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Cow decoy for big game and turkey hunting?
Question: There is a manufacturer of decoys that attach to the front of a bow gun for hunting big game and turkeys. They are similar to the Montana style decoys but with a frontal profile blocking the hunter’s profile while he aims and shoots through the large center hole.
The decoys come in the frontal shape of a bovine cow, a turkey, a cow elk, a mule deer and others. Can I use the bovine cow decoy while bow hunting big game such as deer and wild pigs in California?
I have heard of great success with this decoy in other states. Also, can the same decoy be used for turkeys? The cow decoy seems to be a much safer alternative for the hunter to avoid being mistaken for game. (Leo H.)
Answer: There are no regulations regarding the use of decoys for big game hunting. However, it is “unlawful to use any mammal (except a dog) or an imitation of a mammal as a blind in approaching or taking game birds” (Fish and Game Code, section 3502).
Stopping crab trap raiders and thieves?
Question: What, if anything, can a recreational crabber do to detect, prevent and/or suppress others from raiding and stealing their crabs during crab season? Not only have I had crabs and crab nets stolen (Bodega Bay area), but thieves have gone so far as to replace a catch with things like rocks and beer bottles?
Realizing some of my traps may be unintentionally (some possibly intentionally) cut by vessels traveling at sea, is there anything else one can do? Even with my GO ID number properly marked, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) wardens are hard-pressed to enforce applicable laws.
I’m thinking of developing an alarm of some sort via microchip to detect changes in depth after they’re set. Do you have any other ideas? (Derek B.)
Answer: Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot we can do in this situation. If you are using hoop nets, they must be checked every two hours or less. So crabbing should be a closely monitored activity, which should help alleviate this problem.
You may also want to talk with other crabbers and make arrangements to keep an eye on each other’s traps while out on the water. Otherwise, set your traps when you are planning to be on the water and then fish for other species while your traps are soaking.
Is shooting biodegradable clays still littering?
Question: In a recent column you addressed a question of shooting clay birds being thrown into the ocean. Not sure I like that idea, but that isn’t the issue I have. ALL clay birds today are made of non-toxic, biodegradable material. I love shooting clays and get tired of people who don’t shoot assuming I am “littering” the landscape. Can you please let the public know there is nothing to worry about when it comes to clay birds sold in the stores today? (Linda K.)
Answer: Target shooting and shooting clay pigeons are some of my favorite pastimes. While the clays are supposed to be biodegradable, they break down at different rates depending on the brand. I think the issue is more one of people leaving all of the discards in the fields or areas where they have been used.
I think the real issue is even though they may break down eventually, they will still litter the landscape and be viewed as litter when left in public areas. If you’re shooting these on your own property or at a designated shooting range, it’s your choice to leave them where they fall.
However, for me, we do much of our shooting on my brother’s property, and although the land is not open to the public, we still pick up everything that we can easily find afterward as a common courtesy, especially since they are all easily seen due to their bright white, orange and lime green colors.
Same thing goes for spent shotgun shells. Those don’t break down and will be visible for a long time if left behind.
Maximum lobster hoops?
Question: I know the maximum number of hoop nets that can be fished from a boat is 10. We take a couple of multi-day trips every year and invariably lose one or two during the trip. Can we carry a couple of spares on the boat to replace any we lose? (Larry H.)
Answer: No, unfortunately, you may not. No more than five hoop nets may be possessed or used by a person, not to exceed a total of 10 hoop nets possessed per vessel (CCR Title14, section 29.80(b)).
Carrie Wilson is a marine environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While she cannot personally answer everyone’s questions, she will select a few to answer each week in this column. Please contact her at
California revenues of $6.52 billion for February fell short of projections in the governor’s proposed 2017-18 budget by $772.7 million, or 10.6 percent, State Controller Betty T. Yee reported Friday.
Recent month-to-month fluctuations have not developed a clear pattern. January revenues beat projections by 6.2 percent.
The variance can often be as simple as one large payment due on the first of the month being recorded on the last day of the prior month.
Personal income taxes, or PIT, corporation taxes, and retail sales and use taxes all fell short of January’s revised budget estimates for February, and only corporation taxes – the smallest of the three-- topped fiscal year-to-date projections in the governor’s proposed 2017-18 budget.
For the first eight months of the 2016-17 fiscal year that began in July, total revenues of $73.28 billion are $663.9 million below last summer’s budget estimates, and $888.1 million short of January’s revised fiscal year-to-date predictions.
February PIT of $3.12 billion was shy of projections in the governor’s proposed budget by $5.3 million, or 0.2 percent.
In the current fiscal year, California has collected total PIT receipts of $50.97 billion, or 0.9 percent less than January’s revised estimate.
Corporation tax receipts of $168.2 million for February were 35.0 percent short of assumptions in the proposed 2017-18 budget.
Fiscal year-to-date corporation tax receipts of $3.82 billion are 3.3 percent above projections in the proposed budget.
February sales tax receipts of $3.06 billion missed expectations in the governor’s proposed 2017-18 budget by $710.2 million, or 18.8 percent.
For the fiscal year to date, sales tax receipts of $16.29 billion are $613.5 million below the revised estimates released in January, or 3.6 percent.
The state ended February with unused borrowable resources of $27.44 billion, which was $3.27 billion more than predicted in the governor’s proposed budget.
Outstanding loans of $13.53 billion were $628.3 million higher than projected in early January. This loan balance consists of borrowing from the state’s internal special funds.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Public Works Department said temporary daytime closures are set to begin on Mathews Road in Lakeport next week in order to facilitate repairs.
Beginning Monday, March 13, county road crews will be closing Mathews Road from Highway 175 to George Road to all traffic between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in order to remove and repair a small slide area near the new bridge.
