THE OUTDOOR WEEK
Based on regular weekly dispatches from SI bureaus and special correspondents in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and overseas; and on reports from fish and game commissions of the 48 states and Alaska
ANYTHING GOES?
The U.S. armed forces often comply with state game laws when hunting or fishing on military reservations (THE OUTDOOR WEEK, May 14). But evidently there is no dearth of instances where they don't, and Congress is considering legislation to make compliance the law. The states seem to feel such action necessary. The services do not, but last week in hearings before Chairman Herbert Bonner's (Dem., N.C.) House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee a parade of state wildlife officials and Congressmen cited specific instances where the military had cavalierly ignored local fish and game laws and had in fact used bases as private hunting preserves where anything goes (THE OUTDOOR WEEK, June 4). The armed forces denied all, but an obviously angered Chairman Bonner announced that he would push hard for passage of the proposed bills.
RED FIELD, RED STREAM
Granting the Russians may occasionally stretch a point or two, could be that the Soviet Union is a Western outdoorsman's happy hunting and fishing ground.
Beyond the creaking iron curtain at Edinburgh, Scotland last week, Dr. Alexander Malinovsky, among other things Chief of the U.S.S.R.'s Department of Game and National Parks, proudly described Russia as a sportsman's paradise where a man can hunt and fish "probably more freely and cheaply than anywhere else in the world." Furthermore, the doctor added in this exclusive SI interview, Americans would be most welcome to share what every sporting Ivan has.
According to Malinovsky, a Russian hunting license costs 10 rubles (about $2.80) and entitles the owner to hunt more than 300 species of mammals anywhere in the country. A few animals are protected, most notable being the tiger, which now survives only in Siberia, but, by and large, game is legion. Russian hunters, estimates Malinovsky, topple annually 9 million hares, 8 million squirrels, 200,000 foxes, 12,000 elk and moose, 10,000 bear, and deer and steppe antelope in unrecorded but vast numbers. Game birds, including white ptarmigan, grouse, snipe, pheasant and bittern, as well as ducks and geese, fall at the rate of 30 million a year. And the entire bag might well be bigger if a gun was not priced at 1,200 rubles (a month's pay for a professional man) and if distances were not so great and transportation so primitive and expensive.
Dr. Malinovsky says angling is an even more economical pursuit. No license is required, and Soviet streams are teeming with trout, pike and salmon. Fly-fishing, incidentally, is little known, and most Russians prefer artificial minnows or spinners. And, since many streams are frozen solidly for as much as five months a year, ice fishing is almost by necessity a popular sport.
On the subject of conservation, Malinovsky and his two colleagues, who have been attending the Congress of the International Union for the Protection of Nature at Edinburgh, dropped some interesting remarks. Professor G. P. Dementiev, head of the Soviet Commission for the Protection of Nature, and Dr. L. K. Shaposhnikov, Chief of the U.S.S.R. Nature Reserves, agreed with Malinovsky that it was difficult to say how much of Russia was still wilderness. "It is a large country," said Dementiev, and even though industrialization is encroaching on sporting country, the problem is not yet an urgent one. Nonetheless, explained the Russian experts, future difficulties are anticipated and zapovedniki or national parks encompassing 3.5 million acres have already been established. In the U.S., only half the size of Russia, 28 national parks alone cover almost 13 million acres, but the Soviet outdoors as described in Edinburgh sounds enticing. What it proves to be for American pioneers is up to the Russians.
THE HORRIBLE HEFFALUMP
Four Leopards and a baby elephant wandered about a New York cocktail party last week, an affair staged by Swissair to publicize the fact that, when and if the leopards and 20 young elephants (brought here from India by Swiss Animal Collector Peter Ryhiner via prosaic boat) were sold to European zoos, that airline would do the transporting thereto.
The elephant joined the party by license. The four leopards scrambled out of an inexplicably topless cage. Subsequent events were memorable. Glowed the goateed Ryhiner as he lunged after a free-wheeling leopard, "Largest shipment of elephants since Hannibal crossed the Alps. We brought 20, he had 40."
Ryhiner collared the 20-pound kitten and handed it to a blonde assistant fetchingly attired in shorts but a bit bloody from a series of vain attempts to recage the party-bound cats. The elephant stirred languidly and floored a female guest. "This elephant is a very hairy little elephant," began Mr. Ryhiner, but his colloquy was abbreviated by the entrance of Jayne Mansfield, another blonde and structurally famous even in elephant country.
