FISHERMAN'S CALENDAR
SO season opens
SC season closes
C clear water
D water dirty, roily
N water normal height
SH slightly high
H high
VH very high
M water muddy
L low
R rising
WT50 water 50°
FG fishing good
FVG fishing very good
FP fishing fair
FP fishing poor
OG outlook good
OVG outlook very good
OF outlook fair
OP outlook poor
BLUE MARLIN: PUERTO RICO: FG/OVG as Puerto Rico's Fourth International Invitational Game Fish Tournament is under way with 20 competing teams. Eight represent the United States, six Puerto Rico, three Mexico, and one each Bermuda, Panama and Venezuela. Prematch angling lifted contestant hopes. Last week Ray Garffer, 12 miles off San Juan aboard his boat Wimsco, discouraged a 428½-pound blue marlin on 24 thread after an hour-and-10-minute battle. Roy D. Warren of Atlanta was close behind with a 357-pound fish taken from Art Wills's charter boat Sea Queen II, while Ida Sierra hoisted a 233-pounder up the gin pole on the Bimini Babe, well-known sport-fishing boat owned by Robert E. Maytag, 1957 U.S. tuna team member competing in Puerto Rico.
HAWAII: OVG; past week saw 12 marlin totaling 2,844 pounds docked in Kona, the largest a 500-pound warrior outlasted in 50 minutes by Collis Johnson of Portland, Ore. Kona marlin may not be accepted as scientifically blue, but blue they must feel after such a week.
CHANNEL BASS: VIRGINIA: Virginia Beach area reported thick with channel bass to 40 pounds. Surf casters using clam as bait and OVG for week ahead.
NORTH CAROLINA: Surf and pier practitioners making deep dents in bass population as stiff nor'east winds have kept frustrated boatmen ashore. Last week Eddie Reber of Nags Head hefted a 45-pound bass onto Nags Head Fishing Pier while a few miles south at next pier Mrs. A. H. Bunting of South Norfolk, Va. landed a 44-pounder. FVG also in surf from Kitty Hawk to Cape Hatteras and Hatteras Inlet as cut mullet is taking 25-to 30-pound fish. Nags Head Surf Tournament runs Oct. 18 to 20, and OVG for participants.
LOUISIANA: Bull reds from 15 to 30 pounds cruising passes in Grand Isle area, and FG.
STEELHEAD: IDAHO: FVG/OVG. Run in Main Salmon in Chamberlin Basin area especially good.
CALIFORNIA: Klamath River very H, but steel-headers garnering 10-to 15-pounders on wobblers and roe; OG.
TROUT: NEW HAMPSHIRE: Northern state FG for browns and rainbows although Connecticut Lakes in Coos County still below par. SC in Coos County Oct. 15. Fat browns in central state rising to No. 12 Adams dry fly although still larger trout seem to prefer No. 12 Connecticut River Dick streamer on a No. 4 leader. Try the Blackwater River. Drought in southern counties has led to closing of woods in Rockingham, Cheshire, Hillsborough and Strafford counties, with fishing permitted only from boats and wharves where lakes can be reached by road.
MONTANA: FG now after cold snap, with legendary Madison along with Gallatin, Yellowstone rivers and Rock Creek in prime. Dry-fly artists are euphoric. FP, however, on blustery days as wind chokes streams with leaves. On lakes FVG, with Muddler Minnow fly the pattern of the moment. Recently on Georgetown Lake it creeled 16 trout between three and five pounds for Lee Elliot and his party from Rock Creek Lodge.
IDAHO: Light snow in mountains, water N and C, and FVG for fly-fishermen, particularly on No. 12 Renegades. Last week C. A. Rockwell of Boise, flinging Renegades and Grey Hackles, took his limit of 16-to 18-inch rainbows from Middle Fork of Boise near Twin Springs; and on South Fork of Payette, Douglas Hawkins of Tallahassee, Fla. filled his creel with 12-to 14-inch trout which couldn't resist Renegades and Double Grey Hackle Yellows; OVG. Lake Pend Oreille Kamloops and Dolly Vardens emerging from summer lethargy and striking No. 5 Johnson Kokanee Spoon. Kokanee don't seem to be enamored with Kokanee Spoon. Prefer trolled red and white Dardevles in small sizes; OVG.
CALIFORNIA: OVG in Owens and East Walker as 5-to 10-pound brown trout move up with no discernible sophistication when it comes to large flies and spinners.
STRIPED BASS: MASSACHUSETTS: OVG/FVG at all famous Cape Cod striper bailiwicks. Nauset Beach surf casters beaching bulls on Stan Gibbs White Darter with bucktail. Small Upperman Bucktail last week hoodwinked 27 bass in Cape Cod Canal for Mike Sylvestri of Boston. Cape subdued last week, however, when Boston Harbor produced a 62-pound striper for Bob Smith of Topsfield, Mass. during a night's fishing from Point Allerton.
MARYLAND: Eastern Shore spy advises secret to frenzied bass angling is to know man with clamming rig. Fishing from a dredge recently, Bill Burton of Baltimore landed 287 school bass in one day and released all but two. One-to 3-pounders are being taken by casting small Shad Darts or bucktails on side opposite dredging rigs, while smaller fish partial to hook baited with mano clam snout dropped right next to dredge. Stripers follow dredges to pick up smashed clams while anglers fish from dredges to pick up stripers. Larger fish to 9 pounds now near Bay Bridge and Love Point in Chesapeake Bay. Most anglers leaning to small Darts and spinners tailed with pork rind, but cut pork rind strip long and thin; OVG.
STURGEON: BRITISH COLUMBIA: Fish dealer Richard Buckholtz of Whonock, B.C. visited Fraser River last week with bamboo pole and 50-pound test line, and after 4½-hour marathon, in which friendly onlooker participated, beached a 480-pound sturgeon; OG for the stout of heart equipped with friendly onlookers.
WHOOPER TIME
The world's 26 remaining wild whooping cranes have begun to leave Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada on their annual migration south to Texas. Eight adults and two young have been sighted. Gunners along the whooper fly-way, which extends through Alberta. Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, are urged not to shoot at any large white bird. Whooping cranes have more than seven-foot wingspread, long neck, red crown on head, and wing tips are black. Young are buff, mottled with white.