it was first found in the middle sections of the Snake River in Idaho. It had found its way to the Madison River by 1989, and by 1994, it was throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem -- infecting famous rivers like the Firehole and Gibbon. By 1997, it had spread to over 300 miles of the Snake River, moving both upstream and down.
The small snail, which grows no bigger than 12mm, or about 1/2-inch, with most being 3.5mm to 5mm, can reproduce prolifically. Most importantly, it rapidly displaces other organisms. In the upper Madison River, it has already been found at densities of 300,000 to 1,000,000 snails in a square meter of stream bottom, and it comprises up to 95 percent of the total invertebrates at many sites.

"It is completely changing trout stream ecosystems," said David Richards, a research ecologist with EcoAnalysists in Bozeman, Mt., and a PhD candidate at Montana State University. "It has the potential to destroy some of our premier trout fisheries. My personal feeling is that spring creek and highly productive trout streams will be the most highly impacted."

Richards said that many sections of the Madison and Firehole have already seen their aquatic insect populations drop by 50 to 75 percent.

In California, the New Zealand mud snail could spell doom for the prolific invertebrate populations that exist now on waters like Hot Creek, the upper Owens River, Crowley Lake, and any other water where they are introduced. It is the invertebrates that make healthy trout populations possible at these waters and they are being displaced by the snail. Because the mud snail has almost no nutritional value to trout, fish populations are almost certain to crash. Even if the trout eat the mud snails, the snail can close its operculum, the door to its snail shell, and survive passage through the fish's gut. They get no nutritional value from the snail.

"There are a lot of indirect impacts to the fishery," said the DFG's Becker. But she warned there are no ways known to get rid of the snail once its in a fishery. "How are we going to handle this thing? Our biggest effort has to be in training people how not to be vectors -- to stop the spread and contain the population to where it exists now."

The mud snail can survive up to 25 days out of water in a moist environment (the felt in waders, a damp boot sole, etc.), and a single snail can start a new population. So fishery managers are trying to stop the spread of the snail by asking anglers to make sure they clean and thoroughly dry their waders and other gear that might carry a snail from water to the next -- especially when they fish waters known to have mud snails.

Because the mud snail is such a recent introduction to this country, its full impacts on trout fisheries is yet to be known, but many biologists are fearful it may have catastrophic consequences.

SIDEBAR: HOW TO NOT TRANSPORT MUD SNAILS -- matthews-ons 24apr02

How to prevent the spread of New Zealand mud snails

Anglers can help prevent the spread of the New Zealand mud snails by following these tips offered by the Department of Fish and Game:

-- Rinse all fishing equipment -- waders, wading shoes, socks, and any other fishing gear or clothing -- in water at least 115 degrees for no less than 15 seconds. This will kill New Zealand mud snails.
-- If a hot rinse in not available, completely dry all equipment and brush off all debris. Mud snails can survive up to 25 days in a moist environment and young snails can be as small as a grain of sand.
-- Expose equipment to extremely hot temperatures or cold temperatures.
-- Do not transport fish to other waters before cleaning them and discard guts in closed trash containers or bury them. Mud snails can live in a trout's gut and can be transported in this way.
-- If you plan to fish a number of waters in an area, visit the sites known to have New Zealand mud snails last.
-- Pets and pack stock wading through infected waters can pick up snails and transport them in wet hair or fur.

HOW BIG FISH GROW OVER TIME -- matthews column-ons 24apr02

Time's enlarging lenses.

Photographs may or may not be a good thing when settling disputes about the size of fish or game taken at some point in the past.

Most anglers are bright enough not to actually lay a fish on a yardstick unless the beast is being considered for some world record, in which case the fish was big enough to measure up to any memory anyway.

Anglers tend to get put up in rafters or hammered to gates or otherwise lost, and even those that are put atop mounted game heads continue to shrink over time. This is a proven fact. Trophies measured for Boone & Crockett records remeasured 25 years later have always lost four to five inches in gross score or more. Diameters of antlers contract, widths shrink. Those that were never scored shrink a whole lot more than those that were scored. At least that's how I remember it.

The point is that photographs don't really help much in solving disputes about fish caught in the past or game that was taken. We all know the tricks used to make things look a lot bigger and those blunders when things appear smaller in photos. Photos are no better than memories.

This whole question came up when I pulled from under the bed a mounted photograph of a big brown trout I had caught from Crowley Lake at the mouth of the Owens River many years ago. The fish looked huge. Of course, I remembered that it was huge, but the photo made me rethink the whole deal. A great photo, the brown looked to be seven or eight pounds. My brother-in-law, R.G., who actually snapped the photo, didn't remember it that big. Maybe five pounds. Probably not even that big. He reminded me that it was only 23-inches long.

My memory has it a lot bigger than that. I was cradling it in my arms like a baby it was so big. We took a couple of photos and released it so it would spawn in the Owens River that fall. It was huge.

Since I'm a pack rat of sorts, I went back and dug up a notebook that I was keeping back in those days and found both my notes and a story I had written about that big brown trout. R.G. was right. The fish was just 23-inches long and we guessed that it weighed about 4 1/2 to five pounds at the time. My notes showed that I'd caught a 19-inch brown from the East Walker a couple of years earlier and it didn't even weigh three pounds. I think I tell people that fish was a four-pounder when I show the photos. It looks that big.

The last few days I have been wondering about the incredible growth of fish and game that seems to take place over time -- how catches get bigger, stringers heavier, game more plentiful. It has always been attributed to hunters and anglers just being natural-born liars who want to exaggerate their skills, and I'm sure there's a fair amount of that going on. But you can identify the guy who's going to do that right off the bat because he'll show you a photo of a 14-inch trout held out at arm's length toward the camera and call it a three-pounder with a straight face. He's the same guy who always goes into a stall to pee rather than take his place at the urinal with the other guys.

For the rest of us, especially those who pride themselves on being credible reporters when telling fishing and hunting stories, I have come up with a plausible -- even probable -- explanation how this happens.

Follow me here: Most of us began our hunting and fishing careers when we were mere kids, tagging along with dads and moms, uncles and aunts, or gruff old family friends on our early trips. When you are little, your palms might only be 2 1/2-inches across and you might only be four-feet tall. A six-inch bluegill or nine-inch trout is going to take both hands to hold. A stack of five or six doves will seem immense, the birds huge. It's a matter of proportions. Those early experiences with game and fish are about the only memories I have of my youth. (Why would you want to remember getting beaten up by your cousins?) I remember the bluegill bigger the number of quail as more because proportionally they were. So that enlargement over time continues even when there is no more proportional difference.

As a Little League coach, we hear a lot about teaching kids "muscle memory" so they throw the ball and swing the bat correctly without having to think about it. They practice it a lot and get the muscle memory of doing it correctly down. Then they bat .450, sign the big contract, and play for 20 years in the majors. All that thanks to muscle memory.

The brain is a muscle, too. For the years I was growing up into a full-size adult, I handled a lot of fish and game. They might have been measured and weighed, but in memory, with each growing spurt, they were bigger in my memory than the scale or tape measure said. You related the game to your own size. It was indeed bigger back then. Proportionally. So to the brain was trained in our youth that things just naturally assume larger proportions over time. That continues even when the proportional difference doesn't exist. It continues because of muscle memory.

Women misjudge and unintentionally lie about the size of their game and fish for another reason, too, but this is a family newspaper.

So now you know why fishermen and hunters exaggerate the size of their fish and game. It's a completely normal and natural thing that has been developing since we were children. Just something to remember this trout opener.

Turkeys, hogs abound on Rancho San Julian -- matthews column-ons 17apr02

Wild turkeys are an exercise in frustration. The wary birds always seem to find a way to give hunters the slip, but sometimes everything goes just right. Not often, but sometimes. Sitting on a ridge 1/2-mile away from three gobblers working across an open oak hillside I got one of those funny feelings that the planets were aligned correctly and that those birds might be in jeopardy. Maybe this was going to be one of those times.

Brady Daniels, a wildlife biologist who is running a new hunting program at Rancho San Julian, an historic 20,000-acre land grand on the Central Coast that has been in the same family ownership for over 140 years, looked up from his binoculars and asked me what I thought. Daniels, my oldest son Bo, and I were glassing groups of birds in three directions. The place was thick with birds.

This was Bo's first turkey hunt, and we'd already somehow spooked one big old tom, not really sure how it happened or where he had gone. We had snuck up a draw, set up decoys and called, but the bird never answered and we never saw him again. It was a mystery -- a typical turkey hunt. So we had come up to the ridge with a view and started glassing birds all up and down the main canyon below us.

When Daniels asked me what I thought a second time. I told him I thought we should go after those three gobblers, sneaking over to a big shrubby bush in the middle of a meadow on the other side of a small draw from the big gobblers. The willows and oaks in the draw should screen our progress, but it would put us within a 100 yards or so from the birds. It took all of 15 minutes to get to the bush. Brady set up three decoys, and then he and Bo hunkered back under that brush. I set up off to the side to watch the action.

When I was hidden, Brady scratched a few yelps out on his slate call and there was a gobble immediately. I was watching Bo through the telephoto lens on my camera. Brady called more quietly, then a moment later he made a few louder yelps again. There was another gobble, but much closer this time. The birds were moving toward us.

The bird gobbled twice more, closer each time, and then I saw Bo raise the shotgun. I couldn't see the birds where they came up out of the small draw on a cattle trail, but I knew they were strutting and displaying for the decoys. I saw the muzzle blast before I heard it and saw feathers blow toward Bo and Brady. Brady was a blur, sprinting after the big tom. Bo jumped up and went after him. By the time I got over to the decoys, Brady was carrying the big bird back to Bo.

Brady had tackled the bird, which had the plumbing at the top of its heart severed by at least a couple No. 6 pellets and had went into a death sprint. Bo marveled at the size of the gobbler, stroking the feathers. The gobbler weighed 22 pounds, sported a nine-inch beard, and had 1 1/8-inch spurs. He was a big, mature bird.

Everything had happened like it was supposed to happen this one time, and Bo was hooked. He had me ordering decoys this past week and wanted to learn how to call. At 17, he decided he could drive himself hunting on those days when he didn't have school, work, or baseball -- even if I couldn't go.

The next day, hunting with Daniels and Dean Michael Lee, president of the Central Coast Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, Bo saw how turkey's generally win the battle. Every attempt -- and there were several -- was foiled by something. You'd think that on a big, private ranch, that hadn't been hunted in years, birds would be fairly easy to approach and call. Not turkeys. The only advantage was being able to see and work a lot of birds unhindered by other hunters.

And Rancho San Julian has a lot of turkeys. Daniels, who is a wildlife biologist who has worked with the ranch for a couple of years, said they were estimating the turkey population on the property at something over 200 birds. He and his partner Scott Engblom, who is a fishery biologist, convinced the ranch owners to start a hunting operation, mostly as a way to make a little money on the proliferating wild hog population.

The hunting camp sits right next to a small creek beneath a huge, sprawling cottonwood and equally large oak. When we were there, Daniels had two large canvas tents set up on wood platforms off the ground as sleeping quarters, and a fire ring set up in the meadow for the evening talk sessions under the stars. The camp was how I always had dreamed an African safari camp would look, and there certainly was as much game. In the short 1 1/2-days we were there, we saw hogs, turkeys, a tremendous three-point buck in velvet, a big bobcat, mourning dove, and several coveys of valley quail. Bo's ready to go back tomorrow.

(For more information on hunting Rancho San Julian -- and there are still a couple of spots available for turkey this season -- contact Brady Daniels, Rancho San Julian Outfitting, 1527 Kowalski Avenue, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, or call him at (805) 878-5958 or (805) 560-6582.)

GUN SAFETY OUTDOOR COLUMN -- matthews-ons 12apr02

Safety a first requirement for turkey hunters

There are more hunters injured during turkey and dove seasons than any other hunting seasons.

For doves, the reason is because there are so many participants and shooting is often done near other hunters. Hunters frequently get dangerously peppered because hunters shoot at low-flying birds, and I don't know a dove hunter who hasn't had a few No. 8 pellets rain down harmlessly on them from a shooter 300 or 400 yards away who was shooting safely.

For turkey hunters, the danger is greater because people are skulking around the woods in camo and hunting with decoys and making turkey sounds. Hunters who try to sneak up on birds frequently end up in other hunter's laps and I know of more than one story of decoys and hunters being shot by careless hunters.

I have been on a number of pig and turkey hunts in the past year where I have been appalled by the general gun handling of an occasional hunter in camp or in the field. The two most fundamental rules of safe gun handling -- always checking any gun to see if its loaded, and always treating every gun as if it were loaded, keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction at all times -- were routinely violated.

I do not like having a gun pointed at me -- even one I know to be empty. I come unglued if someone points a gun at me that may be loaded. Don't tell me about safeties. Don't tell me there are just shells in the magazine. That is how people get killed. Keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction. Always.

I have a friend who did something that he is embarrassed about, so I won't use his name. But I think it was a testament to his safety training. He took an unfamiliar rifle from a gun rack in a hunting camp, opened the bolt, wiggled his finger up into the chamber to make sure it was empty, and then closed the bolt to test the trigger. He might have been distracted a little by something during this process -- a squirrel, a falling acorn -- something. Because when he pulled the trigger, the gun fired. He hadn't noticed that the bolt had picked up a shell out of the magazine and fed it into the chamber. But the gun was pointed in a safe direction, and the only thing harmed were wits and self-esteem.

Even when we make mistakes, if we make sure that one golden rule is always followed -- keep the gun pointed in a safe direction -- we don't become a statistic.

I'm happy to say, I'm generally pleased with the gun handling I see, and the statistics on gun "accidents" show that as a group we are extremely safe. I think I'm pretty typical when I say that people who aren't safe don't get invited back to our hunting camps and I simply won't hunt with them again. Ever.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: I recently had lunch with August and Tom Harden, who run Cross Country Outfitters out of Paso Robles, one of the premier guided hog hunting operations in the state. August had never hunted turkeys before, but they are starting to see a few on one of the ranches where they hunt pigs. The owner of that ranch wanted to try to shoot a bird, so Gus volunteered to take him out.

