At the Fish and Game Committee meeting today, the regulations were changed for Putah Creek to year round barbless fly or srtificial lure . . . .it has happened!!!!!!!
Well done to all the guys involved..... but especially Steve from most peoples opinion this wouldn't have come about without your tireless efforts.
Cheers
Alastair
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"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
Will they continue to plant or will it be managed as a wild fishery? I hope for no planters. There will still be a lot of work for keeping the flows managed, protecting / improving habitat, and mitigating the NMZ and any other invasive species.
All great points. The reason the fishery is no longer being stocked is due to the Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit against DF&G. To make avery long story short, they sued DF&G saying that species not native to a particular environment ( such as rainbow trout) were being introduced into habitat and destroying native species such as Red-Legged Frogs. The court ordered an injunction to discontinue all stocking because DF&G had not responded to the suit in a timely manner. EIR's must be completed by DF&G before any stocking can continue. This is in all liklihood, many years down the road, if at all. I am taking a huge topic and attempting to condense it into a couple of sentences.
More importantly, I believe that a perception exists that now that these regulations have passed, the work is done. To the complete contrary, the work is really beginning. Chris Yama ( Otter) is working with Solano County Water Agency ( the governing body of water distribution on Putah Creek) with flows and siltation issues. Habitat restoration is a big topic in the near future as well. We are in contact with and doing what we can with a thinly spread DF&G to coordinate enforcement activity There are a myriad of topics to be addressed in the near future. More importantly, there are many, many opportunities for people to step in at any time and assist in these projects. We have many active members, and can always use more. This is a time to become part of the positive process in restoring Putah Creek. Again, we can always use more volunteers!!!!!   The more hands involved, the more we get done.
when the studies are done if planting resumes (as dfg intends) regs will return to previous regs. ? My understanding is this is temporary and planting will restart as soon as possible.
Two points: 1) regs will not change for at least 3 years 2) Unlikely that there will be return to planting for at least as long,  especially during Wild Trout evaluation.  If PC becomes a water in the WT program, you won't see a return to planting.