Gudawg,
This could be a boon or bust depending how you look at it.

The court ruling that put a halt to stocking was enacted in order to protect native species or wild populations by reevaluating DFGs stocking practices in certain bodies of water. There once was a native Steelhead population in Putah. Are some of the wild Rainbows in Putah progeny of the Steelhead runs? Could hatchery fish breed with wild fish to make genetically dumbed down fish? An environmental impact report (EIR) can help answer these questions.

With many people wanting to see Putah as a wild trout fishery, an EIR might be the first step to get to that status. If the EIR shows that Putah has a self sustaining trout population, Putah could possibly get that status, and planting could stop permanently. From an fiscal point of view, the money saved from not planting Putah could be allocated for other DFG projects like habitat restoration, planting elsewhere, or putting another DFG officer on the payroll.

As much as I dislike seeing a wild trout taken from any water, I'm interested in seeing how this ruling plays out.

AB

-- Edited by AbelBoy at 18:52, 2009-01-16

bigbow wrote:

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how do we get the DFG to do a EIR?

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If I remember correctly from the recent court ruling, the DFG has to write mandatory environmental impact reports for all the bodies of water on the no stock list.  The EIRs are due by November of this year.

AB

gudawg wrote:

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Its the lack of enforcement of the regs that concerns me

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I think that is what worries a lot of people.

This is great!

People who watch the planting schedules may show up anyway a couple of times this year and then give up. Native fish are very busy devouring brachycentrus, hydropsyche, Glossoma, baetis, corophium (those weird little shrimp), sculpins and crawdads. And a metric ton of midges. They're not going to leave their protected lairs to chase a spinner or bait. It's a high gradient tailwater with abundant predators. Bait guys can't easily get to where the fish are like we can. The holdovers get yarded out by the bait guys and that's what brings them there to fish. Tards yarding tards. They get some big natives too but I've looked at some big fish that have been taken out and they have scars on their pecs from being raised en masse in concrete tanks. The scars are ghostly lines about halfway down the pectoral fin that have a different pattern than the edge of the fin, somewhat jagged and rough. And their eyes don't line up quite right and they live in a trailer park for trout.

I hate catching Foster Farms Triploid Pus-Guts Finless Wonders in the Summer. It's like catching a sock. They smell bad. They add nothing to the biomass except excrement and billy-bobs on the banks.

It may take a year or two but the planting schedule is good for us.

We need some rain to blow the weeds off the rocks. Then it'll be a really great year.

B. Richard Morningwood

If I spent thousands of dollars on a time share slot at a resort on a trout rich stream and cant catch fish near the resort I would look for the trout! What we will see is dozens of cars at every pullout, where there were lightly traveled trails we will see wide pathwayys to the holes, trees and bushes cut back to allow casting and trash everywhere! Much more traffic where you only saw wading fly guys. All of us need to be LOUD at DFG and CalTip about enforcement! Letters phone calls and emails. Oh and Mr Tardwood Im one of those tards and I will go about anywhere for fish (and do!) Fat, 100lbs overweight and arthritic I fish from the dam to lake solano (when I have to ) I can usually fish from the fire truck to access 1 and have a great day of fishing 8-15 fish mostly wild usually a couple in excess of 16" (my best so far is 22") I wade when necessary and fish half days most times. Now think of some guy, little or no knowlege of wild vs. stock trout that has his whole two week summer vacation tied up in putah creek, with two teen age kids in tow, with a machete (keeping every fish they catch) fishing up and down putah from access 5 to access 1 day after day . magnify that by a few hundred and you have the summer of 09. If we could get the DFG to stock natives it would take a lot of pressure off the wild trout population and be within guidelines of the court order.

gudawg,

I would venture to say that most of those that camp at 1,000 trails (or whatever it's called now) don't go there to fish.  Most of those that do probably never leave the resort ground.

Doom and gloom of regulating Putah because of that private campground.....I don't buy it.

Being new to this wonderful sport, lifestyle, addiction, I can hardly claim to know any answers to this issue.  I definatley appreciate the "wild" fish in the creek.  My sence of acomplishment it greatly reduced when I net a planter, but its better than nothing.  When I false hook a wild, I feel no scence of pride.  These wonderful hogs and hens classified as "wild"; I'm confused.  I think I could save the DFG some dough though with thier environmental impact study.  Look up!  Someone put a giant f*&^king dam in the canyon.  This ecosystem we all love and enjoy is man made.  Perhaps the wilds share the genes of the original steelheads, but do these fish ever make it to the salt? I would think that any planter that could survive the temptations of power bait, learn to eat bugs, then battle the locals for the right to breed, has pretty good genes. The fish in the creek are what they are and everyone seems to be having a good time.  I just find it hard to believe that these fish are some sort of pure strain, untouched by the hand of man. I say let the "billy bobs" keep the planters that their fishing lisences payed for, the fish are doing fine.  But I'm sure I will be corrected.