"Apparently rednecks come with the turkey calling gene fully installed and operational," said Harden. Two jakes ran across the road in front of the truck as they were going out to hunt. So they drove past the birds and around the corner, parked, went over to the mouth of a canyon, and Harden rasped out some calls on a box call his brother showed him how to use a day or two before. The two jake birds ran right up to them, and the ranch owner shot one.

"There's nothing to it," said Harden.

NEW RIMFIRE UPDATE: Ammunition for the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, the hot new rimfire round that is causing varmint hunters to swoon, is now available in limited quantities in some stores. The 50-round boxes are selling for $9 to $12.50, if you can find any. It's looking like it will be easier to find rifles than ammunition. Most shops have the Ruger M77/17 and the Marlin bolt rifles available in the new round, but ammunition supplies are going to be scanty. If you have or are getting one of these new guns, I recommend you buy the ammunition when and where you find it. The crunch will probably ease later in the summer, but for now I'd hoard a little.

BIG BASS, STEELHEAD, BONEHEAD -- matthews column 10apr02

Casitas bass weights in at 19 1/2 pounds

Veteran Casitas Lake bass angler Randy Crabtree caught a 19 1/2-pound largemouth Tuesday this week while fishing on of his specially modified Castaic Soft Baits. The fish is thought to be the largest bass caught in the nation so far this year.

"When it first hit, I told Ed (Guyette, his fishing partner) it was a big fish, but it wrapped up almost instantly. I had to pull weeds up with her," said Crabtree. He was fishing with a big 12-inch bait that he added lead weight to and rattles so he could fish it in 20 to 30 feet of water on the outside edges of the weed beds around structure. The whole battle lasted about 20 minutes before the fish was in the boat and could be weighed at the marina scale and then down at the local market.

Crabtree didn't think the fish was as big as it was at first or he might have been a little more breathless over the catch.

"She was just in good shape. She hadn't been on a bed yet. Her tail wasn't all bloody and worn. I'm sure she was full of eggs -- she had a gut like me," laughed Crabtree.

Crabtree has probably landed over 150 bass topping 10 pounds from Casitas, and his biggest fish before the 19 1/2-pounder was a 16-2 he'd caught only two weeks ago. But he didn't want to talk about either of those fish, he wanted to talk about a fish he saw recently. The one that got away, sort of.

"A couple of days before I got my 16-pounder, I saw a monstrous fish. I think it was 10 pounds heavier than this fish I got. This thing was big that I seen," said Crabtree. The big bass -- the fish that would have weighed 29 1/2 pounds if it was honestly 10 pounds bigger than the bass he caught Tuesday -- came up behind his big Castaic Lure. "It made me stop dead in my tracks and I said to Ed, `Look at that fish.' It was a monstrous fish."

Bass approaching 20 pounds send dedicated trophy bass anglers swooning like teenage boys around Brittany Spears. They don't act rationally. It is every bass angler's dream to beat George Perry's world record of 22-pounds, four-ounces set way back in 1932 -- the catch coming up on it's 70th anniversary in June. Most anglers will even admit to you they dream about catching the record. Crabtree believes there's one that big in Casitas right now, and he will be fishing the lake at least two days a week trying to catch it.

STEELHEAD PLANTS: The Whitewater Trout Farm is planting rainbow trout that have come from steelhead stock in a lot of local waters this year. Steelhead are ocean-going rainbow trout that are known for their dogged battles and acrobatics on the end of a line. Apparently, some of those traits are genetic. Every place the "steelhead" have been planted, anglers rave about the fishes' fighting abilities.

"They're real hard fighting," said Paul Mintzer, a Riverside angler who caught them at Angler's Lake in Hemet. "They'll jump three or four feet out of the water and everything. I hooked one that was only two or three pounds and he took me all over the lake. I though I had a real big fish."Maybe these fish will help anglers appreciate what wild trout are like in their natural environment. Maybe not.

REAL STEELHEAD: Remnant populations of real steelhead exist in a number of the small streams in Southern and Central California. Malibu Creek's fish have received a lot of publicity in recent years, but there are many others. Most only have a few fish that make it back to spawn each year.

I received a report this week of an angler who was fishing for surf perch at the mouth of a small creek near Oceano, a small town on the Central Coast, when he hooked a fish on a bloodworm that rocketed out of the water several times while tearing through the surf. A few minutes later he hooked another rocket. He had caught two wild steelhead that weighed in at seven and three pounds while fishing the surf. Not knowing how precious and rare they were, they ended up in the ice chest.

You have to wonder if it was the last surviving pair of steelhead trying to run up Arroyo Grande Creek. But don't blame the angler, blame 200 years of cattle over-grazing, dams without fish passages, and development that doesn't take into account the natural environment. If it wasn't a fisherman who got those steelhead, it would have been a bobcat somewhere upstream as they tried to cross a shallow, muddy riffle.

TURKEY HUNTING OPENER REPORT -- matthews-ONS -- 3apr02

Turkey opener good in San Diego County areas

Reports from this past weekend's turkey season opener point to generally good success in most San Diego County areas, especially for hunters who had access to private land. While hunting was tougher in the San Bernardino Mountains and on the Central Coast where fog hampered hunting.

Denny Vopat of Yorba Linda shot a jake (yearling) bird in the Santa Ana River drainage of the San Bernardino Mountains opening morning. Vopat said the birds came to his calling and decoys without a sound and that he never heard a gobble all morning. Vopat's bird was the only report of success from the San Bernardinos.

Two hunters who reported success bagging birds in San Diego County were Bryan Adams who hunted Wilderness Unlimited property in Mesa Grande and Andy McCormick of Turner's Outdoorsman who hunted a private ranch near Warner Springs. Both are from Orange County.

Adams said he and a hunting buddy, Donnie Allums, entered the Wilderness Unlimited property early Saturday morning and set up near a roost tree, but in spite of their calling and decoys, the birds ignored the hunter's calls and fed in the opposite direction after coming off the roost. In addition to several jakes and young toms, there was a huge tom in the group. Adams and Allums stayed in the area to make sure the birds came back to the same roost area that night, watching them for over two hours after the 4 p.m. end to shooting time. Not deterred by the lack of success opening day, the pair were back Easter morning and set up along the route the birds had fed away from the roost the previous day.

"We decided the only way to get one the toms was to set up above the trail they used to move on and wait for them to pass into front of us. We got out to the area well before daylight, sat down, and waited," wrote Adams in an e-mail. "As the sun started come up, the birds started to gobble. Just after sun-up, a bird flew right past our hiding area. It turned out to be a hen turkey. She landed and started calling. We could hear the birds coming out of the roost, and in a few minutes the hens started to pass by us less than 20 feet away. Then a few minutes later a jake came through, then another jake.

"The next bird to pass us was a nice tom. It passed right in front of me. It had a four to five-inch beard. I had my gun pointed at him and at any time I could have shot and got him. He moved past me and started to peck at the ground. This bird and the jake in front of him kept looking back like they were looking to see if the big bird was coming. Seeing this behavior, I let him pass thinking the big tom was coming next. The jake and the tom disappeared out of site, but the big bird didn't come past us.

"I thought I had blown my shot a nice bird. I got up to peak around the corner to see if any more birds were coming, but all I saw were hens out in the pasture. Just as I started to move back to the hiding spot and thunderous, deep gobble came out of the trees next to me. It was him -- the big boss tom.

"I ran back to my hiding area, sat down, and leveled my shotgun. The big tom came around the corner and was going to pass right in front of my position. He took a few steps and fanned out his tail for a second or two. Then he moved right in front of me, stopped, looked right at me, turned his head, started to take a step, and I pulled the trigger.

"The huge bird turned out to have a nine-inch beard and weighed 25 pounds. It was my first turkey ever. I hunted this same property for four years and never got one, but this year it all worked out. This was a morning that Donnie and I will never forget," wrote Adams.

McCormick, hunting with fellow Turner employees John Kukta and Bill Valentine, all took big jakes Saturday morning. Kukta and Valentine shot birds early after they came into McCormick's calling, and then McCormick killed his bird just after 10 a.m.

"I saw more birds where I was at than anyplace I've ever hunted," said McCormick, confirming what Department of Fish and Game biologist Randy Botta had reported about very good production last year. "It was outstanding.

"When I shot my bird, six or seven other jakes jumped on him just 10 feet from me. There was so much commotion another gobbler flew down the hill to us to see what was going on. It was great.

"We were hunting them where you wouldn't believe birds would be -- it was sagebrush and manzanita, and the birds were in and out of that stuff all day long" said McCormick.

McCormick said the nearby public lands were very crowded with hunters, but he knew of at least three birds that came from Cleveland National Forest lands, including one jake taken by Rob Gonzales near Eagle Peak.

Orange County hunter Jim Niemiec said that "a low lying fog moved in off the ocean late Friday evening making for difficult hunting conditions for some turkey hunters on opening day. The fog was spread all through the coastal ranges of Los Padres National Forest and on may private ranches from Santa Margarita to Bradley.

"Turkeys stayed in the roost a little longer on opening day and at fly down disappeared in the fog," said Niemiec. "There were very few gobbles in the foothills around Santa Margarita. Once the fog lifted, hunting improved as flocks of birds could be spotted on the slopes of hills and under the shade of oak trees as day time temperatures rose to nearly 80 degrees."

Niemiec killed a nice gobbler while hunting with Doug Roth, head guide for Camp 5 Outfitters out of San Miguel. The grass is lower than normal, and according to Roth, he has been seeing a lot more big toms. Those heading out over the next couple of weeks should find good conditions and hopefully toms that will gobble once the breeding season progresses.

Jesse James, a Redlands hunter who went to Fort Hunter Liggett, said that Saturday was a bust. He and his partners did not see or hear a bird that day. On Sunday, James said he called in a hen and a jake, but turned down the young birds. Then he worked one big gobbler, but that it wouldn't cross a small creek over into his hunting unit. So James went back to the check station and switched units, but when he was returning to the hunting area, he found that sight-seers had spooked his big gobbler off.

The season continues through May 5. Hunters can take one bird per day with a spring season limit of three birds. Only bearded, male birds are legal during the spring hunt.

TURKEY HUNTING SIDEBAR -- load tips -- 03apr02

Turkey Loads

With turkey season now in full swing. There are already reports coming in of hunters who have shot, rolled, and then lost turkeys that ran off. The biggest reason for non-lethal hits on the big birds is usually one of two reasons (or a combination of both):

First, many hunters shoot at the birds too far away. Pellet energy starts to drop considerably at 50 to 60 yards, and while you might hit a bird with a load of number of No. 5 or No. 6 pellets, there may not be enough pellet energy to kill the birds at that distance. Second, many hunters still are not shooting tight chokes and patterning their guns with different ammo to make sure they are throwing tight, killing patterns.

You need to either shoot your gun extensively before the season or reframe from taking shots much past 30 or 35 yards if you aren't certain of what your gun will do at 40 yards and beyond. It is important to use a rangefinder so you can take readings around where you set up so you know when a bird is inside your kill range.

You can effectively kill birds at 55 to 60 yards if you choose a couple of options, but both require patterning work and a little practice. The first is to shoot high speed lead loads with super full choke tubes. These loads, because of their speed, have greater pellet energy with the lead shot at these long ranges. Federal's tungsten loads are also very good for this purpose and may pattern very tightly with a standard full choke.

The other option is to shoot the new Hevi-Shot loads, a heavier-than-lead alternative made by Environ-Metal, Inc. from tungsten. This shot is now available through Remington in a partnership with Environ-Metal, and these loads may be the best turkey loads ever developed. You get greater pattern density because you can use a smaller shot size to get equal pellet energy at the longer ranges. This assures that more pellets will be on the target, increasing the odds of lethal hits. You will also probably get very tight patterns with standard full choke tubes, eliminating the need for you to buy extra choke tubes for your shotgun.

The only drawback with any of the specialty loads, whether they are the high speed lead loads or the Federal or Remington tungsten loads, is that they cost more than standard ammunition. The tungsten loads are often $2 to $4 a shell. But when you consider that after your initial testing, a box will probably last you two or three or four seasons, that's not much of an investment.

Shoot the good stuff and fire a few shots at the patterning board at your local range. It's not too late.

TURKEY SEASON OPENER FORECAST -- matthews column 27mar02

Spring turkey season opens Saturday

The spring wild turkey season will be a mixed bag for hunters taking to the field for the opening day this Saturday, according to reports from Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Forest Service biologists from throughout Southern California, with some areas looking very promising while other areas are seeing lean times.

The top prospects for public land hunters will be on Cleveland National Forest lands in San Diego County and on the Los Padres National Forest from Santa Barbara north. The San Bernardino Mountains' population of Merriam's turkeys has been struggling.

"In general, from what I've been seeing throughout the county, last year's reproduction was really good," said Randy Botta, DFG biologist in San Diego County. "There were large clutches and I'm seeing lots of young birds."

That's the good news. The bad news is that there are probably fewer birds on the public lands in San Diego County this year than in previous years where winters were wetter. Botta said that in wet years, there is greater dispersal of birds off the private ranches into the national forest, but that in dry years, like this one, the birds will stay nearer the permanent water sources on the private ground.

Botta said that hunters in San Diego County will probably taken from 60 to 100 birds during the spring season, which is what he estimates the harvest has been each of the last several years. He also noted that turkey populations continue to expand. While there was much greater dispersal and range expansion last year and the year before, Botta said that he knew of at least three new areas on private ground where birds are now setting up housekeeping.

"It's going to be a tougher year in general to take birds off public lands," said Botta. He used two areas that had good numbers of birds in the past as an example of how he's seeing fewer birds -- the Warner Springs area and the Boulder Creek area on the Cleveland National Forest -- both areas held a lot of birds last year but Botta said he "worked pretty hard to find a couple of tracks."

Jim Davis, a DFG biologist in the San Bernardino Mountains where a population of pure-strain Merriams turkeys were introduced in 1989, said the birds in that range seem to have declined in number.

"The reports I'm getting seem to be pretty scattered far and wide," said Davis.

