BY MIKE STEVENS
SACRAMENTO – In a ceremony held at the International Sportsmen’s Expo (ISE) Show in Sacramento (Jan. 15-18) Pat McDonell will be inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame (COHOF) in a class of five deserving men from varying walks of outdoor life that includes fellow Southern California inductee, Frank LoPreste. In total, McDonell spent over three decades with WON before retiring in 2017, but he’s still an active outdoorsman and remains tightly woven into the sportfishing fabric stretching from the tip of Baja, through California and north to Alaska.
Part of his nomination bio reads, a lifelong journalist and sportsman, McDonell began writing for the student newspaper at San Diego State University. After joining WON a few years later, he covered fishing and hunting issues, personalities, destinations, tactics and anything else worthy of a headline. He is most proud of “Erik Sinking; Two Survivors Tell Their Story,” an investigative article that he wrote about the tragic loss of eight souls who were on the Mexican sportfishing boat Erik which sank overnight out of San Felipe. That poignantly written and carefully researched column took First Place in the 2012 Outdoor Writers of California Craft Awards and influenced the Mexican government to tighten lax enforcement of safety standards and the accessibility of life vests on charter boats, saving untold lives. McDonell was also one of the first regular guests to broadcast sportfishing news on various radio and TV broadcasts to promote fishing, tournaments, conservation efforts and the Fred Hall outdoor shows. He began these appearances in 1988 and continued his radio reports for over almost four decades, often appearing on “Let’s Talk Hookup.”
McDonell also helped lead the fight to secure over 200,000 signatures and raise $1 million in 1990 to fund Proposition 132, the Marine Protection Zone and Gill and Trammel Net Prohibition Initiative. He’s one of the founding board members of United Anglers of Southern California, and among the more than 60 tournaments he directed is the world’s richest tuna tournament, the WON Cabo Tuna Jackpot.
McDonnell will be inducted with pioneering long-range Captain, Frank LoPreste, Dale Bard (rock climber, posthumous), Mike Baxter (charter captain) and Doug Laughlin (ocean conservationist, diver, videographer).
The Northern California-based COHOF’s inductees are primarily consists of NorCal outdoor folks, so McDonnell and LoPreste both being inducted in the same year is significant, and the hope is it paves the way more deserving SoCal outdoorsmen and women.
Former WON staffers Bill Karr, J.D. Richey, Gary Graham, Bill Beebe, Ray Cannon, Tom Steinstra and current WON Northern California Editor, Dave Hurley are also COHOF inductees.
For more information on the California Outdoors Hall of Fame, to read the full nomination bios and to view the entire list of members, visit COHOF.org
