Livermore - At an unusually packed Board of Directors hearing the night of Wednesday, March 16, Alameda County Water District Zone 7, a State Water Project contractor, rejected a request to vote in support of Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels project, according to a Restore the Delta news release.

Board members noted the lack of key information including environmental impacts, costs, and the willingness of agricultural contractors to pay their share, Restore the Delta said.

Joan Buchanan, President of Restore the Delta said, “I appreciate the board’s willingness to listen and delay its decision until all the impacts and costs are known. It was the prudent and responsible action for the residents and ratepayers they represent.”

Speaker after speaker in the packed Board room expressed concerns about the irreparable environmental damage additional freshwater diversions from the Delta would cause and the need to rush to support the Delta Tunnels prior to the release of the Environmental Impact Report and the cost impact on local water users. Many also questioned why Zone 7 should state its support when no other federal or state water contractor has gone on record, Restore the Delta said.

Local taxpayer groups were also there in support of the letter from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association delivered that day. The Association's letter outlined in precise detail the legal reasons that the Board could not pledge property taxes to help pay for the tunnels without a vote of the electorate.

Jonas Minton from the Planning and Conservation League reminded the Board members of their fiduciary duty to their ratepayers and bondholders to conduct full due diligence before acting.

After three hours of hearing, the Board voted overwhelmingly to await the final Environmental Impact Report, Record of Decision, and complete financial analysis before considering its position. Those documents are...

Over 250 anglers participated in the NorCal Trout Angler Challenge Tour event at Lake Amador, hosted by Angler’s Press and the Fish Sniffer magazine, on Saturday, March 18.

The lake was in prime shape for trout fishing, with the lake full and going over the spillway and the Mother Lode foothills surrounding the lake displaying verdant green colors resulting from the winter rains. Anglers caught big rainbows from both boat and shore while enjoying the warm and sunny weather.

Lon Garland won first place in the adult division by bagging a 5.95 lb. rainbow. He was fishing in his boat with Ryan Baird and Matt Tomchick, all from Loomis.

"We only landed 3 fish while trolling Rapalas at 25 feet deep," said Garland. "It was the first time that I’ve ever fished Lake Amador. In addition to the three fish we boated, we also lost another trout.

"We thought we were going to get skunked until we hooked our first fish, the big one, after several hours of fishing," he noted.

Adam Papini, a shore angler, won second place with a 5.84 lb. fish that he hooked around 1:30 pm. "I hooked the fish while fishing off the spillway a few minutes ago," he excitedly told me as he brought the still-wriggling trout to the certified scale for Vince Harris of Angler’s Press to weigh.

The third through tenth place winners were (3) Mike Hart, 5.42; (4) Tom Wolfenburger, 4.82; (5) Mark Sepelyak, 4.58; (6) James Townley 4.57; (7) Jesse Trejo Sr., 4.43; (8) David Tabuchi, 4.23; (9) Brandon Wu, 4.19; and (10) Paul Costa, 4.06.

The participants weighed 94 fish in the adult division, with the smallest fish weighing .81 pounds. To qualify for the top 50 adult winners, you had to catch a 1.72 lb. rainbow.

Just a year after the massive Refugio Oil Spill fouled the pristine waters off the Santa Barbara Coast, a leak in an oil pipeline in Hall Canyon in Ventura County was reported at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 23. As many as 700 barrels of crude oil — 29,400 gallons — have been spilled.

The company responsible for the Ventura oil spill, Crimson Pipeline, has a decade-long history of oil spills in California. Spills like this one are becoming increasingly common in a state where Big Oil has captured the regulatory apparatus — and the oil industry is the most powerful corporate lobby.

Fortunately, Ventura County Firefighters halted the oil from flowing towards the ocean, according to Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Mike Lindbery.

“The forward oil flow progress has been stopped,” said Lindbery. “There is no environmental threat to ocean and no evacuations in the area.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response confirmed that no oiled wildlife have been observed or reported — and no oil has reached the ocean or other water from the pipeline spill.

The agency said the oil from the spill has been isolated in Hall Canyon. “There is no oil in the storm drain. Vacuum trucks are collecting the oil,” the CDFW stated.

A multi-agency response has been established to manage cleanup operations in the area impacted by the spill, according to the CDFW in a follow-up statement on June 24. Cleanup crews, including 98 responders and five vacuum trucks, remain on-scene containing and recovering the oil. Air monitoring is being continually conducted to assure safety of responders and residents in the area.

The cause of the spill is currently under investigation. “The unified command response will be independent of that investigation and includes representatives from the...

Trout fishing continues to be the top story at New Melones with the opportunity for a large rainbow in the 3- to 5-pound range. There are signs that the deep trolling action is starting to slow down, and the bait and rainbows appear to be moving higher in the water column after the past two weekends of rain and runoff. The cold 55-degree water remains at 100 feet in depth, but trollers have to be very cautious when working in deep water in the main river channel upriver from the Glory Hole Marina and the Highway 49 Bridge due to submerged trees grabbing gear.

John Liechty of Glory Hole Sports in Angels Camp said that the recent rainfall, shorter days, and cooler weather have brought the lake temperature down to the low 60s, and generally the lake will start to turnover once the surface temperature reaches 56 degrees. He expects this to happen during the middle of November depending on weather conditions. Trolling anglers have been catching some large 3 to 5-pound rainbow trout while trolling over deep water, and as the surface temperature cools, these fish will move up in the water column.

Michael Nelson and Rod Smith caught a very hefty five fish limit. Their largest weighed 3 pounds, 6 ounces, and all five fish combined weight exceeded 15 pounds. Mario Lopez landed a 4-pound, 5-ounce rainbow trout while trolling a shad patterned Apex in 105 feet of water.

Gary Burns of Take It to The Limit Guide Service said that the rainbows are still deep from 98 to 110 feet, but very soon they should start working their way up to the surface as the weather cools. His best action has been in the main lake from the dam to the spillway at 2.4 mph with Cop-Car...

Three hundred people from throughout the Monterey Bay area and beyond participated in the 13th Annual Sand Crab Classic Surf Perch Derby, a benefit for the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project, on Saturday, March 11.

The derby featured both the biggest perch ever taken during the event and the biggest fish of any kind, a striped bass, during the tournament.

"We hold this event every year on the second Saturday in March," said Mike Baxter of the Let’s Go Fishing Radio, the co-organizer of the event with Allen Bushnell, also from the Let’s Go Fishing Radio. "The fishing was overall good during this classic. The weather was also sunny and calm with a high tide in the morning."

Whereas people have come all of the way from as far north as Crescent City and as far south as Ventura to fish the event, Taylorsville, California was the furthest anybody came this time.

Jeremy Peck won the GrandMaster prize with his 3.4 lb. barred perch measuring 16 inches long while fishing shrimp "between Santa Cruz and Monterey." That was the largest perch of any kind taken in the event.

He reported very good fishing during the classic, catching 10 other barred perch - his limit - off the beach as well.

Ron Martin landed this year’s "Most Exotic Catch," a 17.2 lb. striped bass, the biggest fish of any kind ever weighed in during the event’s history. Martin is a longtime Sand Crab Classic supporter.

He was fishing for perch off of Manresa Beach with a #4 hook and a plastic grub on 10 lb. test line when he hooked the striper. It took him a good 10 to 15 minutes to get the beast to the sand.

That wasn’t the only striped bass weighed in for the "most exotic"...

Stockton, CA -- Delta tunnels opposition researchers have discovered a draft analysis dated September 15, 2017 of CA WaterFix costs completed by the Kern County Water Agency posted at the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District.

This recent Kern County analysis provides a comprehensive review of how expensive the Delta tunnels project would be for Kern County farmers, and elucidates more realistic cost numbers for State Water Project Contractors than those touted by Metropolitan Water District.

Researchers found that:

• Total WaterFix costs are estimated at $32.1 billion to $41.4 billion over 50 years; however, Kern County Water Agency only looked at interest rates of 3.55% or 3.88%. Higher interest rates would result in significantly higher total costs. These costs do not include potential cost overruns.

• Computations in 2033 dollars show that dividing the maximum capital costs by the average water supply yield results in an estimated cost range of $888 per acre-foot of water to $1427 per acre-foot of water for Kern County Water Agency water users. Using 2017 dollars, the price is discounted to $553 to $889 per acre-foot.

• Kern's total costs range from $4.9 billion to $7 billion, and annual costs range from $153.9 million to $247.5 million.

Restore the Delta executive director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla noted, "Water this costly would cut deeply into profit margins for smaller farms within the Kern County Water Agency service area, and even the profits of big industrial farms like Stewart Resnick's Paramount Farms. It is feasible that the real end-goal is for urban ratepayers within the Kern service area and Metropolitan Water District to subsidize the project, or that Kern County Water Agency could resell a portion of water back to Metropolitan Water District to make enough revenue to cover bond repayment."

Prior to Westlands Water District's withdrawal from California...

Showing the enormous power of the oil industry in California despite the state’s green image, every bill except one opposed by the powerful oil industry has failed to make it out of the state legislature this year and during the 2015-2016 session.

The latest victim of intense lobbying by Big Oil is Senate Bill 188, a bill authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to prohibit new pipelines or other infrastructure needed to support new federal oil and gas development.

Senator Jackson introduced SB 188 in response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order opening the door to expanded offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the California coast.

The oil industry killed that bill, Senator Jackson told the Sacramento Bee on September 1. They are far too powerful.

The defeat of the bill is a big victory in Sacramento for the oil industry and the Trump administration. The Western States Petroleum Association, the California Independent Petroleum Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and California Manufacturers & Technology Association spent big money lobbying to defeat the legislation, as well as pass the oil industry's wish list cap-and-trade bill, AB 398.

A long list of environmental, consumer, fishing and indigenous groups supported the legislation, including the California Coastkeeper Alliance, Environmental Defense Center, Defenders of Wildlife, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Seventh Generation Advisors, Sierra Club California, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation.

The Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, held the bill in suspension during their hearing on Friday, September 1. Gonzalez Fletcher’s Office declined to comment on the bill in response to a phone call and email.

Before the bill died in Appropriations, the bill passed through the Assembly Natural Resources Committee by a vote of...

place as drastically as they do underwater. Water can filter certain wavelengths of light, affecting how colors appear. For instance, red light tends to diminish quickly in deeper water, while blues and greens penetrate more effectively.

This means that the visibility of a lure's color can change depending on water clarity and depth. In clear water, lighter colors may stand out better, while in murky conditions, brighter or more fluorescent colors could make a bigger impact.

Additionally, fish may also associate certain colors with specific prey. Over time, if they have experienced positive encounters with a given color, they may be more likely to bite lures of that color.

Ultimately, the best approach is to experiment with different colors and pay attention to what works during different conditions. The effectiveness of a color can also depend on the location and time of year, making adaptability key for anglers seeking success on the water.

While there may not be one definitive answer regarding the importance of lure color, understanding the underwater environment and being willing to try different approaches can significantly enhance fishing success.

Rancho Cordova The salmon ladder at Nimbus Hatchery in Rancho Cordova opened Monday, Nov. 2, signaling the start of the spawning season on the American River.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) hatchery workers opened the gates in the ladder at 9:30 a.m. and may take more than a half-million eggs during the first week alone in an effort to ensure the successful spawning of the returning fall-run Chinook salmon.

California is entering what may be a fifth year of unprecedented drought. Because of current river conditions, salmon are returning later in the year than typical. Overall, the fall-run Chinook salmon return numbers are lower than normal. CDFW seeks to match historic hatchery production goals this year, but that may not be possible given the conditions.

Drought conditions may affect the number of salmon returning to the river to spawn, but hatchery workers will continue to collect eggs throughout the fall with a goal of producing four million salmon fry, said CDFW Program Manager Dr. Bill Cox. We are working closely with other federal and state agencies to release cold water into the river system to give salmon the best chance to get up river to the hatchery.

The three major state-run hatcheries in the Central Valley – the Nimbus Hatchery in Sacramento County, and hatcheries on the Feather River in Butte County and the Mokelumne River in San Joaquin County – will take approximately 24 million eggs over the next two months in order to produce Chinook salmon for release next spring.

Once the young salmon reach 2 to 4 inches in length, one-quarter of the stock will be marked and implanted with coded wire tags prior to release. CDFW biologists use the information from the tags to chart the salmon’s survival, catch and return rates.

The U.S....

Stockton Water hyacinth remains the story in the San Joaquin as the floating green menace continues to plague area boaters. Extensive mats of hyacinth have forced the closure of the City of Stockton’s launch ramps at Buckley Cove and Louis Park, leaving only Morelli Park as the only viable launch in the area.

Alex Breitler of the Stockton Record said, “The alien weed stretches from bank-to-bank across Buckley Cove near the west end of March Lane, and has engulfed all of the docks there. Two neighboring marinas are socked in as well.”

Freezing temperatures are needed to kill the hyacinth, and so far into November, the temperatures have remained very warm, allowing the hyacinth to grow.

The recent winds have cleared some of the bank areas in the southern part of the Delta, and Brandon Gallegos of H and R Bait said, “The Whiskey Slough Road side of the slough was cleared out by the wind which pushed the hyacinth up on the opposite bank, and stripers in the 21 to 24-inch range have been landed with live mudsuckers or fresh shad. In the main San Joaquin River, stripers in the 17 to 23-inch range are taken on the same baits in the clearer areas.”

“The Tracy Oasis is a good location for redear sunfish or largemouth bass, but striper fishermen need to drift live mudsuckers due to the hyacinth,” he tipped.

Further west, Randy Pringle, the Fishing Instructor, said, “We have been catching and releasing up to 70 stripers throwing the ima Big Stick or Little Stick for topwater while working below the surface with the Optima Double AA Bubba Shad or 2-oz. P-Line Laser Minnows in chartreuse/silver or blue silver.”

Their larger fish have come in the shallows with swimbaits, but the schools are thick in the San...

Folsom Lake

If you want to fish in solitude, you can definitely find it now at Folsom Lake. The lake is at its lowest level in history, holding only 151,089 acre feet of water, 15 percent of capacity. The lake level is 353.67 feet in elevation, 112.33 feet below.

While few anglers have been fishing the lake, shore fishermen willing to do some hiking should find improving rainbow trout and king salmon action off the shore at Granite Bay and Browns Ravine as the water cools down and the lake turns over. Fish PowerBait and inflated nightcrawlers on sliding sinker rigs or minnows and worms under bobbers.

The guys who reported catching black bass while trolling with crankbaits a couple of weeks ago aren’t talking now. They were hooking a lot of fish, mostly spotted and smallmouth bass to 4 pounds, while fishing at 10 to 15 feet deep with Strike King and Timber Tiger medium diving crankbaits and similar lures.

While all concrete ramps on Folsom Lake are currently closed due to the low lake level, the two anglers were carefully launching their boats from shore. The lake must be above elevation 369' before the Granite Bay ramp will return to operation.

Oroville: You need a 4-wheel drive vehicle to launch at both the spillway and Bidwell Canyon launch ramps, but the wide-open bass fishing available on Lake Oroville definitely makes it worthwhile.

“Fishing is really good now,” said Brent Cline at Oroville Outdoors. “Boaters are hooking and releasing 50 to 60 fish during a trip. Most of the fish are spotted bass in the 12 to 15 inch range, but two 7 lb. largemouths were also reported lately.”

“You can pretty much use any method you want to use to catch fish,” he emphasized. “You can throw top water lures such as Zara Spooks and Ricos. You can toss out worms and Senkos in bait fish patterns. And you can cast tubes and jigs in green pumpkin patterns all over the lake.”

King salmon fishing has also improved with the cooler water. Boaters are trolling hoochies, tipped with anchovy strips, behind dodgers at 40 to 50 feet deep to catch fish averaging 3 to 4 pounds, according to Cline. The best areas are the dam, spillway and Green Bridge.

“Bass fishing in the Thermalito Afterbay was good last week when the water temperature was warmer, but it is slower this week with the cooler water,” said Cline. “Anglers have been doing best on largemouths from 2 to 4 pounds while flipping jigs in the tules and fishing Senkos, crankbaits and spinnerbaits.”

Lake Oroville was holding 1,023,835 acre-feet of water, 29 percent of capacity and 48 percent of average, at press time. The water level is 667.57 feet above sea level.

A lazy crowd of people were sauntering down Main Street in Rio Vista on a balmy October afternoon. I emerged from the waterfront holding a large fish. The crowd started to stir as I walked up to the Rio Vista Bass Derby weigh-in table.

A woman quizzically asked, “What kind of fish is that?“ It’s a salmon”, I replied. It struck me as kind of funny that somebody wouldn’t know the difference between a striped bass and a salmon.

Then again, not everybody has been trying to figure out how to catch them for as long as I have. And why in the heck was I bringing a salmon to a striper derby anyway?

I’ve been on a quest to catch river salmon for as long as I can remember. I’m not the only one who becomes salmon-obsessed during the fall months. Have you ever taken an October drive down Highway 160 between Sacramento and Rio Vista? If so, you know that hordes of salmon seekers line the shores and choke the waterways to no end.

It doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Aside from producing great smoked salmon, the table quality of river salmon is fair at best. The musty flavor is hard to mask and doesn’t compare to the meat of a freshly caught ocean salmon. Although they get big and put up a decent fight, river salmon don’t pack the same punch as equally sized striped bass.

So why do we chase them? For me, it’s the lure of mystery. There is nothing more exciting than trolling for several hours only to hear the staccato ‘zzz-zzz-zzz’ of your clicker going off. Is it another ten pounder? Or maybe it’s the next state record, eclipsing the 88 pound king caught in 1979.

When reports mention ‘Sacramento Salmon,”...

Most anglers start off their day by checking out weather reports or just looking outside; do I go or not? Just remember that when you look outside and your neighbor’s tree is blowing over, it might not be a bad thing at this time of the year.

Wind in the winter is a whole different ballgame. It just makes it unbearable to fish at times. However, wind in the fall and summer can make the fishing red-hot! You just have to believe in one thing, the wind is your friend.

You can’t change Mother Nature, you’ve got to go with it. For example, if you are a weightless worm fisherman, you are going to have to adjust.

The key to how the wind affects the action is water temperature. At 70 degrees or higher, fish need to eat a lot. So even though the weather may not be to your liking, the fish are still eating. Speaking for myself, I want to feed them!

Let’s talk about the different kinds of wind. Let’s set the table for your day on the delta. The water temperature is in the 70’s; of course it is windy, but is it a cold wind and white caps? Most likely, throughout the night the water temperature dropped, so it will be hard to get a morning topwater bite; not impossible, but tough.

My selections in this case are subsurface baits with a couple of modifications. The first bait I’d turn to is a crankbait. A couple baits come to mind. I need baits with a big wobble, the more commotion, the better. Strike Kings 4S in a crawdad or bluegill pattern and Ima’s Shaker also in a crawdad or bluegill pattern.

Cranking the bait down and ticking the structure with a stop and go retrieve...

Rancho Cordova Nimbus Fish Hatchery workers have counted a total of 2,765 Chinook salmon, including 789 jacks and jills (two-year-old fish), at the facility since the salmon ladder opened Monday, Nov. 2.

Considering the low flows of 500 cfs, this return is surprisingly good. Last year at this time the hatchery had counted approximately 2,950 salmon, including 350 adults.

The other good news is that the water temperature on the river has cooled down 5 to 7 degrees over one week.

“The water temperature has gone down to 55 to 57 degrees, depending on which gauge you go by,” said Gary Novak, hatchery manager. “That’s phenomenal; last year the water temperature didn’t cool down to this temperature until the middle of November.”

The hatchery has spawned salmon three times to date. Novak noted that many of the fish at the facility are still “green,” not ready for spawning yet.

The 300,000 juvenile steelhead that will be released into the river system next February have also returned to the hatchery, after spending the summer at the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, due to high water temperatures at Nimbus.

Los Vaqueros

Brisk fall fishing is available at Los Vaqueros Reservoir, where anglers fishing from both shore and rental boats are bagging rainbow trout, catfish, striped bass and largemouth bass.

"Fishing for trout continues to be fair with the mixed weather we have had lately," said Brian Demmunik at Los Vaqueros Reservoir. "The rainbows are being caught in South Cove and Oak Point as well as around the lake. The baits of choice for shore anglers are garlic-scented PowerBaits, nightcrawlers or Kastmasters."

Trolling is popular with anglers using Rapalas and other lures in the coves. "A number of limits came out of Howden Cove this week," Demmunik stated.

Fall trout plants are in full swing. Mount Lassen Hatchery planted 1,000 pounds of rainbows and the CDFW stocked 1,000 pounds of trout on Thursday, November 12.

"With the recent rains, the shoreline is slippery – please be careful and watch your footing," he advised.

Chomuam Loth experienced top-notch catfish action when he landed 8 fish weighing a total of 44.49 pounds, topped by an 8.49 pound cat, along with seven more weighing an additional 36 pounds. He was soaking nightcrawlers in Howden Cove.

Bert Palmon of Fremont caught and released a 5.5 pound largemouth bass while tossing out a swimbait from a rental boat.

Night fishing is back every Saturday during November. Every Saturday this month the lake will be staying open until 8 p.m. for night fishing.

"Shakers are still the main action with striped bass," noted Demmunik. "We are still seeing 15-20 undersized fish being caught for every keeper. There have been more boils reported in Cowboy and Howden coves as well as Peninsula Cove, but anglers are having difficulties enticing the fish to bite with swimbaits and other lures. From shore, cut anchovies or shad are the top...

With the temporary closure of the Dungeness crab season, rockfish and lingcod are filling the bill for the time being.

A big swell and heavy winds over the weekend of November 13 put the lingcod off the bite, but rockfish counts remained solid for party and private boats. When the seas were calm earlier in the week, bonito were abundant for trollers working offshore.

The Queen of Hearts scored 30 limits of rockfish in the big sea on Saturday with the Riptide returning with 12 limits and a lingcod, according to Sherri Ingles of Half Moon Bay Sport Fishing. The ling counts were limited by the 9 to 12 foot swell, which results in the groundfish hunkering down to the reefs.

Captain Tom Mattusch of the Huli Cat took out a Becoming an Outdoor Woman charter on Saturday, November 14, and the participants were treated to limits of rockfish off Martin’s Beach and Tunitas Creek with a number of school fish in the mix.

James Nguyen of Dockside Bait was searching for bluefin tuna during the week but didn’t find any tuna. They did find an excellent bonito bite with several fish over 10 pounds and ranging from 27 to 28 inches.

They were trolling Mexican Flag zukers, and they had as many as five on at one time. He said, “We had to go way out to 400 feet in depth to find 59 degree water, but once we hit the warm water, it was on.”

South Lake Tahoe morning temperatures are chilly, crowds are light and the mackinaw are biting consistently. In short, this is a perfect time to visit Lake Tahoe for a limit of late fall lake trout.

For example, the team at Tahoe Sportfishing has been putting their clients on easy limits of mackinaw that mainly fall into the 3 to 6 pound class. Minnows teamed with flashers have been the top offering for the Tahoe Sportfishing fleet.

Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters has also been trolling up limits of mackinaw. Gene’s fish also average 3 to 6 pounds, but he’s been getting a few fish in the teens too.

Gene is fishing a variety of different locations with both rigged minnows teamed with dodgers and medium size Flatfish.

Mickey Daniels of Mickey’s Big Mack Charters has been successfully trolling Carnelian Bay. Mickey starts out trolling quickly in shallow water before slowing down and working progressively deeper. His clients are hooking macks running up to 8 pounds.

Mickey has been using a variety of offerings including Kok-A-Nuts teamed with Sling Blade dodgers and Sting King lures.

Chester Exciting late fall trout fishing is underway at Lake Almanor. On one hand, if you visit the lake right now, you’re not going to hook a bunch of fish. However, the fish you hook will be quality rainbows and browns that start at 3 pounds and top out at over 5.

The late fall trout season is underway at Lake Almanor. The water temperature is now in the lower 50’s and we’ve had some snow,” said Bryan Roccucci of Big Daddy’s Guide Service. “The fishing hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past two weeks. I’m still trolling hardware quickly along the west shore. The trout are in the top 10 feet and that’s where I keep my lures. Spoons like Speedy Shiners and similar models are working in a range of different colors including gold, silver, red and even black.”

The trout we have been hooking are good size. The average is over 3 pounds and we are seeing high 4’s and low 5’s daily. Most of the fish are rainbows at this time,” Roccucci reported.

Shore anglers working near canyon dam and off Rocky Point are hooking rainbows in the 2 to 4 pound class on a mix of PowerBait and worms. The typical bank outing yields 1 to 3 fish.

Redding The salmon bite isn’t red hot for Sacramento River anglers, but the fishing is productive for anglers that put in their time. In addition to the salmon, there are good numbers of steelhead in the system.

“We’ve been getting 1 to 3 salmon per trip,” said Robert Weese of Northern California Guide Service. “Most of those fish run 15 to 30 pounds and are a mix of chromers and dark fish. There have been some much larger fish around. For example, we brought a 42 pounder in last week.”

“My anglers have been hooking quite a few steelhead in recent days. The steelhead average 3 to 6 pounds, but fish up to and beyond 10 are showing,” added Weese.

Kirk Portocarrero of SacRiverGuide.Com also reported fair to good salmon action.

“We’ve had some decent rain and we were hoping that would pull fish upstream in a major way, but that hasn’t happened,” said Portocarrero. “We are averaging 2 to 3 salmon per trip. Some of them are chromers, but we are seeing our share of dark fish too. Whether or not we’ll see a solid push of fresh fish prior to the end of the season is anyone’s guess. I hope it happens. I’d love to end the season with a bang.”

Bodega Bay What do Sonoma County saltwater anglers really want? That’s easy they want crab combos! On the up side, the rockfish and lingcod bite along the north coast is really good. Of course the downside is that the crab season remains closed, due to domoic acid found in the crabs, until further notice, although most agree that we’ll see crabs hitting the deck off Bodega and elsewhere within a month.

Captain Tim Wong of Norcal Sportfishing Adventures has been putting his client on very good rockfish and lingcod action. For example his last trip yielded full limits of rockfish and lingcod for 6 anglers. The lings ranged up to 15 pounds.

Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center and the New Sea Angler is anxiously awaiting the belated crab opener. Rick is one of the guys that pioneered the concept of crab and rockfish combo fishing and he can’t wait to get started with this fall’s crab season.

Despite rough conditions in recent days, Rick’s clients have been putting the wood to both rockfish and lingcod.

On his most recent trip, Powers headed out with 21 anglers aboard and ended up at Fort Ross. The result was full limits of rockfish and 36 lingcod to 22 pounds.

Stockton Striped bass remain king in the San Joaquin side of the Delta with the water temperatures reaching optimum temperatures. Bait fishermen are finding the best action in the cold water, although there has been a window for swimbaits on specific tides.

Captain Stan Koenigsberger of Quetzal Adventures out of Bethel Island put Alex Harris on a 15-pound striper on frozen shad on the outgoing tide in False River, and young Harris released the fish after a measurement and photograph. Koenigsberger said, "We had a 21 fish day with 10 of the stripers of legal size."

Dan Mathisen of Dan’s Delta Outdoors in Oakley said, "The striper bite is not slowing down, but those tossing swimbaits or plugs will need to adjust their depths as the fish are holding from 6 to 12 feet instead of 4 to 6 feet."

The action with the Optimum 5-inch Bad Bubba Shad swimbait is leading Mathisen to state, "We are still cracking them as my wife and I routinely catch and release between 25 and 30 fish to 12 pounds with most of the stripers in the 4 to 6-pound range."

The action has been best in the north/south sloughs to avoid the massive islands of hyacinth, and Broad Slough and Three Mile meet this description.

The water hyacinth in the Stockton area is starting to curl up and show some shades of brown from the recent cold spell, but it hasn’t been cold enough despite Sunday’s record 25-degree low temperature to kill off the heavy hyacinth growth.

Brandon Gallegos of H and R Bait in Stockton said, "It’s still more green than brown out there on the San Joaquin; but there have been some clearer areas in the east and south Delta. Stripers in the 5 to 6-pound range have been taken...

(Sacramento) In spite of cold storms that haven’t translated into much runoff into the Sacramento River to date, sturgeon fishing is surprisingly good from Prospect Slough to the Sacramento River below Freeport.

“We sold out of ghost shrimp in 6 hours after our shipment arrived,” said Tim Boggs of Elkhorn Outdoors. “Jesse, a local fisherman, said the anglers in the 30 boats that he saw fishing in Prospect Slough on Saturday all reported hooking fish, releasing shakers or oversized fish or catching keepers.”

“Terry McClure also reported catching a 52 inch sturgeon while fishing shad for stripers in Sherman Lake,” said Boggs.

James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service reported great salmon action in the Sacramento River out of the Sacramento Yacht Harbor while using a method new to the Sacramento – trolling with Brad’s Cut Plugs filled with tuna behind Pro-Troll dodgers.

“We have caught over 20 salmon over the past week,” he noted. “We landed 3 chrome-bright salmon to 12 pounds in just one hour this morning. The two people fishing with me yesterday landed their limits of kings to 12 pounds. Earlier in the week, anglers bagged kings in the 15 to 22 lb. range.”

“Anglers have reported limits of salmon up to 35 pounds while fishing below Sherwood Harbor over the past couple of days,” confirmed Will Pfingst of Broadway Bait Rod & Gun. “On my last trip on a kayak in the Liberty Island area, I caught and released stripers measuring 29, 30 and 25 inches while fishing crankbaits and top water lures.”

Troy Fletcher, a visionary leader of the Yurok Tribe, passed away of a heart attack on Friday night, November 20.

I first met Troy nearly 20 years ago at a Fish and Game Commission hearing when he was the director of the Yurok Fisheries Program. From that first time I talked to Troy, I watched him play the key leadership role in building bridges between the Tribe and commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, environmentalists, farmers, other tribes and federal and state government officials who were often in conflict with one another.

Troy, who became the Executive Director of the Tribe, was one of the rare people who could truly see the big picture of fishery and environmental restoration - and what was necessary to restore the Klamath Basin and Pacific fisheries.

He told me several times at protests and meetings, "Fishermen will always fight over the fish. Our goal is to see that there are more fish that we can fight over."