There are still core populations in the upper Deep Creek drainage and the upper Santa Ana River drainage, but other areas are pretty bleak, according to Davis. The birds have not started to reoccupy the vast area on the north side that was burned.

"There are still some birds, but it's not anywhere near what it was in the past. Unfortunately that doesn't sound too promising for the average hunter," said Davis. He blames the downturn mostly on very dry winters and poorer production.

Steve Loe, the forest biologist for the San Bernardino National Forest, agreed with Davis' assessment of the San Bernardinos. "The last two years have just been too dry," said Loe. "I've talked to a few hunters who've seen birds while scouting, but there are just very low population levels."

Loe believes the turkey relocations in the San Bernardinos and throughout Southern California are one of the most successful DFG projects in years. The birds have generally done very well and they are popular with hunters and other forest visitors.

"I think turkeys are the number one hunted species on the San Bernardino," said Loe. "I get more telephone calls on turkeys than any other species."

Hunters are reminded that the season opens this Saturday and runs through May 5. The bag limit is one bearded gobbler per day with a spring season limit of three birds.

The DFG reminds hunters that turkeys may only be hunted with shotguns firing shot no larger than No. 2, with most hunters shooting 4s, 5s, or 6s and relying on head and neck shots. The birds may be hunted daily from one half hour before sunrise until 4 p.m. each day. Late afternoon and evening hunting is not allowed so the birds may return undisturbed to their roost sites.

TURKEY ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT OUT -- matthews column 20mar02

Wild turkeys don't impact endangered species

After several years of compiling data and doing research on the impacts wild turkeys might have on endangered species, the Department of Fish and Game has released a draft environment impact report that says what honest biologists on both sides of the issue have known all along: There is no significant impact.

Whoa. There's a surprise.

People who pick flowers in the spring are likely to cause as much or more damage to endangered plants. Horseback riders and hikers are as likely to trample more endangered bugs or amphibians. Range cattle certainly cause more damage to everything. Let's don't talk about development.

The story started several years ago when the DFG was sued for wanting to release wild turkeys onto public lands in San Diego County. The premise for the suit was that the turkey might eat a couple of endangered plant species into extinction. A handful of botanists within the California Native Plant Society (ironically DFG, U.S. Forest Service and state park staff) came up with the ruse to try to stop introductions. Yet, everyone who was even half-way honest about the issue, agreed that the turkeys were never going to make a living eating endangered plants, or that even if they the turkeys focused on an endangered plant, it would not lead to the demise of a population. It was simply beyond belief to even suggest.

Yet, it was suggested. And the way laws are structured in this state, the DFG was forced to do the document because a turkey might eat an endangered plant and the DFG didn't address that issue as some say is required by state law. (The DFG's relatively incompetent attorneys didn't argue effectively that the state's wildlife agency is exempt under another statute, but never mind that.)

So after wasting literally thousands and thousands of dollars and several years worth of time and effort that could have been devoted to managing and enhancing turkey populations (or other resources), the DFG now has an tomb-sized environmental document that says what everyone knew all along.

No impacts. None. Nada. Zero.

Will the document satisfy the plant zealots and anti-hunters who pushed the issue in court? Of course not. They were never honest enough to admit publicly that what they didn't like was that the DFG was introducing a supposed non-native species they didn't want and that guys would eventually hunt the big birds.

Scott Gardner, the DFG biologist who's devoted much of his life recently to creating this document, was philosophical. He feels that when the final draft is adopted later this year, it will set the stage for the DFG to continue with its successful turkey relocations and augmentations statewide, but he added that birds already exist in "90 percent of the places where they could be."

In Southern California, Gardner was frank in saying that he didn't see the DFG trying to expand turkey range in the region for political reasons and the almost certainty that they would get sued again. But the agency probably could and would move birds from where they are not wanted to areas with existing populations where they are wanted.

"I have a hard time seeing us propose more expansions in places like the San Bernardino Mountains," said Gardner. But he said he did see the state moving birds from places like Rancho Cuyamaca State Park, where this whole mess started, to other places within the state where the birds are wanted -- on public or private lands. The reality is that birds will probably leave Southern California, but it would be nice to think otherwise.

Earlier this year, over 60 birds were removed from Cuyamaca and taken out of state because all releases of wild turkeys in California were put on hold pending the release and final approval of this document. There have been other captures in Rancho Cuyamaca where the birds left the state instead of going in state to help budding populations of birds here.

I guess we should be glad the document is done and that things might be able to move forward again with the state's turkey program. But when I see the document, I just see a pile of wasted money and I get angry. I want the California Native Plant Society, the Cleveland National Forest, and Rancho Cuyamaca State Park to pick up the tab for this exercise in futility. Their people demanded the EIR be done in the face of overwhelming data and common sense. Those groups should pay for it.

Tactics like this are what give protection of endangered species a bad name.

For anyone interested in a couple of long evenings of informative but tedious reading, the draft environmental document is available on the DFG's web site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wmd/turkey_draft_eir.html. You can reach Jim Matthews at (909) 887-3444 or via e-mail at odwriter@aol.com.

Turkey season set to open March 30

The spring wild turkey season will open March 30 statewide, according to the Department of Fish and Game. The bag limit is one bearded gobbler per day with a spring season limit of three birds. The season extends through May 5. Thanks to an aggressive relocation program, there are now turkeys throughout the state, thriving in most of the habitat that would support the big birds. For Southern California hunters, the recently introduced populations in San Diego County have done particularly well, with birds scattered throughout the county on both public and private land. But there are also populations in the San Bernardino Mountains, throughout the Central Coast and the southern Sierra. The DFG reminds hunters that turkeys may only be hunted with shotguns firing shot no larger than No. 2, with most hunters shooting 4s, 5s, or 6s and relying on head and neck shots. The birds may be hunted daily from one half hour before sunrise until 4 p.m. each day. Late afternoon and evening hunting is not allowed so the birds may return undisturbed to their roost sites.

Turner's Outdoorsman hog hunts on Tejon Ranch booked; 2003 dates set.

All of the spots are booked for the Turner's Outdoorsman series of non-guided hog hunts on the Tejon Ranch, according to Andy McCormick at Turner's, but the dates for the 2003 hunts have been announced and hunters are encouraged to get their reservations in early for these popular hunts. The second of the six hunts set up for 2002 will be held this weekend at the ranch. On the first hunt of the series a month ago, five of the 10 hunters managed to bag a hog, and two big boars over 250 pounds each were taken.

Each of the Turner's hunts are limited to just 10 hunters who get to stay in one of the two first-class hunting lodges on the Tejon. Meals are provided, but hunters get to hunt the ranch on their own. There is also a drawing on each full hunt for a pig hunting rifle. In the past hunts, the drawings have been for Marlin .450 Model 1895 lever rifles, Howa Model 1500 bolt rifles, and the new Puma lever gun in .454. The 2003 dates are February 14-16, March 21-23, May 2-4, May 16-18, June 20-22, and July 18-20. For more information on these hunts, sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman, Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises, and California Hog Hunter, contact Jim Matthews at (909) 887-3444.

IF ROBINS INVENTED SHOVELS -- matthews column 13mar02

You have to ask yourself these things.

If robins had invented shovels would the world be devoid of worms?

Early each spring when the fruit trees in the yard start to blossom and the symphony of bird calls during warm days make it impossible to work indoors, I go outside and stand in the sun to watch and listen. And wonder.

If dermestid beetles were as big as house cats would security be required at meat processing and mattress plants?

I don't wonder about normal things that you ponder the rest of the year -- wondering how to pay the kid's college tuition or the taxes, keeping the cholesterol down, or things like finding time to take the wife to dinner -- no, standing out there in the sun, I wonder about bigger issues. Watching a little troop of starlings aggressively march through the yard, I wonder if they are direct descendants of veloraptors. I put long feather plumages on dinosaurs in my mind and wonder what the spring would have sounded like in that era. What music would those mating calls have made? I come up with a lot of questions.

Back to the shovel thing for a minute: If gophers had invented shovels would they paint their toenails? Or if wild hogs had invented shovels could they still smell the truffles? Or better, if beavers had invented chainsaws would Glen Canyon Dam be as impressive? And how much old-growth forest would there be?

Maybe its cabin fever, and I should be thankful that I don't live in Alaska where there is still a couple of feet of snow on a buddy's lawn. Or in Minnesota, where the ice is thin this year due to a much warmer-than-normal winter and lake bottoms are getting an infusion of cars and ice shanties -- good fish habitat. Do the walleye have anything to do with that thin ice, you think?

On a walk, I kick over a rock in an open field; there are bugs everywhere. I think: Give a termite steroids and that beaver's chainsaw and watch out. Smiling I kick the rock again. That rock has moved further in 20 seconds than it has in 100 years. Is that adventure? If so, do throwing-sized rocks love 12-year-old boys?

A cloud scuttles in front of the sun for a moment and I look up, knowing I really should walk back home and get back to work.

If clouds and storms are living souls, why do all the ones from the Midwest have such pissy attitudes?
If ponderosas could fling their cones would it be unsafe for motorhomes to travel in the mountains?
If tigers had invented bullet-proof vests and became a race of man-eaters would India and Pakistan be warring?
If koalas had invented salad dressing would eucalyptus oil be a staple?
Did some bright bluegill combine gene splicing with some spaghetti recipe and come up with earthworms?
If wind invented the saxophone, would the Santa Ana's be jazz?
Is the human analogy to lichen is marriage?
Do dolphins hear tubas like we hear kazoos?
If falcons invented Apache helicopters what would be the birds' favorite prey?
If wolves invented voice recording would some husky-voiced Canadian male achieve Pavoratti status?
If sandhill cranes invented stilts would they still have long legs?
If hogs could get allergies would the world be awash in fungi?
If rainbow trout had invented refrigeration would tilapia be extinct?
If bluegill grew as big as Labrador retrievers would anyone ever swim?
It all goes away in a few days. I start wearing shorts everyday, get tan, caught up in the baseball season, and have barbecues every weekend. But for a few days each spring I have all these questions and wonder about things. How about you?

San Gabriel QU annual dinner March 23

ARCADIA -- The San Gabriel Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited will hold its annual fund-raiser and chapter banquet beginning 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 23 at Coco's Restaurant here. Quail Unlimited annually repairs and builds new guzzlers throughout Southern California, and this banquet helps fund this important work. The event will feature a dinner, raffle and auction. Dinner tickets, which include membership to QU, are $60 per person or $85 for a couple. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (562) 308-1322, ext. 1045.

Turner's Outdoorsman hog hunts on Tejon Ranch almost completely booked.

Very few spots are still available on the Turner's Outdoorsman series of non-guide hog hunts on the Tejon Ranch. Of the four hunts coming up, there are only a few spots left, according to Andy McCormick at Turner's. On the first hunt of the series, five of the 10 hunters managed to bag a hog, and two big boars over 250 pounds each were taken. Each of the Turner's hunts are limited to just 10 hunters who get to stay in one of the two first-class hunting lodges on the Tejon. Meals are provided, but hunters get to hunt the ranch on their own. There is also a drawing on each full hunt for a pig hunting rifle. In the past hunts, the drawings have been for Marlin .450 Model 1895 lever rifles, Howa Model 1500 bolt rifles, and the new Puma lever gun in .454. The next hunt dates are March 22-24, May 17-19, June 28-30, and July 26-28, and other dates may be added. Hunters should call to find out availability of spots and about new dates. For more information on these hunts, sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman, Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises, and California Hog Hunter, contact Jim Matthews at (909) 887-3444.

HUNTER SAFETY CLASS SCHEDULE -- matthews-ons 13mar02

Hunter education and handgun safety classes set for the month.

Hunter safety classes are required before purchasing a hunting license for the first time in California. The following is a list of regularly scheduled classes coming up in the next few weeks:
-- Saturday, March 16 at the Pony Express Sports Shop, San Fernando Valley. Contact Jim Overman at (818) 895-1231.
-- Saturday, March 16 at Fins and Feathers, Palmdale. Contact Don Abrams at (661) 945-5376.
-- Saturday and Sunday, March 16-17 in South Gate. Contact Fred Arnold at (323)563-6369.
-- Saturday, March 23 at Grant Boys in Costa Mesa. Contact Darell Freeman at (949) 632-2610 or (949) 645-3400.
-- Saturday, March 23 in Vista. Contact Jonathan Butler at (760) 630-1176.
-- Saturday, March 23 in Huntington Beach. Contact David Butler at (714) 968-9756.
-- Friday and Sunday, March 22, 24 at the Insight Shooting Range, Artesia. Contact Rick Royse at (562) 925-1566 or call the range at (562) 860-4365.
-- Saturday, March 30 at the Oak Tree Gun Club, Santa Clarita. Contact Derek Fong at (661) 297-0876 ext. 3.
-- Saturday, March 30 in Chula Vista. Contact Simon Ahn at (619) 656-5716 or via e-mail at sahn@parker.com.
-- Sunday, April 7, at the Wal-Mart, Victorville. This class is held the first Sunday of each month, and the first and third Sundays in June and August. Fee is $15 per student. Students can sign up and pick up a study book at the sporting goods department in Wal-Mart or call Ken Crawford at (760) 948-4218.
-- Saturday, April 13, at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises' Sporting Clays Range, Norco. Registration is 6:30 a.m. and the fee is $35 per student, which includes instruction, hunter safety certificate, lunch and refreshments. Participants must register at a Turner's Outdoorsman store or Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises and bring their hunter safety booklet the day of class. Contact: (909) 735-7981.
-- Saturday, April 13, at the Inland Fish and Game Conservation Association Range, Redlands. Registration is 7:30 a.m. and the fee is $8 per student. The class includes live-firing and students should bring a lunch and drinks for the all-day class. Classes are held the second Saturday of each month at the Inland Range. Contact: (909) 781-HUNT.
-- Sunday, April 14, in Rancho Cucamonga, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Price is $10 per person. Kids under 16 are required to pick up a study book in advance. Contact Gene Hubler at (909) 987-0811. Hubler runs classes the second Sunday of each month.

