Deer hunters will find very dry conditions,
increased deer numbers for opener Saturday

By JIM MATTHEWS
Outdoor News Service

Most of Southern California’s deer hunting zones open this Saturday for the fall rifle season, and Department of Fish and Game biologists and game wardens say deer numbers are stable or up slightly across the region. Even more importantly, there are no general access closures due to fire conditions this fall on any of the four National Forests in the region where most hunting takes place.
“All of the fires we’ve had the last couple of years have been a blessing for deer herds,” said Kevin Brennan, a DFG biologist in Riverside County. “Although tragic, they’ve opened up a lot of deer habitat, and there’s only one direction for the deer herd to go and that’s up.”
Zones D11, D13, D14, D15, and D17 open this Saturday. The D19 zone, which covers the Santa Jacinto Mountains in Riverside and eastern San Diego county, opened last weekend. Zone D16, which covers most of San Diego County, opens Oct. 27, and the popular D12 burro deer zone along the Colorado River, opens Nov. 3.
The best news seems to be coming from the increasingly difficult to get desert deer zones in the East Mojave and along the Colorado River.
Joe Branna, the game warden for the Imperial County region, said the two desert zones, D12 and D17 should be very good again this year.
A big fire in the Mojave National Preserve opened up a lot of pinon-juniper habitat in D17 just before last year’s hunting season, and those areas have really greened up this year and it looks like there was good fawn survival, which bodes well for future seasons, too.
“There were a lot of deer taken last year, and this season should be as good or better,” said Branna.
Preserve superintendent Dennis Schramm said deer were using the burned areas extensively in D17, and he said there were a lot of places where the deer were bedding right out in the open in the burn throughout the summer and early fall. Schramm said you couldn’t drive Black Canyon Road between Cedar Canyon and Wild Horse Canyon without seeing deer.
Branna said the D12 zone finally got a significant amount of rainfall this year, and he believes the harvest will be equal to last year’s near record season when 90 to 100 bucks were taken from the zone. The rainfall should also improve deer production for this year, which will allow the herd to continue to grow.
“You can thank Leon Lesicka [with Desert Wildlife Unlimited in Brawley] for the record harvest. All the water he’s put in the desert has made a big different in deer numbers here,” said Branna.
Both D17 and D12 filled before the general deer tag drawing in June this year, the first time a first-come, first-serve zone filled before the deer tag drawing. Many hunters who normally counted on getting a desert tag after applying for a premium late season Sierra hunt were disappointed to find they didn’t get a desert tag this year.
These two zones have become increasingly popular as hunters have discovered both produce a good number of quality bucks each year. Just over 30 percent of the bucks taken from D12 are four-point or better bucks, while 18 percent of the bucks from D17 are four-point class deer. Hunter success rates in D17 were 26 percent, while only 12 percent of hunter in D12 shot bucks. This is dramatically better than most Southern California deer zones.
“I remember when I first came on, no one hunted out here in either of these desert zones,” said Branna. “They’ve been discovered.”
Brennan said the drought has not had a negative impact on deer numbers in most of the Southern California mountain ranges. While the DFG has initiated new survey methods for deer in the region, and he said you can’t directly compare the old data to the new data, he believes deer numbers are up throughout the region, mostly because of fires creating new habitat.
An avid deer hunter, Brennan shot four-point bucks in both D19 and D14 last season, and he pointed out that D19 produced the same percentage of four-point or better deer last year as D17 -- and D19 tags are still available. It also had a hunter success rate of nine percent.
Most of the other deer zones in Southern California have about nine percent of the buck harvest each year as four-point bucks, with only about a seven percent success rate on public lands. The D16 zone in San Diego County has a 12 percent hunter success rate, but a good percentage of deer in this region are taken on private land.
Fire closures have been a problem in the D11 zone (San Gabriel Mountains) during deer season the past few years, but this zone -- along with most of the the D14, D15, D16, and D19 zones -- will be mostly open for this year’s opening day of deer season. The Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland national forests all had extreme fire danger conditions, but this level doesn’t preclude access. But open fires are not allowed anywhere in the region. Hunters should check with local forest service offices and web sites at the season progresses, especially if there are Santa Ana winds, to see if closures change.
There is an extensive closure northwest of Big Bear Lake in the D14 zone in the recent Butler 2 Fire area, including some road and campground closures. Hunters can get a map showing the closed areas at ranger stations and at this address: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/documents/butler_fire_closure_map101107.pdf.