He also talked to me a number of times about his vision of the way to accomplish restoration of the Klamath and other fisheries - by forming blue collar task forces rather than the Blue Ribbon Task Forces dominated by corporate interests and political appointees that oversaw the MLPA Initiative, BDCP and other environmental processes. Troy said these blue collar panels would be comprised only of those whose hands touch the water - farmers, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and tribal gatherers and fishermen.

Troy, along with Ron Reed of the Karuk Tribe, spoke at rallies and meetings in solidarity with recreational anglers and commercial fishermen fighting to bring back salmon on the Klamath, Sacramento and other watersheds - and fighting to defend their fishing rights.

While Troy was a bridge builder, he also stood firm when the Tribe's sovereign...

Oregon House

“How fast things can change in only two weeks!” exclaimed Kathy Hess of the Collins Lake Resort. “Trout ‘catching’ is definitely speeding up to an all time high this week.”

Cory, Paul and Vasile all limited out on trout while fishing from the shoreline near the ramp at the dam using PowerBait and lures, according to Hess. Their big fish weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. Tony Troncale of Lodi also hooked a 6 lb. rainbow and a 4 lb. trout by the dam on PowerBait.

Sandy Settles from Rio Linda also landed a limit of rainbows by trolling worms in the channel. Ryan Barella from Windsor trolled near the dam and hooked two nice trout, topped by a 3 lb. 8 oz. beauty.

Little Chevy Luna reported catching a limit of rainbows, topped by a 3 lb. 12 oz. fish while fishing with worms.

Members from the Slow Trollers Fishing Club of Yuba City have caught some great fish these past couple of weeks. Jim Chausee topped his stringer with a 4 lb. 1 oz. trout, Manny Castro with a 4 lb. 6 oz. rainbow, and Tom Pickett with a 3 lb. 11 oz. trout. All were caught on Rapala-type lures.

Vietnam Vet, Ken Smith, caught a glorious 4 lb. rainbow measuring 22″ long. He used PowerBait from shore below the store.

“Hansen and his son Robert worked tirelessly on their new boat project for three months that they brought up to Collins Lake to test. That boat was very good to them; besides keeping them afloat, it also helped them catch a half-dozen dozen bass weighing up to 4 pounds, 10 ounces,” she added.

Lake Chabot, a pretty reservoir nestled in the tree-studded foothills east of San Leandro in the unincorporated area of Castro Valley, is now a popular location for anglers to pursue largemouth bass, rainbow trout and channel catfish, but it wasn’t always that way.

Built in 1874-75 as a primary drinking water supply for the East Bay, the 315-acre lake was closed to fishing and other recreation for most of its history, 91 years. The lake finally opened for controlled recreational uses in 1965 after legislation was passed in the 1960s. The lake now serves as a standby emergency water supply.

This past year has been an interesting one due to the prolonged drought that has brought the lake level down to very low levels, according to Joe Sullivan, Acting Fisheries Program Manager for the East Bay Regional Park District.

The low water levels and the toxic blue-green algae blooms that occurred at Lake Chabot this summer definitely had an impact on park attendance. Because of this, the park district reduced their fish plants during the very warm summer months.

The good news is that the largemouth bass and other naturally reproducing fisheries appear not to be affected by the toxic algae and low water level.

I haven't had a chance to analyze our annual monitoring data that we collected this past spring and summer, but a first glance shows that fish numbers are staying pretty steady compared to previous years, said Joe Sullivan of the East Bay Regional Park District.

We even had a largemouth bass caught a couple of months ago that was just shy of a lake record, and there's a lot of other monster bass out there, he said. Now that the weather has cooled and we've received some rain, we are back in full swing with...

Moss Landing

If you want to catch a limit of both lingcod and rockfish, you don’t have much time left this year, since the season closes on December 31. The Kahuna continues to see great action on both species as the season enters its final stretch.

The 22 anglers aboard the Kahuna on Sunday, November 29, landed 66 lingcod, 12 copper rockfish, 175 assorted rockfish, and 33 vermilion rockfish, according to Carol Jones of Kahuna Sportfishing.

The two previous adventures produced top-notch fishing also. A trip by 24 anglers on November 22 returned with 72 lingcod, 28 bocaccio, 35 vermilion rockfish, 146 rockfish, 72 lingcod and 31 copper rockfish. A trip by 22 people on November 21 produced 66 lingcod, 41 vermilion rockfish, 154 rockfish, and 25 copper rockfish.

Chris Arcoleo of Chris’s Fishing Trips in Monterey confirmed the superb lingcod action off the Monterey County coast, with all three boats reporting limits of lingcod on Sunday, November 29. The lingcod are hitting small mackerel running about the size of large anchovies.

The Check Mate checked in with 21 limits of lings and half limits of rockfish, the Caroline boated limits of lings and half limits of rockfish and the Star of Monterey returned with 16 limits of lings and limits of rockfish.

Great weather continued today near Franklin Point and Davenport for rockfish, said Todd Fraser of Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz. The surf fishing has improved with the last few storms making nice sandbars. The perch are biting ghost shrimp and Camo Gulp Worms.

The water temperature has cooled down and most of the pelagic species, including bonito and bluefin tuna, have moved further offshore, Fraser added.

Colfax With continuing cool weather the trout action at both Rollins Lake and Scotts Flat Reservoir is picking up. Most of the trout being caught are browns and there has been zero planting on behalf of the DFW.

“Usually at this time of the year, both Rollins and Scotts Flat are kicking out good numbers of planted rainbows, but that isn’t the case this year,” reported Jason Pleece of Meadow Vista. “There is a hatchery trout shortage in Northern California and we just aren’t seeing the rainbow plants we’ve had in previous years. As a result the only available trout are holdover and wild fish.”

“I fished both Rollins and Scotts last week and caught fish on both trips while working from my kayak. At Scotts, I caught a 13 inch brown trout and 3 smallmouth bass to 2.5 pounds while trolling a broken back perch pattern Rapala,” said Pleece.

“At Rollins, I got two browns to 16 inches and a beautiful 14 inch squaretail rainbow that must have moved into the lake from the Bear River. I trolled my way up the Bear River Arm pulling both spinners and minnow plugs for zero strikes. Once I hit the current I dropped down several hundred yards and started still fishing with worms. I got one brown off the bottom using a sliding sinker rig. The other two fish grabbed worms suspended 6 feet under a clear bobber,” related Pleece.

“I released all the trout I caught this week. With no trout plants in sight, I think it’s important to conserve the trout we have,” Pleece asserted.

East Bay: The bad news is that crab season has yet to open. The good news is that the latest testing indicates a drop-off in the level of toxins found in the crab, so an opener is expected in the near future. The best news is that the bottomfish action for both rockfish and lingcod has been wide open at the Farallons when the weather cooperates.

Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing in Berkeley hasn’t been running every day, but when the boat does head out to the Farallon Islands, limits of rockfish and limits to near limits of lingcod have been the result.

In Emeryville, the story is much the same. Anglers want the crab season to kick off so they can enjoy some outstanding crab and bottomfish combination trips.

In the short term, boats like the New Salmon Queen, New Huck Finn, and Sea Wolf have been pushing out to the islands for limits of rockfish and near limits of lingcod up to and beyond 20 pounds.

The rockfish season in the Golden Gate region is slated to run until December 31, so there is plenty of time to get out and top off your freezer with tasty fillets.

Once known primarily as a trout and kokanee salmon fishery, Bullards Bar has become legendary for the world record class spotted bass that lurk in its clear waters.

Paul Bailey, a Kelseyville bass fishing guide, caught a potential new world and state record spotted bass weighing 11.4 pounds, but he opted to release the fish rather than kill it on November 29, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

“It weighed 11.4 pounds on one digital scale, 11.5 on another and 11.7 pounds on another,” he said. “We tried to get ahold of a CDFW biologist to examine it, but only one person was working on Thanksgiving weekend.”

“We could have transported the fish 75 miles to the nearest town, Oroville and weighed it on a certified scale,” he said. “However, the bass wouldn’t have survived in the live well during the trip to and from Oroville.”

Tim Little of Kelseyville set a new world and California state record for spotted bass when he landed a 10.38 lb. fish at Bullards Bar this January.

Then Louis Ferrante shattered Little’s record by catching an 11 lb. 3 oz spotted bass on February 21, 2015. The fish measured 31 inches long and 20.5 inches in girth, according to the CDFW.

Twitch, twitch…tug, twitch, twitch, I gently picked up the Cousins tackle spinning rod and opened the bail on the Abu Garcia Cardinal. The trout were a bit sluggish, so I wanted to give the fish plenty of slack.

Seconds went by and nothing happened, but then the fish came back and coils of line started flipping off the reel, slowly at first and then faster.

I snapped the bail closed, allowed the line to tighten and set the hook. The rainbow might have been a bit lethargic when mouthing the ball of Zeke’s Sierra Gold, but it came to life with the sting of the hook and put up a spirited fight.

With my 14 inch rainbow on the stringer, I quickly got the rod back into the water and Gene Rush and I settled in to await the next bite.

It was December 2 and we were fishing at Collins Lake, one of my favorite trout fishing destinations whether I’m fishing bait from the bank or trolling from a boat. In truth while we were bait fishing, we weren’t on the bank. Instead we were situated a few feet offshore on the Collins Lake fishing and rental boat dock. It provided an awesome platform to operate from and we didn’t even get any mud on our shoes!

When I picked Gene up in Foresthill the streets were wet from rain and we were a little worried that we were going to get dumped on, but we didn’t encounter any rain during our trip. Instead the conditions were just about perfect. The overcast skies made for a low light level and with zero breeze the lake’s surface was calm and mirror like.

As I rigged a pair of spinning rods for bait soaking, Gene walked the dock and made casts...

There are two kinds of anglers residing in northern California, those that have landed a sturgeon and those that should land a sturgeon.

With good sturgeon action now underway in the West Delta this is a perfect time to contemplate how to catch sturgeon during the late fall and winter months.

Consistently successful sturgeon anglers are the ones that effectively blend patience, skill, execution and plain unadulterated luck. Back in the old days, it was said that an aspiring sturgeon angler could plan on putting in an average of 100 hours on the water before that first elusive keeper was landed. These days with modern electronics and a more widespread and thorough understanding of sturgeon behavior, the amount of time it takes an angler to land a keeper is significantly shorter...Usually.

One of your greatest resources for finding sturgeon is your delta map. When you unfold the map to look for potential sturgeon fishing spots, you are looking for several different features. The first thing you want to locate are deep holes. Sturgeon tend to keg up in deep areas.

Of course the term deep hole is relative. In a slough that averages 10 feet deep a hole that is 20 feet deep is deep. Conversely out on the main Sacramento where much of the water averages 20 to 30 feet deep, water that is 40 or more feet deep constitutes a deep spot.

Now the sturgeon you find holding along the bottom of deep holes often won’t be feeding, but deep areas do attract and concentrate sturgeon and that is important. Since, when those fish become active and move out of the hole to eat, you can put yourself in a position to ambush them.

The areas where I’ve had the most luck hooking sturgeon are the flat, relatively...

Napa Now that the water at Lake Berryessa has turned over, rainbow trout fishing is picking up.

Boaters are hooking rainbows in the 12 to 15 inch range while drifting minnows east of the Big Island and in the narrows, said Jack at Sweeney’s Sports. The king and kokanee salmon fishing remains slow. There aren’t many trollers fishing the lake now.

Shore anglers should find their best trout action while drifting minnows and nightcrawlers around the old bridge past Cappell Cove.

The black bass fishing is still pretty good, although it is not as good as it was a few weeks ago, reported Jack. Boaters are doing best running around from spot to spot, following schools of shad. Your best bet is to use drop shot rigs where the shad and bass are concentrated, including in open water, at 30 to 40 feet deep.

Rock and clay bluffs in the Putah Creek arm are also producing some spotted and smallmouth bass, along with some largemouths, he added. My buddy and I caught around two dozen largemouths on our latest trip in Putah Creek while dropping Bladerunner Spoons in morning dawn.

Expect to hook bass in the 2 to 3 pound range, along with some bigger fish, at Berryessa this month.

Los Vaqueros (Byron) Fall is ending with solid trout, catfish, and striped bass fishing at Los Vaqueros Reservoir.

“With recent plants, trout fishing has improved with more limits being caught from all around the reservoir,” reported Brian Demmunik of the Los Vaqueros Marina. “They are being caught in South Cove and Oak Point as well as all around the lake. Mt. Lassen stocked 2000 pounds of trout on December 7. We will be planting again the week of December 14.”

Shore anglers are doing best with garlic scented PowerBaits, nightcrawlers, or Kastmasters. Out of South Cove and from around Oak Point, trout average a pound and a half but range to over 5 lbs. Trolling is employing Rapalas and other lures in the coves.

“Shakers are still the main action with striped bass,” said Demmunik. “We are still seeing many undersized fish being caught for every keeper. From shore, cut anchovies or shad is the bait of choice.”

Stripers need to be 18 inches or more to be legal. Please continue releasing the small fish as quickly and carefully as possible,” he tipped.

Catfish continue to be caught here and there but with the cooler water they are becoming more difficult to catch. For those wishing to target catfish, anchovy and chicken liver are the best choices of bait.

“Most anglers are focused on stripers or trout, although there have been many sightings near the boat dock and adjacent fishing pier. Senkos have been seen catching some nice fish in that area,” he stated.

The water level is currently at 86,600 acre feet. The water temperature has dropped to 59-60 degrees.

Shadow Cliffs (Pleasanton) Anglers fishing bait on Shadow Cliffs are nailing both rainbow trout and channel catfish, in spite of the recent cold snap.

The park district stocked 1000...

Pittsburg The winter bite is on and both sturgeon and stripers are being caught by anglers slinging bait throughout Suisun Bay and the West Delta.

The sturgeon fishing has been pretty good for me, related Captain Chris Smith of Captain Hook Sportfishing headquartered in Martinez. With no crabbing going on I decided to move my boat up to Martinez early this year and I’m glad I made the move. On our first trip we got two keepers, 2 shakers and an oversize fish. On our next trip we lost a keeper, boated a keeper and caught some stripers too.

Eel has been the hot bait for me. I think there are fish scattered all over Suisun Bay, but I haven’t been running very far. We’ve been finding plenty of action just above the Benicia Bridge, added Smith.

Captain David Hammond of Delta Pro Fishing and Captain Steve Mitchell of Hook’d Up Sportfishing have also been enjoying sturgeon fishing success while working Suisun Bay with a combination of salmon roe and eel.

I’ve been a little under the weather recently, so I haven’t been out in a day or two. The deep water sturgeon bite is over now, but the medium deep to shallow water bite is underway. You’ve got to use caution in those areas right now, since there are lots of duck hunters out there and you don’t want to crowd them, said Hammond.

Fish Sniffer reader Todd Frasier and his sons Evan and Todd Jr. headed out for a day of striper fishing and ended up with limits.

We got into a pretty good bite in Montezuma Slough, related Frasier. We ended up with 6 bass that ranged from 5 to 11 pounds. All of the fish came on either filleted shad or sardine fillets during the outgoing...

Toxin levels in northern California crabs are approaching the acceptable range and anglers are hopeful that the season will open soon. The rockfish and lingcod bite outside the Golden Gate remains excellent both at the Farallon Island and along the Marin County coastline.

We continue doing what we’ve been doing, basically getting limits of rockfish and limits to near limits of lings either at the islands or up along the north coast, related California Dawn relief skipper Chris Smith. The quality is there. The rockfish are chunky and we are seeing plenty of double digit lings. The problem has been a general lack of interest. Crowds have been light. Folks want crabs. Until crabbing opens I think it’s going to be slow going in terms of angler interest.

The story is much the same for skippers operating out of the Emeryville Sportfishing Center. Rockfish and lingcod action is excellent when they can put together enough anglers to justify taking a trip.

On the New Salmon Queen’s most recent trip the 16 anglers aboard brought up full limits of rockfish and 35 lings to 25 pounds.

HR 2898, an agribusiness-backed “drought relief” bill that would strip environmental protections for Central Valley salmon and steelhead and Delta smelt, is back for the third time, according to an action alert from Restore the Delta (RTD).

Senator Dianne Feinstein appears ready to sign off on HR 2898, after negotiations with San Joaquin Valley House Congressmen who want to over pump the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, the group said Friday.

“Californians have not seen the federal drought bill,” said RTD. “We need to make sure it does not harm our Delta estuary, which is on the verge of collapse in this extreme drought. Senator Barbara Boxer says she will NOT sign off on any bill that weakens existing federal protections.”

RTD urges people to call Senator Boxer ASAP at (202) 224-3553.

Tell this to Senator Boxer: “Senator Boxer, you promised us an open and transparent process in drought bill (HR 2898) negotiations. Northern Californians haven't seen the drought bill, now in its final stages, and we haven't been given the opportunity to comment on it yet. It’s our region that will take the environmental and economic impact of this bill. Please slow down the bill process, do not allow passage of this drought bill that has not been vetted in the light of day. We have a right to know how HR 2898 will impact the estuary, the fisheries, our farms, our home, and the source of our livelihood -- fresh water flows.”

On December 11, Senator Dianne Feinstein released this statement that shows her apparent willingness to sign off on the bill.

Winter is a time of great promise for trout anglers because it’s at this time of the year that the trout come to the surface and often move into near shore areas. This is the time of the season when you can troll all day without using your downriggers, because most of the trout will be found in the top 15 feet of the water column.

Typically, when trolling for winter trout, I like to rig up with spoons and plugs that allow me to keep moving quickly. This approach is generally pretty effective, but as with all fishing strategies it doesn’t work all the time.

When the water is super cold or stained, or both, fast trolling may not pay dividends. If the trout are sluggish or if visibility is limited, a slow finesse presentation might be required to draw strikes. Here are some of my favorite finesse presentations for lethargic winter rainbows.

Threaded Worms

When targeting cold water trout that are playing hard to get, I have not found anything as effective as a threaded night crawler. To rig a threaded night crawler, I start off by snelling a No. 6 bait holder hook on the end of a 36 inch 10 pound test fluorocarbon leader.

Next, I take out a night crawler and slide it onto my worm threader. If you’ve never seen a worm threader, it is a simple wooden handle with an 8 inch section of fine diameter metal tube imbedded in it. The tip of the tube is cut off on a sharp angle.

Once I have the ‘crawler impaled on the threader, I slide it down to the handle. After that, I place the hook tip in the end of the tube and pull it down tight by gripping the leader against the...

California’s longest concrete river, an oasis for anglers living in the Central Valley.

My legs began to cramp up as I made another 20 yard dash along the road. My body couldn’t keep up with the excitement running through my mind. Splash after splash, I could see the silverside minnows leaping into the air escaping the predators from below. I was chasing striper boils along the California Aqueduct.

The California Aqueduct is a 444 mile long canal managed by the Department of Water Resources. It gets its water from the California Delta. The California Aqueduct begins its journey near Tracy and funnels down a concrete river to the LA area. The Aqueduct is about 110 feet wide at its widest width and 32 feet at its deepest depth. The width and depth varies with each region along the California Aqueduct.

The most sought after fish are striped bass. They are the most abundant species found in this water system. There is also a healthy population of black bass, catfish and carp that anglers target. Several species of panfish such as bluegills, crappie, perch and redear thrive here as well.

In the late spring to early fall, the canal walls are cluttered with a healthy population of silver side minnows. Predatory fish also feed on sculpins and shad that populate the region. The delta smelt make a home here as well.

There have been unconfirmed reports of anglers hooking into giant sized fish, only to find out when they reel it in, that it’s a sturgeon. A steel head was recently caught and confirmed by two DFW officers as the angler reeled it in. This canal is full of surprises.

The fish here can grow to great proportions. In recent weeks, we’ve seen stripers in the 35 inch to 42 inch...

Folsom Reservoir is finally beginning to fill from winter storms, with the lake going from a record low 14 percent of capacity to 22 percent over the past two weeks.

The lake is currently holding 215,516 acre feet of water, up from a record low of 135,000 acre feet. The lake level is 370.57 feet in elevation, 95.43 feet below maximum pool.

In two days, Folsom rose 55,000 acre feet, with inflows going up to 20,000 cfs and climbing, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. The lake has risen nearly 20 feet in the past couple of weeks.

The Low Water Ramp at Granite Bay is now in operation. The Hobie Cove Ramp at Brown's Ravine will operate at elevation 380, according to the Folsom Lake Marina.

Fishing reports from the lake have been sparse, due to the storms that have hit the region and the low water level. However, rainbow trout and king salmon fishing should be picking up. For the best success, fish inflated nightcrawlers and minnows under bobbers or PowerBait on sliding sinker rigs.

(Napa) While anglers aren’t reporting catching the big numbers of black bass they were over a month ago, boaters have hooked some lunker largemouths.

“A lot of big bass have been hooked lately,” said Trevor Maudru at Sweeney’s Sports Store. “One angler caught and released a 13 pounder in a tournament and others have landed largemouths over 10 pounds.”

“The larger fish have hit big swimbaits and umbrella rigs,” he advised. “Some of the fish are shallow, but most are found around 30 feet deep. One of the better areas to try is the North Fork of Putah Creek.”

For numbers of bass, your best bet is to use Robo Worms and other plastics drop shot rigs where the shad and bass are concentrated, including in open water, at 30 to 40 feet deep. A mixture of largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass are on tap.

The rainbow trout bite has tapered off. Your best bet from a boat is to drift live minnows east of the Big Island and Narrows. Shore anglers should find their best trout action while drifting minnows and nightcrawlers around the old bridge past Cappell Cove. The king salmon and kokanee salmon fishing remains very slow.

The Fish Sniffer staff can’t wait to get back over to Dunnigan to visit Linc Raahauge’s Pheasant, Chukar and Sporting Clays Club. Raahauge’s offers the finest looking game birds you’ll find at any bird hunting club and it’s surprisingly inexpensive to spend a day hunting at this outstanding facility.

Linc Raahauge’s Pheasant, Chukar and Sporting Clays Club is owned and operated by Donna Raahauge.

Raahauge’s consists of 2,400 acres spread across both flat fields and rolling hills. On crisp blue sky mornings the golden hills and cackling pheasants lull you into a sense that you might actually be visiting the much-storied pheasant hunting grounds in the Dakotas rather than California’s Sacramento Valley!

On January 9, I’ll be hosting an exciting bird shoot at Raahauge’s for Fish Sniffer supporters. I’ll be bringing out a bunch of prizes and Donna will be offering special event pricing along with a BBQ lunch.

If you’d like more information about the hunt or if you have any questions about any aspect of the Raahauge’s operation visit Raahauge’s on the web or give Donna Raahauge a call at (530) 724-0552.

In the latest scandal to plague the administration of Governor Jerry Brown, the Public Accountability Initiative on December 17 revealed that Brown's sister, Kathleen, was paid $188,380 in 2014 and $267,865 in 2013 to serve on the board of Sempra Energy.

That's the company responsible for the devastating Porter Ranch Gas Leak in Southern California, called the worst in the state’s history by Time magazine.

The leak began October 23 and continued to foul the air as Brown posed as a climate leader and green governor at the Paris Climate Talks. It is currently releasing 36,000 kilograms of methane per hour, leading MSNBC to describe the gas leak as a catastrophe not seen since the BP Oil Spill.

It has forced nearly 2,000 families to leave the area, caused the federal government to implement a no-fly zone, and led Los Angeles County to declare a state of emergency, according to the Public Accountability Initiative report. It has also resulted in a lawsuit by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer alleging public nuisance.

This gas leak is just one of many environmental disasters that the Brown administration has presided over. While Brown pretends to be a climate leader and green governor, he has overseen water policies that have brought Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and a host of other species to the edge of extinction. His administration in 2011 presided over record water exports out of the California Delta and the killing of millions of Sacramento splittail, an imperiled native minnow, and other species at the Delta pumps.

Meanwhile, Brown promotes the construction of the most environmentally devastating public works project in California history, the Delta tunnels; supports the expansion of fracking and other extreme oil drilling techniques in California; and backs destructive carbon trading...

Los Vaqueros

Winter has begun at Los Vaqueros Reservoir, where rainbow and striped bass are both active.

The reservoir is currently holding 85,500-acre feet of water, just over half-full. The water temperature is at 55-56 degrees and the water clarity is good.

Fishing for trout continues to be good with all the trout plants and cooler water temperatures, said Brian Demmunik of the Los Vaqueros Marina. They are being caught in South Cove and Oak Point as well as all around the lake.

The baits of choice for shore anglers is garlic scented PowerBaits, nightcrawlers or Kastmasters, said Demmunik. Trout average a pound and a half but range to over 5 lbs. Before Christmas, there were two 1000-pound plants from Mt Lassen and one 1000 lb CDFW plant. With the plants, trout fishing has improved with more limits being caught from all around the reservoir.

Trolling is popular with anglers using Rapalas and other lures from rental boats in the coves. Limits are continuing to show up out of Cox and Howden coves.

Shakers are still the main action with striped bass, said Demmunik. We are still seeing many undersized fish being caught for every keeper. From shore, cut anchovies or shad are the baits of choice. Stripers need to be 18 inches or more to be legal.

Catfish continue to be caught here and there but with the cooler water, they are becoming more difficult to catch. For those wishing to target catfish, anchovy and chicken liver are the best choices of bait.

Lake Chabot

After a

As Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other fish species continued to plummet to record low population levels in 2015, Governor Jerry Brown forged ahead with his salmon-killing plan to build the Delta Tunnels.

In 2016, the long battle to stop Delta Tunnels, renamed the California WaterFix last year, has moved to a new venue, as Alex Breitler reported in The Stockton Record.

On January 5, Restore the Delta and numerous coalition partners filed either formal protests or notices of intent to make formal statements with the State Water Resources Control Board to oppose permitting to change the point of water diversion in the Sacramento River to allow for Delta Tunnels to be built, according to a news release from Restore the Delta.

"Farmers, fishermen, business, environmental, community and environmental justice leaders from throughout the region and the state recognize that the impacts of diverting the Sacramento River from the north end of the Bay-Delta estuary via the tunnels will wreak havoc on fish, wildlife, farming, business and public health needs and industries within the estuary,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, RTD executive director. “Our intent is through science, economics, and law to put a stop to the Delta tunnels once and for all.”

Groups filing notices include African American Chamber of Commerce, San Joaquin County, Asian Pacific Self Development and Residential Association, Braceros Del Delta, Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (ret), Café Coop, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Striped Bass Association, California Student Sustainability Coalition, California Water Impact Network, Central Valley Asian Chamber of Commerce, Delta Chamber of Commerce, Delta Fly Fishers, Earth Law Center, Assemblymember Susan Eggman, and Environmental Justice.

The traditional opening day of steelhead season on the American River below Nimbus Fish Hatchery, January 1, was by no means great, but it was a lot better than last season when very few fish were caught. The releases from Nimbus Dam were only 500 cfs, the lowest it has ever been on any opener that I can recall.

For Bruno Novi, who caught a 7 lb. steelhead, it was a good day of fishing. “I got down to the river below Nimbus Hatchery at 8:30 am and hooked the fish right away after another angler left the spot,” said Novi, a dedicated steelhead fisherman.

He used a homemade black fly, under a float, to catch the fish, a hatchery female that he kept and put on the stringer.

While I was down at the river for a couple of hours, I saw several other fish hooked up, including one dark fish that was released and a bright wild steelhead that was also released.

While I was taking photos of Bruno’s fish, another avid angler hooked and lost a big steelhead. “You should have seen the big steelhead that we hooked in the Basin on December 17 and 18,” he noted.

I counted around 30 anglers from below the hatchery to Sailor Bar, when I arrived at the river at 9:30 am, although I figure a lot of anglers had already left.

The key to success in the low water was light line – as light as 6 lb. test - and small baits, spinners and other offerings.

I saw two anglers in one drift boat fishing the Sailor Bar riffle, but did not see them hook up any fish while I was there.

My fishing buddy, Rodney Fagundes, who I have fished with many openers together in his drift...

That’s right - loose lips sink ships! Big fish eat little fish and trout, be they browns, brookies or ‘bows living in streams, lakes or reservoirs, all gobble minnows with gusto. But let’s keep this information between you and me or everyone and their brother will be casting and pulling plugs and scoring big trout. And after all, we want those hook-jawed, slob-gutted minnow munchers for ourselves, right?

At this point, you probably think I’m talking about ripping big minnow plugs like size 13 and 18 floating Rapalas. While fast trolling big baits like these is a tried and true approach for hooking trophy size fish, that’s not what I’m focusing on. Fishing these magnum size plugs for trout is a bit like sturgeon fishing; the hookup and fights are awesome, but the waiting time between bites can be long and tedious.

What we want to consider are smaller minnow plugs and crankbaits that will catch trout of all sizes. Plugs in the one to three inch range are small enough to tempt pan-size trout, but when you come across a big girl, these plugs are substantial enough that she just won’t be able to pass them up.

It wasn’t long ago that John Merwin in the pages of Outdoor Life rated minnow plugs third in the list of all time best trout lures, and if Outdoor Life says something, it must be true!

In all seriousness, I don’t think any trout angler, whether they fish streams or lakes from the bank or from a boat, should be without a selection of minnow plugs, but they are only part of the story when it comes to trout plugs.

Short thick-bodied bass fishing style crankbaits and boomerang shaped plugs like Kwikfish and Flatfish should also be part of the well-heeled trouter’s...

Sacramento black bass are available for anglers willing to use winter tactics in the rising waters of Folsom Lake. The lake has risen from a record low of 14 percent of capacity to 26 percent over the past month.

Fish Sniffer staffer Wes Ward and Greg Phelan recently fished Folsom Lake for bass targeting deep rock piles with spoons.

The lake is currently holding 255,225 acre feet of water, up from a record low of 135,000 acre feet. The lake level is 378.86 feet in elevation, 87.14 feet below maximum pool.

Expect to find the spotted bass from 12 to 15 feet deep, advised Craig Kamikawa at Fisherman’s Warehouse. They were holding at 3 to 5 feet deep, but have stayed where they were as the water rose.

If I was going to fish there, said Kamikawa, I would drop shot with 4 inch leeches or Robo Worms or Pro Gold/Delta Red Pro Worms. Most of the fish are spotted bass in the 1-1/2 to 3 lb. range, with some largemouths mixed in.