This is just a partial list of upcoming classes. Qualified hunter education instructors are available within a short distance of most any Southern California locations, and courses are conducted throughout the year. For a recorded list of volunteer hunter education instructors, their locations and telephone numbers, call (562) 590-5670, or access the list via the Department of Fish and Game website at www.dfg.ca.gov.
Spanish language instructors can be found in Santa Ana, Orange County, Colton in San Bernardino County, Escondido in San Diego County, and Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. And in Los Angeles County, Spanish language hunter education courses are available in Baldwin Park, Canoga Park, Inglewood, and Torrance.

FRED HALL SHOW, OTHER NEWS -- matthews column-ons 6mar02

Fred Hall show ongoing through this weekend.

The 55th annual Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show is ongoing today through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center. This event has always been the unofficial kickoff to the Southern California fishing season, and it remains one of the largest sportsman shows in the nation with literally hundreds of displays and booths featuring the latest fishing and boating products, destinations, and sportfishing charter boats. Speakers are giving presentation and seminars are conducted almost continuously.

But the show has two new wrinkles this year. First, its going retro. For the first time in 40 years, the classic lumberjack show has returned. Think of it as a large slice of the ESPN Outdoor Games on stage -- log rolling, speed chopping, artistic axe sculptures, and all of it live. Second, a major press conference has been planned for today (Thursday) that will reveal the results of an American Sportfishing Association (ASA) study detailing the economic impacts of marine closures along the coastline. The ASA, which has partnered up with the Hall family to run this annual show, and the entire sportfishing community was alarmed by the proposal to close many of the best nearshore and offshore fishing areas along the coast to all fishing, including sportfishing. The study was commissioned to gauge the economic impact of these proposals. A spokesman for the ASA, without revealing details, simply said the results were "dramatic."

Sportfishermen throughout California have lined up against blanket sportfishing closures, and United Anglers is making its biggest membership push ever at the Hall Show this year. With a booth just outside the show entrance, anyone who signs up for membership ($35) gets into the show free and they receive a coupon booklet with rebates and discounts worth over $500.

"If a guy signs up for United Anglers at the show and uses just one of the coupons over the course of the year, he'll get all of his money back," said Mike Lum, who's working with Hall and the ASA. "But there's a lot bigger issue involved -- and that is helping to protect sportfishing."

The show is open 2 to 10 p.m. today through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults, with kids 15 and under free. For more information or directions, call (562) 436-3636.

SANTA CRUZ ISLAND HOG HUNT UPDATE:

The first of the 12 Santa Cruz Island hog hunts, set up to help begin the hog eradication on the island, is set to begin March 18. If you haven't been notified you were drawn for one of the 120 slots available, well, you didn't get drawn.

Most of us didn't get drawn. Doug Updike, with the Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento, said there were just over 4,000 applications for the 120 slots over the 10 hunting periods in March and April. "This is really a great opportunity for these guys," said Updike. "Of course, there are no guaranties, but I've been over to the island with the Nature Conservancy people and the hunters drawn will have an opportunity to take multiple hogs."

YET ANOTHER RECORD RAINBOW -- matthews column 27feb02

Another record rainbow caught at urban lake.

For the second time in less than a week, the Santa Ana River Lakes have produced a potential state record rainbow. This past Saturday, Robert Vandevelde of Whittier caught a 26.08-pound rainbow trout on gossamer two-pound test line. The catch broke a lake and possible state record that was only five days old. On Tuesday last week, Bernard Lopez of Paramount caught a 24.09-pound rainbow. Lopez knew it was just a matter of time before his record would fall because, like most of the lake regulars, he knew there were one or two other trout that were bigger than his fish had been planted in the lake. In fact, Lopez had himself hooked a bigger trout the same day he caught his record fish.

Vandevelde said that after his big fish was securely in the net after a 30-minute fight, they discovered the big trout had five line shards hanging from its mouth. It has been hooked and lost at least five times. "The day before, a guy was fighting a fish for two hours -- well, an hour and 45 minutes at least -- and then that sucker shot straight up out of the water and broke him off," said Vandevelde. "Was it the same fish? I don't know. But it was a big fish." The 66-year-old regular fishes the lake nearly every weekend, and he had taken a week of vacation from his job as an insurance company courier to fish Santa Ana River Lakes when the biggest trout of the year were going to be planted. So for eight days, Vandevelde had been at the lake and watched the big trout being caught all around him.

"I had one bite Saturday, and that was him. John Chapman [a fishing buddy] was netting fish left and right of me all day. I was getting frustrated. I told John I'd had enough and we were going home in a half hour, and then I hooked the big one." Since Lopez had caught his big trout on Tuesday, Vandevelde had been telling him each day that he was going to break his record. Saturday was no different. Lopez left the lake around noon and heard the same story again from Vandevelde, and he laughed that he'd heard that story before. Vandevelde, who'd fallen into the lake the day before and took a lot of ribbing about it, told Lopez that he'd taken the dip on purpose. "I saw that big fish in there, and he whispered to me where he was going to be," Vandevelde had said to Lopez. They had laughed.

"I tell people I'm going to win the Lotto all the time, too, but it never happens," laughed Vandevelde. "This time it did." Another lake regular, Allen Arnold, said that Vandevelde did a masterful job of landing the big trout on the two-pound test line after enticing it to bite a small gob of sunburst-colored Crave Bait. Arnold said he didn't think there was any angler at the lake who could have landed the record fish except Vandevelde. Vandevelde is no stranger to record fish and light tackle. He currently holds the world line class record for white sturgeon in the four-pound test category. The sturgeon weighed 41 pounds.

The only question now seems to be this: Will the Department of Fish and Game recognize the big trout as a state record? Since the big trout was raised to trophy size in a hatchery just prior to being planted, the DFG is faltering on awarding the record to Vandevelde, even though there are no rules that say the fish can't be a freshly planted hatchery trout. Last year, when this same issue was raised with a pair of 23-plus-pounders caught at this lake, I asked readers to comment on the issue, pro and con, and the vast majority believed the fish shouldn't be considered a state record, or that the DFG should create a separate category for these huge hatchery trout.

An Internet survey on Santa Ana River Lakes' web site showed that 87 percent of those responding believed the big trout should be considered a record. What do you think this go around? This huge trout was caught on two-pound test line and that in itself is some feat. But a state record?

[Comments can be e-mailed to Jim Matthews at odwriter@aol.com or sent snail-mail to Jim Matthews, Outdoor News Service, P.O. Box 9007, San Bernardino, CA 92427-0007.]

MATTHEWS OPTIONAL SHOOTING COLUMN -- 27feb02

.17 Hornady rimfire field report

The first production rifles and ammunition shooting the new .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR) round are just becoming available, and Lee Hoots, editor of Guns & Ammo, and I had 150 rounds of ammunition and a new Ruger Model 77/17 rifle to play with this past weekend. The .17 HMR is based on a .22 magnum case necked down to shoot 17 caliber bullets, and the Hornady load uses a 17 grain V-Max bullet that is shot at 2,550 feet per second -- over 300 fps faster than the best .22 mag loads. Sighted in at 50 yards, there is 10 inches less drop with the .17 HMR than the .22 mag at 200 yards, making the .17 HMR an honest-to-gosh 200 to 225 yard varmint cartridge.

Lee and I did some accuracy testing off a bench rest at 100 yards, and found the Ruger consistently shot less than one-inch groups with the new ammunition. With most rimfires, I have always been pleased with one-inch groups at 50 yards, so we were pretty dazzled with the accuracy of the .17 HMR. I shot one group that was just a smidgen over 1/2-inch at 100 yards, and I was less than pleased with our bench rest conditions during this testing. The gun and ammunition are shooters. Often the reports with prototype guns and ammunition shot by writers when new products are first announced are well beyond what the average guy gets with production guns and ammunition. That was not the case with the round.

Mostly Lee and I wanted to see how the gun performed in the field, so we went ground squirrel hunting and shot the .17 side-by-side with my Anschutz .22 magnum. I will flat tell you that the .17 -- at least with the 17-grain V-Max bullet, doesn't hit with the same kind of wallop as the .22 mag. We shot Remington 33-grain V-Max loads and CCI 30-grain Speer TNT loads in the .22 mag to compare to the little .17. There was both an audible and physical different in how much damage the .22 mag caused over the .17. However, I was impressed with how the .17s tiny bullet penetrated while still causing massive internal damage. Exit wounds were often small, and I was convinced the .17 would be a perfect gun to use on small predators -- to the size of coyotes -- for hunters who wanted to cause minimal pelt damage. Several of the ground squirrels we shot with the .17 were fit for mounting purposes with only slight damage to those tiny hides.

We both were impressed was the flat trajectory of the .17 against the .22 mag. Lee and I have shot my Anschutz and killed squirrels at 150 yards and more with this gun, but that was usually after missing once or twice and walking shots into squirrels at those distance. With the .17 HMR Lee shot four squirrels in a row at ranges from 130 to 145 with his first shot. He then whacked one at 167 yards. The longest shot we made was on a squirrel at 188 yards. We were ranging the shots with a Bushnell rangefinder after the shot and not before. With a little tweaking of the zero, I'm convinced that we could smack game with little or no holdover out to about 150 yards, and then only a slight holdover at 200 to 225 yards.

Another huge benefit: the gun is like most rimfires, quiet. It doesn't have the decibel level of even my .22 Hornet, which it equals in performance.
All that out of a rimfire. Varmint shooters should know, however, that ammunition production is expected to be somewhat limited this year, and if you plan to buy a .17 HMR, you'd better get your ammo requests in early with your local gun dealer. It is fairly certain there will be more rifles available -- from Ruger, Mossberg, Savage, H&R, and others -- than there will be ammunition initially. I already have my ammo request in with Turner's.

Fred Hall show kicks off March 6 at Long Beach Convention Center.

LONG BEACH -- The 55th annual Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show, the unofficial kickoff to the Southern California's fishing season and one of the largest sportsman shows in the nation, will run from next Wednesday, March 6, through Sunday, March 10 at the Long Beach Convention Center. The show will feature ons of the largest fishing tackle and boat displays ever assembled in Southern California, with over 2000 displays and dozens of hourly seminars and exhibitions put on by a who's who of the nation's best freshwater and saltwater anglers. The usual array of free kid's events will also be held, including a free trout tank where the kids can catch and take home a trout.

In addition, the show will feature an impressive display of the latest fishing boats, from small one-person craft to luxurious yachts designed for serious offshore fishing. The show is open 2 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults with kids 15 and under free. For more information, call (562) 436-3636.

Five hunters whack hogs on Turner's Outdoorsman hunt.

LEBEC -- In spite of a thick fog all-day Saturday that limited visibility to about 20 yards, the 10 hunters in the first of five Turner's Outdoorsman unguided hog hunts on the Tejon Ranch managed to take five hogs this past weekend, including two whopper boars that weighed over 250 pounds each. The biggest hog was taken early Sunday morning in a joint effort by Gary Methling and his partner Len Izbicki, both from San Marcos. In the early morning fog, the near-300-pound boar emerged in front of the two hunters and Methling actually shot the brute with his 9mm handgun. Len, just returned from hunting hogs in Hawaii where they hunt them with dogs and then stick the pigs, finished off the animal with his knife. The boar had two-inch-plus teeth. "Gary told me that he didn't want me to kill a pig, just to wound one so he could finish it off with his knife," said Methling. It just happened to work out that way.

Sunday evening, Earl Wise of Palmdale used his .300 Weatherby on a big boar as the hunt was winding down. Not only did the hog weigh in the 250-pound range, but it had one tooth that was 2 1/2-inches long while the other was just under that. Wise was part of a group of five guys who work together -- his son Robert, Andy Probert, Ken Payne, and their boss Tim Guzzy. They wanted to take their boss on his first hog hunt, and Guzzy shot a nice meat pig Saturday evening in spite of the weather. Guzzy was also the hunter lucky in the drawing on Sunday and won a new Puma Model 92 lever action rifle chambered for the .454 Casull cartridge. The group also has some stories about missed hogs they can tell with gusto.

Other hunters in the group included Steve Fortier of Riverside and Sean and Larry Lassley, both of Clovis. The father and son Lassley team waited until the last hour of the last day to fill their hog tags, turning down a number of small pigs before finally shooting two nice meat sows late Sunday evening. Sean captured his father shooting his hog on video, and then set the camera down long enough to bag his own pig.

There are four more hunts scheduled in the coming months. Each of the Turner's hunts are limited to just 10 hunters who get to stay in one of the two first-class hunting lodges on the Tejon. Meals are provided, but hunters get to hunt the ranch on their own. There is also a drawing on each full hunt for a pig hunting rifle. In the past hunts, the drawings have been for Marlin .450 Model 1895 lever rifles, Howa Model 1500 bolt rifles, and now the Puma lever gun in .454. The next hunt dates are set for March 22-24, May 17-19, June 28-30, and July 26-28, and there are still open spots for all but the May hunt, which is booked up, and other hunts are filling rapidly.

For more information on these hunts, sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman, Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises, and California Hog Hunter, contact Jim Matthews at (909) 887-3444.

14th Annual Gun Dog Showdown to be held March 9 at Prado Park.

NORCO -- The San Gabriel Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited will be hosting the 14th Annual Gun Dog Showdown beginning 7:30 a.m., March 9 at the dog training area of the Prado Regional Park. The event is an off-season opportunity for hunters to get together and promote a little sportsman-like competition between hunters and their hunting dogs. The event attempts to answer the age-old question whether the pointing breeds or flushing breeds are better suited for the rigors of upland game hunting, while establishing bragging rights for the best upland bird dog. The trial features planted chukar in an effort to better simulate an actual hunting environment. Hunter-dog teams will be judged based on time, and shells expended, to shoot and retrieve three birds. The event will be held at the Prado Dog-Training Area of Prado Regional Park located just off Euclid Avenue, south of Highway 60 and north of Highway 91. Cost is $50 to register for the trial, or $40 for SGVQU members, and $25 for reruns. There is also a $10 park entry fee. For further information, call (866) 206-9070, ext. 6715 or e-mail sgvqu@onebox.com.