Someone offered Miss Mansfield a leopard. She declined. Someone else offered the elephant a slice of lime. It declined. "Oh," spoke Miss Mansfield, "it's too sour." She selected a canapé and presented that to the elephant. It eyed the sweetmeat and the large gold ring suspended from a chain around Miss Mansfield's neck. Its trunk fumbled for the ring. "Oh," said Miss Mansfield.
The four leopard kittens are now in Swissair's window on 49th Street. The elephant has departed with a smarting trunk, presumably by air.
WHAT NEXT?
A plump trout cleaned, washed and nestled in a creel full of dewy green grass is a traditional angling picture, but, according to an Air Force major, it is no way to keep a fish fresh. "If you want to arrive home with your trout in perfect condition," explains Major Lawrence Dawson, troop survival training officer at Stead Air Force Base near Reno, Nevada, "do not use green grass in your creel or wash the fish after cleaning. Clean the trout, making sure to remove the gills, and let them dry off. Then put them in dry grass and wrap with paper." Major Dawson stated that troops undergoing survival training in the Sierra Nevada have been able to keep fish for two or three days if they were so packed.
"We have found," he pointed out, "that fish which are washed after cleaning and packed in green grass will spoil in a matter of six or seven hours on a hot day."
FISHERMAN'S CALENDAR
SO—season opened (or opens); SC—season closed (or closes).
C—clear water; D—water dirty or roily; M—water muddy.
N—water at normal height; SH—slightly high; H—high; VH—very high; L—low; R—rising; F—falling.
WT50—water temperature 50°.
FG—fishing good; FF—fishing fair; FP—fishing poor; OVG—outlook very good; OG—outlook good; OF—outlook fair; OP—outlook poor
TROUT: WASHINGTON: In Ross Lake, Devil's, Lightning and Ruby creeks SO July 1 with OVG. Best bet feeder streams about a mile above Ross Lake which require hiking to reach and are therefore lightly fished.
PENNSYLVANIA: Allegheny National Forest and northern tier streams N and C and heavily stocked, but local wardens advise hardly a trout angler in sight; OVG. First Fork and Driftwood branch of Sinnemahoning FG with trout nymphing in riffles. Central state trouting best of season with rosiest advice from Rose Garden and Big Spring on the Yellow Breeches; until season closes in about a month OG.
MINNESOTA: Lundeen Lake near Grand Rapids current mecca as it offers brownies to 5 pounds and rainbows to 5. Heftiest catch of week, however, was 11-pound 3-ounce brown derricked from the mouth of Willow River by John Widener of St. Paul. FF/F though as most water is low and too warm.
MONTANA: Streams still H for wading but FG with flies on Madison, Rock Creek, Gallatin, Boulder and Blackfoot rivers; OG as water lowers.
MICHIGAN: Scattered light rains keeping streams N and C. Agent reports Jordan River producing good night catches of 1- to 2-pound browns. FG on Sturgeon, with streamers most tempting. Caddis hatches popping on Au Sable, Manistee and Pere Marquette with OG in spite of heavy pressure.
IDAHO: Water dropping throughout state and fly-fishing on the rise. Sulphur Creek above Morgan Ranch, Roaring River, Pistol, Marble and Camas creeks all frothing with trout as salmon fly hatch is on; OVG. SO on Silver Creek south of Sun Valley July 1, which local anglers claim is the graduate school for fly-fishermen; OVG generally as most state waters are open and N to SH.
OREGON: Little Deschutes River and Crescent Creek F and almost N with FG on number 16 and 18 dry flies for brownies to 4 pounds. Main Deschutes yielding fat brownies and rainbows in evening, and OG. In western area of state Willamette River above Harrisburg is torrid on wet flies for rainbows to 3 pounds and some cutthroats. Santiam River F and C with fly angling on the upswing in lower stretches; OG.
ONTARIO: Weather still cool and speckles chomping unusually well in Algonquin Park, Nipissing, Sudbury and Algoma area lakes. Crestfallen and lumpy spy, however, who last week reported black flies disappearing, now advises they have taken new lease on life, are devouring the most foolproof repellent, and anglers can count on 10 fly bites for every trout hooked.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Upper Connecticut River between Lake Francis and first Connecticut Lake restricted to fly-fishing and showing rainbows and browns on wet Dark Cahills and Black Gnats. Ammonoosuc River from Woodsville to base of Mt. Washington spotty but offering rainbows and brownies to 3 pounds. Scattered hatches appearing, and OG.