The D13 zone in the southern Los Padres National still has large areas closed within the Zaca Fire burn area. Hunters can download a map of the closed areas at this web site address: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/lospadres/about/rules/regulations/zaca-reduced-10-07/map.pdf. This closure affects a significant portion of the zone, and many D13 tag holders may opt to hunt in D11 or D15. Holders of D11, D13, and D15 tags can hunt in all three of these zones.
Tags are still available for many Southern California deer zones. A list of tags remains is updated daily at the DFG’s web site at this address: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/biggame/deertagsavailable.html.
Deer season runs through the first weekend in November in most zones, but hunters should check the regulations for exact closing dates. Regulations are available at all DFG license agents or on-line at the DFG web site here: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/regulations/index.html.

First-time angler wins new truck with
tagged trout caught at Big Bear Lake

BIG BEAR LAKE -- The fall Troutfest fishing derby at Big Bear Lake was won by Dave Duenas, of Alahambra with a two-day total of 16.01 pounds for 10 trout landed over the event, and his big fish was a 5.89-pound rainbow. While that earned Duenas $1,500 for the first prize, it was a first-time angler who took home the best award.
Adrean Flores of El Monte landed his first trout in the event. It just happened to be sporting a tag. When he checked in the fish to see what prize was attached to the tag, it was a brand new Toyota Tundra worth $25,000.
The biggest fish caught in the event was a 5.99-pound rainbow landed by Ronald Bonner, Moreno Valley, earning him the $750 prize for big fish.
There were 1,000 entrants in the fall counterpart to the historic May Trout Classic, according to Western Outdoor News, event promoter.

Bass Pro shops honors
a veteran lady angler

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Carrie Dooman Emilio, an 84-year-old angler from Rancho Cucamonga and one of the pioneering members of the Pomona Valley Lady Anglers, was honored by Bass Pro Shops here on Wednesday with a plaque placed in the Islamorada Fish Market Restaurant.

Carrie Dooman and Don Brockman of Davey's Locker look over Dooman's fishing memoriabilia.

While seeing female anglers today is not a big deal, Dooman was one of the first women to break the gender barrier in the 1950s and 60s by fishing on local ocean sportfishing boats out of Newport Beach and San Diego -- frequently by herself or with other lady anglers. She was on the cover of Western Outdoor News in July, 1961, holding an albacore caught on a boat out of Davey’s Locker.
Dooman joked that she went fishing to get away from her husband of 57 years in those days. James Dooman was a teacher and football coach at Upland High School.
“He was so jealous,” laughed Dooman. “He went out for yellowtail once and he didn’t catch a thing – not even a cold.”
So she went fishing by herself and with other lady friends from the now-defunct Pomona Valley Lady Anglers. It was on one of these trips that she earned her nickname “Tiger” from a famous movie star who would win an Oscar that same year.
In 1965 she was fishing out of Davey’s Locker, and Lee Marvin, who had just won the Oscar for best actor in “Cat Ballou,” was also on the boat.
“He was gorgeous,” she swooned, envisioning it all again. “I was the first one to hook-up a yellowtail and he said to me, ‘You get ‘em tiger.’ I just fell in love with him. He quoted poetry to me. He was devine.”
She was less impressed with actor Vincent Price, who she also met on a fishing trip, this one out of Ensenada.
“Vincent Price? All he wanted to talk about was his art, and I wasn’t interested in art,” said Dooman.
Bass Pro Shops’ Rancho Cucamonga store is a museum of fishing memorabilia, according to Jorge Azpeitia, promotions manager for the store. Recognizing local anglers, historical figures, and regional fishing opportunities is the store’s theme.

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