Sheep Society kicks off annual desert water and survey program.

EAGLE ROCK -- The Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, considered by many to be the most dedicated and successful of the hands-on conservation organizations in the country, will begin its 33rd year of its Volunteer Desert Water and Wildlife Survey program with a fun event March 9. This first event will be the Bob Campbell Guzzler Dedication ceremony and cow pie flinging contest in the Clark Mountains. Then the usual array of serious work begins with the March 23rd rebuilding of the Surveyor Guzzler in the Old Woman Mountains, the April 13 rebuilding of the Marble Mountains Guzzler, the April 27 Weavernoy Guzzler repair in the Granite Mountains, the May 4 Newberry Mountains Guzzler repair and filling, the May 18 R&R Jessewalla Guzzler construction in the Chuckwalla Mountains, and the June 1 and 22 projects in the San Bernardino Mountains that will either repair an existing guzzler or build a new one.

Volunteers are always welcome on these efforts that have led to the construction of over 70 big game guzzlers in bighorn sheep habitat in the desert and hundreds of other projects to improve and maintain water flows at many remote springs. The annual sheep census work is also conducted by volunteers who sit at desert watering areas during the hottest days of the summer to count and classify sheep. Now that's dedication. For more information or to volunteer for any of these projects and programs, call Dick Conti, the SCBS waterhole coordinator at (323) 256-0463.

NEW STATE RECORD RAINBOW -- Jim Matthews column 20feb02

State record 24.09-pound rainbow caught at Santa Ana River Lakes.

ANAHEIM -- A 24.09-pound rainbow trout was caught Tuesday this week at Santa Ana River Lakes. The fish, if accepted by the Department of Fish and Game, would break the current state record of 23-pound even by over a pound. Bernard Lopez, a 48-year-old machine shop plant manager with nine kids who lives in Paramount, battled the huge trout on three-pound test line for nearly 30 minutes before landing the brute. While he's happy with this fish, Lopez will tell you that the big one got away, and it's not likely a fish story.

"I hooked one earlier in the day that busted my line," said Lopez. "Oh ya, it was way bigger [than the 24-pounder]. The big fish took me all the way across to the other side of the lake. When he stopped, I started bringing him back. I cranked three times, and he jerked his head and `pop' he was gone." It was one of three nice trout Lopez caught from Chris' Pond at Santa Ana River Lakes on Tuesday. The other fish weighed 18 1/2, 13 1/5, and about five pounds.

Lopez was taking part in a special fishing event, a reintroduction of Crave Bait, at Santa Ana River Lakes. There were bonus plants of monster rainbows for this event, and Lopez used the new bait to catch all of his trophy trout. Crave, a floating dough bait, was announced with massive fanfare last fall, but anglers found the new product dried out easily and didn't stay on the hook. The problem was the jars didn't seal. Anglers also thought the bait could float better. Crave recalled all of the product, modified the flotation formula, and ordered new jars with lids that sealed, according to Phil Mackey, the inventor of Crave.

"It cost us a heck of a lot to do that, but bottom line, you've gotta do the right thing," said Mackey. "Crave at first stunk," said Lopez. "It didn't stay on the hook, dried up on you and was powdery. This new batch is a big improvement. It's really good," said Lopez. According to Doug Elliott, who runs the concession at Santa Ana River Lakes with his partner Bill Andrews, there are at least two other trout in Chris' Pond that are about the same size at Lopez' record fish. Maybe bigger. Maybe quite a bit bigger.

"The hatchery people told us there were three of those huge fish in this last batch," said Elliott. There were three other trout in the 20-pound class caught Tuesday and Wednesday, but those weren't included in the "huge" fish category. Elliott meant 24-pound or better fish. Mackey, who is also the owner of Mt. Lassen Trout Farms where the super-sized trout planted in Santa Ana River Lakes are grown, said they were not having any problems with their trout. They keep getting bigger each year.

"Last year we had one at 30 pounds in our ponds that died. We don't know how big they can get. Yet." With that in mind, Lopez knew that it is just a matter of time before a bigger trout is caught. "The record might last a week," he said. "I hope it lasts a week. Let me enjoy this little moment here." Lopez also knows that the record might hold up longer that, even if there are bigger fish currently in the lake. "You still have to have the skills to land a fish that big. It's not that easy," he said.

Tom Knapp to give shotgun shooting exhibition at Quail Unlimited banquet.

NORCO -- World class exhibition shooter Tom Knapp will give a free shotgunning exhibition 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Riverside Chapter of Quail Unlimited's annual banquet to at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises facility here. Knapp travels the world for Benelli Arms company and the Winchester Ammunition Company. He has performed throughout Europe and the mid-East, covering as many as 14 countries in four months. He has been contracted by Winchester Ammunition since 1990 and Benelli since 1993. However, Knapp has been performing for the public since 1987 and has entertained audiences as large as 8,000 spectators in a single performance. He has appeared on national TV networks and on local TV broadcasts over the years and currently appearing on two major networks. Immediately following Tom Knapp's performance the Banquet will open for viewing of auction and raffle items. Tickets for the banquet can be ordered by calling (909) 662-9688.

"This is going to an exciting season for Quail Unlimited and southern California dove and quail hunters," said Dick Haldeman, western regional director for QU. "Working with the California State Committee, Riverside has help with the Department of Fish and Game to open over 300 acres for hunting at Camp Cady near Barstow with the purchase of a well system to provide crops for dove and pheasant hunting. "The chapter was also key to funding and providing seed for the planting of nearly 1,400 acres of new hunting lands in the Imperial Valley, and it provided some of the best hunting in the region this past season," said Haldeman. The Imperial Valley project is a partnership with Desert Wildlife Unlimited, The DFG Game Bird Heritage program, and Pheasants forever. These projects are in addition to the chapters normal habitat work of clearing salt cedar from desert water courses and water projects in the San Bernardino Mountains. For additional information contact David Ortiz at (909) 606-8708 or e-mail westernqu@aol.com.

Wayne Carlton to give series of turkey seminars in early March.

CHINO -- Wayne Carlton, one of the few turkey hunters to have taken two grand slams on birds found in the United States, will be giving a series of three turkey hunting seminars on consecutive nights beginning March 7. All are sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman and Hunter's Specialties. This year's spring turkey season will be held March 30 through May 5, and Carlton's seminars are a good primer for this season. Carlton has hunted turkeys for 36 years and has taken birds in 11 states from Florida to Oregon and he has designed four very successful calls.

The first seminar will be held at Turner's Outdoorsman in West Covina beginning 6 p.m., Thursday, March 7. The event is free but reservations are suggested by calling (626) 858-8948. Carlton will speak 6 p.m. Friday, March 8, at the San Marcos Turner's Outdoorsman, and reservations for that engagement may be made by call (760) 741-1570. Carlton will then headline the annual spring turkey hunting day at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises in Norco. In addition to Carlton's talk at 10 a.m., hunters will have the opportunity to pattern their shotguns and participate in a National Wild Turkey Federation drawings, and have a barbecue lunch. Reservations are also suggested for this event. You can reserve a spot by calling Raahauge's at (909) 735-7981.

Spots still available on Turner's hog hunts at the Tejon Ranch.

CHINO -- The first of five unguided hog hunts sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman will be held this weekend at the Tejon Ranch. This hunt is booked up, but there are still open spots on three of the four other hunts to be held in the coming months, according to Andy McCormick at Turner's. "There was a 40 percent success rate on the Tejon's recent Pig-O-Rama, even with the bad weather for that hunt. We expect all 10 of our hunters will have opportunities to shoot a hog," said McCormick. Each of the Turner's hunts are limited to just 10 hunters who get to stay in one of the two first-class hunting lodges. Meals are provided, but hunters get to hunt the ranch on their own. The two hunts held last year had about 50 percent success rates, according to McCormick, and "most hunters who put in the effort got opportunities to kill hogs." The next hunt dates are set for March 22-24, May 17-19, June 28-30, and July 26-28, and there are still open spots for all of them. For more information on these hunts, sponsored by Turner's Outdoorsman, Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises, and California Hog Hunter, contact Jim Matthews at (909) 887-3444.

14th Annual Gun Dog Showdown to be held March 9 at Prado Park.

NORCO -- The San Gabriel Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited will be hosting the 14th Annual Gun Dog Showdown beginning 7:30 a.m., March 9 at the dog training area of the Prado Regional Park. The event is an off-season opportunity for hunters to get together and promote a little sportsman-like competition between hunters and their hunting dogs. The event attempts to answer the age-old question whether the pointing breeds or flushing breeds are better suited for the rigors of upland game hunting, while establishing bragging rights for the best upland bird dog. The trial features planted chukar in an effort to better simulate an actual hunting environment. Hunter-dog teams will be judged based on time, and shells expended, to shoot and retrieve three birds. The event will be held at the Prado Dog-Training Area of Prado Regional Park located just off Euclid Avenue, south of Highway 60 and north of Highway 91. Cost is $50 to register for the trial, or $40 for SGVQU members, and $25 for reruns. There is also a $10 park entry fee. For further information, call (866) 206-9070, ext. 6715 or e-mail sgvqu@onebox.com.

DWR OWES SILVERWOOD FIVE MILLION TROUT -- 13feb02

The way Pat Marley figures it, the Department of Water Resources owes Lake Silverwood about five million trout, and he's on the verge of filing a lawsuit to see the state agency meets the terms of an agreement it signed in 1981 to mitigate for the construction of the lake.

"It's our intention to enforce the rights of the resource user," said Marley, who's the general consul of the Southern California Bass Council and a perennial thorn in the DWR's side on fishery issues.

Marley said that the 1981 agreement calls for the DWR to fund the stocking of 250,000 trout a year in Lake Silverwood. Under an agreement with the Department of Fish and Game, DWR currently only funds about 20,000 pounds of trout a year to Silverwood, and there have been years when no fish were planted.

The lack of plants and their poor timing have all but killed winter visitation to this once-popular reservoir. Most of the trout are planted in mid-spring or early winter. No trout are planted from January through March when water conditions would be ideal for the trout, and predation on these popular gamefish would be minimal from largemouth bass and striped bass.

Marley and the Bass Council already have the DWR jumping through hoops to mitigate for the drawdown that all but destroyed the Silverwood fishery when the outlet tower was replaced. Marley will be going back to court in the coming week to ask the DWR to complete three parts of a mitigation plan at Silverwood:

1) Remove 100,000 pounds of rough fish, mostly carp, from the lake to clear the habitat for game species like trout, panfish, catfish and bass.

2) Build and place 1,500 hardwood habitat modules in the lake to improve the survival of young panfish and bass.

3) And stock the lake with 5,000 Florida-strain largemouth bass 12-inches long or larger to help jump-start the recovery of this fishery.

The combination of this mitigation and the DWR meeting its originally mandated trout stocking regime would go a long way toward returning Silverwood to one of the area's premier fisheries.

The drawdown did have one positive result. It reduced the striper population in the lake so that returns on planted trout are now higher at Silverwood than most other reservoirs in the region, according to Terry Foreman with the Department of Fish and Game.

"The DWR has argued that we're not getting enough of a return on the trout to justify that level of stocking, but Silverwood stacks up favorably with many places we plant trout and it's probably a bit better than a lot of places," said Foreman.

Marley and the Bass Council are simply getting tired of the DWR foot-dragging -- or maybe knuckle-dragging -- and they want all of the mitigation measures for the original construction of the project and the recent drawdown implemented.

"If we do not receive a satisfactory solution -- soon -- I've been authorized by the Bass Council to file another lawsuit to force the DWR to meet its mitigation obligations," said Marley.

With the state budget crashing, the DWR would be far better served to spend money on trout rather than lawyers -- especially since the terms of mitigation are already spelled out and were agreed upon a long time ago.

S.H.O.T. SHOW REVELATIONS -- Jim Matthews column 6feb02

New `02 shooting products unveiled at SHOT Show.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- The first new rimfire cartridge in over 25 years and an extensive expansion of the short magnum class of modern short, stubby hunting cartridges were the highlights of the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show held in Las Vegas from Saturday through Tuesday this week.

This event is the hunting and shooting industries' annual unveiling of its new products for the coming year. For those of us who like all the bells and whistles of this sport, it is like a huge candy store for someone with a sweet tooth.

One of the most popular and significant new items shown at the show were a literal gun safe full of rifles chambered for the new .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR) cartridge. It is the first new rimfire round in over two decades, and orders of ammunition and new rifles in the round guarantee that it will be in all of the gun and hunting stores across the nation. Hornady worked with Ruger and Marlin to make sure factory rifles would be available for their new round, but by the last day of the show, there were few makers of rimfire rifles who did not plan to have .17 HMRs -- Mossberg, Kimber, Anschutz, Savage, H&R, and many others were quick to announce their own versions.

I want one or two.

The other significant item, at least for me, was the introduction of a new 27 caliber cartridge -- the .270 Winchester Short Magnum. It has been over 50 years since a 27 caliber cartridge has been introduced, which is odd. Most other calibers have dozens of round that shoot bullets of that diameter. There are dozens of .22s and .30s, but exactly two .27s. The original .270 Winchester introduced in 1925 and made popular by gun writer Jack O'Conner, and the .270 Weatherby, a not-so-popular magnum version that was the first of Roy Weatherby's magnum designs that made him famous around the world.

The .270 WSM is just one of five rounds introduced in the last two years by the big two of ammunition makers -- Winchester and Remington -- that feature short, fat cartridge cases. The idea here is two-fold. The big stubby case burns powder more efficiently and works through a shorter, more rigid action. Both things lead to better accuracy. Both Winchester and Remington have nearly identical 30 caliber and 7mm versions now in their lineups.

As gun writer Mic McPherson told me one evening during the show, "Short and fat is where it's at today." He was talking about cartridge design, not my physique. They make good sense to techo-weenies who talk about combustion ratios and burn efficiency and regular hunters who just want good cartridges to carry in the field.

Other highlights gleaned from my notes after walking the show floor for four days include these:

-- A .454 rifle made by Puma, a Brazilian company imported by Legacy Sports, on a Model 92-type lever action design. The .454 is a magnum handgun round that has incredible whomp. Short, handy and powerful, bear and wild hog hunters will love this one.