No trout or king salmon reports were available at press time. However, bank anglers interested in hooking rainbows and kings should fish minnows or nightcrawlers under bobbers or on sliding sinker rigs in the Five Percent, Granite Bay and Browns Ravine areas.

The Low Water Ramp at Granite Bay is now in operation. The Hobie Cove Ramp at Brown's Ravine will operate at elevation 380, according to the Folsom Lake Marina.

the comments submitted during a brief public review period.

C-WIN, CSPA, and AquAlliance urge the public to recognize the dangers of HR 4366 and its implications for California’s water resources and environment. They call for transparency and accountability in water management practices, emphasizing the need for sustainable solutions that do not exacerbate existing environmental issues. The groups are committed to advocating for equitable water policies that prioritize the health of ecosystems and communities over corporate interests.

I wrote an article exposing the flaws of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative for the Sacramento News and Review in 2009. Unfortunately, none of the fundamental problems with the process pinpointed in this and other articles have ever been resolved in the 6-1/2 years since I wrote the piece.

First, the marine protected areas created under the MLPA Initiative still fail to protect the ocean from pollution, fracking, oil drilling, oil spills, military testing, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts other than sustainable fishing and gathering.

Second, the state still fails to acknowledge the fishing and gathering rights of the Yurok Tribe, the largest Indian Tribe in California, and other Tribes in State Marine Reserves. Tribal fishing and gathering is only allowed in the State Marine Conservation Areas created under the privately funded process.

Third, the terminally flawed science and false assumptions of the process have never been addressed – nor has a long-needed investigation of the role of a convicted embezzler, Ron LeValley, in creating the initiative’s “science” ever been conducted. LeValley, who served a 10 month federal prison sentence for conspiracy to embezzle over $830,000 from the Yurok Tribe, co-chaired the MLPA Initiative "Science" Advisory Team for the North Coast.

Fourth, the state failed to appoint any Tribal scientists to the Science Advisory Teams that oversaw the Initiative’s “science.”

Fifth, the long overdue investigation of what Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, knew about the offshore fracking taking place in Southern California waters while she chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast has never been initiated.

More recently, state officials, who had originally planned to conduct a regional review of the so-called “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative every five years, have now reversed course and...

I must receive hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from anglers all over the world living in the USA, Africa, Japan, Europe, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere asking what types of baits I use for catching big bass.

This is a BIG subject for many anglers and I usually answer these inquiries suggesting a few different baits that will predominately perform for them catching bigger bass than they have caught before, especially when most of them explain what baits they are already using to catch bass. This is the easy part.

But next, they want to know how to present these certain baits around the many different structures in the many unfamiliar bodies of water that contain current, different water colors (stained, semi-stained, muddy, and crystal clear), vegetation, water depths, rocky areas, brush, cliff drops, and on and on. Yes, they seem to hit me with about every scenario an angler would come up against on any body of water.

In this article I hope to help some of the anglers that might be wondering the same things all these other anglers are asking about. One of the first things you need to know or at least understand is that you will have slow days on any body of water at just about any given time. This means that just because you may learn different patterns and techniques for catching big bass that will work great for you one day don't necessarily mean that they will work the same the next. This could happen for many different reasons, but mostly because of the changing daily conditions such as rain, wind, clouds, pressure fronts, clear sky situations and water temperature fluctuations.

I teach a 3-Day bass fishing school, which is located in upstate New York on Lake Champlain and Lake George. These...

The NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge tour will kick off the 2015 season at San Pablo Reservoir on February 14.

The event, set in one of the premier fisheries of northern California, will offer trout anglers of all ages and skill levels a great opportunity to catch some quality fish and win some outstanding prizes.

Two divisions will be available, both kids and adults, with all anglers being allowed to compete from either the shore or from a boat. Great cash and prizes will be paid out at the end of this event.

Pre-event adult division entry fee is just $20, $25 if paid the day of the event, with kids 15 and under receiving free entry. Kids signing up the day of the event are $5.

Lots of vendors, music, food and fishing fun will be available, so get your entry in today for the NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge.

For more information on rules and to sign up, visit www.anglerspress.com or call 916-768-0938.

The San Pablo Reservoir Recreation Area offers many exciting outdoor activities including fishing, boating, picnicking, kayaking and hiking. The reservoir is located off San Pablo Dam Road between Orinda and El Sobrante.

The lake is stocked regularly with rainbow trout and channel catfish. Largemouth and spotted bass, crappie, redear sunfish, bluegill and even a sleeper population of white sturgeon are available also. The visitor center offers fishing licenses for sale and a wide array of bait and tackle.

Their friendly and knowledgeable staff are available to assist you with all your needs.

During the winter and early spring months, bank anglers often compete with boaters and at times surpass boaters' success when it comes to tempting strikes from reservoir trout.

Trout tend to gravitate to the shoreline during the cold months, putting them on a collision course with the offerings of bank anglers. At times, boaters struggle to hook these fish simply because they cannot effectively work the near shore areas that hold the majority of the fish.

With these facts in mind, let’s take a look at the best options for bank anglers fishing the February 14 NTAC event at San Pablo Reservoir.

When bank fishing, you'll be doing a lot of casting. This makes spinning tackle the best choice. Since you'll generally be using weights that range from an eighth of an ounce to a half ounce, a light to medium light rod is a good all-around choice.

In terms of reels, the first requirement is a smooth drag. At times, 4-pound leader material is required to draw strikes. When fighting good-sized trout on line that light, you don't want the drag to stick at all when the fish runs. If it does, the leader will likely snap. The reel should also have a high gear ratio. The gear ratio refers to the number of times the line is wrapped around the spool for each revolution of the reel handle. At times, trout will run straight toward you at the hookset. When that happens, a high gear ratio allows you to keep pace with the fish, preventing slack from forming in the line. A 5 to 1 ratio is ideal.

Targeting trout holding near the bottom, trout spend a lot of time holding near the bottom. As a result, the basic bait fishing set up is the sliding sinker rig....

Sacramento – On the day after Governor Jerry Brown once again touted his Delta Tunnels Plan as a solution to California's water problems in his State of the State address, Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) announced the introduction of legislation to block the Governor’s controversial project unless it is approved by California voters on a statewide ballot.

“An enormous amount of time and energy has been wasted rebranding and repackaging the same old Peripheral Canal plan that voters rejected decades ago,” Eggman said. “It’s tragic that despite our ongoing drought, this flawed plan is being forced on us without any true debate even though it will not add one drop of water to California’s supply, but it will raise the water rates and potentially property taxes of millions of Californians.”

The California voters overwhelmingly defeated a measure to build the earlier version of the project, the Peripheral Canal, in November 1982. Jerry Brown opposes a public vote on the tunnels, as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger did before him.

Eggman said the new bill will require approval via ballot initiative for any infrastructure project that conveys water directly from a diversion point in the Sacramento River to pumping facilities of the State Water Project or the federal Central Valley Project south of the Delta.

“In 2012, the Governor was committed to asking the voters to approve a substantial tax increase. I’m hopeful he will be just as committed to seeking voter approval before embarking on a project that will cost tens of billions of dollars and greatly impact the Delta region,” Eggman said.

Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), a recognized leader on state water policy issues who has represented the Delta region in the State Legislature for 13 years, joined Eggman in announcing the introduction of the bill.

“California’s taxpayers and ratepayers should...

Folsom Lake, the Sacramento metropolitan area’s backyard landlocked king salmon, rainbow trout and black bass fishery, reached its lowest-ever water level in November 2015 when it plunged down to only 140,523 acre feet of water, 14 percent of capacity.

That surpasses the previous low water level of 140,600 acre feet reached in November 1977.

However, over the past two months the runoff from the long-anticipated El Niño storms in the American River watershed has improved water conditions at the reservoir dramatically. As of February 2, the reservoir is holding 545,444 acre feet of water, 56 percent of capacity and 107 percent of average.

The lake level has risen to 422.11 in elevation, 43.09 feet from maximum pool. That's over 73 feet in the past two months.

Just to be clear, the record low level that the reservoir reached in the fall of 2015 was just not because of drought – it was because of the abysmal management of the reservoir during the drought by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in conjunction with the California Department of Water Resources.

During the past three years of drought, the Bureau and DWR systematically emptied Trinity, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom reservoirs to provide water to corporate agribusiness interests expanding their almond tree acreage, Southern California water agencies, and oil companies conducting water-polluting fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods in Kern County.

Fishing for salmon, bass and trout has been slow for the past month, due to cold, muddy water conditions, but it should get going strong after the water level stabilizes this spring and the water clears up. The rising water is expected to bring a lot of forage and nutrients into the reservoir, providing great conditions this winter and spring for king salmon, rainbow trout and black bass.

Last spring produced some...

On Wednesday of our Alaska fishing adventure, we drove a little longer in order to catch our fish. We left the lodge at around 4 a.m. and arrived in Seward approximately 2 hours later.

We launched out of Resurrection Bay and took a 40 mile boat ride to the Gulf of Alaska. We saw a couple of Orcas on our ride out, passed several Glaciers including Exit Glacier which goes all the way to the water, and saw an island filled with sea lions.

Once we arrived at our first fishing spot, the captain demonstrated the fishing technique, how to play the fish and then put the first rod in the rod holder. Literally within 30 seconds, the rod barreled over and the first silver salmon was hooked.

The first drift took about 20-25 minutes where we had multiple hook ups with 5 fish landed but many others lost. Within that time, we were already at half our limit. We fished in approximately 220-240 feet of water, mooching for salmon with 3 oz. with a hoochie and piece of herring. With five anglers in the boat, we were fortunate to catch our 10 fish limit with no problems.

Once we limited out with salmon, we went on to rockfishing and lingcod. In Alaska, the rockfish and lingcod limit is 4 fish per person. We limited out on rock fish with some quality sized fish weighing in about 8 pounds, including one very large yelloweye which was somewhere in the range of 20 pounds.

The rockfish fishing was so good that when we were fishing for lingcod and bringing the jig out of the water there were two underneath it. It was pretty amazing to see. The lingcod were caught on 16 oz. lead heads and a curly tail, while the...

As we headed out Wednesday January 20 with rare dry skies, flat calm weather and primo tides, Norm Perry assumed his usual spot on the port bow. Norm travels the world in his quest for fishing adventure and knew these tides were special.

From the ferocious hordes of bluegill and crappie that keep Lake Berryessa swimmers at bay to the ravenous under size striped bass of the Napa River, Norm has seen it all.

For further proof of Norm’s fishing prowess one need look no further than just above the trophy covered mantle of his home where a massive rainbow trout that fell prey to a pink marshmallow at the Cow Palace Boat Show is on display for all to admire.

Yet, in spite of this worldly pursuit of action and adventure, sturgeon have remained elusive to Norm.

As Deck Dog Mike lowered the anchor in Hot Spot Number One (Sonoma Creek) Norm eased his Walmart Walleye Whacker rod and Zebco Sturgeon Spanker reel from its protective case.

“Let’s Dance!” shouted Norm as the somewhat startled “Disco Deck Dog” thought he was sincere. There was just enough tide to catch a couple 7 pound bass that were welcomed aboard. It was slack water and we were on our way to China Camp.

No sooner were the lines in the water north west of the Pumphouse when Jim H yelled “Fish on the stern!” Moments later our first keeper sturgeon of the day jumped and splashed about and dragged poor Jim all around the boat in its futile attempt to escape.

All aboard cheered and applauded as the Deck Weight Lifter dumped the obvious keeper from his monstrous net onto the deck. All aboard but Norm, that is. No time for such trivialities.

Moments later the Walmart W

The 2016 NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge event held at San Pablo Reservoir on February 6 featured the best fishing of any tournament in the tour since the tour began in 2013.

“This was the busiest weigh in we’ve ever had,” said Vince Harris, owner of Anglers Press, the host of the event along with the Fish Sniffer magazine. “The first angler weighed in a fish at 1:05 pm and the weigh-ins continued constantly until the cut off time of 2 pm.”

The 200 anglers entered in the derby enjoyed warm, sunny weather on a spring-like February day at the scenic EBMUD reservoir nestled in the hills above El Sobrante.

Fourteen-year-old Andrew Beard caught the biggest fish landed by an angler during the event, a 4.72 lb. rainbow, winning first place in the Youth Division. He was bait fishing in a boat with his dad Robert, grandfather Ron, Uncle Tom, and brother Michael Beard.

“We landed a total of 25 fish and kept 17 fish,” said Beard. “We fished in Scow Canyon with PowerBait and Micetails.”

The second through tenth place Youth Division winners were (2) Zack Murkoa, 3.8; (3) Braden Golden, 3.6; (4) Dylan Aiello, 2.82; (5) Colemane Krause, 2.72; (6) Mateo Camancho, 2.58; (7) Chole Murkoa, 2.16; (8) Ian Maghoney, 2.14;

“That is a ridiculous looking presentation,” I thought to myself. “What stupid fish would eat such an atrocious looking concoction?”

In my hand I held a combination of a “Nightmare” (black wings with a red and white body) colored Spin N Glo, a rocket red Little Corky, bright red yarn with a nickel sized chunk of roe to really sweeten the offer. The entire abomination was downright ugly, full of contrast, and likely to frighten any self-respecting steelhead in clearer conditions.

However, I was on the Mad River, a stream known for its cloudy complexion. The Mad is almost always off color in the winter time, but it was especially dirty on this trip. I like to be the first guy on the river fishing with bait after the river drops into shape following a big storm.

When everybody else is trying to floss the fish with twenty foot leaders, I’m the guy using a 2 foot leader with a big loud Spin N Glo for vibration. If you can put the bait and Spin N Glo right in the fish’s face, they will bite. The key is to fish slow and methodically. It’s almost like a modified plunking technique.

There are still certain rules that an enterprising steelhead angler should follow to maximize one’s success. For starters, you don’t want to fish on a rising river. I’ve had days that had inexplicable lacks of success, and at the end of the day checked the hydrograph to find that the river had a rise of a couple hundred cubic feet per second.

When a river is rising, steelhead seem to have migration on their minds, and they don’t bite very well. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. I’ve also had some decent, note that I used the word...

The San Joaquin River was once a hotbed for sturgeon fishermen with legendary Delta fishermen such as Jolly Jay Sorensen anchoring off of the pipes at Twitchell Island, the Patio, or the deep hole near Steamboat Marina and finding solid action, but sturgeon fishermen are now avoiding the San Joaquin.

Alan Fong of the Fishermen’s Warehouse in Sacramento found excellent bass action in the East Delta with fish to 7 pounds. He said, “You have to find clear water, and the Delta from Mildred out is clear, and we scored with Lucky Craft Pointer 100 ripbaits on a slow presentation. You have to pause the bait for 10 seconds if you want to get bit as the fish will hit the still bait."

Dan Mathisen of Dan’s Delta Outdoors in Oakley said, “In Discovery Bay, a 32-pound largemouth bass limit was taken recently during the American Bass tournament by Zach Thompson and John Billheimer with the larger fish taken on swimbaits or Alabama rigs in the clearer water. The water temperatures have warmed up into the 50’s, and the bite is getting started with most largemouth fishermen sticking with either jigs or spinnerbaits slow-rolled along ledges near flats. Others looking to bet the clear water conditions are drop-shotting 6 or 7-inch worms.”

Randy Pringle, the Fishing Instructor, advised searching for clear water and working slow with plastics or ripbaits. He said, “The water is warming up after these warm days the past two weeks, and the tree frogs are already out so we may be onto an early spring.”

Los Vaqueros

(Byron) Though the water at Los Vaqueros is cold at 52 to 53 degrees, recent rains have brought a rebound in catfish fishing.

“This week saw a resurgence of catfish due to the muddy waters from the heavy rainfall,” said Brian Demmunik of the Los Vaqueros Marina. “A number of catfish came out of South Cove and Cowboy Cove where the water was washing down out of the hills. It has slowed with the clearing up of the water, but a few are still being caught.”

Anglers weighed in two monster cats over the past two weeks. Chomnan Loth of San Ramon caught a 13.9 lb. channel cat on an anchovy in Cowboy Cove. Mikell Gi from Antioch landed a 14.8 lb. catfish while soaking nightcrawlers in Cowboy Cove.

“Trout fishing is really good with the usual baits used by rental boaters and shore anglers,” said Demmunik. “Anglers are fishing nightcrawlers and PowerBait in Cowboy Cove and the South Cove.”

Big trout honors go to Luis Roman of Pittsburg, who landed a 10.62 lb. trout while employing salmon eggs in the South Cove. Pat Parra fooled a 9 lb. trout with a jig, while Andrew Lopez nailed a 9.34 lb. trout. “A couple of 6+ pounders also came out of Howden Cove on PowerBait,” he disclosed.

Striped bass fishing is slow, with undersized fish under 18 inches still providing the main action. “We are still seeing many undersized fish being caught for every keeper,” he disclosed.

The reservoir is now at 51 percent of capacity with 81,000 acre-feet in storage. It’s declining by about 700 acre-feet a week. The shoreline is muddy, so be prepared.

Contra Loma

Want to find out about the prospects for the ocean salmon season? Then attend the upcoming Ocean Salmon Information meeting in Santa Rosa on March 2.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife invites the public to attend its annual Ocean Salmon Information Meeting. A review of last year’s ocean salmon fisheries and spawning escapement will be presented, in addition to the outlook for this year’s sport and commercial ocean salmon fisheries.

The meeting

Californians for Water Security, the Stewart Resnick Big Ag Astroturf group, is now asking Californians to send emails in support of the Delta Tunnels/CA Water Fix to Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Board.

Santa Clara Valley Water District needs to hear from ratepayers like you that will actually pay the costs, not a tricky front group spending millions to promote the Delta Tunnels project, according to an action alert from Restore the Delta.

The SCVWD staff has presented the Board an analysis of the Delta Tunnels project based on the assumption that agricultural exporters will contribute 40 percent of the total project cost. But spokesmen from the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District have both recently declared the project unviable and said that their farmers are unwilling to continue funding the project. This will dramatically shift the costs of the Tunnels directly onto the ratepayers of Santa Clara Valley Water District.

Please send this email to Santa Clara Valley Water District's Board (copy and paste is available below) or customize your own:

E-mail to: Board@valleywater.org

TO: SCVWD Board of Directors,

5750 Almaden Expressway,

San Jose, CA 95118

Dear Directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District,

I am writing to ask you to oppose the Delta Tunnels.

Every resident of the San Francisco Bay-Delta region has a stake in your decision. Your obligation is to provide a secure, reliable and affordable water supply for

American River appears to most as a slow, lazy river that winds through the heart of Sacramento area.

However, there are drownings each year, most of which occur during the spring and summer when the river sees the highest amount of traffic.

During the colder months, fishermen are the most common users of the river as they chase salmon and steelhead as they make their annual migration to spawn.

I frequent the river chasing both species and while I can safely say that I’m privy to many of the hazards, I was recently reminded that you can never be too careful.

During a steelhead fishing session on the morning of Thursday February 4th at Nimbus Basin, I made a move to a section where I had caught fish in the past. It was only 8:00 and I already landed one bright hatchery hen that I kept and also lost two others. But my goal was to perhaps land one more fish on the morning and head home.

Wading on the edge of a shallow bar, I took a step and could not find bottom. My body lunged forward and instantly I was swept downstream struggling to stay afloat.

I dropped my rod as my instincts to survive took over. I attempted to swim towards the direction in which I came, quickly realizing that I would spend far too much energy in the effort.

Instead, I swam towards the opposite shoreline but I found that the combined weight of my winter clothing, waders and hip pack were weighing me down. Instead of trying to freestyle swim, I laid on my back and tried to relax.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that an angler on the opposite shoreline was moving towards me, but I was starting to sink,...

When it comes time to set the hook with various baits and on various species of fish, the approach is pretty simple and universally accepted.

Working a topwater walking bait is a perfect example. You’ll see the bite before you feel it, but you don’t want to swing until you feel the hit. The approach is the same if you’re targeting largemouth bass in Florida or stripers in the Port of Sacramento.

If I had to point to one species of fish that creates the most anguish among anglers in terms of the hookset required, it would hands down be the sturgeon.

Here’s what we know. It’s crucial that you keep eagle eye attention on your rod tip because sturgeon bites are often subtle because the baits are tiny, and you’ll want to set the hook with all your strength at the slightest wiggle of that rod tip because if that ol diamond back feels resistance, it’s bye bye baby.

That’s it. Look thoughtful and shake your head knowingly. And why not? This seems to be sage advice until you consider the biologists in the northwest that catch and release sturgeon for scientific purposes utilizing set lines armed with circle hooks, baited with whole or half American shad. These baits average about a pound each.

I’d like to tell you that there is a one and only way to hook a sturgeon that is actively trying to suck the bait off your hook, but that would be pure fantasy. I’ve seen a lot of great sturgeon anglers hook sturgeon both in California and in Oregon. What I can do is relate what I’ve seen, but be forewarned that a lot of what you’re about to hear is contradictory.

The first school of thought we’ll call the Captain Barry Canevaro approach....

Oregon House The spring trout plants have begun as Collins Lake continues to rise from the storms.

Collins Lake has risen 46 feet since November. The lake level is now only 22 feet from full, coming up from a low of 68 feet from maximum pool.

“We planted our first load of 1800 pounds of trout, including trophy trout, on February 12,” said Lincoln Young, owner of the Collins Lake Resort. “We plan to stock around 32,000 pounds of rainbow trout this spring, the same amount we planted last year. In March, we’ll step up the plants to once a week.”

“The trout fishing now is good, but not hot for shore anglers and boaters using both bait and lures,” said Young. “With the plant and the increasing clarity of the lake to 2 to 3-1/2 foot visibility, fishing was solid over Presidents Day weekend. However, the visibility has gone back to 1 to 1-1/2 foot visibility this week with some windy days.”

Noah, Michael and Steve Slongorth-Douglas teamed up to bag a stringer full of rainbows ranging up to 4 pounds while soaking PowerrBait. Tom Pickett also nailed a 4-1/2 lb. trout while tossing out a Rapala from shore.

“The trout are averaging 1 to 2-1/2 pounds, with an occasional 3 to 6 pounder,” Young explained.

Natalia and Mikayla Smith and Skyla Buchanan caught 10 trout from shore on an inflated nightcrawler with PowerEgg.

“They were really nice ones too,” said Kathy Hess at the resort. “Skyla’s biggest weighed 2 lb. 8 oz., Natalia’s big one weighed 2 lb. 3 oz. and Mikayla’s big trout was 2 lb. 7 oz.”

Captain Chris Smith of Captain Hook Sportfishing has been doing well on sturgeon, boating one or more keepers most days while fishing out of the Martinez Marina.

Anglers fishing with Smith not only have a good chance of catching a sturgeon, they also get a complementary barbequed lunch.

On February 21 the 6 anglers aboard the Captain Hook reeled in a pair of keeper sturgeon and 5 shakers while fishing in Suisun Bay.

Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing is also operating out of the Martinez Marina at this time and is on the hunt for both sturgeon and stripers in both San Pablo and Suisun Bays.

The federal government last week released its data on the projections for the upcoming ocean and river salmon seasons in California and Southern Oregon, and it’s not looking good.

Commercial and recreational anglers are bracing for further fishing restrictions this season, based on relatively low abundance estimates for Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon, the two drivers of the West Coast fishery. The estimate of Sacramento River salmon that can be found in the ocean in 2016 is less than half of last year’s forecast of 652,000 fish.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council forecasts an ocean abundance of approximately 300,000 Sacramento River adult fall run king salmon off the California and Oregon coast this year. This compares to forecasts above 600,000 the past several years.

When coupled with poor 2015 Klamath salmon returns and concern for federally protected winter run, the forecast points to a restricted 2016 fishing season, said John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association. The lower than normal forecast is caused by drought conditions and water management decisions that harmed salmon the last four years in the Central Valley, which have greatly decreased survival of wild salmon eggs and juveniles.

The numbers were released prior to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual Salmon Fishery Information Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Sonoma County Water Agency, 404 Aviation Blvd. in Santa Rosa.

McManus pointed out that the relatively low forecast for 2016 salmon comes as two federal bills in Congress threaten to take even more of the water needed to keep our salmon runs healthy.

The projection for 2016 salmon makes clear the damage done by water diversions and drought the last several years, said McManus. The 2016 salmon number means more protections...

Black bass fishing is picking up with the warming water and air temperatures at Clear Lake.

"So, who says Clear Lake is always cold in the winter - I have," quipped Larry Hemphill, fishing guide. "Not yesterday though! What a beautiful afternoon. Buddy Mike and I started fishing about 4 pm, until about 9 pm. Just had to test it out after a month or so.

"The bite was OK, especially around dusk. We caught them from Jenson area to north of Henderson. The 9 we caught were from 10 inches to my 6.63 pounder. Mike had a 4 and a 6.36. We did have a little over 21 lbs for our 5 best, so the long trip home was good!"

"The first one I caught - at Jenson - was a grown up dink - 14 inches! Those 10 and 11 inchers should be keepers this summer," he reported.

"We caught all of our early bass on Senkos, Robo Worms, and beavers. In spite of the warmth, all our bass, big and small, were over 20 feet deep. Mike's and my 6's were caught on D&M Piranha swimjigs with Yamamoto Heart Tail trailers," said Hemphill.

"It was my turn to miss two more big bites - both being right under the boat – that are often very hard to hook well. As is normal for this time of year, the bite really slowed down after 8 pm," he concluded.

The water temperature was 51-52 degrees and the water clarity was 2 to 4 foot visibility.

As local water pipes and infrastructure in the Santa Clara Valley and Los Angeles continue to leak and burst, opponents of Governor Jerry Brown’s massive Delta Tunnels on Thursday, March 3 questioned the wisdom of state water districts investing another $1.2 billion in the controversial plan that could cost up to $68 billion to taxpayers and ratepayers.

Silicon Valley's largest water provider will have to spend at least $20 million to drain, test and repair a critical water pipeline that failed last summer and may have more hidden problems, the San Jose Mercury News reported on Wednesday, March 2.

The ruptured 8-foot-high, 31-mile-long concrete pipe brings up to 40 percent of the drinking water to Santa Clara County’s 1.8 million residents from the San Luis Reservoir in Merced County, according to a news release from Restore the Delta. A 10-foot section of the pipe ruptured on August 1, 2015, sending 14 million gallons of water into a cow pasture near Casa De Fruta along Highway 152, the Pacheco Pass Highway.

"This pipe is only 30 years old. I would not have expected it to fail so quickly," Barbara Keegan, chairwoman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District board, told Paul Rogers of the Mercury News. "It's not like there was a unique situation. The fact that it cracked and the wires corroded, how extensive is this?"

But the Santa Clara Valley is not the only place where water infrastructure is corroding, bursting, and leaking. In Los Angeles, leaking water mains and pipes lose eight billion gallons of water each year.

The repairs to the Los Angeles water system will cost rate payers at least $1.3 billion and take at least a decade to fix, Restore the Delta noted.

Meanwhile, Nancy Vogel, spokeswoman for the state Natural Resources Agency and former...

Sacramento - The US Bureau of Reclamation today announced that it will increase water releases into the American River below Nimbus Dam from 8,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 15,000 cfs tomorrow morning starting at 7 a.m. to create space in Folsom Reservoir for increased Sierra runoff.

"Should inflows into the reservoir continue at current levels or increase, additional releases may be required," said Shane Hunt, Reclamation spokesman, in a news release.

"The releases will be increased starting Tuesday, March 8, at 7 a.m. Incremental increases will continue hourly through 11 a.m., when outflows are expected to reach 15,000 cfs," explained Hunt. "Reservoir releases will be made from the main spill gates located at the top of the dam in order to preserve cold water storage for fish later in the year."

Hunt said people recreating in or along the lower American River downstream of Folsom Dam to the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers can expect river levels to increase and should take appropriate safety precautions.

The release schedule is as follows:

Date | Time | From (cfs) | To (cfs)

------|-------|------------|----------

03/08/2016 | 0700 | 8,000 | 9,500

03/08/2016 | 0800 | 9,500 | 11,000

03/08/2016 | 0900 | 11,000 | 12,500

03/08/2016 | 1000 | 12,500 | 14,000

03/08/2016 | 1100 | 14,000 | 15,000

Hatchery is finished spawning steelhead this season

Meanwhile, the Nimbus Fish Hatchery has finished spawning steelhead this season, with the last spawn taking place on Tuesday, March 1.

“Today was our last day of spawning – we haven’t seen any new

The population of Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, has declined to a new record low population level, according to the spring 2016 surveys conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The January Kodiak Trawl survey produced only seven fish, while the February survey yielded just six smelt. The Delta smelt once numbered in the millions, but have plummeted after decades of Delta water exports, combined with the impacts of declining water quality and invasive species.

The delta smelt is a small endangered fish, about 2.0 to 2.8 inches long, found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. It is nearly translucent, with a steely-blue sheen on the sides.

Carl Wilcox, CDFW policy advisor on the Delta, attributed the record low numbers of Delta smelt found in the January and February surveys to the effects of the drought and low outflow conditions and the need to balance water project operations between different species.

Exports from the Delta were very low, maintained for health and safety reasons, most of the time during the drought, Wilcox noted. The real issue was very low inflow, along with contingency plans to support the release of water from Shasta Dam for winter-run Chinook salmon. The water quality standards came at the cost of managing the cold water pool.

Carl Wilcox is still optimistic about the potential survival of the Delta smelt, even though their numbers have reached record lows this year.

Delta smelt are resilient and have the capacity to rebound even when at low levels, he emphasized. We have evidence that they're in the system, are finding each other and they're spawning. We've seen Delta smelt rebound whenever we've had good water conditions. The fish were on a downward spiral until 2011 until...

Hundreds of people, including commercial fishermen, charter boat skippers and recreational anglers, packed a large room at the Sonoma County Water Agency offices in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, March 2, to hear the discouraging news from state and federal scientists about the prospects for this year’s ocean and river salmon seasons.

Low ocean abundance forecasts for Sacramento River and Klamath Chinook fall-run Chinook salmon point to restrictions in the recreational, commercial and tribal fisheries this upcoming season, according to data released in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual salmon fishery information meeting.

