Colin, if you would have followed the lawsuit closely the real reason would become very apparent.  DFG didn't fight this case very hard, there are a lot of loopholes that could have been argued are little more agressively when it comes to Env impact reports (EIR's).  Truth of the matter is DFG is hurting for money, the lawsuit gave them a politically palatable way of cutting the funds from one of their top expinditures, planting. 

Just a update(4th of July), today wasnt any better. From 5 in the morning to dusk I threw brown and olive crystal wolly buggers doubled up going for one on the larger browns. Not even a nibble all day...This is pathetic...

looks i might just have to give putah a good, and put my skills to the test some time soon. maybe in the next week or to. and ill make sure that i post and let you all know how i do.

Colin,
Sorry that I can't remember my source (I think it was Ralph Cutter who mentioned this on another board), but the original lawsuit from Trout Unlimited and Center of Biological Diversity was presented 8 1/2 years ago. The court ruled in favor of TU and CBD. But DFG bureaucrats found a way to delay the writing of environmental impact reports. CBD did a follow-up to see if DFG had complied with the court ruling to run EIRs. When CBD found out about the delays last year, it took DFG to court. The court ruled that DFG had to enforce the closures and have EIRs done within a year.

If I remember correctly, the issue with Putah is not about a frog. It is about whether Putah has Rainbow Trout that are from the original strain of Steelhead that used to spawn there. Also DFG wants to know how good of a wild trout fishery Putah actually is.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between DFG scientists and DFG bureaucrats. DFG scientists want to know the status of the lakes and streams, so they can have a better strategy for stocking. Some lakes and streams may not need to be stocked because they have self sustaining populations of trout. Some lakes in the mountains that have self sustaining Brook Trout populations are continuously stocked (Red Lake... cough cough).  They could allocate larger trout plants to the places that could use them. Wouldn't it be better for us taxpayers if we knew that DFG was allocating its resources more efficiently?

Think about it this way. Some good may come out of this. DFG may find that Putah Creek is a good viable wild trout fishery. If that is the case, Putah may get labeled a wild trout fishery with all the regs to go along with it. I'm sure the boys and gals from PCT could fill you in about wild trout status better than I can.

AB

PS:  I am not a tree hugging liberal.

A bit late, but this is my understanding.

Stocked trout suffer high mortality rates in streams (most die with in a week) and almost all are removed in the first week. Because of this, stocking creeks where fishing pressure is high makes sense, the fishery can be artificially supported, and most wild trout in the creek are shielded from angling.

However, planting trout in water without lots of fishing pressure does not make sense, particularly where the trout are not native. (Mtn yellow-legged frogs are a prime example of this, trout stocked in fishless lakes wiped out the frog populations). Stocked trout that do survive can dilute the gene pool of the wild population and in many cases, have deleterious effects on resident trout populations.

Because of DFG stocking practices over the last 100 years or so, trout have been dumped everywhere, without any time taken to assess the ecosystem impacts of the introduction of a top-tier predator. That is what the lawsuit is about. Whether the concerns are important enough is up for debate, but they are legitimate (unfortunately, because some idiots filed the suit and I hate to say they might be right).

Putah Creek will probably need to be a C and R river in order for the fishery to persist without stocking (pumping fingerlings in the system is another option). There are likely some habitat issues as well as flow regime problems that will ultimately need to be taken up with the dam operators at Monticello before anything can be fixed up. The fishery crash this year is likely do to no stocking (as well as some other factors).

Putah will likely be given the go for stocking (Rainbows are native to the stream and red legged frogs are native, so there should not be a huge problem). My understanding is that DFG stocking was called off statewide in almost all streams and smaller lakes and reservoirs until DFG figures out if it should be putting fish there.

Actually those survey boxes are for the Wild Trout program... they are used to evaulate catch rates and fish sizes. Putah is not a designated water yet, so stocking is not restricted yet. Wild Trout waters require that catchable trout not be planted, but sub-catchables can be (as in the East Walker). Neat little political rant, but tone it down a bit...this is a gripe session about why fishing sucks.

In addition, the ban on stocking is statewide and both Putah and Solano are on the do-not-stock list (look it up)...