-- Thompson/Center, well known for its single shot pistols and line of muzzleloaders, came out with a novel muzzleloader design that has a completely enclosed ignition system that doesn't need to be cleaned built. The original action design -- which might be described as a "falling trigger mechanism" -- has to be seen to be appreciated.

-- W. L. Gore, the company that developed the first breathable rain-proof and wind-proof fabrics, has perfected its new Supprescent fabric that blocks human scent from escaping. When worn head-to-toe, it eliminates human scent that spooks game. Other scent-proof fabrics out there lose their effectiveness after a few washings. Supprescent is a permanent scent-proof fabric that can be washed over and over.

-- Watch for FUD (short for "fold up decoys"). Designed in Australia, the FUD is an ingenious form design that can be used on water or land. It is a nearly full-bodied waterfowl decoy that can be folded flat so four to six dozen can be more easily carried in less space than 12 or 18 regular decoys. They are made by Blackwater Decoy Company and duck stamp artist Adam Grimm did the life-like paint job for these decoys.

-- On the nostalgia front, Remington has brought back a 16 gauge version of its popular Model 870 pump shotgun, and Winchester announced they will make 1,500 copies of Teddy Roosevelt's "Big Medicine" -- the Model 1895 lever action rifle in .405 Winchester. Hornady is also running a lot of that classic ammunition.

This was the largest SHOT Show in the 24-year history of the event, completely filling the Las Vegas Convention Center (nearly 500,000 square feet and about 400 miles of aisles if the blisters on my feet are any indication). It was also expected to set an attendance record of around 40,000 people from the industry, including some 500 gun and outdoor writers like me.

I know I missed some cool stuff because in four days, you just couldn't see it all.

BIGHORN SHEEP IN SO CAL -- Jim Matthews column 30jan02

Local bighorn sheep suffering from habitat mismanagement.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s the population of bighorn sheep in the San Gabriel Mountains was considered the largest sheep herd in the continental United States. There were over 700 animals scattered across the mountain range, mostly in the Lytle Creek and San Gabriel River drainages, and many biologists felt that population estimate was very conservative. The fact that his herd thrived near such a large metropolitan area was a marvelous thing.

It was common for casual hikers to see bighorn on steep rock precipices in the South Fork of Lytle Creek near Bonita Falls or throughout the Middle Fork drainage. Visitors driving to Mt. Baldy resort could pull over on the side of the paved road and use binoculars to watch ewes lead a group of younger sheep across the rocky slope or even see rams knocking horns together in the late fall.

There were so many animals that the Department of Fish and Game trapped hundreds of animals and moved them back into other historic ranges through the mid-1980s, ranges where the sheep herds had disappeared.

But none of that happens any longer. The San Gabriel Mountains' sheep herd has dwindled to 60 to 100 animals. While population fluctuations are natural, there is a point where biologists begin to worry about the continued existence of herds and wonder what is driving the decline.

The problem in the San Gabriels is simple: habitat and bureaucracy. According to biologists with state and federal agencies involved in bighorn sheep management, bighorn habitat has become critically overgrown over the past 30 years, and the land management agency responsible for the sheep habitat -- the Angeles National Forest -- has done nothing to help the problem. So it's gotten worse.

Sheep in overgrown habitats also face greater loss due to predation by mountain lions. The lions have more cover and sheep become easy prey. Those losses have been documented and lions have been responsible for the big declines in sheep numbers, but the issue still comes back to overgrown habitat. There have been proposals for predator control, but biologists are reluctant to do lion control without improving habitat at the same time because the fix is short term.

The simple solution is to have controlled burns in sheep habitat, or let wildfires burn through the decadent brush that has built up over the decades.

"One thing I know with certainty is the habitat needs fire -- fire throughout sheep range in the San Gabriels," said one biologist critical of Angeles forest management of the habitat.

Proposals for controlled burns in sheep habitat fall on deaf ears. Angeles National Forest staff drag their feet, they make excuses. They are mired in the bureaucracy of inaction. There has not been a single controlled burn in sheep habitat. And the sheep herd continues to dwindle.

But this is the same agency that still hasn't spent any Adventure Pass funding to benefit recreational anglers and hunters, even though there was a mandate to do that over the past two years. Meanwhile the San Bernardino National Forest started a complete inventory of its guzzlers and developed springs and will continue that work this year with this money. The Angeles is the same agency that still hasn't reopened any recreational shooting areas, while surrounding forests -- the Cleveland and San Bernardino reopened sites for shooters. The Angeles is mismanaged on a multitude of fronts.

Sheep populations have the ability to recover their numbers quickly if they get the opportunity, and the forest service could provide that opportunity -- no, should provide that opportunity.

"Maybe the rams in the San Gabriels need to move to St. Louis to be successful, too," said a biologist. Gallows humor. The Angeles National Forest management staff needs to get their heads out of the sand.

VENTURA SHEEP: In the mid-1980s two groups of bighorns were trapped in Lytle Creek and released in the Sespe Creek area of Ventura County. This was an area that had held sheep historically, but they had become extirpated. By the mid-1990s, it was feared that the introduced herd had also disappeared. Most of the radio-collared sheep had been killed by mountain lions, and annual surveys were only able to find a single stray animal here or there. Surveys were stopped, the herd written off.

Then reports started coming back to the Department of Fish and Game that there was a healthy herd of animals in the McDonald Peak region. For the past two years ago, the DFG has again done helicopter surveys and classified 29 sheep the first year and 22 sheep this past fall. The Los Padres National Forest is being asked to approve some controlled burn projects in this region to improve the habitat and allow expansion of the herd into other areas. Sheep populations can recover and flourish given half a chance.

SANTA CRUZ PIGS: While a total count hasn't been done, Doug Updike with the DFG in Sacramento reported on Wednesday that something on the order of 2,500 postcard applications for the Santa Cruz Island wild hog hunt had been received by the agency. There are 120 hunting spots available for this hunt. "A big stack of express mail envelopes arrived today with postcard applications inside," said Updike. The deadline to have the applications in the DFG's hands was Thursday this week.

CHUKAR SEASON: With the close of quail and chukar season this past Sunday, hunters are already looking forward to next fall because of the large number of holdover birds. Gary Hatfield, an avid chukar hunter from Mountain Home Village, hunted just about every week of the season and bagged 52 chukar this season, including limits of birds on two trips. Last year, hunting just as much, Hatfield bagged four birds. "I saw a lot of birds the last weekend of the season," said Hatfield. "There are a lot of holdovers." If we get just a couple of decent early spring rains, the production could be exceptional, leading to a bumper crop of upland birds that only happen once in a great while. Pray for more rain.

SANTA CRUZ ISLAND HOG HUNT -- Jim Matthews-ons 23jan02

Santa Cruz hunt a last opportunity for island hunters.

Over 1,000 hunters have already applied for one of the 120 slots available on 10 different hunts for wild hogs being held by the Department of Fish and Game on Santa Cruz Island.

"This is the front end of an eradication program to remove all hogs from Santa Cruz," said Doug Updike with the DFG in Sacramento. "Hunters are being allowed to take the cream off the top before the eradication begins."

It also represents the end of an era for California hog hunters who once went to offshore islands and shot feral hogs, goats and sheep that had been turned loose by early explorers. Over the past few years, the National Park Service and various conservancy groups which helped purchase the land have embarked on a campaign to rid the islands of these non-native animals, animals that have seriously damaged the environment. The wild hogs have already been completely removed from several islands and portions of others, and the Santa Cruz hunt may be the last public opportunity to hunt these animals.

The hogs that have lived on the offshore islands for hundreds of years are also different than feral mainland hogs. While there is a lot of talk about Russian wild boar in California, all hogs currently living in wild the state are predominately from European domestic hog stock. There are a couple of areas where some Russian genetic markers are evident in hog DNA, according to hog researcher Ron Loggins, who's working on his PhD in this field, but there are no true, full-blood Russian boars. But Loggins said the island pigs come from a completely different genetic stock than all other pigs in the state. While he's still collecting samples from around the world so he can pinpoint their origins, Loggins speculates that early Spanish explorers may have picked up the island wild hog descendants in the Philippines.

Hunters familiar with the island hogs' smaller size, large heads, and large tusks are not surprised by this news. In the past most simply attributed the differences between the island and mainland hogs was due to crowding and environmental conditions, but it is now known they just have different genetics.

On each of the 10 DFG hunts, 12 hunters will be flown over to the island from the Camarillo airport and dropped off in different locations to camp and hunt for three days, spending two nights on the island. The hunts are weekdays from mid-March through mid-April. There is no fee for the hunt, with the DFG picking up the tab with hog tag money. Hunters have to bring all of their own camping gear, food, and water, and are limited to bringing along one 60-quarter-sized ice chest in which to bring home game. There is no limit on the number of hogs a hunter can take (but he must have a tag for each one). Updike suggested that hunters plan on boning out the game completely so they could take more animals.

To apply, hunters must send in a postcard application that includes the hunter's name, address, and hunting license number. Two hunters may apply together on the same postcard, but only one application is allowed for each hunter whether he is applying with another hunter or not. Hunters must also specify which hunt period is desired on the postcard applications. The first hunt period is Monday through Wednesday, March 18-20, with the second period Wednesday through Friday, March 20-22. For each of the following four weeks, there will be Monday-Wednesday and Wednesday-Friday hunts numbered successively. The period 10 hunt is April 17-19.

Postcard applications should be sent to Santa Cruz Island Wild Pig Hunt, Wildlife Programs Branch, California Department of Fish and Game, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. The deadline for these postcard applications to arrive at the DFG's office is next Thursday, January 31. A drawing will be held on Feb. 6 and successful applicants will be notified by Feb. 15.

Updike said that while most of the applications received so far are for early period hunts, he said later hunts are likely to be just as successful because the DFG will be moving hunters to different sites with each hunt period to maximize the amount of game taken. The Nature Conservancy, which is working with the DFG to make this hunt happen, estimates there are around 5,000 pigs on Santa Cruz, the majority in the area where the DFG hunts will take place.

The hunts will ring bittersweet for sportsmen. On one hand, they mark end of a rich sporting tradition on the islands off the Southern California coast; on the other hand, sportsmen are helping to start a process that will eventually restore Santa Cruz to a natural state where its native plants and animals will again have a chance to flourish.

Public comments on mammal regulations due by Feb. 9 to Fish and Game Commission.

SACRAMENTO -- Hunters and others interested in the state's big game and small game hunting regulations must have comments on existing regulations or proposals for new rules to the state Fish and Game Commission by its February 9 meeting in Sacramento, according to the Department of Fish and Game. The DFG said that many of the state's hunting rules have come about because of public recommendations. These recommendations may be made in writing by Feb. 9 by sending the suggestions to the Fish and Game Commission, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, or they can be delivered orally in person at the Commission meeting that date in Sacramento. The proposals from both the public and the DFG will be discussed by the Commission at it March 8 meeting in San Diego and it's April 15 meeting in Long Beach before final adoption April 25 via a teleconference call. The regulations, governing all big game mammals, small game and furbearers, will become effective July 1.

Two-pole stamp now valid on Colorado River and area canals.

SACRAMENTO -- Anglers who fish the Colorado River fishing district with a second rod after purchasing their two-pole stamp may now use two rods on more than just lakes and reservoirs. Thanks to legislation passed this past year, anglers can fish in all rivers, canals, and streams in this fishing district. In the past, the two-pole stamp was only valid for lakes and reservoirs -- and that is still the case in other fishing districts in the state -- but anglers along the Colorado River, the Coachella Valley, Imperial Valley, and Palo Verde Valley may not use two poles in all waters open to fishing in this area. "Anglers can double their opportunities with this stamp in an area that prior to Dec. 31 you were unable to do this," said Mike McBride, the Department of Fish and Game's regional patrol chief. "Now anywhere you fish in the district you can use two poles if you have this stamp." This will especially delight catfish anglers who might want to try two different baits at the same time or perhaps fish for bluegill or bass while they're soaking a big goldfish for a flathead. The DFG wants to remind anglers that the two-pole stamp only allows for more opportunities. The limits on all species does not change for anglers who purchase the stamp.

BASS SEASON AND CONTROVERSY -- matthews-ons 16jan02

It's the season: Big bass, big controversy

Serious bass fishermen are a fun crowd. Well, sort of.

The phone has been jingling and the e-mails sizzling for the past two weeks since the first reports hit of the new lake record largemouth bass caught at Lake Perris -- an 18-pounder landed by Will Steele of Salmon, Idaho, while fishing with well-known big fish angler Jerry Rago of Independence.

Then there was last week's report of a 19.6-pound largemouth, also caught at Lake Perris. That one was never weighed on a certified scale, and no pictures of this fish have surfaced yet, so no one is calling it the new lake record.

In fact, anglers are calling both catches a lot of other things -- and legitimate is rarely a word you hear for either one.

This should come of no surprise to anyone who's followed the big bass scene, or bass fishing in general for that matter. This is a crowd that will accuse anyone who catches a big fish of being everything from a snagger to a dynamiter and all stops in between. Mostly I am amused by how all the guys who've caught big fish -- legitimately as far as I can tell -- are suspicious of all of the other anglers who catch big fish.

I've yet to decide if it's because all of these guys just have such a high regard for themselves that they don't believe anyone else can figure out how to catch the bruisers; or its that these anglers know that those big boys can't be caught legally -- know that from personal experience -- and figure, like themselves, everyone must be fishing illegally.

Knowing many of them, I believe its the former. They all believe its the latter and they are the only legal fisherman out there.

Steele and Rago did everything right when they weighed in the lake record 18-pounder. Lots of people saw the fish, saw the weighing, and took photos. Then the fish was released. There really was an 18-pounder caught. It was caught legitimately. Will you bass guys quit whining?