Agency scientists estimate that there are approximately 299,600 adult Sacramento River fall Chinook salmon and 142,200 adults from the Klamath River fall Chinook run in the ocean this year, based on the returns of two-year-old salmon, called jacks and jills. The salmon from these two rivers comprise the majority of salmon taken in California’s ocean and inland fisheries.

The forecasts are lower than in recent years and suggest that California fisheries may see salmon seasons in 2016 that have reduced opportunities over last year, said Brett Kormos, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the moderator of the meeting, in a news release issued right after the meeting.

We’re in an unprecedented situation where fishermen face constraints both in the north (Klamath) and the south (Sacramento), said Dr. Michael O’Farrell of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

These forecasts, in addition to disturbing information on endangered Sacramento River winter Chinook salmon, will be used over the next couple of months by federal and state fishery managers to set sport and commercial fishing season dates, commercial quotas and size and bag limits.

A total of 112,434 Sacramento River fall adult salmon and 19,554 jacks returned to spawn in the river in 2015,...

The Zone 7 Water Agency is scheduled to vote to support the Delta tunnels project at a public meeting this Wednesday, according to an action alert from Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. The vote centers around continued financial support. They need to hear from people who oppose the Delta Tunnels project. It is important for urban ratepayers and all of California to oppose this project.

Zone 7 sells treated water primarily to four retail water agencies – the California Water Service Company, the cities of Livermore and Pleasanton, and the Dublin San Ramon Services District. Not only will the project result in higher water rates for residents being served by these water districts, but as a State Water Project contractor it is likely that they will also use parcel/property taxes to pay for the project, even though you will not receive any additional water.

In addition, Zone 7 Water Agency's calculations are based on a 40% contribution from the Westlands Water District to the project's total costs. However, Westlands officials have recently stated in public meetings and to the press that they are not moving forward with any further financial contributions. In addition, they are in hot water with the SEC for "Enron" style accounting. That means that smaller water agencies, like Zone 7, will have to come up with the additional funding.

What: Zone 7 Water Agency Board Meeting, Citizens Forum (will occur at the beginning of the meeting)

Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Location: 100 N. Canyons Parkway, Livermore

Time: 7:00 pm

And/or email comments to: BoardofDirectors@zone7water.com

Here is a statement for you to use as a template, or to send to them as an email.

Dear Zone 7 Water Agency Board Members,

Instead of spending more money on planning and supporting the Delta tunnels,...

The Karuk Tribe and four environmental groups today expanded their complaint challenging the Westside Post Fire logging plan to include the United States Forest Service and Klamath National Forest over allegations that they violated federal law protecting imperiled salmon and their watersheds.

The groups filing the complaint include the Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Center for Biological Diversity, and Klamath Riverkeeper.

The lawsuit alleges the Klamath National Forest Plan, as approved by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, illegally increases the risk of extinction for threatened populations of coho salmon.

The plaintiffs allege the National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA Fisheries violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued a Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement for the Westside Fire Recovery Project on Forest Service lands in the Klamath River watershed.

NOAA Fisheries is an agency that the late Zeke Grader, the longtime Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, nicknamed "No Fisheries" for its many failures to protect salmon and other fish over the years.

Coho salmon, now listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, were historically one of the most abundant fish species on the Klamath, Trinity and other California rivers. The coho population has declined dramatically after decades of bad forestry practices, water diversions and habitat degradation.

The Klamath National Forest proposal will increase fire danger, degrade water quality, and harm at-risk salmon populations, according to a statement from the Tribe and their allies. An alternative to the Project developed by the Karuk Tribe would result in about 33% of the logging that the Forest Service proposed, but would be far more protective of fisheries, water quality, and communities at risk of wildfire.

The Westside proposal short changes our community by denying us an opportunity to restore the forest, manage...

South Lake Tahoe

"My clients and I have been getting limits of macks in the 3 to 7 pound range, with a handful of larger fish in the 8 to 14 pound class showing up occasionally," reported Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters.

"Dodgers teamed with flashers, Flatfish and stick baits have all been hooking fish when trolled 140 to 260 feet deep. Top lining has ranged from slow to fair with a mix of 1 to 5 pound browns and rainbows hitting a variety of different lures," added St. Denis.

Mark Wiza is still finding solid action on macks and rainbows while working shallow water with leadcore line. Lyman Lures are Wiza’s top offering, but Rapalas are working too.

The team at Tahoe Sportfishing has been running the occasional trip and limits and near limits of quality macks in the 3 to 6 pound range have been the result. Minnows teamed with dodgers have been the top tempter for Tahoe Sportfishing skippers.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is predicting that snow melt this spring will push Tahoe over its natural rim. This sets the stage for fishing and rafting in the Truckee River this spring and summer.

Stockton Largemouth bass action in the San Joaquin River remains outstanding as the water temperatures are above 60 degrees, bringing the fish into the shallows near the banks. The recent wind and rainstorms will bring out more muddy water, but the San Joaquin is always less likely to muddy up with heavy rains, as it features far less water volume with most of its watershed trapped behind reservoirs.

John Liechty of Xperience Fishing Guide Service participated with Dan Perkins Jr. of Angels Camp in Saturday’s Sonora Bass Club tournament out of Ladd’s Marina in Stockton. He said, “We came in 2nd with a 24+-pound bag with the big fish at 9.70 pounds taken by Dan on a spinnerbait. We fished the wind-protected sloughs with reactions baits, and spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and crankbaits were all working in the heavy winds and rain.”

Alan Fong of the Fishermen’s Warehouse in Sacramento has been finding solid black bass fishing on the San Joaquin, stating, “The water temperature is 61 degrees, and the fish are up tight on the banks. We have been scoring with Senkos or chatterbaits next to the banks, but the sea lions are thick in the river, even pulling the bass out of the tules inside of Frank’s Tract.”

Dan Mathisen of Dan’s Delta Outdoors in Oakley is preparing for his first bass tournament out of Big Break Marina on March 26th, and he reported a solid bite with orange spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, or the Strike King in Chili Craw along banks at 8 feet in depth with access to flats.

“Stripers are starting to move in, and a 35-inch striper was taken off of the Antioch Fishing Pier on frozen shad. There have been lots of limits in the 18/19-inch range, and the Optimum’s Bubba Shad swimbait or hair raisers...

Amador

(Ione) Lake Amador is being stocked every week with Mount Lassen rainbow trout and has been planted with over 18,900 pounds of trout since October 22, according to Laurie Lockhart of the Lake Amador Resort.

The lake is officially 7" over full and spilling like crazy. “We haven't seen it like this in a few years and it looks like more rain is coming,” said Laurie Lockhart at the Lake Amador Resort. The launch ramp is all pavement and wide open for launching with the whole cove full of water, and has both docks in the water.

“Anglers did quite well on trout before the storm,” said Lockhart. “Anglers used PowerBait nightcrawlers, Kastmasters and flies in the top five feet of water. Trout guys should fish like a bass angler, tight to shore. I’ve seen many limits of trout averaging 1-3/4 to 2-3/4 pounds lately.”

“The bass are in pre-spawn mode and are full of eggs,” said Lockhart. “Boaters are catching and releasing good numbers of largemouths that are filled with lots of crawdads. I’ve heard the best reports on black 12-inch worms at night and 4 inch pumpkin colored worms during the day. Your best bet is to fish Cat Cove and Mountain Springs, since they are the warmest areas of the lake and have the most spawning beds.”

“The spawn will be phenomenal, since the lake is stable and not fluctuating. The bass will be content and not emotional,” she quipped.

Notable catches include a 2.3 lb. crappie by an angler fishing off the dock on March 4.

Pardee

(Ione) The Pardee Lake Recreation Area reopens to fishing and camping on Friday, March 11 at 5 am after having gone through several refurbishment projects. This has been the longest

On Monday, the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority (SLDMWA), representing corporate agribusiness interests, filed a legal motion to disqualify State Water Resources Control Board Hearing Officers Felicia Marcus and Tam Tam Doduc from overseeing the permit process for the California Water Fix to build the Delta Tunnels.

The Water Authority alleges the Hearing Officers have predetermined a critical issue before them, Delta flow criteria.

SLDMWA is one of the water districts placed on negative credit watch last week due to its bond guarantor, Westlands Water District, engaging in Enron accounting. The Water Authority consists of water agencies representing approximately 2,100,000 acres of 29 federal and exchange water service contractors within the western San Joaquin Valley, San Benito and Santa Clara counties.

Westlands agreed to pay $125,000 to settle the charges filed against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission, making it only the second municipal issuer to pay a financial penalty in an SEC enforcement action.

The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority hereby moves for disqualification of Hearing Officers Felicia Marcus and Tam Doduc, according to the motion. This motion is made on the ground that the Hearing Officers have predetermined a critical issue that will be before them in this proceeding.

When a judge, in court or an administrative adjudication, has predetermined an issue, the judge must be disqualified to protect the due process rights of all parties, the Water Authority claims.

The motion alleges that the Hearing Officers revealed that they have already reached a significant conclusion regarding appropriate Delta flow criteria in a formal order issued on February 11, 2016.

In their order, the Hearing Officers conclude that the appropriate Delta flow criteria will be more stringent than petitioners’ current obligations and may well be more stringent than petitioners’ preferred project.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), the federal body that oversees the management of ocean fisheries on the West Coast, on March 13 adopted three public review alternatives for the 2016 salmon seasons at their meeting in Sacramento.

The Council will select a final alternative at their next meeting in Vancouver, Washington on April 9-14. The sport salmon season south of Horse Mountain will start on April 2, according to a Council decision made in 2015.

Commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries will see restrictions this year due to salmon declines along the West Coast. The proposed seasons and regulations vary widely by region and type of fishery.

This year will be very hard on commercial salmon fishermen in California, said John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA). However, sport fishermen south of Humboldt County ought to get a decent chance to catch salmon this year.

Sport fishermen fishing from Pt. Arena in southern Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in southern San Mateo County are facing relatively mild restrictions compared to others, said McManus.

One of the proposals released by the Council calls for a one week closure. All three call for a 24 inch minimum size limit through, at least during the early part of the season, which is designed to avoid harm to winter run salmon.

The mix of salmon runs this year is unusual, said outgoing Executive Director Donald McIsaac in a PFMC news release. In the north, the return of fall Chinook to the Columbia River is forecast to be exceptionally high again, but expectations for wild coho runs to the Washington Coast and Puget Sound areas can only be described as disastrous. In the south, the Sacramento River fall Chinook are healthy, but Klamath River fall Chinook are so poor that the...

Conventional wisdom tells us we need to be as quiet as possible so we don’t scare off the fish.

Lately, however, I’ve seen the opposite effect. Don’t get me wrong, there are certain types of sound that will scare off any fish. Like the drop of a fishing rod, a hard stomp on the boat deck, or Britney Spears played on blast.

True story, the British Navy uses Britney Spears’ music to scare off Somali pirates. My point is, there are certain types of sounds that will attract fish and some that will not.

So, I’m fishing in the early fall for stripers from my boat. I’m fishing the deeper water channel and scanning for the schools. As I’m heading west along the rock wall, my fish finder lights up. I was right over a big school of fish.

I threw out a jerkbait and I started jerking the lure back. Now my rod is 7’6”, I’m about 5’10” and on occasion, the tip of my rod will slap the water when fished too low. Just by chance, as the fish finder lit up with fish, the tip of my rod slaps the surface of the water, katoosh. Instantly, from the corner of my eye, I see a blob slowly rise towards the surface on the fish finder.

A couple seconds later they lose interest and go back down to their original depth. Katoosh! I splashed again and again. This time they came within 6 feet of my transducer. They were reacting to my splashing.

The fish weren’t jumping into the boat that afternoon from my splashing but I did catch a few stripers hungry enough to take my lure. I thought I had become the fish whisperer that afternoon, calling fish from all around to my splashing. In actuality,...

With a parade of violent Pacific storms battering California you would have had to have been a moron to think that the weather beyond the Golden Gate was going to be pleasant.

The fact of the matter was that when Captain Chris Smith of Captain Hook Sportfishing steered the 34’ Defiant out of the Berkeley Marina on Saturday, March 12 we didn’t know if the conditions would allow us to go out beyond the bridge. The previous day, much larger charter boats had attempted to go out, but upon reaching the Golden Gate, they had been forced to turn back.

You are likely wondering what had prompted five Fish Sniffer supporters along with myself, two deckhands and Captain Chris to roll out of bed in the predawn darkness, don all manner of foul weather gear and head out into the teeth of a winter storm aboard a relatively small boat? Crab!

After a long delay in the opening of the Dungeness crab season we all wanted crabs. Our plan was to head out, hopefully hitting a window calm enough for finding and pulling crab gear and then we’d head back into the bay and spend the rest of the day trolling for halibut and stripers.

We got the first taste of what we’d be up against when we ran into a substantial ground swell while we were still inside the bay where swells are seldom encountered unless the weather outside is pretty bad.

Cruising beneath the Golden Gate Bridge the water was rough but nothing we couldn’t handle. The test would be whether or not we could make it around Point Bonita. The conditions off the point can be rough even on a calm day and it was far from calm.

The storms had created a massive push out of...

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Department of Interior yesterday called for a delay in a scheduled hearing on their petition to divert water under the California Water Fix - the second time they have asked that the proceedings be delayed because they aren't ready to present their case.

Today, representatives of 9 environmental, farming and fishing groups sent a letter to Tam Doduc and Felicia Marcus of the State Water Resources Control Board requesting them to dismiss the petition.

Those signing the letter include Jonas Minton, Planning and Conservation League; Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance; Colin Bailey, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta; Conner Everts, Environmental Water Caucus; Osha Meserve, Local Agencies of the North Delta; Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta; E. Robert Wright, Friends of the River; Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network; and Kyle Jones, Sierra Club California.

Each time the Hearing Officers accommodate the Petitioners delay requests with more time, more Board staff and protestant time and financial resources are taken, and hundreds of people’s schedules are impacted. We believe there are much better uses of everyone’s time, such as spending the necessary time to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan to adequately protect current beneficial uses.

Among other deficiencies, the Change Petition does not adequately describe the changes sought, fails to attempt to demonstrate a reasonable likelihood that the change will not injure any other legal user of water, and fails to describe the extent of impacts to fish and wildlife. As a result of these and other deficiencies, the full nature and extent of injuries to legal users of water and significant adverse impacts to fish and wildlife uses have not been identified and analyzed, according to the letter.

The group representatives concluded the letter...

Over 250 anglers participated in the NorCal Trout Angler Challenge Tour event at Lake Amador, hosted by Angler’s Press and the Fish Sniffer magazine, on Saturday, March 18.

The lake was in prime shape for trout fishing, with the lake full and going over the spillway and the Mother Lode foothills surrounding the lake displaying verdant green colors resulting from the winter rains. Anglers caught big rainbows from both boat and shore while enjoying the warm and sunny weather.

Lon Garland won first place in the adult division by bagging a 5.95 lb. rainbow. He was fishing in his boat with Ryan Baird and Matt Tomchick, all from Loomis.

“We only landed 3 fish while trolling Rapalas at 25 feet deep,” said Garland. “It was the first time that I’ve ever fished Lake Amador. In addition to the three fish we boated, we also lost another trout.

“We thought we were going to get skunked until we hooked our first fish, the big one, after several hours of fishing,” he noted.

Adam Papini, a shore angler, won second place with a 5.84 lb. fish that he hooked around 1:30 pm. “I hooked the fish while fishing off the spillway a few minutes ago,” he excitedly told me as he brought the still-wriggling trout to the certified scale for Vince Harris of Angler’s Press to weigh.

The third through tenth place winners were (3) Mike Hart, 5.42; (4) Tom Wolfenburger, 4.82; (5) Mark Sepelyak, 4.58; (6) James Townley, 4.57; (7) Jesse Trejo Sr., 4.43; (8) David Tabuchi, 4.23; (9) Brandon Wu, 4.19; and (10) Paul Costa, 4.06.

The participants weighed 94 fish in the adult division.

On this Wednesday, April 6, Interior Secretary Jewell, the Governors of California and Oregon, Tribal Leaders and Water Users will make a major announcement on Klamath River Dams and Restoration at Requa near the mouth of the Klamath on the Yurok Reservation.

Below are the press releases from the Department of Interior and Governor Jerry Brown’s Office:

DOI Release:

Date: April 4, 2016

Secretary Jewell, Governors of California and Oregon, Tribal Leaders and Water Users to Make Major Announcement on Klamath River Dams, Restoration

KLAMATH, Calif. – On Wednesday, April 6, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will join Governor of California Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Governor of Oregon Kate Brown to make a major announcement about environmental restoration, water reliability and hydroelectric dams along the 263-mile Klamath River. Federal, state and Native American tribal leaders, businesses, non-governmental organizations and water users will also join the announcement, which will further progress toward the largest river restoration project in U.S. history.

Earlier this year, the States of Oregon and California, PacifiCorp and the federal government – through the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce – announced an agreement-in-principle to move forward with amending the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. Under the agreement-in-principle, the parties to the KHSA would pursue its implementation through the administrative process governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, using existing funding and on the same timeline, to develop terms of an amendment to the KHSA to implement its key provisions, including providing for facilities removal.

Members of the California and Oregon delegations introduced legislation in the past two Congresses to advance the hard-fought KHSA and two related Klamath agreements; however, the U.S. Congress adjourned last year without acting on legislation to authorize them.

Who:

Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Edmund G. Brown Jr.,...

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, one of the most controversial environmental processes in California history, is known for its many broken promises and inconvenient truths.

On April 13, the California Fish and Game Commission at its meeting in Santa Rosa will consider a plan that postpones scientific assessments that would evaluate whether marine protected areas (MPAs) have effectively restored fish populations.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDF) plan proposes to postpone regional scientific reviews of the effectiveness of MPAs from once every five years, as originally promised, to once every 10 years.

It is very important that anglers and public trust advocates be there at the meeting to protest this change in plans and sign an online petition urging the Commission to keep their promise to conduct regional reviews of MPAs once every five years.

The meeting will take place on April 13 starting at 8:30 am at the Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa, 2777 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, CA. The agenda is Item 10:

“Adopt proposed final Master Plan for Marine Protected Areas and the Marine Life Protection Program pursuant to the Marine Life Protection Act (Pursuant to Section 2850, et seq., Fish and Game Code).”

The complete agenda is available online.

You can sign the petition online.

In December, George Osborn of the California Sportfishing League spoke at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting to challenge this change in plans.

“As anglers know, the State of California designated over 800 square miles of the Pacific Ocean off limits to recreational fishing – in large part due to overfishing by the commercial fishing industry,” according to Osborn. “However, the State said these marine protected areas would

Lake Amador, situated on Jackson Creek in the now emerald green Mother Lode foothills near Ione, has acquired a reputation over the years for being one of northern California’s premier spots to battle huge trout.

That reputation was evidenced during the NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge at Lake Amador on March 18 when Vince Harris, tournament director, and president of Angler's Press Outdoors, was elated by the big turnout of anglers and the many fish they weighed in.

“By far, more quality fish were caught in this event than in any other event previously held,” said Harris. “It is without a doubt that the Lake Amador stocking program is one of the best in Northern California.”

It was at Amador where I experienced one of the most magical trout fishing trips I ever made to any California water. It was during a late spring weather front that Doug McPherson of Sacramento and I went up to the lake to target bluegill so we could have a big fish fry. After we caught our share of the feisty sunfish, we went trout fishing. I ended up catching four beautiful “cuttbow” trout before dark.

The next day I decided to go back to the reservoir solo and see if the bluegill were still biting. I fished the shoreline weeds with golden grubs, but didn’t pick up any sunfish.

So I went over to the boat dock to see if the bluegill were holding there. I didn’t hook any bluegill, but I found amazing fishing while on big, hard fighting trout in the 3-1/2 to 4 pound class while using the grubs under the dock. I began catching one trout after another, catching and releasing a bunch and then putting five on the stringer. My stringer weighed close to 20 pounds – and all...

Yuba City The spring run of stripers has arrived on the lower Feather River from Yuba City to Verona. Don’t expect big fish yet; most of the stripers are schoolie males, but the larger females should arrive soon.

"We’ve been catching stripers every day," said Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service. "Anglers were doing well on jumbo minnows in the first part of the week and then pileworms became more effective in the second half of the week."

"However, the action slowed down for a couple of days until it improved again on Saturday," added Reimers. "Most of the fish are now being caught while bait fishing with pileworms."

Most of the fish are in the 20 to 24 inch range. "Our largest fish weighed 8 pounds," said Reimers.

"The Feather is still putting out striped bass and catfish in the muddy water caused by the eroding bank in the Yuba River," confirmed Manuel Saldana Jr of MSJ Guide Service. "That being said, Saturday I fished on the upper half of my day on the Feather due to the water visibility being much cleaner. We caught stripers in both clear water and in chocolate milk water."

"Things are just getting started on both the Feather and Sacramento rivers. As the Sacramento drops and the Feather clears up both rivers are going to go off," he concluded.

latest funding agreement is not solely benefitting fish and wildlife but is instead prioritizing the interests of irrigators.

The Delta Tunnel Project has faced significant opposition due to its potential environmental impacts and concerns about water resource management. Various stakeholders, including environmental groups, have raised alarms about how funding is being allocated and whether it is serving the intended purpose of protecting and enhancing fish habitats.

PEER's complaint emphasizes the need for accountability in how federal funds are utilized, particularly when the health of ecosystems and the survival of endangered species are at stake. As the investigation unfolds, it may shed light on the broader implications of water management policies in California and the challenges of balancing agricultural needs with environmental conservation.

The Inspector General's audit will aim to determine whether the California Water Resources Department acted within legal boundaries regarding the use of federal aid and if corrective measures are necessary to ensure compliance with environmental protections.

The State Water Resources Control Board on April 11 announced a schedule of meetings that it may hold regarding the state and federal government petition to divert water on the Sacramento River for Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels, but these meetings will be closed to the public and the media.

The notice of meetings in closed sessions was issued the same day that the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility revealed that the Department of Interior’s Inspector General has opened an investigation into the possible illegal use of millions of dollars by the California Department of Water Resources in preparing the Environmental Impact Statement for the Delta Tunnels Plan, called the California Water Fix by the Brown administration.

The State Water Board may meet in closed session on the following dates beginning at 1:00 p.m. at the CalEPA building, Conference Room 2510, 1001 I Street, Sacramento, California, according to the notice.

These meetings will consist exclusively of closed sessions to deliberate on procedural or substantive decisions to be reached in the proceeding to consider the joint water right change petition filed by the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regarding specified water right permits for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project associated with the California WaterFix Project, the notice states.

Please visit the State Water Board’s California WaterFix web page for more information regarding the project and petition. At least one Board Member will be physically present in Conference Room 2510, but individual Board Members may attend some or all of these meetings by telephone conference, the announcement says.

What was the reason for the closed meetings? The closed sessions are authorized by Government Code section 11126, subdivision (c)(3). Closed sessions are not open to the public, but any decisions reached in closed...

Amador

(Ione) While rainbow trout continue to provide the hottest action at Lake Amador, it was a huge catfish that topped the recent catches at the reservoir. Glen Poole landed a 19.12 channel catfish while fishing a white Mice Tail from shore, reported Debbie Grayson at the Lake Amador Resort.

“We planted a total of 7200 pounds of rainbows in the lake in March,” said Grayson. “Trout fishing continues to be good for both shore and boat anglers. Our last plant of 1200 pounds of Mt. Lassen rainbows went in on March 31.”

Big rainbow honors go to Jason of Valley Springs, who landed a 4.58 lb. trout while soaking PowerBait off the dam. Matt Urban, also of Valley Springs, nailed a 4.58 lb. trout while using Power Bait off M Point. Finally, 8-year-old Mya landed a 4.06 lb. rainbow while soaking Power Bait from shore.

The lake is 100 percent of capacity and the surface water temperature is 60 degrees.

Pardee

(Ione) Lake Pardee is in great shape for fishing and boating, now that the lake is 99 percent of capacity.

“For the bank anglers, the trout are still pretty elusive,” according to the report from the Lake Pardee Recreation Area. “However, for boaters on the lake, the trout are really coming out. Look for them in the main body of the lake, up the river arm and by the log boom.”

PowerBait, Wooly Buggers, pink hoochies and broken back Rapalas are working really well.

One angler landed a 5-¾ lb German brown near Deer Island while trolling a pink hoochie. Mel Caldwell also caught a quality brown.

Oregon House Whether you fish bait from shore or troll from a boat, this is a great time to fish for trout at Collins Lake.

“This is the first week so far this year that we are seeing equal catches from the bank of trolling in a boat,” said Kathy Hess of the Collins Lake Resort on April 1. “Trollers are also picking up catfish and bass!”

Trolling between 3 ft. to 10 ft. with a simple lure like a Kastmaster, Needlefish, or flasher and a worm will net you the best chance of catching trout right now, she advised.

Suzanne Cari from Orangevale caught her 5 lb. 12 oz. rainbow off the sand beach using PowerBait. Ricky Damico also caught a 5 lb. 12 oz. bow trolling a Rapala near Elmer’s Cove.

Andre and Zeke trolled worms for a while then anchored off the east end of the dam and used PowerBait and caught more trout. Mark McCee caught two nice rainbows on the east side of the dam too.

Trevor Wilkinson from Gridley hooked a 4 lb. 8 oz. rainbow while trolling a Wedding Ring Spinner in the channel. Jeffrey and Mike trolled in the same area with a dodger/worm combo and bagged a surprise 6 lb. 4 oz. catfish.

Conner, Lorenzo, Steve, Steven, & Xavier Gladden from Elverta caught 12 trout along the Open Area shoreline using yellow PowerBait. Katy Sannar from Yuba City limited out on trout using Power Eggs by the beach.

The lake is full and spilling 3”. The surface water temperature is 54 degrees and the water clarity is 1’ visibility.

Rancho Cordova Shad began showing in the Sacramento River at Freeport in mid-March this year, largely a result of the high flows on Sacramento River. Anglers are now hooking the fish at the Minnow Hole, as Craig Kamikawa of the Fisherman’s Warehouse found out.

“I decided to try shore fishing for shad rather than going out in my boat for sturgeon on Sunday and I caught 3 shad, all small males in the 1-1/2 pound range, while fishing at the Minnow Hole for four hours,” said Kamikawa. “I used green/white 1/8 oz. shad darts behind a ¾ oz. sliding sinker on a 3 foot leader.”

“There were 9 other guys fishing the same spot and they landed shad, all small males also,” he noted.

“The reports from sturgeon fishing on the Delta are epic,” he noted. “Right now the sturgeon are biting from the Carquinez Bridge up into the Sacramento and the Delta. Jay Lopes reported catching 13 sturgeon on his boat today.”

“The striper fishing is on fire at Miller Park for shore anglers,” reported Will Pfingst at Broadway Bait Rod & Gun. “Simon and Mike from the shop and their girlfriends reported a great day of fishing for stripers at Miller. They caught and released a mixture of keepers to 26 inches and shakers while bait fishing with chicken liver. One family also brought in limits of stripers while bait fishing at Miller.”

Redding

It’s going to be a great fishing season at Lake Shasta this spring and summer. The big lake is going to hit capacity, all launch ramps and facilities will be in full operation and the fishing for trout and bass should be excellent. As of press time the lake was less than 20 feet from the top and rising slowly.

While fishing at Shasta in the near future is going to be great, anglers visiting the lake right now are experiencing mixed results. Trout trollers have been struggling to find fish. Certainly an angler can go out and topline with shad imitating spoons and plugs and expect a few hook ups, but since the fish are scattered reports of limits have been few and far between.

In contrast, the bass action has been outstanding with anglers landing big numbers of fish that range up to about 3.5 pounds.

“The bass fishing at Shasta is pretty much red hot right now,” related Kirk Portocarrero of SacRiverGuide.Com. “We’ve been scoring limits of bass during all of our recent trips to the lake. The top offerings have been plastic worms, tube baits and spinnerbaits. It won’t be long now before the spawn ramps up and the bass fishing will get even better. We are ready to start trolling for king salmon and browns just as soon as they start showing consistently.”

Oroville King salmon are abundant in the catches at Lake Oroville now, but most are the smaller fish, averaging 10 to 12 inches, that were planted last fall.

"My latest trolling adventure on the lake produced just one big king, a 22 incher," said James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service. "We caught and released a bunch of fish in the 10 to 12 inch range; we lost count."

He and his clients fished with pink hoochies, tipped with anchovy strips, at 35 feet deep near the dam. Other good areas to try include the Green Bridge and the spillway.

"The bass bite is good at Oroville," said Brent Cline at Oroville Outdoors. "The fish are still in pre-spawn mode. Anglers are throwing ripbaits or spinnerbaits for a reaction bite in the mornings. They are then fishing Senkos, tubes and Robo Worms at 10 to 30 feet during the day. Most are spots in the 1-1/2 to 2 lb. class."

A shore angler caught a 13 lb. 14 oz. largemouth bass on a Senko by the marina on Saturday, March 27. "My fishing buddy weighed it on his scale after he saw the angler holding up the fish on his stringer," said Cline.

The reservoir is currently holding 3,039,556 acre-feet of water, 86 percent of capacity and 113 percent of average. The lake level is 866.76 feet in elevation.

The Power of Spinnerbaits in Northern California Lakes

Here in Northern California on our clear water lakes and reservoirs, there is no doubt that day in and day out finesse tactics account for large numbers of fish. However, there are times when you would be better served to put away your soft plastic baits and shift into power fishing mode.

Right now is one of those times. This winter's El Niño-driven storms have produced rain unlike we have seen in recent years. Creeks swollen with runoff are pouring into our lakes. The incoming flow of water is not only warmer than normal, but also has the added effect of muddying up the water, creating an ideal environment for throwing blades.

Following a recent storm, I made a quick trip to Lake Oroville. When I arrived at the lake with my fishing buddy, Ian Rigler, I was excited to see that the water had a nice stain, not muddy, but off colored. Just the conditions I had hoped for.

On the drive up to the lake, Ian told me that he had never caught a bass on a spinnerbait. I found that a little hard to believe considering the amount of time we have fished together. It became my mission for the day to get us on a good spinnerbait bite and to help Ian put his first blade fish in the boat.

