In spite of howling winds and snow flurries in the high country on Thursday, this weekend's trout season opener is predicted to be the best in several seasons with perfect weather forecast and excellent fishing conditions. Ice is completely gone from most waters below 8,000 feet, including the most popular destinations in the Eastern Sierra, such as Lake Sabrina, Crowley Lake, Convict Lake, all the waters in the June Lake Loop, Twin Lakes above Bridgeport and Bridgeport Reservoir.

With the warm weather last week, more warm days forecast from today through early next week also points to conditions that will continue to erode ice on higher elevation waters and ice fishing may be out of the question on many lakes that would normally support a little taste of Minnesota winter fishing each opener.

Kern County, southern San Joaquin Valley

LAKE ISABELLA: While the front late this week could slow things, the crappie bite has broken wide open, according to Bob Rutledge of Bob's Bait Bucket in Bakersfield. Catfish bite also has reportedly broken wide open. The crappie were best in Kissack Cove on small, live minnows, but there were other spots producing a lot of fish, too. There has also been a very good bite on channel cats. Trout showing off the points and at the auxiliary dam. Quite a few bass being caught. Bluegill bite improving.

The Californian's newly-issued e-book on the March Meet will be the focus of the newspaper's radio segment on KERN radio at 9 a.m. Friday.

Logan Molen, the newspaper's senior vice president and chief operating officer, and Louis Amestoy, Digita Convergence Manager, will host Californian Radio. The March Meet book for the iPad features complete coverage from the 2012 races, the history of the event and includes more than 200 photos, a dozen videos and 20 chapters of content.

With construction under way at the half-finished Kern County Raceway near Enos Lane and Interstate 5 and the possibility of racing at the paved half-mile as early as October, I figured it was time to reacquaint myself with Saturday night short-track pavement racing.

So I hitched a ride with former Late Model driver Dick Shepherd, whose 12-year old son, Buddy, is a rookie Legends driver, and headed to Madera on Saturday to catch the SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series, and was not disappointed.

While a contentious debate over the CIF's proposed rule change regarding transfers raged Wednesday at the Southern Section meetings in Long Beach, all was relatively quiet on the Central Section front in Porterville.

The L.A. Times reported that after much debate, league representatives from the Southern Section voted 41-40 to support the new rule, which changes the athletic sit-out period for transfers from one year to 30 days of their respective sport's season.

Too many times before, Stevie Stier sat on a chair in this same Garces gym, wondering if she'd ever get to play Division I volleyball.

Stier, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee and spent her junior year sitting on the Garces bench, put all that behind her Wednesday when she joined eight other Rams athletes in a signing ceremony celebrating their college choices.

Baseball

West 7, Highland 4

The Blaze will try again tonight to extend their nine-game California League winning streak, after Wednesday's game at Banner Island Ballpark was rained out.

Wednesday's scheduled baseball game was rescheduled for June 12 at Stockton and will be part of a doubleheader.

East High senior D.J. Johnson is by leaps and bounds the best high school tennis player in Kern County, and that means loads of pressure.

On Wednesday, for the Blades' match at Garces, Johnson delivered the lineup card because East coach Christopher Combs had a conflict and was absent; Johnson won yet another lopsided singles match and he teamed with East's No. 4 player, Derek Tatum, and hit every ball humanly possible, often racing across the court several times before pausing to catch his breath.

One more time for Mark Pavletich and Scott Anderson.

The local duo has made a habit of qualifying for the Northern California Golf Association's 4-Ball Championship over the past few years. Chalk up another trip to Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Monterey for the 54-hole championship tournament, only this time they will have some local company.

WOODLAND HILLS -- Bakersfield College had a 14-hit attack and Ryan Stapp tied the single-season BC record with his 11th save as the Renegades downed L.A. Pierce College 6-4 Tuesday.

BC (24-11 overall, 12-8 Western State Conference) ends its regular season with a home game vs. Pierce at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Baseball

Centennial 1, Bakersfield 0

STOCKTON -- Travis Mattair's two-run homer highlighted a three-run sixth inning that helped to carry the Bakersfield Blaze to its ninth straight win Tuesday, 6-4 over the host Ports at Banner Island Ballpark.

Donald Lutz had three hits, including a double, and two runs, and Billy Hamilton and David Vidal had two hits apiece for Bakersfield, which outhit the Ports 11-9 and also played error-free ball.

NORTHRIDGE -- Cal State Northridge hit three solo home runs en route to a 5-2 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday.

The Roadrunners (18-19) scored in the first when Cael Brockmeyer walked, Frank Martinez singled him to third and Kevin Younger rolled an RBI single through the right side.

Somewhere in California tonight, an administrator might worry about the CIF's new transfer rule, and somewhere a coach might plot. Somewhere a fan might dream of super-teams, and somewhere another might worry about players his team will lose.

But in Bakersfield, most will just get a good night's rest.

Stockdale Country Club head tennis pro Hank Pfister and notable local player Mike Noel will play an exhibition mixed doubles match at 11:30 a.m. Saturday with two notable female players: Hilary Barte, the former No. 1 player at Stanford, and Mayo Hibi, a 16-year-old who ranks No. 1 in Southern California and No. 5 in the nation.

Noel was a top junior player in the 1980s who later played tennis at Fresno State and on the ATP Satellite Tour. He's a civil engineer working for Swanson Engineering.

EL SEGUNDO -- Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace was suspended seven games by the NBA on Tuesday for elbowing James Harden, meaning he could miss at least six playoff games.

World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, was ejected from Sunday's game against Oklahoma City for throwing an elbow that struck Harden in the back of the head, giving him a concussion.

Baseball

Porterville 7, Delano 3

Baseball

The Bombers are holding open tryouts for 8-year-olds, 1:30-3:30 p.m May 13 at the Dave Frye Baseball Complex.

The Neil Bautista and Matt Deford each shot a 1-over-par 73 to lead the Bakersfield college golf team, which placed fifth among seven teams Monday in a tightly-contested Western State Conference mini tournament at Santa Maria Country Club.

Kevin Antongiovanni shot a 75 and Travis Millwee shot a 78 for the Renegades, who totaled 379 strokes and were in a pack behind winner Glendale (365), Canyons (366), Allan Hancock (377) and Ventura (378).