The 19.6-pounder might be another story, however. As I've been able to piece it together, without talking with the guy who supposedly caught the fish, an angler was trolling with a nine-inch Osprey Lure -- a big trout-like swim bait -- and caught the big boy. One angler, who posted a message on a San Diego-based fishing web site, witnessed the catch and even saw the guy weigh it on his boat scale (which are pretty darn accurate). He even took photos, he said in the post. A couple of other anglers, who also saw the catch, told the marina staff about the big fish. Everyone waited for the guy to show up and weigh the bass on the certified scale.

But then the mystery began. This fish was never weighed on the certified scale at the marina to claim the new lake record. No one seemed to really know who caught the fish, and people who said they did know the guy said he was a well-known poacher who used live trout for bait. Using live trout is illegal and ranks right next to dynamite on an ethical scale of minus one to minus 10.

I'm not sure I buy any of the accusations.

I'd like to think the guy just knew it wasn't a world record, wasn't in the national big fish contest that makes the biggest bass in the nation worth $25,000 each year if you're entered, didn't care about the lake record, and let the fish go. Heck a guy in Northern California did this with a potential world record 24-pounder a couple of years ago because he was more concerned about the health of the bass than the world record. All he got for it was flack.

I did check Bart Crabb's book, "The Quest for the World Record Bass," and for those of you who like conspiracy theories, tarot cards, and want to draw conclusions where none exist, the 19.6-pounder would be 13th on the all-time list. Twilight Zone music, please.

Apparently all this doesn't matter much whether you were for the guy who caught the 19.6 or against him; whether or not you believe Steele caught his 18-pounder on Rago's home-made Generic Trout swim bait. Virtually all of the anglers who called or sent e-mails, or who responded to my calls and e-mails, said the same thing about Lake Perris. It was going to pop a 20-pounder this year, and with a trout plant slated for this week, it was likely to happen just any day now.

A bigger miracle would be having anglers believe the catch was legitimate.

MEARNS' QUAIL -- jim matthews-ons 09jan01

Mearns' quail, rain and cattle.

PARKER CANYON LAKE, Ariz. -- Dave Lukens stopped on a steep sidehill and looked back at his two hunting companions. He smiled. Even his Brittany spaniels stopped sensing that something was up. Lukens was about to reveal the true secret to hunting southern Arizona's Mearns' quail.

"The best advice I've even had about Mearns' quail was given to me by a Mexican gas station attendant," said Lukens. Lukens had been frustrated in his efforts to find these unique birds in their native oak grassland habitat, and was reaching out to anyone and everyone who might help. The attendant had hunted the birds, he admitted, so Lukens asked him where he could find these birds. "He said to me, "Oh senior, the Mearns' they can be anywhere.' "

Lukens whirled and continued hiking down a steep slope through gnarled oaks. My Flagstaff hunting buddy, Rob Breeding, and I had come with Lukens hoping to learn about these wonderful gamebirds, and we looked at each other and started laughing. But by the end of the day and 10 coveys of birds later, we realized the advice was sound. The birds were where we found them -- on the top of ridges, in the bottoms of canyons, and on the sidehills. They were everywhere and anywhere.

Lukens, who is a Southwest Airlines pilot in between his hunting trips for upland birds, has become known as one of the preeminent Mearns' quail hunters in the Southwest and a strong proponent for protecting their habitat and hunters' opportunities to pursue this unusual quail species. His simple hunting technique is to get into good habitat and cover ground on foot with his Brittany spaniels romping through the terrain ahead of him. A 15-mile day is not unusual for Lukens. Maybe more. He who covers the most ground wins because, afterall, the birds they can be anywhere.

The Mearns' or Montezuma quail are different than most Western gamebirds. It doesn't run. For hunters accustomed to hunting Gambel's or valley quail, which almost require the wearing of track shoes, a Mearns' quail is a stark contrast. It hides. Often hunkering down right under a pointing dog's nose.

With its clown-like facial colors and white spotted breast, nearly black legs, the male Mearns' is a striking bird, even if he has only a tuft of feathers on the top of his head and not a topknot like other quail species. The female Mearns' is more subdued with uniform mottled brown coloring, but both sexes blend into their background exceptionally well. The beak is short and stout and the legs are strong. The toes are long with long nails that are used for digging tubers and roots, two of its primary food sources. The strong beak allows the bird to nip the roots into bite-sized portions.

When Lukens first pointed out diggings in the soft soil where a covey had been feeding, it looked as though a miniature herd of javelina had been rooting the soil, and I keep pointing out the "rooting" the rest of the hunt and each time Breeding would five me a goofy smile. I could hear him thinking, "Pigs root you idiot, those are diggings."

When they flush, they swirl off the ground in curving flight, frequently going behind hunters who corkscrew themselves off balance and miss. I know because I did this repeatedly. They weave through the brush and trees making hunters shoot timber instead of feathers. Oak is very effective at stopping tiny size 7 1/2 pellets from a shotgun. I shot several testing this theory as birds wheeled away unscathed. Sometimes the birds flush out all around you and simply scare you so badly that you fire one shot off straight into the air. I called it a warning shot, warning them that they'd better not do that again.

The statewide limit of 15 quail per day is a wishful dream for Mearns' quail hunters. A hunter is lucky if he gets three or four birds, and surveys done by the Arizona Game and Fish Department show the average take is just over two birds per hunter per day when bird populations are high, like they've been the past two seasons.

Lukens has collected all the research done on the Mearns' and points out there are two limiting factors on Mearns' numbers: Drought and cattle. The two together can just about spell doom to coveys of birds. Mearns' are a bird that evolved in the grasslands and when there is lots of grass, they do very well. In wet years, like there has been in southern Arizona the past two seasons, the grass is high and production and survival is good. Throughout the two days we hunted with Lukens he marveled at the height of the grass and how it carpeted the hills.

"I can flat tell you that in drought years, this would be bare dirt from cattle grazing," said Lukens in a lush canyon bottom while we hunted. He said that the dryer it gets the less cover the birds have. The cattle graze off the canyon bottoms first, the ridge lines next, and then move onto the steep slopes to get those last blades of grass. Federal range managers don't mandate that cattle ranchers reduce the number of cows on their allotments during dry years, even though its called for in the grazing plans. The result is that all grassland species suffer, especially Mearns' quail.

So Lukens is enjoying the abundance of birds right now. He knows that instead of bumping 15 or 16 coveys of birds -- most with 10 to 15 birds per covey -- in two days of hunting like we did, that it only takes one dry year to make that shrivel to six or eight coveys with fewer birds in each group. Better management of public lands would improve the Mearns' plight, and Lukens is the shaker and mover in the Western Gamebird Alliance (P.O. Box 14152, Tucson, AZ 85732; www.gamebird-alliance.org), a group that goes toe-to-toe with agencies and ranchers that would threaten Mearns' and other gamebirds' habitat in the West.

While some Mearns' hunters howl about the hunting pressure, Lukens said there aren't enough quail hunters and encourages hunters to come to southern Arizona right now so they can see what it's like in good years and help in the battle to save Mearns' habitat. The season runs through Feb. 10 this year, and Arizona has two-day licenses to make a trip reasonably priced. Lukens knows hunters don't have an impact on the birds, partially because the birds are difficult to hunt and partially because most hunters don't get far from roads.

"Most of these birds die of old age never having seen a hunter," said Lukens while we hiked up a canyon a couple of miles from the vehicles. A few minutes later his dog locked up on a point and when I rounded a manzanita bush, I could see a beautiful mature male Mearns' quail frozen on a small branch just above the ground only 10 feet away. I told Lukens and Breeding that I was going to try to get a photo and slowly started to reach for my camera in my vest while kneeling down. Just before my knee touch the ground a half-dozen other quail flushed from the grass all around me. I dropped the camera, threw the shotgun to my shoulder, and missed two shots at flushing birds.

With good habitat, I knew the Mearns' quail would be able to survive forever.

ROADS, MOTORCYCLES AND COWS -- matthews column 02jan02

Getting rid of roads, motorcycles, and cattle.

I want to start the year out by saying this: I have become increasingly enamored with areas that don't have roads, motorcycles, or cattle.

It comes down to the fact that I like most of the wilderness designations in our deserts and mountains. There has been lots of howling and whining about road closures in the desert due to the Desert Protection Act. In pouring over the maps of all these areas, I have come to the conclusion that most of the spots I want to go are never more than two or three miles from the nearest road. Yes, a lot of wash roads were closed when the Act passed, but darn few major routes were shut down. The only roads that I find were closed were mostly spur roads that pushed up a canyon a mile or two further than they needed to for hunting. Was it really necessary to drive all the way to the spring? All that does is mean there's more traffic at these precious desert water spots. More people. More motorcycles. More poachers. More guys who are more interested in shooting a limit than hunting. I like the road closures.

I like wilderness designation most because they keep out the whining motorcycles. I've tried to buy in to the mantra you hear today from the so-called use groups: The mantra says that hunters, off-roaders, and cattlemen need to stick together. I'm sorry, but as a hunter I don't want to be lumped in with users that destroy the landscape. The very types of riding most off-road enthusiasts want to "enjoy" is damaging to the environment -- riding up and down slopes and through creeks hasten erosion and damages the watershed. Two-cycle engines are polluters and sirens, running wildlife away from the areas where they pass, and the Forest Service stupidly builds motorcycle trails through some of the best wildlife habitat in the forest because they have funding for the projects. Hunters don't damage the environment any more than a coyote or red-tailed hawk. Don't lump me with off-roaders.

Vehicles are a mode of transportation to get us to a destination where we can then carry on, on foot. The wilderness designations force us to slow down our pace, pick a couple of spots, and walk in. I've always preferred that approach when I'm hunting, fishing, or just sight-seeing with a bird book and binoculars. Hunters may not shoot as many deer or birds by having to walk desert washes and mountain ridgelines, but that has never been the most important part of the equation for most hunters, and certainly not for me (especially the way I shoot). I like roadlessness. I go outdoors to get away from noise and vehicles.

Then there are the cattle. While I've been doing a lot of howling about the National Park Service forcing the exiting cattle ranchers to remove the windmills, pipelines, and stock tanks from the Mojave National Preserve, I am gleeful over the departure of the cows. I don't like the way the ranchers are being treated. I don't like the loss of the water they've provided for wildlife. But their cows can go. Cattle have been hard on the desert landscape for decades, especially the riparian areas. All you have to do is visit any spring in the desert where there's a cattle allotment, and the watershed is destroyed. Perhaps that is not a harsh enough word.

Cattle grazing as its practiced in this country today on most public and private rangelands is a travesty. The cattle demolish riparian areas and springs to the serious detriment of all other wildlife from endangered willow flycatchers to mountain quail to deer. The drier the habitat the more severe the impact.

I'm not saying we can't graze cattle on public lands without a negative impact because that is not the case, but they shouldn't be allowed on wet soils on public lands, period. And the number of cattle on all allotments is excessive. We're more concerned about profitability of the rancher than the health of the environment. Cattle can fill an important role on range lands in the West without destroying the habitat. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, cows are a huge detriment where ever they graze. Getting rid of them is easier than fixing the bureaucracy that permits grazing and retraining stubborn ranchers how to market that wonderful, lean, range-fed beef as a different product than the steroid and hormone-laden, feed-lot product most of us eat as beef.

Hunters are the first conservationists and still the best, and while many of today's so-called environmental groups are trying to ban hunting without any valid reason, stabbing hunters in the ribs, hunter-conservationists find it difficult to turn our bloodied backs on the wildlife and habitat to side with the "use" groups -- off-roaders and cattle interests -- we still really see as a bigger enemy to wildlife and hunting.

New Lake Perris Record Bass

A new lake record largemouth bass was caught here last Friday when Will Steele of Idaho landed an 18-pound largemouth fishing a home-made trout lure at the launch ramp. He was fishing with Jerry Rago, Independence, who caught bass at 11-8 and 9-4. All three fish were released after being weighed on the marina's certified scale. Lake regulars report seeing this big bass near the launch ramp for at least two seasons.

The big bass replaces the 17-6 lake record caught in 1999. The big bass are showing in good numbers at Perris for anglers throwing the big trout-like baits, and a trout plant scheduled for this week is likely to attract a mob of bass boats with anglers looking for monster bass like the new record. There is also still a decent bite on smaller fish for anglers fishing outside points with crawdads, jigging spoons, or finesse plastics. Crawdads are best.

Huge D17 Buck

Huge bucks like this brute from D17 are likely to be few and far between if the National Park Service continues its vendetta to remove all man-developed water sources in the East Mojave, according to Cliff McDonald of Needles. McDonald, took this nice buck this past fall, and like many Mojave hunters, he feels the NPS is going to damage deer and other wildlife populations in the region. Hunting success like this "could be coming to a close once the number of deer are reduced on the Mojave National Preserve because of the lack of water," said McDonald.

"If the water system that is currently in place is not regenerated into a usable system for wildlife and esthetically pleasing to the Park Service, the animal populations as we have known them will cease to be. Numbers will diminish considerably as animals and birds are forced to concentrate around the few meager springs and seeps. The number of D17 tags will obviously need to be reduced." McDonald has a petition circulating that asks the NPS to maintain all existing water in the preserve. For copies or more information, contact McDonald at (760) 326-2935 or via e-mail at bigmc@ctaz.com.

ISE SHOW STORY PACKAGE -- matthews for ONS 02jan02

ISE Show makes debut at L.A. Fairgrounds next week.

POMONA -- The International Sportsmen's Exhibition (ISE) shows will make a debut in Southern California Jan. 10-13 at the Fairplex at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds here featuring "the finest slate of outdoor speakers and seminars ever assembled under one roof in this region," according to John Kirk, director of communications with ISE.

"The guy who created the show, Ed Rice, believed all outdoor activities are kinds of games or crafts, and he built his shows around authentic people who are at the top of their craft. If you weren't the best in your particular field, you didn't speak at these shows. They are authentic from top to bottom," said Kirk.

There are over 35 speakers slated to give presentations over the four-day event, most of them speaking daily. The speakers include local experts along with regional and national experts in a broad range of hunting, fishing, camping and outdoor pursuits. You can hear well-known fly-fishing experts like Gary Borger or Jack Dennis or Jim Teeny. You can learn about outdoor photography from Brian O'Keefe, or hear world class elk calling from outdoor television regular and guide Chad Schearer. And make sure you attend Saturday's talk by Conway Bowman about fly-fishing for sharks from a kayak. He's the real deal.