We started the day up in the Middle Fork, fishing little pockets and cuts. I was throwing a white 1/2oz. Pepper Custom Baits Open Water Assassin. As the name implies, the Assassin is designed for fishing open water. Instead of the standard fixed hook, it features a free swinging Gamakatsu feathered treble. This configuration improves the strike to land ratio and results in more fish in the boat....

The striped bass means many different things to different folks, ranging from an alleged predator of salmon that is demonized by corporate agribusiness to a prized gamefish that is sought after by many hundreds of thousands of anglers in California.

To the National Marine Fisheries Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state water contractors, the striped bass is a species to blame for salmon and other fishery declines in order to divert attention from decades of abysmal management of the California Delta and Central Valley Rivers, led by the export of massive quantities of water from the Delta.

The striped bass’s demonization by state and federal government and water agency officials is in spite of all of the available scientific evidence. Two leading experts on the Bay Delta Estuary and striped bass, Dr. Peter Moyle, UC Davis fishery scientist, professor and author, and Dr. David Ostrach, former UC Davis researcher, point out that the elimination or reduction in the numbers of striped bass is likely to hurt Delta smelt and other species by targeting a species that preys on the predators of smelt and salmon.

For anglers like James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service and I, the striped bass is one of the most exciting gamefish species found in our waters. The fish fight like heck, hit a variety of lures, baits and flies, and provide action all of the way from the beaches of Monterey Bay to the Sacramento River as far as Red Bluff.

One of the most popular areas to fish out of is the Brannan Island State Park Ramp located on Three Mile Slough, the short slough that connects the Sacramento River with the San Joaquin River.

“The launching is centrally located, so you can fish either side, the San Joaquin side...

Moss Landing The lingcod action since the opener has been superb off Point Sur, while rockfish lingcod has been spotty.

The weather turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, with greasy calm conditions, on our trip to Point Sur on April 13, said Carol Jones of Kahuna Sportfishing. The passengers caught easy lingcod limits, but it was tough on the rockfish. We ended up with about 7 rockfish around; the lingcod are scaring the rockfish away.

Then on Saturday, April 16, the 17 anglers fishing aboard the Kahuna landed 51 lingcod, full limits, and 136 rockfish.

Keith Semler at Chris’s Fishing Trips in Monterey reported the Check Mate returned with ¾ limits of rockfish and 30 lingcod for 25 anglers on Sunday, April 17. The Star of Monterey checked in with 10 lings and 32 limits of rockfish the same day.

On Saturday, the Caroline reported 22 limits of rockfish and 15 lingcod and the Star of Monterey came back with 56 lingcod and 30 limits of rockfish.

Tristan Maschmeyer at Randy’s Fishing Trips reported similar fishing for rockfish and lingcod. The Sur Randy returned with ¾ limits of rockfish and good numbers of lingcod and the Chunbaco checked in with 28 lingcod and ¾ limits of rockfish on April 17.

Rockcod fishing has been very solid, said Ken Stagnaro of Stagnaro’s Fishing Trips. The full day trips have been getting their limits and near-limits with quite a few lingcod. Most half-day cod trips have been getting half limits to three-quarter limits. Salmon fishing in Monterey Bay continues to be very slow.

East Bay crabbing is starting to wind down for East Bay anglers, but no one is complaining now that rockfish and lingcod season is underway.

Out of the Berkeley Marina, Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing enjoyed solid crab and halibut action over the weekend. On Saturday April 17, his 22 anglers scored limits of crab and added 4 halibut and a striper.

Smith confided that crabbing is now entering its final stages for East Bay anglers, but added that live bait is expected to be available any day now. Once live bait arrives, anglers can expect to see both halibut and striper scores ramp up.

Captain Chris Smith of Captain Hook Sportfishing has been spending much of his time running his brother’s boat, the California Dawn, but when he runs his own six pack boat, he has been doing very well while trolling for halibut.

For example, on April 15 Chris headed out with three anglers and they ended up just one halibut short of full limits.

In Emeryville, the New Huck Finn with Captain Jay at the wheel has been rounding up limits of crab and some very nice halibut. Like most skippers Jay is anxious for live bait to become available so that he can more efficiently target halibut.

The Sea Wolf started off the bottomfish season in style on April 17 with 23 limits of quality rockfish and 44 lingcod to 15 pounds. On the rockfish front, anglers had 3 to 5 vermilions per sack.

Emeryville’s New Salmon Queen headed out the same day and rounded up full limits of quality rockfish including an impressive tiger rockfish and added 15 lings to 11 pounds.

Tisdale

Striper fishing is wide-open on the Sacramento above and below Tisdale, reported James Stone of Elite Sportsmen Guide Service on Monday, April 18. We had full limits of stripers, weighing up to 25 pounds, for 6 anglers today by 7:45 am.

On the previous day, the fishing was great also. We boated 68 bass, including 26 keepers, on two trips, he added. We haven’t had a day without limits for 4 to 6 people since we started fishing for stripers in late March this year.

The stripers are everywhere on the Sacramento River, said Bret Brady of Bare Bones Guide Service. Today we lost count of the fish we landed while fishing in the Tisdale area.

The three anglers fishing with Brady on his latest trip kept limits of stripers to 6 pounds while drifting umbo minnows.

We’re seeing a lot of keepers in the 18 to 22 inch range, along with a lot of shakers, he noted. Yesterday we caught a 10 pounder and a couple of 8 pounders.

This is one of the best years for stripers I’ve seen in a long time, he noted. In addition to catching fish on minnows, we’ve also been hooking some fish on Flukes while we’re anchored up. With the way the fishing is going now, we could be hooking stripers through Father’s Day.

Amador

Larry Hemphill, fishing guide, made a trip to Lake Amador to enjoy the beautiful spring conditions and hook some bass.

“Fishing was good for medium size bass and I was able to ‘sight-fish’ my first of the year,” said Hemphill. “I think I was between spawns, as I only saw small to medium bass - and no big ones.”

“I fished for an hour after dark and caught 2 more bass that hammered a jig. I caught 14-15 in the afternoon - lots of fun. Most were very shallow and active. I covered most of the lake and my best 5 were about 13-14 lbs.,” he stated.

He tipped, “Actually one only need to throw Senkos this time of year - especially the wacky rigged ones. They can't resist!”

Trout fishing continues to be good at Amador for shore anglers and boaters, with a double plant of 2400 pounds going in on April 13 and 15.

Bluegill are also starting to show. “Debbie Hall, her husband and two others landed a bunch of bluegill, keeping seven big ones for dinner,” said Debbie Grayson at Lake Amador Resort.

Pardee

Shore fishing had been slow at Lake Pardee since the lake opened on March 11, but that all changed on Wednesday, April 13, when a total of 8500 pounds of rainbows were released into the reservoir.

“Thanks to the plant of 8500 lbs of Nebraska Tail Walkers from Chaulk Mound Trout Ranch on Wednesday, it has been a great week for trout,” according to Pardee Lake Recreation. “Both the recreation area and the body of the lake have done well. The best baits to try have been Kastmasters, chartreuse or orange PowerBait and worms.”

For example,

Oregon House

Rainbow trout are providing the hottest action at Collins Lake, but it was a catfish that topped the catches at the now-full reservoir over the past couple of weeks.

Kristen Dukes of Marysville landed a monster catfish weighing 11 pounds, reported Kathy Hess at the Collins Lake Resort. She was fishing the east side of the lake with a grub.

“This past week was packed plum full of limits of trout being caught with no stress involved,” noted Hess. “Campers caught rainbows from their campsites and day use customers fished from shore with PowerBait or brought their boats and trolled with lures or worms.”

John Draper won first place in the adult division of the NorCal Trout Angler’s Challenge Event at Collins with a 6.91 lb. rainbow. Amara Grass took first place in the youth division with a 2.81 lb. trout, according to Vince Harris of Angler’s Press.

Anglers have continued to catch some huge fish at Collins since the tournament. Marcy Tarr landed a 6 lb. 4 oz. rainbow while trolling a Rapala. Winston and Gavin Hubert teamed up to nail a 4 lb. 2 oz. and a 6 lb. 5 oz. trout on Power Eggs.

Holly caught a 5 lb. rainbow by her campsite on PowerBait. Traci Routt fooled a 6 lb. 4 oz. trout from her site on PowerBait. Rhett Moran of Yuba City nailed a 5 lb. rainbow on PowerBait by the dam. Finally, Gary Holsey bagged a 6 lb. 14 oz. trout while trolling a lure.

Bass fishing is also going strong. “Dick Gold and his friend Denny Welch caught and released 50 bass on the east side today using tubes in green/sparkle with a chartreuse tail,” said Hess on April 15.

After a red hot striped bass bite over the past few weeks, there are inklings that the bite is starting to slow up as the spawning fish are moving out of the San Joaquin system.

Mark Wilson, striper trolling expert, said, "The days of 50 to 60 fish that we have experienced over the past few weeks are gone, but we managed 16 and 18 keepers on our two weekend trips with several fish in the 12 to 15-pound range. The action is occurring in the mornings, and the bite is pretty much over by noon."

"Our bigger fish are coming on shallow running P-Line Predators or Yozuri Crystal Minnows, and with most of the males at least halfway spawned out, we are hooking mostly females. The area from Eddo’s below False River and the barges was best for us before we moved to the Sacramento River. You really have to work for the fish right now, but I expect another push of stripers coming through the Delta within the next few weeks," he stated.

Gary Vella of Vella’s Fishing Adventures reported, "We have been averaging limits from 6 to 8 pounds with around 19 to 20 fish per trip trolling deep-diving Yozuri Crystal Minnows in dark color patterns on lead core line."

Alan Fong of the Fishermen’s Warehouse in Sacramento reported an outstanding largemouth bite, and he continues to find quality bass in the shallows on Senkos or topwater frogs. He said, "The water is already getting too warm too fast, and the fish are all shallow. There are no fry yet in the water, and most of the females still have full tails."

I recently spent four great days at the Sacramento ISE Show. Being around all the other fishing enthusiasts and all the latest fish gear and tackle has really got me excited about the upcoming fishing season. But before the bite gets going good, there are a few housekeeping items that need to get done. I like to use this time of year to prepare my tackle and equipment so that when the action gets good, I will be ready.

I would like to pass on a little often overlooked tip that is certain to pay big dividends. Inspect and replace any bent, dull or rusty hooks, whether they be individual hooks or those attached to your favorite hard baits.

Even the sharpest hooks can become suspect after extended use. Repeated contact with rocks and wood can cause hooks to become dull. Improper storage especially in brackish or salt water is a sure recipe for corrosion. Big strong pulling fish can bend and weaken hooks, leading to the inevitable untimely failure.

Often, brand new hard baits come straight from manufacturers with poor quality hooks. In addition, many anglers like to tinker with hook size, wire diameter, color and hook bend.

I rely on Gamakatsu hooks and over the years they have helped me improve my strike to catch ratio. For example, all of my striped bass hard baits from my rattlebaits to my wooden topwaters are fitted with 2X Strong Gamakatsu Round Bend Trebles. The new G-Finesse Trebles are perfect for finesse jerkbaits and topwaters that require an ultra premium hook that will not upset their delicate balance. And of course I use lots of Round Bend and EWG trebles.

One last area that should not be overlooked is the important bait to hook connection more commonly known as the split...

The NTAC is what I’d call the “every man’s” or “every family’s” trout fishing event. Sure, each event offers up a bunch of cash prizes, gear and other goodies, but the entry fees are low.

The cost to participate is $25 for adults on the day of the derby and only $20 if you sign up prior to derby day. Kids under 15 that sign up on the day of the derby fish for $5, but kids that sign up prior to derby day fish for free.

The folks at the NTAC recognize the financial challenges that many anglers face these days, especially those raising families, so they’ve worked hard to keep entry fees low enough such that anglers on a budget can still enjoy the thrill of competition.

Along these same lines the dates and destinations for all NTAC tournaments were given special consideration to insure that the time of the year and venue set the stage for a level playing field for both boaters and bank anglers.

In other words, the tournaments are held at certain destinations at certain times of the year when bank bound dough slingers and float tube trollers have just as much chance of winning the tournament as a guy equipped with a 25 foot aluminum sled decked out with downriggers and the latest electronics.

This is a big fish derby, so each participant will weigh one trout. If anglers tie with fish of identical weights, the longest fish will be considered the winner. If they are the same length a coin toss will decide placement.

If you love trout fishing and love competition, come on out and enjoy the April tournament at Lake Camanche. It won’t break the bank, you’ll have lots of fun and you might just take home a cool prize...

How would you like to pay for a massive government public works project that will drive Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and other fish species to extinction but won't create one single drop of new water?

In fact, you and every other taxpayer in this country are already being billed for this giant boondoggle, Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels, whether you like it or not.

Federal taxpayers, not the federal water contractors, are paying the lion’s share for the Governor's project to divert water from the Sacramento River, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups revealed on April 28. The water will be exported for use for corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies and oil companies conducting fracking and extreme oil extraction methods.

In response to a January 25, 2016 letter sent by conservation groups, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director David G. Murillo has confirmed that more than $86.9 million of the costs for the Delta Tunnels have been billed to federal taxpayers to date.

The alarming data was revealed in a news release, including a copy of the letter, issued by: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta (RTD); Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network (C-WIN); Conner Everts, Southern CA Watershed Alliance & Environmental Water Caucus (EWC); and Tim Sloane, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA).

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation letter affirmed the tunnels project is not authorized by Congress and they have no plans to conduct the required feasibility study or pay the construction costs that will more than double the current State Water Project debt to be paid by ratepayers and property taxpayers if permitted.

A series of much needed rain storms had swept through Northern California, drenching the region with muddy runoff. Everybody was saying that the delta was two to three weeks away from being fishable. The washed down sediment had made the water look like chocolate milk. Bait seemed like the only reliable option for stripers…but where?

Several weeks earlier, I had fished near Rio Vista with delta regular Jimmy Brittain in cleaner water conditions. During our trolling trip, Jimmy had shown me some great new tricks. It was a fantastic 20 fish day, with ten keepers and ten shakers coming to the boat.

During that trip, I said I’d like to pay him back by showing him some of my bait fishing techniques. As the high, dirty water conditions flooded into the delta, it seemed like a perfect time to prove to Jimmy whether or not my bait fishing skills were up to par. We spoke on the phone, and made plans to fish the delta on March 26th.

On the morning of March 26th, I motored my rig into Brannan Island State Park just as the sun broke over the eastern horizon. After we had the boat in the water, I drifted out into Three Mile Slough to assess the tide situation.

We were at the very end of the incoming tide, approaching the high tide. Knowing that we would need some current in order to anchor up with bait, we trolled during the slack tide to pass the time.

Prior to the storms, the Sacramento River side of the delta had been holding stripers, so we headed in that direction. Because of the high tide, my boat’s canvas top barely cleared scaffolding on the Three Mile Slough Bridge, which was being painted. Although the water visibility wasn’t good, we...

I started chasing stream trout in the ‘70’s. Back then the April Sierra stream trout opener was a big deal. In those days it was common to see displays of things like salmon eggs and green canvas creels at mainstream stores such as Payless and Raley’s.

Do you remember those old creels? If you don’t and you grew up fishing in northern California, you are likely a youngster. The creels, constructed of green canvas, were basically a shoulder bag that featured a 14 by 9 inch main compartment.

The compartment was accessed at the top of the creel through a large spring loaded opening. You could open the top, to get into the main compartment and when you were finished the opening would close by itself. This is where we kept the fish we caught.

On the outside of the creel there was a large pocket for a compartment box full of lures, weights and terminal gear. To the side of that pocket there was a smaller pocket that fit a bottle of salmon eggs perfectly.

Above those two pockets there was a long narrow pocket toward the top of the bag. This pocket is where you put your pre-snelled Eagle Claw trout hooks.

A Google search reveals that creels are still being manufactured, but to be honest I haven’t seen one in a store or in use on the stream in a long time.

Yes, times change and so do priorities. These days it seems like most trouters are more interested in lake fishing than they are in stream fishing and as a result the stream trout opener isn’t nearly as big an event as it was 40 years ago.

I’m as guilty as anyone else in glossing over the stream opener. Over the past 10 years I’ve missed...

Amador (Ione) Want to catch Lightning Trout? Then head to Lake Amador, where 1500 pounds of these beautiful bright yellow/orange bodied fish with red stripes were recently planted.

“Its a recessive gene in the rainbow trout species they noticed, so they started pulling them aside and breeding them until they developed the Lightning Trout,” reported Lee Lockhart of the Lake Amador Resort.

Successful anglers include Phil, who caught a 5.72 lb. Lightning Trout on a fire tiger Rapala 17 feet down while trolling. Tony Taylor of San Jose also landed a 5 lb. Lightning Trout while soaking green garlic PowerBait by the spillway.

The regular Mt. Lassen trout continue to be planted, with the latest plant of 1200 pounds going into the lake on April 26.

Boaters and bank anglers are hooking the trout while using nightcrawlers, Mice Tails, Kastmasters and other spoons. Big rainbow honors go to Nicole, who landed a 7.5 lb beauty while soaking shrimp bait.

“The bass have spawned,” said Lockhart. “The females have moved into deeper water, while the males are guarding the nests. Anglers are doing best while tossing out plastic worms.”

The lake is currently full and the surface water temperature is 62 degrees. The launch ramp is all pavement and wide-open for launching with the whole cove full of water, and has both docks in the water.

Pardee (Ione) There is lots of good news on trout at Lake Pardee this week. Bank and boat anglers continue to do really well. From the shore, Stoney Creek landing, Porcupine Point and Woodpile are the best places to find them.

“From the boats, look for them at the mouth of the river and up the river arm. Power bait (rainbow or chartreuse), white Power Eggs and mini spinners have been the best baits,” according...

Join us for the 2016 Northern California Solar Regatta sponsored by SMUD’s Energy & Technology Center and Community Solar program. The Solar Regatta is a hands-on event where students can learn about solar energy and sustainability in a fun outdoor environment.

Spend a day at the lake checking out the action as colleges and high schools from Fresno to Oregon race solar-powered boats they designed and built. Cheer on your favorite team and boats while you:

• Go for a picnic on the grassy shores of the lake, one of Sacramento’s best-kept secrets.

• Go for a swim or try sailing, windsurfing, or paddleboarding.

• Take a hike on the Rancho Seco Howard Ranch trail.

• Play games and win prizes and if you have a fishing license you can catch a few fish too.

For more information, contact Suzette Bienvenue at Suzette.Bienvenue@smud.org (916) 732-5175.

On October 19-23rd, Fish Sniffer's staffers Sheldon Bright and Ernie Marlan will be co-hosting their second annual fishing adventure aboard the Mosquito Fleet in La Paz, Mexico.

The Mosquito Fleet is one of the best in the business when it comes to teaching anglers how to drastically increase their success rates while fishing inshore and offshore in the La Paz region.

In fact, most of their captains specialize in fishing for acrobatic Marlin, dynamic Dorado, whirling Wahoo, and rowdy Rooster Fish from September through October.

Therefore, the Fish Sniffer trip in October promises to be an outstanding adventure with hefty coolers full of delicious fish to go around.

Since this trip is a Fish Sniffer sponsored event, all in attendance will not only have great package deals on fishing and overnight accommodations at the La Concha Beach Resort, but also have a shot at some incredible fishing-related prizes such as free fishing rods, P-Line products, and much more.

Tons of fun, plenty of awesome prizes, big fish, and bountiful coolers filled with the tastiest gamefish that La Paz, Mexico has to offer. It's all going to be affordably provided by the Mosquito Fleet and the La Concha Beach Resort from October 19-23rd.

If you'd like to join Sheldon Bright and Ernie Marlan and a big group of Fish Sniffer supporters, don't delay, call the Mosquito Fleet and secure your spot right now. 1-877-408-6769

When I made it back to the trucks my heart was racing like a freight train. This wasn’t from the exertion of the hike. It was from the onset of panic when I realized that my partner might be in real trouble.

He hadn’t shown up at the designated meeting spot despite the fact that I’d waited there a full hour beyond our designated meeting time. When there was no sign of him at the vehicles, a series of scenarios started running through my mind. Maybe he’d been bitten by a snake, fallen and broken a leg, or perhaps he’d been the victim of a heart attack or even a stroke.

The only certainty was that my partner was in some sort of trouble and it was up to me to find him and get help if necessary. As a guy that spends a lot of time in the backcountry, I’d contemplated situations like this many times, but this was the first time that I’d been confronted with anything remotely like an emergency.

I tossed my fishing gear into the truck, slipped on my backpack with all my emergency survival gear inside, and started hiking back up the steep rocky trail as quickly as I could.

Let’s rewind a bit. As part of the Fish Sniffer staff for more than a decade, I’ve had my share of exciting and memorable fishing trips, but the last two trips I took in the month of April were at once fun and exciting, enlightening and frustrating, and in the end downright frightening.

The week started off well enough when Fish Sniffer Field Editor “Bass Jack” Jack Naves and I hooked up for a day of Delta striper fishing on April 27. Our plan was to start the day trolling and finish the day...

The town of Arnold, California is nestled right next to Calaveras Big Trees, the State Park created in 1931 to preserve the majestic North Grove of giant sequoias. This grove includes the "Discovery Tree,” the first Sierra redwood noted by Augustus T. Dowd in 1852.

While the big trees are enjoyed by visitors around the world, Arnold is also the center for superb fishing and other recreation along the Highway 4/Ebbetts Pass Corridor.

For example, Tony Maciel of San Jose and his wife came from San Jose the morning of May 12 to target rainbow trout in the incredibly scenic reservoir of White Pines Lake, located 1 mile from Arnold.

“We tried Beaver Creek first thing in the morning, but didn’t do well there,” he said. “We then came here and caught seven fish trout on Power Bait. Seven fish is enough for us, so we’re headed home.”

He, like other anglers fishing at White Pines that day, landed the fish while using Power Bait.

Arnold offers three wonderful nearby fisheries - White Pines Lake, the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, and Beaver Creek - for anglers coming to camp and fish in the land of the Giant Sequoias.

And that’s not all. In the same region, off the Highway 4 Corridor, anglers also can target rainbow trout at Spicer Reservoir, brown bullhead catfish and trout at Union Reservoir, and rainbow trout at Lake Alpine. Plus further up the road you can hook rainbows in the Mosquito Lakes, rainbows and brookies in the North Fork of the Mokelumne, Lahontan cutthroat trout in Upper and Lower Kinney Lakes, and brook trout in remote Highlands Lakes.

White Pines, a scenic and fertile lake located 1 mile from Arnold at the edge of White Pines across from the Moose Lodge, is the...

If you want to ever have a chance of restoring our salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other fish populations, take action now to stop efforts in Congress to overpump the Delta. I urge all anglers to call their Senators and to urge them to do the right thing for salmon and the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

Here are all the details from Restore the Delta:

Action Alert: Tell CA Senators to Do the Right Thing for the Delta

Efforts in Congress to pump more fresh water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary are difficult and complicated for everyone to track. But our request to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, and our individual Congressional Representatives is simple: Do right by the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

The House passed the Energy bill S.2012 (which includes Congressman David Valadao's bad bill language on over pumping the Delta) on a largely party line vote except for Fresno's Jim Costa voting for it. Congressman Jared Huffman led the opposition to including the Valadao bill in this package on the House Floor, but it could not be stopped.

The Energy bill now goes to the Senate, where the hope is that most Senators will not agree to go to conference on the Energy bill at all. The Senate will likely need 60 votes to go to conference; if they go to conference, the Senate only needs a simple majority to pass the conference report.

Sadly, Senator Feinstein's bill S.2533 (which mirrors Garamendi's HR 5247) contains language regarding over pumping the Delta which is equally as troublesome. We fear that in all the wheeling and dealing in the halls of Congress bad language authorizing the over pumping of the estuary from any of these bills can make it into the final energy bill, or other legislative acts....

In a decision welcomed by fishermen, environmentalists, and tribal leaders, a grand jury on May 16 indicted the Plains All-American Pipeline company on 46 criminal charges related to the May 2015 oil spill in Santa Barbara County that fouled more than 9 miles of pristine coast.

The 46 counts included four felony and 42 misdemeanor charges. The company was charged with felony violations of state laws regarding the spilling of oil and hazardous substances into state waters.

The grand jury also indicted a Plains employee on three criminal charges, according to a statement from California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley.

Both the company and James Buchanan, an employee, were charged with misdemeanor violations for failing to provide timely notice of the oil spill to the Office of Emergency Services. In addition, the company was indicted on three dozen misdemeanor charges linked to the spill's impact on birds and mammals.

Plains All-American Pipeline faces up to $2.8 million in fines plus additional costs and penalties, according to Harris' office.

Over one year ago on May 19, 2015, a badly corroded pipeline operated by Plains All-American Pipeline, a member of the Western States Petroleum Association, ruptured near Refugio State Beach, releasing approximately 140,000 gallons of heavy crude oil onto land, beaches, and the ocean. The poorly maintained pipeline ruptured after it had worn down to only 1/16 of an inch.

Local, state, and federal government agencies have spent millions of dollars cleaning up the spill, a disaster that resulted in considerable devastation to fish, wildlife, and the ecosystem over a big region, including controversial marine protected areas created under the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.

Harris said she partnered with local and state law enforcement agencies to conduct a criminal investigation and jointly...

Below is an urgent action alert and press release from John Beuttler and Dr. David Ostrach of the Allied Fishing Groups. I urge you to contact Senator Feinstein’s office to stop her drought legislation from destroying our Delta fisheries:

The situation is critical. Should the bill pass as currently written, it will be open season on the non-native fish in the Delta and its tributaries. All of us need to engage our members of Congress asking for their opposition to the bills in the House and Senate. A very conservative estimate on the impact this legislation will have on sportfishing-related businesses is some $500 million annually. Letters and emails are needed asking for the amendments proposed by the Allied Fishing Groups to S.2533. Every letter and email counts.

Also attached below, you should find:

1. SF/AFG Media Release on S.2533. Copy and send it to friends and interested parties urging them to contact Senator Feinstein’s WDC office and request that she amend the bill as requested by the Allied Fishing Groups and encourage them to go to our website for more information.

2. A copy of the letter we sent to the Senator requesting amendments necessary to save the estuary’s non-native fisheries, for your use and distribution.

3. For those who would like to send email to Feinstein, the best way to do this is to log onto her website. You will find a form on this site to be used for emailing the Senator. Make sure that we are using the form to contact all of her district offices and her WDC office by checking the appropriate boxes.

John Beuttler

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Allied Fishing Groups / John Beuttler @ 510.526.4049, johnbeuttler@icloud.com / Dr. David Ostrach @ 530.219.1451, djostrach@gmail.com

the early morning chill did not keep them from enjoying the day. They had the opportunity to catch small fish and learn about fishing from volunteers, creating lasting memories. Parents and guardians were thrilled to see their children experiencing the joys of fishing in a supportive environment.

As the day progressed, volunteers helped ensure everyone had the necessary equipment and guidance. Many families brought picnic lunches to enjoy by the water, making it a joyful community gathering.

The event not only provided a fun day out but also aimed to promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle for children. The “Hooked on Fishing, not on Drugs” initiative serves as a testament to the positive impact of engaging youth in outdoor activities.

Overall, this year's event was a blend of excitement, laughter, and the thrill of fishing that echoed throughout Upper Bidwell Park, once again reinforcing the importance of such community events in fostering outdoor activities among the younger generation.

Traditionally, June is a great month for Bay Area saltwater anglers, and this June is shaping up to be one of the best in memory. The best salmon bite in the state is occurring in the coastal waters beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. Inside San Francisco Bay, the action is very good with halibut, striped bass, and other species such as sharks on the menu.

Anyone that has followed the Fish Sniffer for long knows that I am an avid saltwater angler. Unfortunately, with recent challenges in formatting and printing the magazine, I have had little time to get on the water, but that is about to change. I am slated to host my annual live bait potluck couples trip on Berkeley’s California Dawn in a few days. After that, the fish better be cautious, as I will be chasing salmon, lings, and rockfish in the coming weeks.

In my view, both salmon and halibut fishing have been surprisingly good this season. So good, in fact, that it feels a lot like the good old days. Back when our fisheries were much stronger, having halibut and salmon action in May and June was a given. However, for the past few years, the early season action has been sketchy, with only a few halibut being caught here and there and the salmon holding in deep water well offshore.

So far this year, there seem to be big numbers of halibut inside the bay, stripers have arrived in force, and the salmon are in close and feeding on local schools of bait.

“Salmon fishing has been good to very good depending on the day,” disclosed Captain Joey Gallia of New Easy Rider Sportfishing. “There is a good amount of bait in the form of anchovies and sardines just beyond the Golden Gate,...

The population of Delta Smelt plummeted to a new low in the annual spring survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) as the endangered fish moves closer to extinction.

The 2016 Spring Kodiak Trawl (SKT) index, a relative measure of abundance, is 1.8, a decrease from the 2015 index (13.8) and is the lowest index on record.

The small 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the estuary. As the Delta smelt declines, so do the other fish species found in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

This decrease was expected since the Delta Smelt population was at a record low at the end of 2015, said Scott Wilson, Regional Manager of the CDFW Bay Delta Region, in a memo. The SKT monitors the adult spawning stock of Delta Smelt, and this year’s low index means the number of spawners is also at a record low. This may limit larval recruitment and hinder their ability to recover in 2016.

Only thirteen adult Delta Smelt were collected at 8 stations contributing to the index in 2016. This is the lowest catch in SKT history, and a steep decline from the 2015 then-record-low catch of 88, said Wilson.

Wilson said the annual adult Delta Smelt catch at index stations averages 311 fish and ranges from 13 to 948.

Once the most abundant species in the estuary, we can now name smelt rather than count them, said Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).

The Spring Kodiak Trawl began in 2002 and an index was first developed in 2012.

While state and federal managers often point to drought as the cause of the smelt’s decline, representatives of fishing groups believe it is...

Lower Bear River Reservoir, located off Highway 88 in the Carson Pass Corridor, is known for offering an array of fishing options, ranging from trolling for big mackinaw and brown trout with plugs, spoons, and nightcrawlers to shore fishing for planted and holdover rainbows.

The reservoir features 727 surface acres and a shoreline of about 9 miles when full. It is located along the Bear River, a tributary of the North Fork of the Mokelumne River, south of Highway 88.

