NOTEBOOK: WILDLIFE CENTER A REFUGE FOR THOSE IN NEED.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

The California Wildlife Center in Calabasas held an open house last weekend to show off its wild animal emergency room and rehabilitation operation. This year, more than 1,800 wild critters have been treated and housed at the center until they are ready to be released into Southern California's wilderness areas.

A full-time veterinarian and 80 volunteers help care for animals such as hawks, bobcats, coyotes, deer, pelicans and even hummingbirds that are injured or abandoned.

The center also responds to marine mammals stranded along beaches from Santa Monica to Ventura. More information about supporting or volunteering at the Center is at www.californiawildlifecenter.org.

--Double trouble: High winds and earthquakes supplied more thrills than expected for 257 fly fishers at the annual Double Haul in the Fall tournament at Crowley Lake on Sept. 18.

Although the bite was good, the catch-and-release float tube/kayak/canoe tournament had to be stopped at 11 a.m. because of high winds and rough water.

``The judge boats had to rescue the people who couldn't paddle,'' guide Frank Murata said.

Gene Talmadge of Camarillo was fishing a Hornberg fly with a midge dropper in his float tube when the waves started kicking up.

``The old Navy term was `taking green water over the gunnels,' '' said Talmadge, who finished fourth in the tournament with two scoring fish - a 20-inch rainbow and a 20-inch cutthroat.

Only fish more than 18 inches counted and the winner was the angler with the most inches of trout.

Martin Willey of Bakersfield, whose 22-inch rainbow also took big-fish honors, was the top angler at the tournament. Willey, casting a green Hornburg, won a four-day fishing trip to Alaska and a custom-made Sierra Classic rod for his big fish.

During the Double Haul awards ceremony in Mammoth there were two earthquakes, registering a magnitude 5.5 and 5.4. These were the biggest in a swarm of several hundred quakes that shook the area and the biggest in Mammoth in more than a decade. It also snowed in the surrounding mountains that night.

--Don't shoot Santa Barbara squirrels: The California Department of Fish and Game is alerting hunters that a map in the recently released ``California Mammal Hunting Regulations 2004'' booklet wrongly included Santa Barbara County as part of the state's tree-squirrel hunting zone, which opened on Sept. 11. Santa Barbara County remains a ``no open season zone'' for squirrels.