Timing can be the difference between success and failure when it comes to fishing.
Timing can also be the difference between snagging money for a fishing promotion or getting skunked.
The Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce was recently told that it was simply a matter of bad timing that tied the hands of the Inyo County Board of Supervisors and kept the board from writing a check to the chamber to help defray the costs of its ongoing Catch the Gold golden trout fishing promotion.
But with more than two dozen anglers signed up for the program, a major newspaper story planned on the idea and support from the state Department of Fish and Game, the Lone Pine Chamber has waded into the promotional effort and will keep it afloat through the summer.
The supervisors generally praised the Catch the Gold promotion as a good idea, but said it was the wrong time to be asking for money.  
With the county stalled in budgetary limbo since it’s working with a “roll-over budget” prior to adopting its official 2007-08 budget, the supervisors said there wasn’t even $14,000 available to help fund the Catch the Gold program.
The Lone Pine Chamber has spent about $18,000 on the promotion and will forge ahead with the effort to lure anglers to the area for a trek to the high country to catch a golden trout.     
The chamber also considers timing a critical concern, but for a different reason than the county budget cycle.  
The recent extensive media coverage of the Inyo Complex fires, including photos of burned trees along U.S. 395 and scorched mountainsides, makes it more important than ever to promote the area and show it in a positive light to counter any negative impressions left by the fire coverage, noted Kathleen New, director of the Lone Pine Chamber.

This angler tries his luck landing a golden trout in one of many streams in the Golden Trout Wilderness. The Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce?s Catch the Gold promotion seeks to entice more anglers into the wild in search of the California state fish. Inyo County likes the idea, but has not helped fund the promotion. File photo

The chamber has also teamed up with the state Department of Fish and Game to help promote the challenges and rewards of catching the state’s native trout species.
Chamber President Lee Barron told the supervisors that the Catch the Gold promotion dovetails with the DFG’s Heritage Trout Challenge. That promotion seeks to get anglers to catch all the native trout species in the state, and get a certificate from the DFG as proof of such a high-level of angling proficiency.
The Lone Pine Chamber and DFG will work to promote both programs. The chamber will inform golden trout anglers of the DFG heritage trout certificate promotion, she noted. The DFG will mention that theCatch the Gold program will net the angler a separate golden trout certificate.  
Barron said more than 15 anglers have already contacted the chamber with their plans to participate in the Catch the Gold program. They will come to Lone Pine, sign in, go catch, photograph and release a golden, then come back to town to pick up an official certificate (and maybe buy a T-shirt or golden trout coffee mug).
New said the main benefit of the promotion is that “it gets people to come into town” before and after a trip into the wilderness.
Plus, the program is “trackable,” meaning the chamber can determine not only how many anglers participated, but where they are from, how frequently they visit and other data. Adding the golden trout fans to an e-mail or regular mailing list, she noted, could help the chamber get the word out to those enthusiastic anglers about fishing events in the Eastern Sierra, ranging from the Early Opener to various fishing derbies from Independence to Bishop and the yearly Trout Opener.
The chamber was simply asking the county to help fund a good promotional idea with broad community support, New said, not to pick up the entire cost of a program. “This is about promoting the area, not about making money” for the chamber, she said. The chamber requested between $10,000-$12,000 from the county, and has already spent about $18,000 on the promotion.
A major expense was manning a booth at the Fred Hall Outdoor Show in Long Beach, where the Catch the Gold promotion and Inyo County fishing in general got a warm reception from attendees.
Additional attention will likely arrive via a newspaper story in the Orange County Register. New said the reporter came to Lone Pine this week, went into the wilderness and caught a golden, and now just has to write up the experience.
With the DFG firmly behind the promotion, Fourth District Supervisor Jim Bilyeu said he was satisfied the program would not negatively impact the schools of native fish. Barron noted that besides the promotional help, DFG biologists said the prolific trout “need to be thinned out” in some high-country streams and lakes, which could lead to bigger trout because of less competition  for food.
Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes said the request “was not precedent-setting or extraordinary.” He said the chamber “got a good idea and ran with it,” and should be congratulated and supported, not put through “aggravation” just for asking for such a small sum of money.
“We have no revenue to do this now,” said First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius, citing the budget-timing problem.
Second District Supervisor Susan Cash questioned a different type of timing, namely going ahead with the promotion and then coming to the board after it started to ask for money. She said she was not questioning the Catch the Gold program’s “merits.” 
Arcularius also pondered out loud how the program fit into a “cohesive effort” at marketing the county.
Barron and New were told that they probably would have had better luck asking for funds at the mid-year budget review earlier this year, when the supervisors “found” about $35,000 for promotional efforts that were already under way.
The board provided $20,000 to the Bishop chamber to offset the cost of hosting the California Outdoor Writers Association Confer-ence, which was more than the chamber requested. The board also provided $10,000 to the Independence Chamber to offset the costs of a booth at the state fair, even though the Coalition of Chambers had decided the state fair promotion did not fit into the county’s overall marketing goals and did not produce enough verifiable visitors to justify the expense. Another $5,000 was earmarked for the Eastern Sierra Cultural Heritage Alliance to produce a map showing 20 historic or cultural sites in Inyo and Mono counties, with 10 of the sites in Inyo County.