The lake was only 3 feet from maximum pool at press time, offering solid boating and fishing opportunities this year, and the ramp and marina facilities at Lower Bear River Resort and Campground are in full operation.

Last year the boat ramp wasn’t in the water the entire season because of low water conditions – anglers had to launch on the dirt, said Janette Frasier at the Bear River Lake Resort and Campground.

To date, a total of 4,400 pounds of rainbows have been planted in the lake, according to Frasier. PG&E made two plants totaling 1,400 pounds, while the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stocked one load of 2,000 pounds of catchables.

Then on Friday, June 10, prior to their two-day annual trout derby on June 11 and 12, the lake management stocked a total of 1,000 pounds of rainbows ranging from 2 to 5 pounds.

Trolling was tough during the event, but some bank anglers fishing bait did very well. The 79 people participating in the derby weighed in a total of 30 fish.

Floyd Girardin won first place with a 3.61 lb. rainbow trout.

The grab was so hard that the light spinning rod was nearly wrenched from my hand and I actually had to adjust my grip to keep from losing control.

For much of the morning I’d been shooting video of other folks catching fish and now it was my turn. I was hooked up and the cameras were rolling. The problem was that the current was ripping and the fish was far downstream when the hook up occurred.

The fish surged and gyrated and the rod was sharply bent. Ever so slowly I worked the reel as I spoke to the camera. The tactic almost worked. The fish was perhaps a boat length away when there was a surge and a flash and the line went limp. That’s why they earned the moniker of “Papermouths” long ago. Too much pressure and that tiny hook will pull right out!

The date was June 6, the location was the American River Parkway upriver of Sunrise Boulevard. The fish that just escaped me was an American shad. My partner for the day was Fish Sniffer contributor and trout fishing fanatic Tom O’Brien.

When Tom shared with me several days before that he’d never caught a shad, but wanted to, I immediately got on the phone to Captain Cameron Beck.

My buddy Cameron is the owner/operator of American River Charters. He is an avid river fisherman that also spends a fair amount of time chasing saltwater species both inside and outside San Francisco Bay.

I knew that Cameron had been putting his clients on big numbers of hard charging shad and I asked if he’d take Tom and me out to shoot some video and give me some fodder for a feature in the Fish Sniffer.

Cameron enthusiastically agreed, but shared that he had been...

Chef Marc was busy at the grill turning out platters of eggs and hash browns as Captain James Smith turned over the California Dawn’s massive diesel engines, warming them up for the adventure to come.

On deck co-captain and deckhand for the day, Chris Smith, stood behind the live bait tank and gave a comprehensive yet light-hearted potluck fishing seminar to the 24 anglers aboard, passing along knowledge he’d acquired over four decades on the water.

“Halibut are a scratch fishery here in San Francisco Bay,” related Chris. “Most of the time we aren’t going to have multiple hookups going at once. It’s going to be one fish here and one fish there. If one of your neighbors down the rail hooks up and then your rod starts wiggling, don’t assume it’s another fish and set the hook. It may well be that your neighbor’s fish has crossed your line. Wait a second or two before you make a move to be sure what’s going on.

“Halibut are one of those fish we love to put into the box because they are so good to eat. The last thing you want to do is jerk the hook out of a fish’s mouth with an ill-advised hook set. If we work together as a team, we’ll maximize success,” he was advised.

Such was the scene during the opening moments of the 2016 Couple’s Challenge aboard Berkeley’s California Dawn on June 2. If you aren’t familiar with the Couple’s Challenge, it’s a very special charter boat trip that I’ve been hosting for the past 10 years. It’s a day when couples, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends descend on the California Dawn for a day of live bait potluck fishing.

Larry Hemphill, fishing guide, reported top-notch bass fishing at Lake Berryessa with a couple that flew in from Texas to fish the lake.

“Fishing was very good during mid-day as a breeze came up about 11 pm - and so did the bite!” said Hemphill. “We landed more largemouth than previous trips in the past several years!”

“Between 11am and 1 pm, he landed a 5 lb 2 oz and 4 lb largemouth and I landed one at 4 lb 5 oz. and several 2 1/2 to 3 lb largemouth,” he explained. “We only caught 1 or 2 spots, but we did land a few quality smallmouth up to near 3 lbs! Our 5 best were a bit over 18 lbs.”

“We caught most of our bass during those 2 hours in about 8 to 15 feet of water,” said Hemphill. “The wind soon died and so did we (of the heat)!”

“I also had a great trip last Friday. Fishing was excellent for many hours and nearly all bass were over 2 lbs. The biggest was a spawned-out largemouth weighing 4 lbs. Smallies up to 3 lbs 10 oz were hitting nearly all day,” he tipped.

“Last week we used Robo Worms of several colors. Yesterday, morning dawn was the best color as it was last year in early summer. Yamamoto creature baits were good last week, as were Senkos. The bass were a little deeper last week, both trips were in the narrows and main body (mostly west side),” Hemphill concluded.

Trout fishing reports have been scarce lately, but fishing had been improving in recent weeks.

“Look for big bait schools by Big Island and in front of Skier’s Cove,” advised Tom Dudenhoeffer at Sweeney’s Sports in Napa. “Drift live minnows or troll Rainbow Runner and Apex spoons...

Temperatures are soaring in the upper reaches of the Sacramento Valley and that means it’s time to hit the Sacramento River for epic wild rainbow action.

Both Mike Bogue of Mike Bogue’s Guide Service and Kirk Portocarrero of SacRiverGuide.Com report good to very good rainbow fishing on the Sacramento River below Redding.

Bogue’s clients have been catching rainbows up to and beyond the three-pound mark on a variety of plugs and baits. Bogue typically starts the day working runs with back-trolled crankbaits. Later on, he explores deeper areas with both Pautzke cured roe and Pautzke Salmon Eggs.

Portocarrero is offering both fly and conventional tackle trips for rainbows that average 14 inches and range up to 20 plus. When using spinning gear, Kirk’s clients are scoring with a combination of egg imitations and small spoons.

A lot of anglers are wondering how the river salmon fishing is going to be when the season opens on July 16.

Of course, no one knows, but there have been some positive signs. Salmon have been spotted in the Red Bluff area and some have already been caught and released by anglers trolling for stripers in the Delta. All in all, things are looking good with salmon in the ocean and plenty of water in the river.

If you’d like to fish during the opening week, give Bogue or Portocarrero a call, as spots tend to book up quickly.

Rowland Martin teamed up with master bass guide Don Paganelli on June 4. The pair hooked a bunch of bass at Folsom Lake including these handsome spots.

If you want to catch three species of bass – spotted, largemouth and smallmouth – Folsom Lake is a great prospect now.

“On my latest trip to the lake, Roland Martin (not that Roland Martin) and I caught and released around a dozen bass,” said Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience. “We caught all three species, topped by a 3-1-2 lb. spot.”

“We hooked the fish first thing in the morning with a Bladerunner Swimtrix head with a swimbait trailer,” he said. “As the day went on, we hooked the fish in the South Fork by switching to drop shotting with Robo Worms and tubes down to 25 feet deep.”

Trout fishing is also going strong at Folsom. James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service and crew landed 12 rainbows while trolling Speedy Shiners in red dot bullfrog in the North Fork. They trolled at 35 to 50 feet deep with leadcore line 200 feet behind the boat.

“We marked kings in the South Fork, but we couldn’t get them to bite,” he noted.

The water level is now 453.50 feet in elevation, 12.5 feet from maximum pool. Both the Brown's Ravine and Granite Bay's ramps are in operation.

Judge Michael Kenny of the Sacramento Superior Court on June 23 ruled that the Delta Plan is invalid after a successful legal challenge by multiple Delta parties who argued that the controversial plan doesn't protect water quality or the many fish species that depend on fresh water flows for their survival.

The Court, in its tentative ruling vacating the plan, said the Delta Stewardship Council must rewrite the Delta Plan to include a number of quantitative measures of performance, including reduced reliance on the Delta for future water needs by exporters.

Since the Delta Plan relied heavily on Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels Plan, now called the California WaterFix, to achieve its goals, Delta and public trust advocates see this as significant victory that will delay the twin tunnels for years.

The Delta Plan was required by the 2009 Delta Reform Act, a law designed to implement the two coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. The coequal goals shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place, according to the Act.

In his decision, Judge Kenny said: “To be clear, the Delta Plan is invalid and must be set aside until proper revisions are completed. As Respondent itself argued previously, in light of an invalid Delta Plan, there is no proposed project, and consequently nothing before the Court to review under CEQA. The Court does not believe that piece-meal CEQA review is feasible under circumstances in which significant Plan revisions are required.”

Representatives of groups who participated in the lawsuits against the weak protections in the Delta Plan praised the tentative ruling. They plan to issue a full press release...

the Delta's natural ecosystem would be drastically reduced, impacting both wildlife and water quality.”

The coalition highlighted that alternative plans comprehensively analyze sustainable water management solutions that respect the environment while ensuring reliable water supplies. They emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts among stakeholders to develop a balanced approach that prioritizes ecological health and community needs.

The organizations reiterated their call for transparency and public engagement in the water management decision-making process. They urged the Santa Clara Valley Water District and other involved agencies to consider these alternatives seriously rather than perpetuating the narrative that no other options exist.

The letter concluded by reaffirming the commitment of these groups to advocate for an equitable and sustainable water future for California, one that recognizes the importance of both people and the environment.

Just a year after the massive Refugio Oil Spill fouled the pristine waters off the Santa Barbara Coast, a leak in an oil pipeline in Hall Canyon in Ventura County was reported at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 23. As many as 700 barrels of crude oil — 29,400 gallons — have been spilled.

The company responsible for the Ventura oil spill, Crimson Pipeline, has a decade-long history of oil spills in California. Spills like this one are becoming increasingly common in a state where Big Oil has captured the regulatory apparatus and the oil industry is the most powerful corporate lobby.

Fortunately, Ventura County Firefighters halted the oil from flowing towards the ocean, according to Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Mike Lindbery.

“The forward oil flow progress has been stopped,” said Lindbery. “There is no environmental threat to ocean and no evacuations in the area.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response confirmed that no oiled wildlife have been observed or reported and no oil has reached the ocean or other water from the pipeline spill.

The agency said the oil from the spill has been isolated in Hall Canyon. “There is no oil in the storm drain. Vacuum trucks are collecting the oil,” the CDFW stated.

A multi-agency response has been established to manage cleanup operations in the area impacted by the spill, according to the CDFW in a follow-up statement on June 24. Cleanup crews, including 98 responders and five vacuum trucks, remain on-scene containing and recovering the oil. Air monitoring is being continually conducted to assure safety of responders and residents in the area.

The cause of the spill is currently under investigation. “The unified command response will be independent of that investigation and includes representatives from the California Department...

On June 30, the California Natural Resources Agency, under the leadership of Secretary John Laird, put out another fact sheet extolling the virtues of the proposed California WaterFix, the new name for Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels Plan.

This new effort is entitled Fast Facts and like most of the claims made by tunnel proponents, it plays fast and loose with the facts, according to Restore the Delta.

Below is RTD's rebuttal to the agency's Fast Facts disinformation:

Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the claims made in this new public relations effort.

CLAIM: Secure clean water supplies for 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of farmland.

FACT: In reality, 70 percent of the water used from the Delta goes for large industrial agriculture in the Southwestern San Joaquin Valley that contributes just 0.3% to the state’s GDP.

CLAIM: Improve the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's ecosystem.

FACT: This claim ignores the scientific consensus and state law as outlined in the 2009 Delta Reform Act that less water must be exported from the Delta. In 2010, the State Water Resources Control Board agreed, finding the Delta can safely share 2.5 to 3.5 million acre feet of water, not 4.9 million acre feet.

CLAIM: An update to California's aging water delivery system and part of the state's overall water management portfolio, which includes conservation, groundwater management, recycling, ecosystem protection, and more.

FACT: Tunnel opponents support conservation, groundwater management, recycling, ecosystem protection projects and don’t want $15 million wasted on a Tunnels project that does none of those things. The Delta Tunnels is an expensive boondoggle conceived in the 1960s and rejected by California voters in 1982. It depends on continuing to deliver Sierra snowpack from Northern California to farms in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, even though climate scientists have...

With the Sacramento Valley in the middle of a triple-digit heatwave, I was looking for a way to get out of the heat. It just so happened that I had been in conversation with Captain James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service and when he told me that the kokanee were on the bite at Stampede Reservoir, it was just the opportunity that I was looking for. I have known James for a few years now, having fished river salmon with him and in talking with him at the Sacramento ISE Show over the winter.

So on June 25, I made the drive up the hill with my friend and kokanee fan, Ian Rigler of Sacramento. We met Captain James before sunrise at the boat ramp and after exchanging pleasantries we were quickly aboard his spacious fully rigged 22' Boulton Pro Sea Skiff and ready to start trolling.

As a novice kokanee angler, I listened with serious intent as Captain James instructed, "When you get a fish, if it doesn't pop off the downrigger, thumb the spool and lift up, you don't have to jerk, just a steady pull. As soon as it pops off, reel like crazy to take up the slack, once you get contact with the fish, then just slow your reeling down. Just slowly reel and keep the rod up and let it do the work. In kokanee fishing, if you lose only fifty percent of the fish you hook, you are doing good. Some days you don't lose any and some days you lose twice as many as you catch. If you catch them in the corner of the mouth, you got that fish. If the fish...

It had been a tough morning. The kokanee bite of the week before, when two anglers fishing with Monte Smith of Gold Country Sportfishing had caught 9 kokanee in the 15 to 16 inch range and one big holdover rainbow, had shut down.

"I don’t know where the kokanee have gone," said Smith. "In the Kokanee Power Derby on Saturday, fishing was very tough, and some people didn’t hook any fish. But that was during a full moon."

We trolled with a variety of Micro Hoochies, tipped with Pautzke-scented corn, behind Vance’s Dodgers, at a variety of depths from 45 to 85 feet, but the fish didn’t want to bite.

After not hooking any kokanee all morning, Smith decided to target rainbows in the main body of the lake using his homemade spoons, Chucker-Ts, at around 40 feet deep.

At first, none of the rainbows wanted to play either. Then one of the rods dipped and line began pulling off the reel. I picked up the rod, a little nervous about it because we hadn’t boated a fish yet that day and I was afraid of losing it.

After I grabbed the rod, the fish took off on a long run, pulling lots of line off the Shimano reel with a series of head shakes. "This feels like a salmon," I told Smith.

As the fish kept running, it suddenly made a leap. "It looked like a salmon or big holdover rainbow," I told him.

I carefully and slowly worked the fish toward the boat. As usual with a big salmon, the fish made a last run as I got it near the boat. However, it was tiring, and I slowly reeled the fish to the surface and Smith netted it. It was a big, fat silvery king measuring 24-3/4...

There will be no salmon served at the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath Salmon Festival, set for Saturday, August 20 on the Yurok Reservation, because of the record-low fish run. This is the first time in 54 years that this has occurred.

The event is meant to be an opportunity to share Yurok culture, celebrate the Klamath salmon and unite the whole community around a common cause. The festival is free and open to all. Salmon is a central part of the Yurok Tribe’s culture and religion, according to a press release from the Tribe.

The shortage of fish for this year’s festival is largely due to poor water management practices. In 2014 and 2015 almost all of the juvenile Klamath River chinook and coho salmon died from a deadly parasite known as Ceratonova shasta, formerly called Ceratomyxa shasta.

“There are not enough fish to feed our families, many of which will need food assistance, as a result of this manmade catastrophe,” Thomas O’Rourke said.

The complete press release about this festival is below:

For first time in 54 years, salmon will not be served at festival.

For the first time in the event’s 54-year history, the Yurok Tribe had to remove salmon from the menu at this year’s Klamath Salmon Festival because of the record low fish run.

“This was a very difficult decision. We hope that all festival attendees understand that this was the only responsible option,” said Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., Chairman of the Yurok Tribe.

The Yurok Tribe puts on the annual festival to provide an opportunity for the whole community to unite in celebration of the Klamath River. The famous chinook salmon lunch, a highlight of the long-standing event, has always been a part of the festivities. Sharing this best-quality salmon, cooked the traditional way over an...

Are you looking for a job? The scandal-ridden Westlands Water District, considered the Darth Vader of California water politics by Tribes, fishermen, and environmentalists, is hiring a new general counsel.

The announcement came after the Westlands Board of Directors reported stripping Tom Birmingham of his general counsel duties. Birmingham has served as both the district’s general manager and general counsel.

The Westlands Water District Board of Directors decided to separate the role of General Manager and General Counsel in order to improve the District's decision-making processes and provide an additional layer of review for the District, said Don Peracchi, President of the Westlands Board of Directors, in a statement. The Legal Affairs Committee of the Board will immediately begin a search to hire a new General Counsel.

The Board concluded that the complexities involved in securing water supply, groundwater management, and other challenges facing the District require the full attention of the General Manager.

The new General Counsel will have the responsibility of providing legal advice on proposed changes to existing policies, new policies, personnel matters, and any other matters requested by the Board, according to Peracchi.

The Board believes the new organizational structure will promote more transparency and good government practices, and represents the beginning of a process to improve the decision-making and operations of the District, he explained.

Delta advocates expressed dismay that the Westlands Board hadn’t outright dismissed Birmingham, especially in light of the recent financial scandals that have plagued the water district.

Westlands Water District is rearranging chairs on the Titanic, said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. In a normal functioning public agency such leadership would be dismissed.

Westlands has been embroiled in a number of scandals over the past several months. The Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10 charged Westlands, California’s...

Corporate agribusiness interests and Southern California water agencies have launched a new attack in their campaign to eradicate striped bass as they scapegoat the popular gamefish for salmon and Delta smelt declines caused by decades of water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, the Astroturf group bankrolled by Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon Stewart Resnick, on June 9 submitted a new petition to the California Fish and Game Commission to raise the bag limit and reduce the size limit on striped bass in an attempt to reduce their population. This time they’ve added black bass as a so-called predator to their petition.

The Coalition is joined by a who's who of the state’s agribusiness, water agency and corporate interests, including the California Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, Southern California Water Committee, State Water Contractors, Western Growers Association, California Farm Bureau Federation, Northern California Water Association and Kern County Water Agency.

When the water contractors last tried to eradicate striped bass by slashing the size limit and increasing the bag limit, anglers were able to defeat their proposal with a large showing of people at the February 2012 Fish and Game Commission meeting after Fish Sniffer Editor Cal Kellogg and I helped organize a campaign mobilizing over 450 anglers to show up for a CDFW meeting on the issue in Rio Vista in November 2011.

Coalition for a Sustainable Delta spokesman Michael Boccadoro, the president of the Dolphin Group, claimed the purpose of the petition is to help preserve Sacramento River Chinook salmon and Delta smelt.

California families, businesses and farms have sacrificed considerably during this drought to provide water to help preserve salmon and smelt, Boccadoro stated. Modifying size and bag limits for striped bass...

The fat, silvery fish slammed the lure, knocking the line off the downrigger clip, and immediately jumped out of the water in a series of leaps in an effort to free itself of the hook. I grabbed the rod out of the holder and reeled in the slack.

The fish kept jumping out of the water until it made a run and surged towards the bottom for a couple of minutes. Finally, I was able to work the fish towards the net where Captain James Netzel, owner of Tight Lines Guide Service, netted it.

The kokanee salmon was 16 inches long and very fat and healthy, a typical Boca Reservoir kokanee. It was the last fish needed to fill our limits by 8:30 AM.

In spite of the great bite we had experienced, Netzel noted that the anglers fishing with him had caught limits of kokanee even earlier, by 7 am, on a trip the previous week.

“The fishing has slowed down since then,” he noted. “We have to work a little harder to get our limits.”

I’ve caught bigger kokanee, and limited out more quickly at other lakes, but in terms of the sheer fighting quality and spunkiness of these fish, this quick trip to Boca was some of the best kokanee fishing I’ve ever experienced.

And that says a lot, since I’ve fished for the landlocked sockeye salmon at a multitude of waters, including Stampede, Whiskeytown, Little Grass Valley, Bucks, Union Valley, Indian Valley, Pardee, Don Pedro, New Melones, McClure, Cherry, McClure and Shaver lakes.

We caught our fish while downrigger trolling with Radical Glow Tubes and Wee Dick Nites, tipped with white corn, at an array of depths from 20 to 35 feet deep. We saw three other boats fishing the lake before the personal watercraft and...

One of the least discussed issues in California environmental politics and one of the most crucial to understanding Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels plan is the clear connection between the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and the California WaterFix, formerly called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

The privately-funded MLPA Initiative and the California WaterFix to build the peripheral tunnels at first may appear to be entirely different processes.

The MLPA Initiative, a process begun in 2004 under the Schwarzenegger administration, purported to create a network of marine protected areas along the California coast. The network was supposedly completed on December 19, 2012, with the imposition of contested marine protected areas along the North Coast.

On the other hand, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process began under the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations to achieve the so-called co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Delta ecosystem restoration. In 2015, the state and federal governments divided the BDCP into two projects, the California WaterFix, the conveyance component, and the California EcoRestore, the habitat restoration component.

But in spite of some superficial differences, the two processes are united by their leadership, funding, greenwashing goals, racism and denial of tribal rights, junk science, and numerous conflicts of interest. When people educate themselves on the links between the two processes, I believe they can more effectively wage a successful campaign against the Delta Tunnels and to restore our imperiled salmon and San Francisco Bay-Delta fisheries.

Mike Carpenter, a sea urchin diver and organizer of a fundraiser for the California Fisheries Coalition in Albion on the Mendocino coast, made the vital connection between the MLPA Initiative and Schwarzenegger's campaign to build a peripheral canal back in 2009 when the battle against the creation of questionable marine protected areas on the North Coast was amping up.

Carpenter emphasized that...

I felt a little funny. A twinge of dizziness perhaps, but I didn’t think much of it. My sack was starting to bulge with a half dozen husky rockfish and a keeper lingcod that measured just short of 25 inches.

Most of the time I’m looking for something big, but at this particular moment I was trying to go small, fishing the little bitty anchovy on a three-way live bait rig. I was hoping for something I could use for bait.

A drop or two later that’s exactly what I got when I reeled a feisty 8-inch olive rockfish to the surface.

Dropping the small rockfish into one of the wells on the Happy Hooker’s live bait tank, I grabbed my heavy rod, slapped on a pound of weight, baited up with the rockfish and sent him back to the bottom.

I didn’t think it wouldn’t take long and when I felt rubbery resistance a minute later I knew a husky lingcod was submitting its resume. I let the ling mouth the bait for several seconds before starting to slowly turn the handle of the Penn Baja Special. The big reel had probably sucked up four or five feet of 65-pound braid when Mr. Lingcod decided to get aggressive.

Wham…I felt solid weight and a determined surge. Working the reel hard, I pumped the fish off the bottom only to have it surge back down again against the drag. I could tell it wasn’t huge, but certainly a quality keeper.

“Ling on,” I yelled and seconds later long time Happy Hooker deckhand Mike Verrone was at my side just as the

After covering fish, water, and environmental justice issues in California and the West for over 30 years as an investigative journalist, I’ve concluded that the California Water Fix, the new name for the Delta Tunnels, is the most environmentally devastating public works project I've ever encountered.

I’ve published hundreds of articles about the Delta Tunnels, Governor Jerry Brown's plan to divert Sacramento River water 30 miles under the California Delta to facilitate its export to corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies, in a wide array of publications.

In my reporting, I’ve covered many aspects of the controversial plan. These include:

• How the project won’t create one drop of new water while spending up to $67 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer’s money.

• How the project’s former point man Jerry Meral, in a moment of candor in 2013, claimed the Delta “cannot be saved,” after years of promoting the peripheral canal and tunnels as the solution to the co-equal goals of water supply reliability.

• How the reports of scientific panels, ranging from the Delta Independence Science Board to federal EPA scientists, that have given the alleged “science” of the tunnels project a failing grade.

• How the project won’t help Californians during the drought, fund innovative water conservation, storm water capture, or water recycling projects that are desperately needed.

• How the plan will push endangered fish species, such as Delta and longfin smelt, winter Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon, over the abyss of extinction, while failing to address the state's long-term water supply needs.

• How the project will devastate not only San Francisco Bay and Delta fisheries, but recreational, commercial and subsistence fisheries up and down the West Coast; the salmon fishery alone is worth $1.5 billion annually.

• How the tunnels will...

Below is the latest Water4Fish newsletter, followed by my article exposing the campaign by Stewart Resnick's Coalition for a Sustainable Delta Astroturf group and the water contractors to eradicate striped bass and black bass.

The Water4Fish Newsletter periodically publishes alerts to the fishermen and women of Northern California where our fisheries are seriously threatened. We then ask you to take action by writing letters to political leaders and others protesting the bad action. Tens of thousands of you have responded and we have been successful in getting many policy changes. We now have a major new threat and once again we are asking for your help.

Bag and Size Limit Changes Pose Serious Threats to Stripers and Bass

As you have probably heard, the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta representing the San Joaquin Valley water diverters has petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to adopt higher bag limits and lower size limits for black bass and stripers. These changes are aimed to essentially eradicate these species from the Delta, Bay and rivers of the Central Valley. The proposal increases the bag limit on stripers from 2 fish to 6 and decreases the size limit from 18 inches to 12. It increases the black bass bag limit from 5 to 10 and decreases the size limit from 12 inches to 8. It would be devastating to these species.

This is a very serious threat to our fishing future and we must defeat it by protecting our fishing rights and fighting back with every action we can muster. The striped bass industry, the black bass industry and the salmon industry have joined together in a strong coalition to fight this bad action. This is potentially the largest coalition ever formed in Northern California to protect our fisheries. We need your help...

I reeled in my lure, I could feel some weight. I set the hook, and instantly knew I was on to something bigger than I anticipated. The fish took off with powerful runs, and I had to play it carefully to avoid it diving back into the rocks. After a tense battle, I finally brought the fish to the surface, and to my excitement, it was a stunning mackinaw.

After a quick photo and releasing the fish back into the water, I continued my search for kokanee. I found a few more schools but struggled to get a solid bite. Meanwhile, Bret was having some success of his own, landing a couple of nice mackinaw in a different area of the lake.

As the morning faded into afternoon, the winds picked up as expected. It became challenging to maintain our boat position, and the bites slowed down. We decided to take a break for lunch, relaxing and enjoying the serene beauty of Bucks Lake.

After our break, we returned to fishing. I experimented with different colors and depths, hoping to trigger a reaction from the kokanee. Soon, I felt a tap and set the hook. This time I was ready and pulled in my first kokanee of the day. It wasn’t large, but it was a keeper for the grill.

We spent the rest of the afternoon targeting the kokanee, managing to catch a few more. Despite the wind and the transitional period, it turned out to be a satisfying day on the water. We wrapped up our trip with smiles, a couple of fresh kokanee, and the thrill of having encountered some solid mackinaw.

Two fishing groups won a major legal victory against the federal government and agribusiness interests on July 25 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Delta water contracts with the Westlands Water District and other irrigators.

The ruling by the three-judge panel could throw a major obstacle in the path of Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels Plan, the California WaterFix project, since it assumes incorrectly that the federal government must strive to deliver the full contract amounts to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness under its interim contracts, according to the groups.

On July 25, the Court ruled in favor of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association in their long legal battle with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness operations that divert millions of acre-feet of water annually from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

After four years of court proceedings, the Court of Appeals ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider reducing the quantity of water diverted from the Delta for farming uses and increasing the Delta’s freshwater flows to San Francisco Bay to restore its imperiled salmon and wildlife, according to a press release from the Law Offices of Stephan Volker, attorney for the two organizations.

The Court held that in approving eight two-year contracts for the delivery of up to 1.2 million acre-feet of water annually from the Delta to Central Valley water districts, Reclamation had failed to consider the alternatives of reducing the quantity of water delivered or terminating the contracts altogether and delivering no water.

The Court stated that Reclamation’s decision not to give full and meaningful consideration to the alternative of a reduction...

California legislators want to know if California fish hatcheries are going broke. Below is the press release about this issue from the California Sportfishing League.

August 15, 2016 (Sacramento, CA): Late last week, 14 bipartisan members of the California Legislature Outdoor Sporting Caucus expressed concern that the state’s Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund (HIFF) program may be at risk of insolvency and called on the California Fish and Game Commission for detailed analysis of revenues and expenditures. The letter is in response to claims by the Department of Finance that the HIFF program could be insolvent by fiscal year 2018-19.

“We are writing to express concern regarding the solvency of the Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund which is overseen by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). According to the Department of Finance, this fund is operating at an annual loss and is perilously close to insolvency. This would dangerously impact California freshwater anglers,” wrote the bipartisan group of California State Legislators.

The HIFF is financed by California fishing licenses, which according to a California Sportfishing League (CSL) study is the most expensive license in the nation, with permits. CSL’s study also concluded that annual fishing licenses have declined over 55% since 1980, which jeopardizes its ability to qualify for federal grants as sales continue to decline.

“California’s hatchery programs are at risk as the state continues to make fishing less accessible and more costly,” said Marko Mlikotin, CSL’s executive director. “DFW’s leadership does not seem too concerned that as fewer Californians fish, the state receives less money for hatchery and conservation programs. Greater attention is needed to reforming California’s costly and antiquated fishing license program.”

For the past several years, CSL has called on DFW to reform its costly and antiquated fishing license program. It has sponsored legislation that...

The Klamath River salmon fishery, an integral part of the culture, religion and livelihoods of the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and Karuk Tribes of Northern California, is going through some tough times this year.

Because of the record-low run of fall-run Chinook salmon projected by federal fishery managers earlier this year, the Yurok Tribe, the largest Indian Tribe in California, held its Klamath Salmon Festival this August without serving traditionally-cooked salmon to the public as it has done for 54 years.

Then on August 19, the Tribe announced that Yurok Fisheries crews conducting routine fish disease monitoring have found that salmon in the Klamath River on the Yurok Reservation are infected with a potentially deadly disease.

Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, commonly known as ich, is capable of causing large fish kill events, according to the Tribe. Ich was the primary pathogen that caused the 2002 fish kill in the Klamath River and killed more than 35,000 adult Chinook salmon and steelhead after the disease spread in low, warm conditions spurred by Bush administration water policies that favored irrigators over fish and downstream water users.