It is anticipated that this schedule will continue through Wednesday, March 15, the department said.
NICE, Calif. – A levee that overtopped in February due to the heavy storms and flooding is the reason behind the extended closure of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, with county and state officials working on a plan to reopen the road.
In February, heavy rains pushed Clear Lake’s level into flood stage, which is 9 feet and above on the Rumsey gauge. The lake’s elevation topped out at about 10.6 feet Rumsey, its highest level since the 1998 flood, on Feb. 22 and 23, according to United States Geological Survey lake gauge records.
On Feb. 22, a state-maintained levee in Maintenance Area 17-Lake County, located in the Rodman Slough area to the north of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, overtopped and filled the water basin, according to Lake County Water Resources Director Phil Moy.
On the same day, the Lake County Public Works Department closed the road, as Lake County News has reported.
Even before that levee overtopped and the road was closed, there was standing water on the roadway due to issues with another levee, according to Public Works Director Scott De Leon.
“We were experiencing some flooding there in the low spot because the levee between the road and the lake was leaking,” said De Leon.
He said that water on the road normally would have receded in concert with the lake level, which has steadily decreased since the severe storms ended.
However, even with the lake level receding, the water trapped in the basin due to the overtopped levee has to dry up, be drained or be otherwise removed before the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff can dry out and the road will be safe to reopen, De Leon explained.
The basin where the water is trapped covers a sizable area. De Leon said it consists of the Rodman Slough and the rice fields on the north side of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff.
As a result, De Leon said the closure could go on for awhile, although so far he has no estimate on how long it could be.
De Leon didn’t know for sure when the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff was last closed due to flooding, adding that he presumed it was closed due to the 1998 flood, when the lake’s elevation topped 11.4 feet on the Rumsey gauge.
Moy said the California Department of Water Resources has had crews on site at the levee every day since January, when heavy storms began to hit the county.
“What they were able to do, when they saw the overtopping beginning to occur, they protected the levee so the levee itself didn’t erode and go away,” said Moy.
Moy added that the crews have not otherwise been attempting to build up the levee.
John Paasch, chief of flood operations for the California Department of Water Resources, said the MA 17-Lake County levee was maintained by the county of Lake up until 2001, at which time the county requested the state form a maintenance area to take over its management.
He said the State Department of Water Resources collects assessments from the county through the flood protection board to maintain the levees there.
“It’s a known problem area,” he said, suggesting that’s why the county wanted to turn it over to the state.
He said the State Department of Water Resources has spent a lot of time in Lake County in the last few years to address problems including a pumping plant and levee on the north side of the district that has had issues. A levee that nearly failed in 2011 and had to be sandbagged by inmate crews also is in that district.
Paasch said the county asked the state flood center to lend technical assistance in the matter. The state’s work on the levee has included shoring up its low spots and covering it with plastic.
“The maintenance area has done all it can, it’s exhausted its budget,” he said.
The maintenance district has an annual budget of $103,000, and has spent $57,000 on high water patrolling and flood emergency response this winter, Paasch said.
He said they’re waiting to see how the levee looks once the water recedes. “Until that lake comes down, there’s not a whole lot that anyone can do.”
Paasch acknowledged that the situation is a burden on the county and the community, adding that he believes closing the road is the safest thing to do right now.
“There’s a lot of things that really come to a head here,” Paasch said, noting it’s a question of land use planning – where roads and infrastructure is placed and the associated flood risk.
Moy said the county is working with the state to find a solution to the flooding that led to the road closure, with the leading option now being to pump the water out of the basin and into the lake.
Pumping the water out would take at least a week, with Moy explaining that otherwise it could take months to evaporate.
He said the area doesn’t need to be completely pumped dry. Rather, the water has to be taken down low enough so that there is no water on the road or underneath, in the road bed.
Now, the main question is where the money will come from, Moy said.
Moy said the state and county are working through a series of steps to look at all the possible sources of funding to pay for a pump, fuel and a person to check the equipment daily, as well as how much it would cost.
“We’re interested in getting the road open just as soon as possible,” Moy said.
In addition to the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, De Leon said the county is looking at serious road damage issues countywide because of the flooding.
Countywide, damage assessments are still in the early stages for the county roads system, due to many roads still being underwater, he said.
However, a ballpark estimate the county is using now, without the full assessment completed, is between $5 million and $7 million, De Leon said.
“We continue to find things,” he said.
He said the storm impacts include a second slide that’s developed on Socrates Mine Road near Middletown, about a mile away from another slide that first appeared in January.
“With the ground as saturated as it is, it doesn’t take a whole lot and the ground gives way,” he said.
Similar issues are developing on the county’s mountains roads, including Bartlett Springs Road, where De Leon said crews are discovering impacts from the storms.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Brad James Maiden, 47, beloved father and friend, passed away on Feb. 22, 2017.
Brad was born in Los Angeles County in 1969.
Some of his many accomplishments included being a Junior Olympian Boxer in the 1980s, serving his country in the Army, marring Jolene in 1995 and of course being blessed with the birth of his loving daughter, Patricia Jean Maiden in 1997.
His presence will truly be missed among us here, but thankful he suffers no more pain. Among the angels now he soars, watching and caring for us.
Arrangements entrusted to Jones Mortuary FD311, Lakeport, www.jonesmortuary.com .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Irene Josephine Kimmel, 94, beloved mother, grandmother and friend, passed away on Feb. 24, 2017.
Her celebration of life will be held at Jones Mortuary, 115 S. Main St., Lakeport, on Saturday March 11, at 11 a.m.
Arrangements entrusted to Jones Mortuary FD311, Lakeport, www.jonesmortuary.com .