BLACK BASS: MISSOURI: Lake Clearwater C and N with lantern fishing in full swing. Limit catches reported on deep-running spoons and leadheads; OVG. Night casters scoring well at Lake Bull Shoals with eel pork strips pet lure. Minnows also in vogue as Mrs. Tete Hedride of Tulsa, Oklahoma used one to nail a 9-pound 15-ouncer in Lake Norfork.
MAINE: Smallmouth action at peak with OVG for casters at Spednick and Big lakes with former yielding catches of 3- to 4-pounders.
ONTARIO: SO July 1 and due to late spring belligerent males may still be guarding young and if so will strike at almost anything. Addicts slightly downcast by last-minute announcement of Lands and Forest Department that this year's lifting of size limit means that first six bass caught must be kept; OVG generally.
FLORIDA: Lake Harris at Howe, Lake Griffin near Leesburg, Lake Panasoffkee north of Bushnell and Polk County Phosphate Pits FG, but other waters unproductive as semi-drought continues in central state.
MINNESOTA: Frantic action all over since SO June 23. Bass through spawning but haven't headed for deep water yet although they may any moment. FG in Rainy Lake at International Falls, Basswood and Twin Lakes at Ely, Lake Ida at Alexandria and Canadian shore of Lake of the Woods; OVG for smallmouths.
STEELHEAD: CALIFORNIA: Summer run on in Trinity River and Klamath River run expected any day; OG.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: Fair run of fish reported in Silver Creek, and FF.
STRIPED BASS: MASSACHUSETTS: Billingsgate Shoal in Cape Cod Bay still churning with fish to 40 pounds for early morning efforts, and OG. Cape Cod Canal full of squid and morning tides should be active for four or five days. Cuttyhunkers beginning to work Sow and Pigs, and OVG generally for Cape waters.
CALIFORNIA : Wind moderated and last week saw best fishing of summer in Sacramento and San Joaquin delta. Most fish taken east side of San Pablo Bay on trolled spoons but bait fishermen sticking to area above Antioch Bridge and off Blind Point; OG.
RHODE ISLAND: Coast from Watch Hill to Newport bass-active with fish to 50 pounds reported.
ATLANTIC SALMON: NOVA SCOTIA: Season reached high point last week when 307 fish were landed in province. Medway, relieved of 90, was top stream, followed by La Have, Sheet Harbor West, Ship Harbor and the North Margaree, but catches reported from most rivers, and OG.
NEW BRUNSWICK: FF in northwest Main and southwest Miramichi with some fish in the Renous and Dungarvon. Tobique, St. John and Restigouche FP but happier times expected.
BLUEFISH: RHODE ISLAND: Fish from 6 to 15 pounds now running in Narragansett Bay, and OVG.
SOUTH CAROLINA: North shore anglers from Georgetown to Willow River racking up catches of one to 200 snappers; OVG.
NORTHCAROLINA: Outer Banks from Kitty Hawk to Hatteras and western edge of Gulf Stream alive with fish, and OVG through summer.
MUSKELLUNGE: ONTARIO: Northern Ontario SO June 20 but anything over 20 pounds still seems sleepy, although Roy Klein of Vandergrift, Pa. boated a 42-pounder from a Lake Nipissing channel. OG as water warms but FG now for smaller fish to 15 pounds. Same model muskies chewing up streamers with bucktail spinners in Nipissing's West Arm region and Talon Lake at the head of Mattawa River.
WISCONSIN: Muskie performance excellent last week in Hayward and Eagle River areas, with several 30-pounders reported, and OVG.
PHOTO
U.S.S.R. WILDFOWLERS RELAX AFTER DOWNING BAG OF DUCKS. NOTE HAMMERLOCK SHOTGUN
FISH BOX
Among last week's notable catches: by Hans Hinrichs of Staten Island, N.Y. a 234-pound SWORDFISH on 24-thread line 14 miles out of Shinnecock Inlet for the first Long Island swordfish catch of the season; a 63-pound STRIPED BASS, the largest ever from the Cape Cod Canal and perhaps third largest from anywhere, by Frank Machado of New Bedford, Mass. on 36-pound test line after a half-hour battle; by Sherman Adams, White House functionary, a 17½ pound SALMON from the Cains River in New Brunswick; a 66-pound KING SALMON by Harold Jones of Seattle from the Hope Island area; by George M. Mayer of East Greenville, Pa. a 33½-pound POLLACK on 30-pound test line off Belmar, N.J. for a possible new world all-tackle record.