Michael Belchik, Senior Fisheries Biologist for the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, said the disease was found at relatively low severity in the Klamath River last year, but is back this year at concerning levels.

“It appears that a small number of adult salmon migrated upriver in extremely warm water temperatures and then became stuck in a relatively small thermal refuge where they are getting infected with the pathogen,” stated Belchik. “What this means for the health of the fall Chinook run that is yet to migrate upstream is unclear.”

Belchik said diseases such as ich are exacerbated by low flows and water temperatures that currently exist in the lower Klamath and Trinity Rivers.

In a statement, the Tribe said...

In a big victory for fishing groups who were mobilizing for a huge turnout of anglers at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Folsom on Thursday, August 25, Stewart Resnick's Coalition for a Sustainable Delta Astroturf group and their water contractor allies have withdrawn their petition to increase bag limits and reduce size limits for striped bass and black bass in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

According to a notice on the meeting posted on the Commission's website today, the petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass) has been withdrawn by the petitioners. As a result the Commission will not be taking action on this petition.

"There is no need to go to the California Fish and Game Commission meeting set for this Thursday," confirmed John Beuttler of the Allied Fishing Groups. "The Commission has announced that the Coalition for Sustainable Delta, California Chamber of Commerce, California Farm Bureau Federation, Kern County Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Northern California Water Association, San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, Southern California Water Committee, State Water Contractors, and Western Growers have withdrawn their petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass regulations)."

Michael Boccadoro, the spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, told the Sacramento Bee that supporters of the water contractors were frustrated that they would be allowed only 10 minutes to present their case before the Commission Thursday. However, it is more likely that they withdrew the petition because of the intense opposition to it by anglers and prominent scientists including Dr. David Ostrach and Dr. Peter Moyle - and the likelihood that the Commission would reject the petition.

The Commission on Wednesday will be voting on an item of great interest to anglers: Item 10. Master Plan for Marine Protected Areas. The Commission will discuss and approve text...

The tip of my rod quivered with the frantic, nervous swimming motions of my live sardine 10 feet below my kayak. Mr. Sardine was trying to get away from some unseen predator. All of a sudden, the vibrations stopped.

The rod tip slowly bent into an arc, eventually dipping into the water. Line peeled off the reel as a 20 pound Chinook salmon surged forward with Mr. Sardine clamped in his jaws. "Fish on!" I hollered to my nearby friends as the fish towed me west across Humboldt Bay.

The Chinook (king) salmon is arguably the most prized quarry among NorCal kayak anglers. Many kayak anglers will spend years trying before they catch their first Chinook from a kayak. They’re a tricky fish to pursue via the plastic boat: the typical NorCal method for targeting salmon is trolling, and it can take literally miles upon miles of paddling across the Pacific before you’re lucky enough to get a bite. The kayak angler must accept the fact that they will be skunked on many salmon trips.

But sometimes, salmon make it easy on us. Humboldt Bay has been a salmon hotspot this summer, with powerboats, kayakers, and even shore anglers scoring several beautiful Chinook salmon averaging 15 to 20 pounds.

My brother Matthew lives right on the bay, and is having a stellar year on the salmon. He invited me to come out and experience catching salmon in the quiet waters of a bay. He didn’t have to ask twice. I took a few days off work so I could spend several days targeting salmon and California halibut inside the bay.

When Matthew showed me the area we were fishing for salmon, I admit I was skeptical. "Really? Here?" I kept asking. The area consisted of shallow, sandy flats of 10-15...

above the bottom. It wasn't long before Matt hooked into a nice halibut, and the excitement was contagious. Each time he brought in a fish, it motivated me to try harder.

I kept adjusting my setup based on what Matt was doing, and soon enough, I felt a solid tug on my line. The fight was exhilarating, and after a few tense moments, I managed to reel in a beautiful California halibut. The thrill of catching a new species was worth every moment of the effort.

As the sun began to set, we continued to fish, sharing stories and enjoying the tranquility of the evening. The saltwater breeze and the sound of the waves added to the experience, reminding me why I love this time spent outdoors.

In the end, it was more than just a fishing trip. It was a chance to connect with my brother, explore new waters, and challenge myself to learn more about these incredible fish. Chasing new species is about growth and discovery, and this trip was a perfect example of that.

Jerry Brown is often falsely portrayed as a climate leader and green governor by the mainstream media, but he is pushing for the completion of the most environmentally destructive and environmentally unjust public works project in California history, the Delta Tunnels, before he leaves office.

Earthjustice, representing Restore the Delta, submitted detailed testimony on September 2 from the communities that will be most affected by Brown’s proposed $17 billion Delta Tunnels, the California WaterFix. The project will hasten the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, and green sturgeon, along with imperiling salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath Rivers.

The California State Water Resources Control Board is currently holding hearings on permits for three new water intakes on the Sacramento River to feed the Tunnels, intended to send massive quantities of fresh water south to corporate agribusiness interests farming drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.

The first two rounds of the hearings address potential impacts to legal water users in the Delta, according to a joint press release from Earthjustice and Restore the Delta. The California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the lead agencies for the proposed Delta Tunnels, requested the permits.

Today’s testimony comes from farmworkers, Native Americans, subsistence and recreational fishers, and residents of economically distressed Delta cities and towns who fear the Tunnels’ devastating impacts on their livelihoods and ways of life. Because the agencies promoting the Tunnels failed to consider their impacts on environmental justice populations, this testimony will be crucial in determining if the project would inflict undue harm on the most vulnerable legal water users in the Delta, including entire communities already experiencing distress.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director...

In a big victory for fishing groups who were mobilizing for a huge turnout of anglers at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Folsom on August 25, Stewart Resnick's Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and their water contractor allies withdrew their petition to increase bag limits and reduce size limits for striped bass and black bass in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

According to an official notice on the meeting posted on the Commission's website, the petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass) has been withdrawn by the petitioners. As a result, the Commission will not be taking action on this petition.

"We won, and it was worth all of our efforts," said Dick Pool, administrator of Water4Fish, upon hearing of the petition withdrawal. "However, we still have Congress trying to pass a non-native fish eradication bill."

"There is no need to go to the California Fish and Game Commission meeting set for this Thursday," John Beuttler of the Allied Fishing Groups advised anglers after hearing of the petition's withdrawal. "The Commission has announced that the Coalition for Sustainable Delta, California Chamber of Commerce, California Farm Bureau Federation, Kern County Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Northern California Water Association, San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, Southern California Water Committee, State Water Contractors, and Western Growers have withdrawn their petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass regulations)."

Michael Boccadoro, the spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, told the Sacramento Bee that supporters of the water contractors were frustrated that they would be allowed only 10 minutes to present their case before the Commission.

In a statement, the coalition said, “In recent days, Commission staff recommended maintenance of the status quo rather than taking any action in response to the petition to address this issue despite continuing reports...

As I reeled in the Panther Martin spinner towards me through the chilly, crystal clear water, I saw the tip of my second spinning rod begin bouncing as a trout grabbed my bait. I dropped the lure rod, picked up the bait outfit and I set the hook.

The fish made several runs before I worked it towards shore and pulled it up on a rock out of the water. It was a beautiful fat rainbow trout around two pounds, shiny and fat, one of the thousands of pounds of rainbows stocked in the reservoir this summer.

Loon Lake in the Crystal Basin of El Dorado County has been known in the angling community for decades as a pristine location for trollers and bank anglers to catch large numbers of holdover and planted rainbow trout. The future of trout fishing at Loon Lake is even brighter, due to a new trout planting program that was initiated in 2015.

SMUD, in conjunction with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), this July and August stocked Loon Lake, Ice House and Union reservoirs in El Dorado County with a total of over 25,000 pounds of rainbow trout. These stocked trout, like the ones I caught, were one to two pounds each and in a few years could be potential trophy fish.

Darold Perry, SMUD’s supervisor for hydro license implementation, said, “The amount of fish stocked can number as high as 50,000 pounds in a given year, depending on matched stocking by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. We started this project last year, and we’ll be doing it annually.”

The effort helps SMUD meet conditions of operating its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for the Upper American River Project (UARP).

This November 4 will be the second anniversary of the passage of Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial water bond, a measure that fishing groups, California Indian Tribes, grassroots conservation groups and environmental justice advocates opposed because they considered it to be a water grab for corporate agribusiness and Big Money interests.

Proponents of Proposition 1 contributed a total of 21,820,691 dollars and spent a total of 19,538,153 dollars on the successful campaign. The contributors are a who’s who of Big Money interests in California, including corporate agribusiness groups, billionaires, timber barons, Big Oil, the tobacco industry and the California Chamber of Commerce. They provide a quick snapshot of the corporate interests behind the questionable environmental policies of Brown.

Many people voted for the proposition only because Brown said no bond funds would be used for the widely-unpopular Delta Tunnels. However, after the election, as Proposition 1 opponents expected, the Brown administration did indeed admit that it could use water bond funds for the massive tunnels project.

In April 2015, an administration official admitted that the state could use money from Proposition 1, the water bond, to pay for habitat mitigation linked to the construction and operation of the massive Delta Tunnels.

Richard Stapler, spokesman for the California Department of Natural Resources, acknowledged that the money for delta habitat restoration could conceivably come from Proposition 1, the 7.5 billion dollar water bond that California passed last year, according to Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Restore the Delta and other public trust advocates at the time slammed Governor Brown for breaking his campaign promise that bond money wouldn’t be used to mitigate the environmental damage caused by the tunnels, a 67 billion dollar project designed to export Sacramento River water to agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies and oil...

The fish ladder at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Feather River Hatchery in Oroville opened on September 19, heralding the start of the spawning season on the Feather River.

As the hatchery spawns spring-run Chinooks, anglers are experiencing increasing salmon success on the section of river open to fishing.

The hatchery spawns both spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon. The staff will take more than 3 million spring-run eggs and 12 million fall-run eggs over the next two months in order to produce Chinook salmon for release next spring, according to Penny Crenshaw at the hatchery.

The hatchery has trapped around 1,000 spring-run Chinooks and has taken 2.8 million eggs to date, according to a preliminary estimate. They will begin spawning the fall-run Chinooks around October 10.

Once the young salmon reach 2 to 4 inches in length, 100 percent of the spring-run stock and 25 percent of the fall-run stock will be adipose fin clipped and implanted with coded wire tags prior to release, according to Crenshaw. CDFW biologists use the information from the tags to chart the survival, catch and return rates of the fish.

Visitors can observe the salmon through the viewing windows and from the observation deck located at the base of the fish barrier dam. At the main side of the hatchery, visitors can observe CDFW technicians performing the spawning process. For more information about spawning schedules and educational opportunities at the Feather River Hatchery, please call 530-538-2222. For information about hatchery tours, please call 530-534-2306.

There are eight state-run salmon and steelhead hatcheries, all of which will participate in the salmon spawning effort, according to the CDFW. Those hatcheries, along with federally run hatcheries, will be responsible for the release of 40 million juvenile salmon into California waters this season. These massive spawning...

When 40 plus hardcore Fish Sniffer supporters man one of the Bay Area's largest most comfortable charter vessels to fish with one of the state's most talented rockfish and lingcod skippers it's a bad day to be a bottomfish and that’s exactly what we saw on September 15.

September 15 marked the date of the most recent Cal Kellogg School of Fishing adventure when myself, fellow Fish Sniffer writer Mike McNeilly and more than 40 readers traveled out to the Farallon Islands aboard Berkeley's Golden Eye 2000.

The Golden Eye is a 56 foot catamaran. Not only is the boat fast but it also offers a big expanse of deck and rail space as well as a huge cabin, making it a superb platform for long-range trips to the Farallons and beyond.

Captain Quan Vo is the Golden Eye’s owner operator. He’s one of those skippers that has seen it all and done it all in terms of Norcal saltwater fishing, but his true passion is putting his clients on outstanding rockfish and lingcod action.

We left Berkeley before sunrise and as dawn broke we were at the fuel docks in San Francisco fueling up for the long ride to the islands.

After leaving San Francisco, Captain Vo shared that we’d be making a stop for sanddabs prior to dropping on the rockfish and lings.

Sanddabs are exceptional baits for lingcod and big rockfish like them too. Despite the fact that I’d be spending the day filming for an upcoming episode of Fishing The West With Cal Kellogg rather than fishing, I still felt a shiver of excitement just thinking about dropping a sanddab tethered to a trap rig into the dark and foreboding waters surrounding the Farallons!

When expectations are running high, the ride to the islands seems to...

What is my favorite gamefish? Like most anglers, my favorite fish is probably the one on the end of my line when the question is asked. But if I step away from the excitement of the moment and really reflect on the attributes that I hold to be important, such as accessibility, willingness to respond to a number of different fishing techniques, size, fighting ability and the quality of table fare provided I keep coming up with a single answer...STRIPERS!

During the fall, winter and spring, when the bulk of our striper population is residing in the Delta, there are a number of different ways to target them. You can soak cut bait, show them live bait, troll for them, plug for them, jig for them and even toss flies at them.

For consistent numbers day in day out, bait fishing and trolling are great choices and truth be told these are the tactics that the vast majority of Delta anglers employ. While these approaches do offer steady results, they aren’t necessarily the most exciting ways to skin a striper.

If you want to experience the best of what Delta striper fishing has to offer you’ve got to cast for your fish. Depending on your preferences, that might mean using spinning or baitcasting gear or turning to fur, feathers and long rods to tempt them with flies.

As the Winnemem Wintu Tribe proceeded on their historic 300-mile long Run4Salmon from Vallejo to the McCloud River, Governor Jerry Brown called for the expediting of a river flow agreement in order to build his Delta Tunnels to export more water to corporate agribusiness interests and Southern California water agencies.

In his September 19, 2016 letter to Chair Felicia Marcus of the State Water Resources Control Board, Governor Brown urged the Board and California Natural Resources Agency officials to fast-track a comprehensive agreement on environmental flows in both the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Basins.

State Water Board staff recently released a draft proposal to update minimum flow standards for the Lower San Joaquin River to the Delta, wrote Brown. This is only one part of the information needed. To provide a complete picture of the needs in the Delta, I urge the Board to move quickly to complete the remainder of their analysis on the Sacramento River Basin.

Delay may be too costly, said Brown. The need to improve our aquatic ecosystems is urgent. Many communities are paralyzed and fearful of a lengthy and unpredictable regulatory process. Voluntary agreements in which water rights holders improve stream flows and restore habitat could offer a faster, less contentious and more durable outcome.

Brown said he had directed departments in the Natural Resources Agency to explore the potential for this comprehensive agreement and to report back to him by the end of October with their assessment and a schedule that enables California to start improving water quality in the Delta and its tributaries beginning in 2017.

In a statement, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, criticized the Governor’s call to fast-track the flow agreements as disingenuous at best.

While Restore the Delta has pushed for a comprehensive update to the...

Just days after Governor Jerry Brown’s administration applied for a take permit to kill Delta smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon and other endangered species in order to build and operate the Delta Tunnels, agribusiness interests accelerated their lobbying campaign to pass drought legislation in Congress that will further endanger San Francisco Bay-Delta fisheries.

Tim Quinn and the Association of California Water Agencies have stepped up their lobbying in advance of the lame duck Congressional session urging Congress to pass controversial drought legislation, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, in an action alert.

Quinn sent a new letter on October 12 to the entire California Congressional delegation blaming the state’s water supply predicament almost entirely on protections for Bay-Delta fisheries and wildlife, and actions by federal officials to avoid species extinction.

“We would expect that federal policies should provide assistance in meeting water supply needs during drought conditions, but instead at almost every turn federal decisions restricted project operations, preventing water during storm events from being put into storage south of the Delta for later delivery to our farms and cities,” Quinn claimed in his letter. “During 2016, these restrictive federal policies had a far greater negative impact on water supply than did the drought.”

“California needs a partnership with the federal government in accomplishing this policy objective. Instead, all too often we experience unbalanced federal decisions that unreasonably favor species protection over water supply, with little scientific justification and little prospect of any actual environmental benefit, but with very large and real negative impacts on water supply,” he said.

Quinn urged Congress to pass meaningful drought legislation, apparently meaning legislation that would fail to observe even the very minimal protections provided now under the Endangered Species Act to protect Delta and longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, winter-run...

On the same day that Governor Jerry Brown jokingly praised former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for saddling him with the Delta Tunnels and other unpopular policies, four Northern California Congress Members and twelve state legislators issued letters strongly opposing the tunnels project.

Brown lauded Schwarzenegger for focusing on environmental issues at the tenth anniversary celebration of the passage of Assembly Bill 32, the legislation that established the state’s greenhouse emissions reductions, in the California Museum in Sacramento on Wednesday, October 5.

“Arnold, thanks for being for climate change, cap and trade, the tunnels project, high speed rail and all the other unpopular policies that I’m saddled with,” quipped Brown.

Restore the Delta responded to Brown’s quote, noting that Jerry Brown thanked former Governor Schwarzenegger for saddling him with unpopular issues such as the Delta Tunnels, even though, since he was first elected, he's been pursuing the tunnels like Captain Ahab pursuing Moby Dick.

As an acknowledgement of the growing resistance by Californians to the WaterFix, Brown for the first time recognized the Delta Tunnels as unpopular, according to Restore the Delta.

Of course, neither Schwarzenegger nor Brown mentioned the many other controversial neo-liberal environmental policies that they are responsible for.

These include authorizing record water exports out of the Delta; driving Delta and longfin smelt, winter run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish species closer and closer to extinction; overseeing the creation of faux marine protected areas under the oil industry-lobbyist overseen Marine Life Protection Act Initiative; appointing Big Oil executives, Big Ag lobbyists, and other corporate officials with numerous conflicts of interest to state agencies and regulatory bodies; and doing everything they can to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act and other environmental laws.

Nor did Schwarzenegger and Brown mention one of the least discussed issues...

American River

The Bureau of Reclamation has dropped releases into the American River below Nimbus Dam to 1,000 cfs, as it usually does this time of year after most of Folsom Lake’s water has been exported south to corporate agribusiness interests. The reason for the flow decrease is storage conservation, claimed Randi Field from Reclamation.

Meanwhile, boaters jigging glow-in-the-dark Gitzits on one-ounce jig heads at night are picking up some bright king salmon in the dredger holes of the lower American River. The fish average 10 to 15 pounds each, according to Alan Fong of the Fisherman’s Warehouse. Anglers fishing Mepps Flying C spinners and other lures from Howe Avenue to Sailor Bar are bagging increasing numbers of salmon, said Leo Salcido of Fisherman’s Warehouse.

One customer reported that he has caught four steelhead to 4 pounds while fishing the lower American, noted Salcido.

After the last rain, anglers reported really good salmon fishing on the lower American, confirmed Tim Boggs of Elkhorn Outdoors. Anglers using Flying C spinners have been picking up salmon. Two customers reported that the day they went out, just about everybody they saw had caught Chinooks.

The Nimbus Fish hatchery ladder is expected to open on November 1.

Redding/Red Bluff

Salmon fishing is actually a little slow on the Sacramento with very few anglers catching limits. Yet there are fish being caught daily and some of them are epic trophies approaching 50 pounds.

“We are still getting salmon up in the Redding area and some of them are very large,” reported Captain Mike Bogue of Mike Bogue’s Guide Service. “Last Sunday we got a really big fish that measured 48 inches long and 27 inches around.”

Lake Almanor

Rainbow Trout Smash Spoons

Very good fall trout fishing has emerged at Lake Almanor mainly for rainbows, but the occasional brown is showing too.

“The fishing is pretty darn good at Lake Almanor right now,” related Cliff Spediacci of Hook & Ladder Guide Service. “Myself and another guide had a large group today that we split among our boats and we got about 25 total fish. The lake was recently planted so some of the rainbows we got were small, but we picked up holdovers and wild fish to 5 pounds.”

“I’m getting most of my fish on Speedy Shiners trolled anywhere from 20 feet deep on down to the bottom. The water was calm today, which isn’t the best condition. We’ve been doing the best when there is a little chop on the water,” disclosed Spediacci.

Bryan Roccucci of Big Daddy’s Guide Service has also been enjoying great results while fishing at Almanor.

“The fall brown trout bite isn’t underway yet, but we’ve been getting a brown or two every day. The big news right now is the outstanding rainbow fishing. The fish are still down deep holding anywhere from 25 to 40 feet, but we’ve been able to speed up our trolling and get hookups on various spoons. It’s always fun when you can troll aggressively with hardware for rainbows that run up to 6 pounds,” said Roccucci.

American Basin/Jenkinson Lake

Trollers Land Rainbows At Ice House, Loon

by Dan Bacher

If you want to catch rainbow trout, troll with crawlers and lures or bait fish from the bank at Ice House and Loon Lakes.

For the second consecutive year, SMUD, in conjunction with the California Department of Fish

While adults and children alike dress up as vampires, ghosts, zombies, extra-terrestrials and other creatures on Halloween, Governor Jerry Brown is busy promoting his own real life horror show that exceeds the terror found in any scary movie that’s ever appeared on the silver screen — his Delta Tunnels of Death.

Like a vampire that you just can't seem to kill, the Delta-destroying tunnels plan keeps coming back.

Jerry Brown is no stranger to vampires and dark energy himself.

In a pre-recorded interview with Chuck Todd this August, Brown compared the controversy surrounding Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s email server to a vampire plot.

“It has some kind of dark energy that gets everybody excited,” Governor Brown said. “It’s almost like a vampire; she’s going to have to find a stake and put it right through the heart of these emails.”

The California governor also said the email controversy has kind of a mystique to it.

I think I will take the good advice that Brown had for the email controversy and apply it to his Delta Tunnels plan. We must find a stake and put it right through the heart of the California WaterFix project.

As you may remember, the voters overwhelmingly defeated the water-sucking and fish-exterminating vampire project, originally known as the Peripheral Canal, in November 1982.

However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger resurrected the undead project from its electoral tomb starting in 2007 under new, less scary-sounding names - the Delta Vision Plan and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan - and did everything he could push the plan through without allowing the voters to vote, including pressuring the Legislature to pass a water policy/water bond package in November 2009 that cleared the path to the construction of the peripheral canal.

Jerry Brown embraced the water-guzzling vampire project of Schwarzenegger's as...

Federal auditors have found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) wasted $32.2 million intended for fish and wildlife and drought relief in the Klamath Basin on subsidies for irrigators.

This scandal takes place as the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishing families and river and coastal communities are suffering from the big cultural and economic loss caused by low numbers of returning salmon on the Klamath River this year, the result of decades of mismanagement by the state and federal governments.

The misspending is revealed in a new audit report that confirms charges leveled last year by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In a news release, PEER described the arrangement between Reclamation and KWAPA as the Klamath Irrigators’ Illegal Piggy Bank.

“We found that USBR did not have the legal authority to enter into the cooperative agreement, resulting in $32.2 million in wasted funds spent by KWAPA (Klamath Water and Power Agency) under the agreement,” wrote Mary L. Kendall, Deputy Inspector General for the Office of Inspector General, in the audit report dated October 11, 2016.

The report found that the program had done little to help endangered coho salmon, Lost River suckers and shortnose suckers, as it was intended to do.

The IG report details how Reclamation diverted $32.2 million in federal funds intended for drought contingency planning and helping struggling fish populations:

• In a waste of funds wholly lacking in any legal authority

• Paying for KWAPA salaries, fringe benefits, rent, travel and other expenses whose benefits flowed primarily to irrigator contractors rather than fish and wildlife, including $4.2 million for uses that could not be supported with documentation or were outright unallowable

• By modifying the KWAPA contract 19 times to expand the scope of activities and extend the original...

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is holding a public meeting to solicit comments on proposed fishing closure alternatives for 5.5 miles of the Sacramento River above the Highway 44 Bridge in Redding to the Keswick Dam. CDFW has determined a potential closure may be necessary to protect endangered winter-run Chinook salmon.

The meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 14, from 5-7 p.m. at the Redding Public Library, 1100 Parkview Ave., Redding, CA 96001.

CDFW is proposing a suite of closure alternatives in this critical holding and spawning area to ensure added protection for the federal and state endangered winter-run Chinook, which face high risk of extinction. Given the gravity of the current situation, it is imperative that each and every adult fish be given maximum protection. Current regulations do not allow fishing for Chinook, but incidental catch by anglers who are targeting trout could occur.

This reach is the principal spawning area for winter-run Chinook, with an estimated 98 percent of 2014 and 2015 in-river spawning occurring in the 5.5 mile stretch under consideration for closure. This section represents only 10 percent of the waters currently open to fishing upstream of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

In 2014 and 2015, approximately 95 percent of eggs and young winter-run Chinook were lost due to elevated river temperatures.

CDFW works with the California Fish and Game Commission to determine whether fishing restrictions in certain areas are necessary.

Persons with disabilities needing reasonable accommodation to participate in public meetings or other CDFW activities are invited to contact CDFW’s Accessibility Coordinator Melissa Carlin at (916) 651-1214 or melissa.carlin@wildlife.ca.gov.

Media Contacts:

Jason Roberts, CDFW Northern Region, (530) 225-2131

Andrew Hughan, CDFW Communications, (916) 201-2958

Governor Jerry Brown and his allies are dumping millions of dollars into the campaign against Proposition 53, a California ballot initiative that requires voter approval before the state could issue more than $2 billion in public infrastructure bonds that would require an increase in taxes or fees for repayment.

Proposition 53, the California Voter Approval Requirement for Revenue Bonds above $2 Billion Initiative, is on the November 8, 2016, ballot as an initiated constitutional amendment. Supporters of Proposition 53 refer to it as the No Blank Checks Initiative.

The long-form ballot summary is as follows:

• Requires statewide voter approval before any revenue bonds can be issued or sold by the state for certain projects if the bond amount exceeds $2 billion.

• Applies to any projects that are financed, owned, operated, or managed by the state, or by a joint agency formed between the state and a federal government agency, another state, and/or a local government.

• Prohibits dividing projects into multiple separate projects to avoid statewide voter approval requirement.

Kevin Wolf of Davis, long-time environmental activist, campaign organizer and advocate for openness and transparency in government, recommends voting Yes on the measure. His argument is one of the best and simplest for voting Yes on 53.

“This would force the state to let voters decide if there would be a new Delta Twin Tunnels project or other large project funded by state revenue bonds,” said Wolf. “This could harm some good things in the future, but if it is a good enough idea, it should get passed as a proposition.”

I completely agree with Wolf. About 90 percent of the anglers, Tribal leaders and grassroots environmentalists that I have talked to are voting Yes on 53 because it would require a vote on the Delta Tunnels and other...

As long as there isn't too much snow to access the lake, or if the lake isn’t frozen over, Lake Almanor is one of California's best winter trout fisheries. I've had stellar days of fishing with morning temperatures in the low double digits.

My little 12' Lowe Johnboat actually banged its way through the chunks of ice floating on the surface. Large schools of pond smelt were suspended in open water as thousands of Western Grebes wintering on the lake dove to fill their bellies.

Almanor is one of my favorite lakes to fish when the weather gets cold. As you might expect, the boat pressure is light. What may surprise anglers is that the fish bite really well in the winter. When the surface temperature is a measly 39 degrees, the trout actually feed aggressively at this big reservoir.

There are three ways to target these mid winter trout. The first way is to toss bait from the bank. I've seen some local yokels around that stake out their favorite bank fishing spots, and the guys routinely pull out some really nice browns and rainbows.

The hot bait is an inflated crawler. I don't suspect that these guys are catching a whole lot of fish, yet the fish they are catching are some brutes. Five to seven pound browns are a legitimate possibility for patient and cold hardy anglers soaking inflated night crawlers.

The other two methods are both trolling methods, but they are vastly different. The first method is to pull bright chrome/black back minnow plugs at a quick pace. I like F-11 Rapalas or Yo-Zuri Pin Minnows.

I don't troll them quite as quick as I would in the summer, spring or fall. I just like to go fast enough to get the plug wiggling a little....

Do you remember the crab season last fall or should I say the non-season? It was painful! After so many years of awesome lights out crabbing out of Bay Area ports during the fall, it was a real let down to be kept off the water by unsafe enzyme levels within the crabs brought on by the warm El Nino conditions.

Well fast forward to this fall and it’s an entirely different ballgame. El Nino conditions have evaporated and so has the acid that put crabs off limits last fall. As of press time ocean temperatures are normal, the crabs are healthy and the season is going to open as scheduled on November 5. The only question is whether the season will feature the standard awesome crabbing we’ve all come to expect or if the season will be really exceptional since the harvest was extremely light last season?

There are a lot of north state charter boats that target crabs, but when I want the inside scoop on the crab fishery, I call Captain James Smith. Not only does he target sport crabs extensively aboard his Berkeley Marina headquartered boat the California Dawn, but he also spends the winter and part of the spring commercial crab fishing aboard his crabber, the Mad Dog.

“Last season represented a disaster for sport crab skippers, commercial crabbers and sport anglers,” asserted Smith. “Crabs and crabbing are a huge cultural icon for folks in the Bay Area. Let’s face it: the whole image of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco is built around the image of the Dungeness crab. In the Bay Area and in much of the north state, crabs are a traditional part of holiday meals beginning with Thanksgiving and extending through New Year’s and last year that part of the holiday season...

Delta advocates are very concerned that Jerry Brown may work with the incoming Donald Trump administration to weaken the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act to push through Brown’s "legacy" project, the Delta Tunnels, before he leaves office.

On November 10, Governor Jerry Brown offered his commitment to find common ground wherever possible with the incoming Trump Administration, but to oppose the new administration regarding climate change policies.

Today we saw the beginning of the transfer of power to the President-elect," said Brown. "While the prerogatives of victory are clear, so also are the responsibilities to ensure a strong and unified America. As President Lincoln said, A house divided against itself cannot stand. With the deep divisions in our country, it is incumbent on all of us – especially the new leadership in Washington – to take steps that heal those divisions, not deepen them. In California, we will do our part to find common ground whenever possible.

But as Californians, we will also stay true to our basic principles. We will protect the precious rights of our people and continue to confront the existential threat of our time – devastating climate change," the Governor stated.

In response, Restore the Delta on November 14 issued a statement calling on Governor Brown to advocate for the full protection of San Francisco Bay-Delta fisheries and river flows for the estuary as he establishes his working relationship with President-elect Trump's transition team and administration.