Since its first show in 1985, ISE has expanded its show slate to a series of seven sportsmen's events throughout the West. Each event attracts visitors from hundreds of miles around to hear presentations by professional hunters and anglers, the best in their fields, to visit with manufacturers and see the latest products, and to talk with hosts of many of the finest hunting and fishing destinations in the world. They are simply billed as the "finest sportsmen's shows in the West."

But you've probably never heard of them because there has never been an ISE show in Southern California. Until now.

Admission is $8 per person, but discount coupons are available Sportmart, Long's Drugs and Turner's Outdoorsman stores, and there has been a coupon in WON each of the past two weeks. Kids 12 and under are free. Show hours are from noon until 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10 and Friday, Jan. 11, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13. The Fairplex is located at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, 1101 W. McKinley Avenue in Pomona, just north of Interstate 10. For more information or directions, call (909) 623-3111 or log on to www.sportsexpos.com.

ISE SHOW SIDEBAR -- matthews for ONS 02jan02

Slate of top speakers is what makes the ISE Show different.

POMONA -- A collection of some of the most knowledgeable hunters and anglers in their respective sports is what makes the first International Sportsman's Exhibition ever held in Southern California different than other outdoor shows in this region.

Unlike other shows, ISE Show staff makes a concerted effort to assemble "the best" speakers in the business, knowing that the slate of top names in the field will attract people to attend their shows. ISE shows, which are held throughout the West, will come to Southern California for the first time for a Jan.10-13 event at the Fairplex in Pomona.

Here is just a partial list of the speakers and exhibitions at this inaugural year's event in Pomona:

AMERICA'S LEADING FLY-FISHING EDUCATOR: Dr. Gary Borger has been a fly fisher since 1955, and since 1972 taught classes and lectured internationally on all aspects of fly fishing for trout and salmon. He is recognized in "Who's Who in the Midwest," "Who's Who in Science and Engineering," "Men of Achievement," the "Dictionary of International Biography," "Who's Who Among America's Teacher's," and "Outstanding People of the 20th Century." A free-lance writer and photographer and an active member of the Outdoor Writer's Association of America, Borger is also Midwest Field Editor for Fly Fisherman magazine, Editor at Large for the Virtual Fly Shop, and Fly Fishing Columnist for North American Fisherman. He has written five best-selling books on fly fishing: "Nymphing," "Naturals," the "Borger Color System," "Designing Trout Flies," and "Presentation."

Borger pioneered fly-fishing video instruction with his release of "Nymphing" in 1982. Since then he has appeared in four videos for the 3M Company; and in cooperation with the Federation of Fly Fishers, produced the environmental video "Where The Trout Are." His video production company has produced an additional 22 videos in the "Skills of Fly Fishing Series." This production work has earned him a listing in "Who's Who in Entertainment."

Borger was also a consultant on Robert Redford's award-winning film, "A River Runs Through It." In addition, Gary has produced an award-winning CD/cassette tape entitled, "My Madison: A celebration with the river in words and music." In addition, Gary is the designer of the Weinbrenner Ultimate Wading Shoe and many other innovative angling products and unique fly designs. Gary is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federation of Fly Fisher's Fly Casting Instructor Certification Program, a member of The Order of the Jungle Cock, Trout Unlimited, United Fly Tyers, the Federation of Fly Fishers, the American Museum of Fly Fishing, the Catskill Fly Fishing Center, and other conservation organizations. He is a recipient of the Ross Allen Merigold Complete Angler Memorial Award, the Charles K. Fox Rising Trout Award, and is internationally recognized for his conservation efforts; in recognition of this work he received the first Lew Jewett Memorial Life Membership in the Federation of Fly Fishers in 1979.

THE MAN WHO TALKS TO ANIMALS: Chad Schearer, while only in his early 30s, is already one of America's leading educators and personalities in the world of hunting and animal calling. Schearer bucks some of the public's stereotypes of hunters: he doesn't smoke or drink.

A Montana-licensed outfitter, Schearer owns Central Montana Outfitters, supervising a half-dozen guides working hundreds of square miles of Montana wilderness, and he frequently guides leading writers, country music and television personalities. He appears regularly on Bill Jordan's Realtree Television.

Schearer's successes include winning the 1997 World Elk Bugling Competition in the pro division and well as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Eastern U.S. Elk Calling Competition twice. He also serves on the pro staff of several outdoor companies.

THE MASTER CASTER: Stan Fagerstrom is known simply as the Master Caster. He has thrilled and entertained audiences around the world with his uncanny casting ability, including Japan and Brazil. WWII Veteran, tackle designer, pro bass angler, book author, poet, video- and television-show host, Stan has also written many hundreds of articles for magazines in nearly every country that has bass fishing. He is a member of both the National Freshwater Hall of Fame and the International Fishing Hall of Fame, and was recently honored with a lifetime achievement award and honorary lifetime membership in the National Professional Anglers Association.

CALIFORNIA CAMPING AUTHORITY: Tom Stienstra's books with Avalon Travel Publishing and Foghorn Outdoors are the top-selling outdoor guidebooks in America. His books include: California Camping, 2001; California Hiking, 2001; California Fishing, 2001; and California Wildlife, 2000. Tom is the outdoors writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, with columns occasionally distributed to 600 newspapers on the New York Times News Service. He has twice been Named "National Outdoor Writer of the Year" by the Outdoor Writers Association of America, newspaper division, and has been awarded roughly 100 writing prizes, including national awards from Associated Press and United Press International. Four times he's been named "California Outdoor Writer of the Year" by the Outdoors Writers Association of California. His books have received just as many awards. Among his top prizes are two No.1 bestsellers. California Camping received No. 1 Bestseller in the world in its category by Amazon.com, as well as No. 2 Bestseller in America for in the All Outdoors Books Category by Outdoor Retailer Magazine.

In addition, Stienstra has explored all 58 counties of California. As a pilot and airplane owner, he can cover great distances quickly, and see the landscape from a unique perspective, inspiring many future trips on the ground to seek out little-known spots. His travels include hiking 20,000 miles, visiting hundreds of lakes, boating much of the California Coast, and hiking out most of the major rivers, streams and many of their tributaries and waterfalls. His scope of adventure spans from the Costa Rican jungle to Cuba to the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories.

NYMPH FISHING AND ELK GURU: Jim Teeny never blows his own PR horn, and his handshake is uncharacteristically gentle. But this powerhouse is one of the most respected and diverse fishing and hunting innovators in the entire outdoor industry.

Teeny started the Teeny Nymph Company in 1971 in hopes of entering the fly-fishing industry. Thirty years later, the business is still growing. The Teeny Fly selection boasts 25 IGFA world records. Still, no product has had a greater impact on the fly-fishing industry than Jim's sinking lines. From the Mini-Tip to the T-Series and Saltwater Series, the lines -- equally effective in freshwater and saltwater situations -- have become perhaps the most popular and most used sinking lines in the world today.

Teeny's Professional Series of fly lines were designed by the Who's Who of fly fishers: Kelly Galloup, Billy Pate, Gary LaFontaine, Dave Whitlock, Flip Pallot and Lefty Kreh.

Under the press radar, Teeny has accomplished the unheard-of feat of being as well-known and popular with the hardcore hunter and with the much-different fly-fishing crowd. Hardcore is hardcore. Jim designed an elk call that's now private-labeled to others who may capture more attention, but they all come to Teeny for the product.

HOST TO THE RICH AND POWERFUL: Jack Dennis' professional fishing career began at the age of 12 when he sold his first flies. He started guiding visiting anglers at the age of 14 and continued to do so for a number of years. He now continues to run his guide business, whose clients include everyone from U.S. presidents to sports figures to movie stars, including current Vice-President Dick Cheney.

At 19, Jack opened his first fishing-tackle business in Jackson, Wyoming. Outside magazine picked the Jack Dennis Outdoor Shop as the best fly shop in America in their 2001 "best of the best" issue. Jack's books, Western Trout Fly Tying Manual, Volumes I & II, have sold over 300,000 copies, making them some of the best-known fly-fishing books in the world. He has also produced 22 fly-fishing videotapes that have received critical acclaim. Jack's newest book, Tying Flies with Jack Dennis and Friends, has been a best seller in the fly-fishing book category.

Jack is presently the co-host of the series FLY FISH on the cable Outdoor Life Network Channel, which features Jack teaching fly-fishing techniques in some the West best streams.

NEXT-GENERATION EXPERT: Capt. Tom Rowland, barely 30, has already won ESPN's Great Outdoor Games ("One Fish" tournament), appeared on every major outdoor-show, written for national and international magazines, and established an extremely successful guide business in one of the world's most-competitive angling markets: Key West, Florida, where Tom lives with his wife, Cynthia, and two sons. Though known for his fly-fishing expertise, Tom's plug- and spin-casting ability are also highly respected by several manufacturers, including Scott Fly Rods and Oakley, who consult with Tom on new-product development. Tom's also a Pro Staffer for Mercury Outboards and Maverick Boat Company.

A few of Tom's most-recent competitive-fishing accomplishments include: 2001 Guide to Women's Grand Champion Angler, Redbone, Islamorada, Fla.; 2001 Guide to Spin/Plug Division Grand Champion, SLAM Tournament, Key West, Fla.; 2001 Guide to Most Permit, SLAM Tournament, Key West, Fla.; 2001 Guide to Spin/Plug Division Champion, Little Palm Island Grand Slam Tournament; 2001 Guide to Largest Permit, Del Brown Invitational Permit Tournament, Key West, Fla.; 2000 Gold and Silver Medallist in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games in the fly-fishing and fly-casting portions of the event; 2000 Guide to Seamaster Superfly Series Grand Champion; 2000 Guide to Pro-Celebrity Grand Champion, Baybone Tournament, Key Largo, Fla.; 2000 Guide to S.L.A.M. Superfly Grand Champion Angler (making history in competitive fly-fishing by being the first to catch a permit, tarpon and bonefish on fly); 2000 Guide to Spin-Plug Division Champion Little Palm Island S.L.A.M. Tournament; 2000 Guide to Pro-Celebrity Grand Champion S.L.A.M. Tournament.

Admission to the ISE is $8 per person, but discount coupons are available Sportmart, Long's Drugs and Turner's Outdoorsman stores. Kids 12 and under are free. Show hours are from noon until 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10 and Friday, Jan. 11, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13. The Fairplex is located at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, 1101 W. McKinley Avenue in Pomona, just north of Interstate 10. For more information or directions, call (909) 623-3111 or log on to www.sportsexpos.com.

CALIFORNIA DEER ASSOCIATION -- chapter kickoff at ISE -- matthews 02jan02

California Deer Association chapter kickoff at ISE Show.

POMONA -- The California Deer Association will have an informational meeting 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12 at its booth at the International Sportsman's Exhibition at the Fairplex here to kick off its first Southern California chapter of the organization. Tom Holman, field director for the CDA, said the group would have information about the club's record book program for all subspecies of California deer along with information on projects the group will be funding in the southern part of the state to help deer herds in this region. Deer hunters who cannot make the 1 p.m. meeting are encouraged to stop by the group's booth at the show to join and get more information on local chapters that are starting in this region. For more information, hunters can also call Tom Holman at (209) 862-1816.

HUNTER SAFETY CLASS SCHEDULE -- matthews-ons 02jan02

Hunter education and handgun safety classes set for the month.

Hunter safety classes are required before purchasing a hunting license. These classes also satisfy the California requirement for a safety course before a handgun may be purchased.

The following is a list of regularly scheduled classes coming up in the next few weeks:
-- Sunday, Jan. 6, at the Wal-Mart, Victorville. This class is held the first Sunday of each month, and the first and third Sundays in June and August. Fee is $15 per student. Students can sign up and pick up a study book at the sporting goods department in Wal-Mart or call Ken Crawford at (760) 948-4218.
-- Saturday, Jan. 12, at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises' Sporting Clays Range, Norco. Registration is 6:30 a.m. and the fee is $35 per student, which includes instruction, hunter safety certificate, lunch and refreshments. Participants must register at a Turner's Outdoorsman store or Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises and bring their hunter safety booklet the day of class. Contact: (909) 735-7981.
-- Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Inland Fish and Game Conservation Association Range, Redlands. Registration is 7:30 a.m. and the fee is $8 per student. The class includes live-firing and students should bring a lunch and drinks for the all-day class. Classes are held the second Saturday of each month at the Inland Range. Contact: (909) 781-HUNT.
-- Saturday, Jan. 12, at Enforcement Trainers range, Orange. Contact Ron Owens at (909) 789-9764 or the range at (714) 921-8990.
-- Sunday, Jan. 13, in Rancho Cucamonga, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Price is $10 per person. Kids under 16 are required to pick up a study book in advance. Contact Gene Hubler at (909) 987-0811. Hubler runs classes the second Sunday of each month.
-- Saturday, Jan. 19, at the Pony Express Sport Shop, San Fernando Valley. Contact Jim Overman at (818) 906-1029 or Pony Express at (818) 895-1231.
-- Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Prado Shooting Range, Chino. Contact Ron Owen at (909) 789-9764 or the Prado Range at (909) 597-4794.
-- Saturday, Jan. 26 in Chula Vista. Contact Simon Ahn at (619) 656-5716 or (619) 322-0143 or via e-mail at sahn@parker.com.
-- Saturday, Jan. 26 in Vista. Contact Jonathan Butler at (760) 630-1176.

This is just a partial list of upcoming classes. Qualified hunter education instructors are available within a short distance of most any Southern California locations, and courses are conducted throughout the year. For a recorded list of volunteer hunter education instructors, their locations and telephone numbers, call (562) 590-5670, or access the list via the Department of Fish and Game website at www.dfg.ca.gov.
Spanish language instructors can be found in Santa Ana, Orange County, Colton in San Bernardino County, Escondido in San Diego County, and Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. And in Los Angeles County, Spanish language hunter education courses are available in Baldwin Park, Canoga Park, Inglewood, and Torrance.

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