-Nick

My plan is to give Putah a break and hit the Sierra's instead, I've had great fishing so far this season without Putah, I can get over the fact that its an hour away versus my three hour trip last week. But still support the efforts of PCT all the while!
As for the politcal labels, who cares about Con or Lib, it's still the broken bureacracy of big goverment that enables such failures to begin with, looks what going on now.

I would add that Wild Trout status designation is not an outcome of this reg change request. Wild Trout status is obtained after a lengthy evaluation by DFG. The main purpose of the current request for 0 take is to provide a baseline for the WT evaluation.

The PC trout fishery  has been virtually ignored for decades. The last reg change, sponsored by Fly Fishers of Davis, occurred in the late 90's. This change gave us C/R barbless artificials for the closed general (winter) season. In the long run year around C/R may not be necessary or desireable to maintain a healthy fishery and enjoyment of the sport by all users. But until we have solid data on the state of the fishery and a accurate measure of the influence of several potentially negative environmental conditions, PCT feels that a conservation-focused approach makes sense for now.

CJ-at your convenience-they will be submitted in August.

Grahler,

I dont even want to get into a debate about whether or not I can catch wild fish. That is a moot point and irrelevant. What I simply was pointing out, was what most people on this board are afraid to admit. Putah creek will never be a blue ribbon trophy trout stream. I have spent enough time in the streams to the east and the north to know that trying to make Putah a wild trophy stream is like trying to teach a one-legged blind man to run the 100 meter dash. It just wont happen...

There is just too much fishing pressure on this stream and it is too close to a large Metropolitan city. It will always be a put and take fishery and I am happy with that. Obviously the DFG doesnt feel the sameway.

We are in agreement on one thing. If they cant even stock the closest viable trout fishery in this state to SF, then we have much bigger problems which will trickle down to other streams. I hate to see what is in store for Fly Fishing in the golden state.

Colin

 

Grahler-the collected data from last years online survey reported 70% of the fish caught were wild. If you remove the plants from the numbers, it was 78%. Season didn't make much difference in the percenrage except in May and September after the plantings took place and there were jumps in the plants reported (no surprise there and tends to validate the other results).

Proper management of any heavily pressured water like PC is critical. PCT has identified several "factors", including the pressure from fishing that are likely to be contributing to the "decline". Build up of silt and a lack of scouring of the silt by Glory Hole spill overs is altering the stream bed ecology in a number of ways. Wintertime redd stomping and fishing for spawning fish is another. And the widely fluctuating flows, especially low flows in winter, keeps the fish on the move and under stress. And then the scofflaws who, plants or no plants, take more fish out than it is legal to do so.

But this is not new information-I and others-have been on this forum soap box before.  We can accept the "decline" and just go elsewhere, or try to produce changes that will provide benefit to anyone that "uses" the Creek. So it takes a few years of hard work. Won't it be worth it? If we fail, at least the effort was made.

P.S. Applying todays technology, I bet a one legged blind man can run a 100 yard dash.

Flows are mentioned often. All rivers go through dramatic flows changes throughtout the year. Our freestones, and almost all tailwaters. And the fish survive because thats what they do.  Dropping the flows to say 45 on putah is something all fish face. Take a ride up to a sierrra freestone in a few weeks and tell me the flows are less then putah time winter flows, Its just not true.  So in my opinion the flow situation is actually more of a burden on fisherman then fish. In reality putah fish actually have it pretty easy. It's the current fishing regulations that are killing this creek.

Mud Snails-"take em or leave em"; 'they don't cause any harm"; "worst thing to happen to the creek". Who knows without data if they are innocent bystanders or the devil's spawn (in fishery terms)? Just so happens there are local stream biologists who want to find some answers to that question since there appears to be a decline in Hydropsyche caddis (major trout food item) in the same areas of the creek where NMS are most numerous. Detailed studies may show this is a problem and a threat to this caddis (and other bugs as well), or it may turn out to be a blip on the normal  Hydropsyche long term population curve.

Everything environmental these days is driven by "show me the Science", a costly and long term search for answers to make the "right" choices. Doing nothing about the environmental problems on PC is certainly an option, but we've seen that result already, I think.