Restore the Delta's executive director Barbara Barrrigan-Parrilla said:

It is striking to us that Governor Brown did not mention protecting the Clean Water Act for drinking water supplies or the Endangered Species Act in regard to fishery protections in his statement about the incoming Trump Administration. While we oppose Governor Brown’s Delta Tunnels project, we know that all...

California growers expanded water-intensive almond orchards by 77,000 acres over the past year, continuing the increase in new almond acreage during one of the worst droughts in the state’s history.

The expansion in acreage for almonds, as well as for walnuts, pistachios, and other nut crops, took place as Governor Jerry Brown mandated that urban users statewide conserve water by 25 percent.

The increase also occurred as massive state and federal water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta continued to drive Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, and other fish species closer and closer to extinction.

In addition, the groundwater pumping during the drought to sustain increased nut tree acreage caused sections of the San Joaquin Valley to subside even further.

California nurseries have sold at least 14.51 million almond trees since June 1, 2015, according to the 2016 California Almond Nursery Sales Report. Plantings from 2012 to 2016 were used to calculate an average trees per acre of 135, based on the Almond Acreage Survey.

Almost 108,000 acres of almonds have been planted since June 2015, according to the USDA report. A little over 71 percent of the total trees sold, 77,000 acres, are new almond orchard acres and 25 percent (27,000 acres) replaced existing almond orchards. The remaining trees sold replaced trees within existing almond orchards.

California bearing almond acreage has increased from 442,000 to 900,000 from 1997 through June 2016, according to report figures. When you add the non-bearing almond acreage of 220,000, the total acreage comes to 1,120,000.

During the latest drought from 2012 to 2015, the bearing acreage increased from 820,000 in 2012 to 890,000 in 2015, a total of 70,000 acres. The non-bearing acreage went from 110,000 in 2012 to 220,000, a total of 110,000 acres.

That’s...

On November 22, the California Secretary of State’s Office announced that voters narrowly defeated Proposition 53, an initiative requiring voter approval of revenue bonds over $2 billion, by a narrow margin of 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.

Governor Jerry Brown and his staff are celebrating the victory because it would have required a public vote on his two controversial “legacy” projects, the Delta Tunnels and High Speed Rail.

“The defeat of Prop 53 is good news for CA and our future,” proclaimed Governor Jerry Brown in a tweet. “It means one less roadblock in solving our water and transportation problems.”

However, about 90 percent of the anglers, grassroots environmentalists and Tribal leaders that I discussed Proposition 53 with voted “Yes” on the measure because it would require a vote on the Delta Tunnels and other huge projects that pose significant threats to the environment.

For example, Kevin Wolf of Davis, a long-time environmental activist, campaign organizer and advocate for openness and transparency in government, advised voting Yes on 53 in his Recommendations for the November 2016 Election.

“This would force the state to let voters decide if there would be a new Delta Twin Tunnels project or other large project funded by state revenue bonds,” said Wolf. “This could harm some good things in the future, but if it is a good enough idea, it should get passed as a proposition.”

While the votes were still being tallied, Dean Cortopassi, proponent of Proposition 53, who describes himself as a “libertarian Democrat,” issued a statement regarding the election results for the measure on November 9. Among other things, he said the “No on 53 campaign seemed analogous to German Panzer Divisions waging ‘Blitzkrieg on Poland in 1939” and described the measure's opponents as “Sacramento Gang Politicians and Porkers” in his statement....

Mark Cowin, the Director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), and Carl Torgersen, the DWR Chief Deputy Director, will be retiring from their positions at the embattled agency at the end of 2016.

News of the two officials' retirement, common knowledge in DWR for some time, was confirmed today by Nancy Vogel, Deputy Secretary for Communications of the California Natural Resources Agency.

Vogel said she doesn't know who will be replacing them in their positions at DWR.

In response to my question about whether this will have any impact on the deadlines for the California Water Fix, she replied no.

Both officials are retiring at a time when Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels plan, the California WaterFix, has come under increasing fire from recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Tribal leaders, family farmers, environmentalists, scientists, and elected officials for the enormous threat it poses to the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and West Coast salmon and other fisheries.

The California WaterFix that Cowin and Torgersen have promoted would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon, and other fish species, as well as imperil the Southern resident killer whale population. The controversial project would also imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers, a fishery that for thousands of years has played an integral part in the culture, religion, and food supply of the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley Tribes.

On November 28, a coalition of California conservation, fishing and public interest organizations urged the Obama Administration to terminate the California WaterFix before Donald Trump is inaugurated in January.

The groups said in a letter to federal officials that it is time now to make the right decision. The California Water Fix represents a financial as well...

The Port of West Sacramento played host to one of my strangest fishing experiences, in terms of the surroundings.

On one spring trip in the late 1980s, I fished for catfish from shore in the port. Right across from where I fished loomed a giant black freighter from the Soviet Union loading rice for the long trip across the Pacific. Where else in California could you have ever fished in sight of a Soviet ship?

While the Soviet Union is gone, the port and the Sacramento Deep Water Channel still remain. The two artificial water bodies are a sleeper for striped bass, catfish and black bass.

The port and channel have an interesting history. In July 1946, the Port construction project was authorized by Congress and signed by President Harry S. Truman. In September 1960, the harbor and turning basin dredging was completed and clean-up work on the channel was done in December.

On June 29, 1963, with 5,000 spectators waiting to welcome her, the Taipei Victory arrived and the Port opened for business. A three-day event celebrated the Port's dedication.

Over 75,000 people attended the festivities, which included dignitaries, parades, navy ships and the Golden Bear cadet training ship. I was one of those 75,000 people who attended with my parents, Al and Cassie, and my brother, Tim, and sister, Terry.

The Port of West Sacramento continues to grow in order to serve the needs of California. The port now supports agriculture and industry throughout Northern California and the world.

For many years, angling access to the area was problematic. This all changed in November 2007 when the Barge Canal Recreational Access to the Port area was opened.

Located at 2100 Jefferson Boulevard in West Sacramento, the facility allows driveway access at South River Road. The access features an...

Lake Berryessa

Drop Shotters Find Best Bass Action

(Napa) A very nice married couple called me last week and wanted to go bass fishing - for the first time! said Larry Hemphill, fishing guide. They had never bass fished before and wanted to learn more about it and about Lake Berryessa. They were great people and we had a great time learning!

The weather was cloudy and very cool. After lots of instruction about rod and reels, baits, areas to look for bass in different seasons, we started fishing, he said. Soon they were casting spinning outfits very well and seemed to be working worms and other plastics very well. As one would expect, they lost their first few bites. Setting the hook for bass is always a learning process for beginners.

In the afternoon they did land a few bass, but they were small. Funny - the small ones were in an area that usually produces bigger bass. One never knows! Great people and think I got them hooked, said Hemphill.

Drop-shotting Robo Worms in shad colors seemed to work the best for them. Most bites came from 15 to 30 feet of water, he noted.

The water temperature was 60-62 degrees and the water clarity was 4+ foot visibility.

Bullards Bar/Englebright Lakes

7-1/2 Lb. Spotted Bass Tops Catches

(Dobbins) If you like solitude, you’ll find plenty of it at Bullards Bar Reservoir now, since hardly anybody is fishing the lake.

However, one angler, Manuel Nevarez, reported experiencing solid bass fishing on a recent trip to Bullards Bar. His biggest spotted bass topped the scales at 7-1/2 pounds, reported Bob Boucke of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle.

Drop shotters fishing Robo Worms and other plastics in deep water generally find the top action on bass this time of year.

Trout...

The Water Resources Development Act, with its poison pill Big Ag rider sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, passed the Senate on Friday, December 9.

Here is the latest action alert from Restore the Delta to stop the Water Resources Development Act and its Delta-killing rider:

As you know, the Water Resources Development Act passed the Senate late last Friday, just before Holiday Break. The bill is now headed to the White House for President Obama’s signature.

Today, Restore the Delta’s executive director, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, sent the following letter to President Obama asking him to veto the bill due to the destructive midnight rider that was added to the otherwise worthy bill, which will undermine endangered species protections for California salmon and water quality for the Delta.

Please write your own letter to the White House asking for President Obama to veto this bill.

Include why you love the Bay-Delta and the impacts this rider will have on your life.

Barbara’s letter is a good example of the correct tone when writing to the White House. Keep it courteous and professional please and represent the Delta well.

Send your letters to: president@whitehouse.gov.

After sending a letter, please also call the White House with your comments at (202) 456-1111.

When you catch a striper or sturgeon, a fundamental question pops up. Will you keep the fish for the table or will you release it? Since both species of fish are subject to size limits, this decision will be made for you at times.

As of this writing, stripers must be at least 18 inches in length to be kept, while sturgeon must fall between 40 and 60 inches, measured to the fork of the tail.

Releasing sturgeon is a piece of cake. They are extremely hardy fish that very seldom swallow the bait. This being the case, to release a sturgeon all you need to do is pop out the hook with your pliers, hold the fish beside the boat, revive it and let it go.

Releasing stripers can be dicey, since they often swallow the bait and are hooked in the throat or deeper. For bass that are hooked deep, the simplest and safest method is to cut the leader as close to the hook as possible and release the fish with the hook still imbedded. Over time the striper’s body will either eject or dissolve the hook.

At this point, let’s take a moment to consider the size of the fish you keep. When it comes to sturgeon, size isn’t important, beyond making sure the fish falls within the legal slot.

Stripers are a different story. Large stripers, say fish over 15 pounds, while still decent to eat aren’t nearly as good as smaller fish. For this reason, I release almost all the bass I catch that are over 15 pounds.

The meat of small stripers, in the 18 to 22 inch range tastes great, but there isn’t a whole lot of meat on them.

Just in time for the Holidays, the California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced they will release their 80,000-page Environmental Impact Report/ Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/ EIS) for the controversial Delta Tunnels plan on Thursday, December 22, 2016.

The release of the huge document by the two lead agencies for the project comes at a critical time for the future of Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels project, the California WaterFix. The two top officials at the Department of Water Resources are retiring on December 31, while the new Donald Trump administration, filled with many controversial environmental appointees, will take the helm in Washington D.C. on January 21.

The document will be available at www.BayDeltaConservationPlan.com

According to a statement from Restore the Delta (RTD), this document represents the agencies’ final attempt to convince state and federal regulators that their proposal for twin 40-foot, 30-mile long water tunnels to transfer Sacramento River water beneath the San Francisco Bay-Delta can meet environmental and water quality standards under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a feat no previous version of the proposal has achieved.

Despite any claims by project supporters, this document is by no means an approval of the proposal. It is akin to the submission of homework to be graded, the group said.

As the Department and the Bureau jointly told the State Water Board at the end of November 2016, the environmental report cannot be finalized until a biological opinion is completed in March or April 2017. They told the Board they would finalize the report at approximately the same time as when the biological opinion is released, according to RTD.

How thoughtful of Delta Tunnel lead agencies to dump this document on defenders of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary...

In a slap in the face to fishermen, Tribes, environmental justice advocates, conservationists and family farmers, President Barack Obama on December 16 signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act into law with its environmentally destructive Big Ag rider sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Kevin McCarthy.

The controversial rider, opposed by retiring Senator Barbara Boxer, taints an otherwise good bill that sponsors water projects across the nation. The last minute rider, requested by corporate agribusiness interests, allows San Joaquin Valley growers and Southern California water agencies to pump more water out of the Delta, driving Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species closer to extinction, according to Delta advocates.

The addition of the Big Ag rider to the bill caused a bitter rift between Boxer, one of the bill’s original sponsors, and Feinstein. The U.S. Senate approved the water bill by a vote of 78 to 21 on December 9.

Also known as the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, the bill authorizes water projects across the country to restore watersheds, improve waterways and flood control, and improve drinking water infrastructure, according to President Obama in his signing statement. The law also authorizes $170 million for communities facing drinking water emergencies, including funding for Flint, Michigan, to recover from the lead contamination in its drinking water system.

In addressing the controversial rider in the bill that supposedly addresses drought in California by allowing agribusiness interests to pump more water from the Delta, Obama warned against “mistating or incorrectly reading” Subtitle J’s provisions.

Obama also claimed the Endangered Species Act would continue to be applied and implemented.

“Consistent with the legislative history supporting these provisions, I interpret and understand Subtitle J to require continued application and...

As an independent outdoor journalist, I have learned that much of what you see in the mainstream media and some alternative media is at best false narratives and often nothing but complete and total lies.

I am very skeptical of information coming from the U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation and NOAA Fisheries, as well as state agencies such as the California Department of Water Resources, Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department of Conservation. The LA Times, Washington Post, New York Times and other media outlets are often spokesmouths for the agencies and the corporate interests they often serve.

On California water and environmental issues, the mainstream media spreads the Big Lie and false narratives from federal and state agencies and corporate lobbyists. Four of the worst Big Lies and false narratives that I have encountered over the past decade are:

1. "Jerry Brown is a green governor"

Fact: he is anything but "green" as I have documented in article after article. Brown backs the Delta Tunnels, fracking, faux marine protected areas, salmon and Delta smelt destroying water policies, clear cutting, carbon trading, REDD and many other environmentally destructive policies.

2. "California is the green leader in the nation."

Fact: California is NOT the nation's green leader. California is the nation's third biggest oil producer, behind North Dakota and Texas, and Big Oil exerts inordinate control over the Governor's Office, the Legislature and the regulatory agencies. While California has some great environmental laws, they aren't enforced like they should be because of the capture of the regulatory apparatus by Big Oil, Big Ag and other corporate interests. The state features some of the dirtiest cities in the nation, worst water pollution and fastest declines in salmon, Delta smelt and other species, due to regulatory...

Restore the Delta (RTD) appeared at the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento today for the last public hearing on Phase I of the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, fighting for adequate flows from the San Joaquin River to save fisheries and protect Delta people. While the public hearings are over, you can still submit written comments.

"Have you submitted a public comment on the critically important Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan yet?" according to a RTD action alert. "The State Water Board has extended the submission of written comments to March 17, 2017 by 12:00 p.m."

If not, please plan to submit a comment today. For details on submitting a public comment or for more information on this plan, visit Restore the Delta's website.

SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS

The State Water Board will accept both written and oral comments on the proposed Plan Amendment and the SED. Written comments must be received no later than 12:00 noon on March 17, 2017, and addressed and submitted to:

Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board

State Water Resources Control Board

1001 I Street, 24th Floor

Sacramento, CA 95814-0100

Comment letters may be submitted electronically, in pdf text format (if less than 15 megabytes in total size) to the Clerk to the Board via e-mail at commentletters@waterboards.ca.gov. Please indicate in the subject line: “Comment Letter – 2016 Bay-Delta Plan Amendment & SED.” You may also submit your comments by fax at (916) 341-5620. Electronic submission is preferred, but not required.

Couriers delivering comment letters must check in with lobby security personnel, who can contact Jeanine Townsend at (916) 341-5600.

Here are some important points to make:

1. A permanent reduction of exports must happen to protect the Delta.

The American River raging through the trees and brush below Nimbus Dam is an awesome sight to behold.

Increased numbers of winter steelhead are showing on the lower American River, as evidenced by the trapping of 76 adult American River steelhead at Nimbus Fish Hatchery so far this season.

More fish are expected to come up with the high flows. The Bureau of Reclamation increased releases to the American River below Nimbus Dam to 15,000 cfs on January 5, to 30,000 cfs on January 7 and then to 40,000 cfs on January 9 to accommodate run-off from the latest big storms.

“We trapped 33 adults and one juvenile last week and 35 adults and one juvenile yesterday,” said Gary Novak, hatchery manager. “Most of the fish are four-year-old Eel River strain fish in the 8 to 12 lb. range.”

In addition, the hatchery has counted around 200 steelhead from other Central Valley systems, mostly 2 pounders that came in with the high water. All of these fish, like the Eel River strain fish, are released back into the river.

The hatchery has taken less than 60,000 eggs so far. The facility is only spawning the Nimbus strain (Eel River strain) fish. “We’re getting our fish slowly but surely,” Novak noted.

The hatchery has also taken 93 Coleman Fish Hatchery-strain steelhead that are part of a study.

Steelhead fishing has been very slow in the upper river since the opener. Rodney Fagundes of Sacramento reported no steelhead caught by him or Cameron Beck, fishing guide, on the opener below the hatchery.

Likewise, Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motor Sports Guide Service reported hooking zero fish also, although he saw five fish hooked while fishing from his drift boat below Sailor Bar.

The Delta smelt has not yet become extinct, but the numbers of fish collected in the fall 2016 midwater trawl survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife remain alarmingly low.

This is in spite of improved precipitation last winter and spring, followed by a wet fall that should have resulted in much higher numbers of smelt surviving.

The Delta smelt abundance index in the latest fall midwater trawl survey was 8, the second lowest in history. Seven Delta smelt were collected in November and none were collected in September, October, or December, according to a memo from James White, environmental scientist for the CDFW’s Bay Delta Region, to Scott Wilson, Regional Manager of the Bay Delta Region.

The small 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is an indicator species that demonstrates the relative health of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. The species is listed under both the state and federal Endangered Species Acts. When the numbers of Delta smelt are so low, it reveals that the estuary, as we know it, is just as close to extinction as the fish themselves.

In 2015, the index was only 7. That was the lowest number recorded since the survey began in 1967, after the State Water Project began exporting water south of the Delta.

The numbers of smelt found this year and last contrast with 2011, a wet water year, when the Delta smelt index increased to 343, and then quickly plummeted again during the drought. Delta smelt abundance was highest in 1970 with an index of 1673 recorded.

Longfin smelt abundance is second lowest in survey history

The index for longfin smelt, a native species that is a cousin of the Delta smelt, was also dismal....

The numbers of steelhead coming into the Trinity River Fish Hatchery continue to be below normal and well below the numbers trapped during the past four years.

The hatchery has counted only 886 adult steelhead to date, compared to 3,272 trapped to date in 2015. The hatchery trapped a total of 2,550 steelhead in 2014, 2,302 in 2013, and 5,737 in 2012.

The hatchery recently finished spawning Chinook and coho salmon for the season. The coho and salmon numbers are down from previous years.

The Trinity River Fish Hatchery trapped a total of 1,512 fall-run Chinooks, including 1,314 adults and 198 grilse in 2016. By contrast, the fall Chinook totals were 3,353 in 2015, 7,196 in 2014, 6,631 in 2013, and 17,595 in 2012.

The facility trapped 527 coho salmon, including 480 adults and 47 grilse, this fall. That compares to 3,337 fish in 2015, 3,274 in 2014, and 8,238 in 2012.

The Trinity River produced some quality steelhead in the 8 to 9 lb class in between the latest storms, reported Tim Brady at Trinity Outdoors. The fish hit plugs, flies, roe, and nightcrawlers from Lewiston to Junction City.

Trinity Lake has been snowed in, so people haven’t been able to fish the reservoir for bass or trout lately, noted Brady.

Trinity Lake is holding 1,386,724 acre-feet of water, 57 percent of capacity and 82 percent of average. Releases to the Trinity River below Lewiston Dam are 338 cfs.

California Governor Jerry Brown on January 24 delivered his State of the State Address, portraying his administration as the Resistance to the policies of Donald Trump while at the same time praising the President for his plan to spend $1 trillion in infrastructure funding.

Many mainstream media outlets and some California politicians immediately gushed over the speech, apparently after not having heard or read the entire address.

On the one hand, the Governor vowed to defend everybody - every man, woman and child - who has come here and has contributed to the well-being of our state, and committed to protecting the state's gains on immigration, health care and climate change, guided by the principles that make California the Great Exception - truth, civility and perseverance.

Brown cited the English poet John Donne, who said, "No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

"When California does well, America does well. And when California hurts, America hurts," said Brown.

Brown also warned Californians that, "While no one knows what the new leaders will actually do, there are signs that are disturbing...We must prepare for very uncertain times."

However, Brown then switched directions and praised President Trump’s plan for $1 trillion in infrastructure spending.

He quoted Trump from his inaugural address, "We will build new roads, and highways, and bridged and airport, and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation."

Brown proclaimed, "And in this, we can all work together - here in Sacramento and in Washington as well. We have roads and tunnels and railroads and even a dam that the President could help us with. And that will create good-paying American jobs."...

A record run of adult steelhead, 707 so far, has returned to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery this year, but most of these fish appear to be fish that stayed in the river rather than going to sea.

“Ninety percent of the fish are adult steelhead in the 18 to 22 inch range averaging 3 pounds each,” said William Smith, hatchery manager. “Most of the fish have summered over in the river, due to the favorable cold water conditions over the past couple of years. We’ve also seen a few larger fish in the 5 to 6 lb. range that have apparently been to the ocean.”

While the flows haven’t been high in the river over the past couple of years, as they are now, the water temperatures have been favorable, due to the EMBUD’s management of cold water releases from Lake Pardee into Lake Camanche in recent years.

“Regardless of whether these fish have been to the ocean or not, any of the offspring of these fish have the potential to go to sea,” noted Smith.

The numbers of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery don’t compare to those at Nimbus, Feather and Coleman fish hatcheries in good years, where the fish number in the thousands, but they are a vast improvement over many years when no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

No steelhead came back to the hatchery, located on the river right below Camanche Dam, for 10 years from 1976 through 1986. Again in 1998-1999, no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any rainbows in the river during these years. The river hosted a popular resident trout fishery for fly, bait and lure anglers, but relatively few of the 100,000 steelhead yearlings...

Have you noticed that often the best looking, sexiest baits aren’t the best fish producers? I’ve seen it time and time again, when a simple impressionistic offering will outperform a highly detailed, high dollar plug or spoon.

Soft plastic grubs are among the most versatile and cost effective baits you can use for trout and bass. Grubs come in a long list of colors and sizes. These lures can be rigged in various ways for casting or trolling and they do a great job of imitating both baitfish and crawfish. Best of all, when a fish grabs a grub they tend to hang on, because grubs feel and in some cases, taste like natural bait.

When it comes to super simple, cheap, versatile lures, the plastic grub is the leader of the pack. These lures come in a wide array of sizes, colors and styles and they consistently catch fish in both fresh and saltwater. I’ll talk about saltwater grubbing in an upcoming article. Today I’m going to focus on deploying grubs in freshwater. More specifically, I’m going to talk about how grubs can help you catch more trout and bass.

While most anglers that use grubs for trout troll them in lakes, don’t forget that you can catch both lake and stream trout while casting and retrieving grubs.

Since Jerry Brown began his second two terms as California governor in January 2011, he has continually promoted himself as a climate leader and green governor at climate conferences and photo opportunities throughout the U.S. and the world.

The mainstream media and some alternative media have provided overwhelmingly fawning coverage of Governor Brown's environmental record, usually without conducting any real investigation into Brown's actual record.

Countering this false narrative of the green governor, twelve public interest groups, led by Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch, will on Monday, February 6, at 11 am, unveil a comprehensive report card on Jerry Brown Administration’s environmental record showing he falls short in seven key areas, including fossil fuel generated electricity, oil drilling, and coastal protection.

The groups will hold a live press conference at the Consumer Watchdog offices at 2701 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 112, Santa Monica, CA 90405 on February 6 at 11 am. Visuals will include blowups of Brown’s scores on seven key environmental indicators, graphs on state fossil fuel generating capacity, oil drilling, and polluting oil wastewater.

There will also be a conference call-in line available for those not able to attend the conference.

The groups will call for a moratorium on the building of natural gas powered electricity plants, given the glut of electric capacity, and call for an outside audit of the state’s energy needs, according to a media advisory from Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch. The groups will show how California can improve its environmental protections to meet standards set in other states. Residents of Porter Ranch will discuss their deteriorating health due to Brown's push to keep Aliso canyon's gas reserve open.

CONTACT:

Consumer Watchdog Advocate Liza Tucker, 626-372-1964

Consumer Watchdog Advocate Cody Rosenfield, 310-345-5564

Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer, Alexandra Nagy,...

A 250-foot long cavity opened in the Oroville Dam spillway yesterday as approximately 55,000 cubic feet per second was being released from Lake Oroville into the Feather River downstream.

DWR shut the spillway to investigate the rupture on February 7. The discovery of the giant hole caused a halt and reduction in water deliveries downriver.

The rupture takes place at a time when Governor Jerry Brown is promoting the construction of two massive Delta Tunnels and new water storage. Project critics say that the state should instead focus on maintaining and improving existing water system infrastructure, such as properly maintaining the spillway at Oroville, rather than focusing on environmentally destructive and enormously expensive tunnels and dams.

To help determine an appropriate level of flow down the damaged spillway, the California Department of Water Resources plans to release up to 20,000 cubic feet per second this afternoon, then ramp down the flows and assess any further damage to the eroded spillway, a news release DWR reported.

The test flow will run for two hours, perhaps as soon as late this afternoon, according to Ted Thomas, spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. The test flow is expected to further erode the lower reach of the spillway, where a cavity opened yesterday as approximately 55,000 cfs was being released from the reservoir.

With the test flows, engineers will verify how much flow the spillway can handle. The spillway is necessary to maintain reservoir operations, given the immediate forecast of continued rain for the next two days and also in preparation for the remaining runoff season, said Thomas.

In the coming days, DWR will continue to investigate ways to bolster and protect the spillway. At the same time, as part of a contingency plan, the DWR is removing trees and debris from the...

The California Department of Water Resources this morning issued an update on the giant hole caused by erosion in the Oroville Dam spillway.

SACRAMENTO – As it manages storm inflow to Lake Oroville with a main spillway damaged by erosion, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced late Thursday that the reservoir’s emergency spillway likely will be used, perhaps as soon as the early hours of Saturday.

In that event, total discharges from the reservoir would be consistent with flood control releases at this time of year under these weather conditions. DWR does not expect the discharge from the reservoir to exceed the capacity of any channel downstream as the water flows through the Feather River, into the Sacramento River and on to the San Francisco Bay. Inflow to Lake Oroville was expected to peak late Thursday and begin to decline through the weekend.

Oroville Dam itself is sound and there is no imminent threat to the public, said DWR Acting Director William Croyle.

“We and our many partners are doing everything we can to minimize all risks to the public and the dam,” he said.

Thursday evening operators increased the releases down the damaged, gated spillway from 35,000 cubic feet per second to 40,000 cubic feet per second, with another 7,000 cfs passing through the dam’s hydroelectric power plant outlets. But those discharges are not enough to match an inflow of approximately 192,000 cfs from a storm that stalled over the watershed. The reservoir, at 884 feet elevation above sea level Thursday, will naturally begin to spill into the emergency spillway channel at elevation 901 feet. That point may come shortly after midnight Friday.

The emergency spillway has not been used in Oroville Dam’s 48-year history, but Lake Oroville came within a foot of spilling into it in...

Over 50 California Department of Fish and Wildlife staff conducted a successful relocation over the past two days of 6.5 million young Chinook salmon imperiled by raging, muddy flows of 65,000 cfs below Oroville Dam as a giant hole caused by erosion continues to expand.

The California Department of Water Resources boosted the water release from 40,000 cubic feet per second to 65,000 cfs with hopes that they could avoid the use of the emergency spillway at the Lake Oroville and Oroville Dam site in Butte County.

However, the agency issued an update saying they plan to reduce the releases to 55,000 cfs to prevent erosion along the north side of the spillway from compromising nearby power line towers.

"Whether the emergency spillway is used or not, Oroville Dam itself is sound and there is no imminent threat to the public," emphasized DWR Acting Director William Croyle. "We’re ready to use the emergency spillway if needed. But we’re trying to avoid it because there will be sediment and debris impacts downstream.”

Staff have relocated the 6.5 million fall-run and spring run Chinooks from the Feather River Hatchery in Oroville to the hatchery annex near the Thermalito Afterbay. These fish, approximately 1 inch long each, would die from suffocation in the turbid, sediment-laden water if left in the raceways of the hatchery.

Approximately 1.5 million juvenile salmon will remain in the hatchery where they will benefit from sediment ponds set up to cleanse the water. Engineering staff have also set up a charcoal filtration system utilizing a fire hydrant pump for the 1 million eyed steelhead eggs remaining in the hatchery.

"Right now we consider our rescue operation to be a good success," said Hughan. "We brought in staff from hatcheries all over the state to help in this emergency effort."...

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued an updated statement regarding the expected failure of the auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam in Butte County. The agency noted that Oroville Dam itself is sound and is a separate structure from the auxiliary spillway.

DWR has doubled the flow down its main spillway from 55,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 100,000 cfs to avert more erosion on the auxiliary spillway.

In a press conference in Oroville, Eric See, DWR public information officer, stated that the flows from the auxiliary are on the decline and the overall conditions are stable, but the situation has changed dramatically since then.

Based on information from DWR and the incident command team managing Lake Oroville, counties and cities near Lake Oroville issued evacuation orders for residents. The concern is that erosion at the head of the auxiliary spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville. Those potential flows could

I grew up in the Bay Area and learned the productivity of fishing the rich waters of San Francisco Bay at an early age. Indeed, some of my earliest fishing memories dating back to the early 70s concern accompanying my dad and uncle Bob on outings along the Alameda, Oakland and San Leandro shorelines.

When they were after stripers they would typically work the area around the Bay Farm Island Bridge with plugs after the sun had set. At other times, Dad would use anchovies and pile worms to tempt flounders, jack smelt and other fish that frequent the south bay flats.

By the time I reached my teens we were living in San Lorenzo about a mile and a half from the shoreline trail that runs from the San Leandro Marina to the San Mateo Bridge. As a result, I became a dedicated bay angler, employing a mountain bike and surf rod to ply south bay waters for sharks, rays, stripers, perch and anything else that came within casting range of the shoreline.

These days I live in the Sierra and enjoy the fishing opportunities that the streams and reservoirs in the foothills and mountains provide. Yet, my day dreams are still filled with images of big stripers grabbing Rat-L-Traps and defiant leopard sharks smoking 25 pound mono off the spool of an oversize surf reel.

While the bay is home to a myriad of different fish, the dynamic duo as far as bank anglers are concerned are striped bass and leopard sharks. Stripers generally begin showing up in bay waters during the month of March, but this year due to the heavy rains we experienced, stripers might not begin arriving in numbers until late April. Once stripers begin arriving in the bay,