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SACRAMENTO RIVER

Captain Scott Feist
(707) 540-2381

The
Richmond Hunting Club is a not for
profit sportsmen organization with 18,000 acres of
some of the finest upland game and
waterfowl property in the
Sac, Delevan and Colusa triangle.
Annual family memberships start at just $500.
Information 707-451-1690.
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July 17, 2010
Headlines
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Waiting On Salmon Season
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Central Valley Rivers
Some big
stripers are hanging
around the central Sac
river. On Saturday
7-17 guide Scott
Feist reported that
several big fish taken
this past week and Daniel at
Kittles Outdoors in Colusa confirmed the trend of large stripers being
caught in this section of the Sacramento River. A 38-pounder was caught
and released by a client of a guide this morning above the Colusa
Bridge, and a few anglers have been tossing rubber worms at night near
the lights by the bridge for fish over 30-pounds.
Bob Boucke at Johnson’s
Bait in Yuba City said
there continue to be
large stripers landed on
the Sacramento River
with a variety of
methods. Tim Bradbury of
the shop has caught and
released stripers at 30,
23, and 18-pounds in the
past week near Ward’s
Landing on hair raisers
with a fluke tail. Bob
Bradbury (no relation)
also of the shop caught
and released a
20-pounder on sardines
near Tisdale. Boucke
said the most consistent
bite has been near
Ward’s. A few stripers
continue to be found on
the Feather River below
Shanghai Bend, but high
water releases from
Bullards Bar on the Yuba
and Oroville on the
Feather have pushed up
the water levels. He
hopes the water stays
high for the salmon
season starting on July
31st.
It's that time of year that we stow the keyboard and get serious about fishing.
We are packing up the kids, extended family and friends and headed north to our
vacation home
on the Kenai peninsula for the next two weeks. This is our annual family trip that we look
forward to all year in a place where they still value salmon and manage their
fisheries for sustainability. (Cal fisheries managers could learn a lot by
visiting) We will be targeting sockeye
and kings in the local rivers, chasing halibut and lings in the salt, clamming
along the local beaches and not typing reports (we have a no computer rule when
in Alaska). We still have one week available in the cabin this season, August
22-29th and we are taking bookings for 2011.
Reports and updates will resume here on
July 31st. In the time being please
contact our sponsors or visit their websites for current reports, information
and bookings. Many of them do have updated fishing reports.
Until then... good fishing!
Mike Aughney
Editorial:
Stranded Chinook Salmon
Successfully Rescued from Butte Creek
Readers, below you will find a media release from
Cal DFG is regards to a fish rescue conducted on
Butte Creek this past week. Cal DFG must believe
that California anglers are a bunch of buffoons. On
a personal level I was insulted by the news release
and many in the sportfishing community (and groups
fighting for salmon) felt likewise. In an attempted
to gloss over the real issue of water diversion as
the cause for the low flows and high water
temperatures that stranded 100s of listed (threatened)
salmon they use the term "thermal block" as if this
is a natural occurrence. The very first sentence is
a tip off of a dog and pony show press release when
they use the term "fisheries experts", please.
The most pathetic part of the press release is when
they write "A variety of factors may have
delayed or altered the normal migration timing and
pattern, including a late spring and cold high flows
out of the Yuba River". I'm sorry, I laughed
when I read that because we now have "fishery
experts" claiming that somehow "cold high water
flows" are to blame for the low numbers of fish
returning to the river and may have altered their
migration. We all know how detrimental cold high
flows are to salmon. This is no laughing matter.
This year's spring run is down by 95% from the 10
year average.
DFG management tries to spin the story that they
somehow are saving the fishery when in fact they are
again neglecting the true factors, too much water
being diverted in low water years (three years ago
when these fish hatched at the beginning of a three
year drought). This fish rescue operation likely
cost was $10s of thousands of dollars when all they
needed was enough water to allow the fish to migrate
through the lower river on their own.
To Supervisor Joe Johnson, I'm no fishery rocket
scientist but I feel that I can speak for the
sport and commercial fishing community as a whole,
that we have had it with this type of "fishery
supervision" and are insulted by this press release.
If DFG addressed the real causes for the fish
stranding, too much water being diverted to
agriculture and refugees maybe next summer you won't
have to "rescue" any fish at all. But I'm sure you
already neglected that advice from your own
biologists.
Mike Aughney
CDFG
News Release - Stranded Chinook Salmon Successfully
Rescued from Butte Creek
California Department of Fish and Game News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 16, 2010
Contacts:
Harry Morse, DFG Communications, (916) 322-8962
Joe Johnson, DFG Fisheries Supervisor, (916)
358-2943
Stranded Chinook Salmon Successfully Rescued from
Butte Creek
State and federal fisheries experts arrived at Butte
Creek yesterday, expecting to capture and transport
75-80 spring run Chinook salmon stranded in Butte
Creek. They captured and relocated 123. The salmon,
which are listed as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act, had stopped their migratory journey
through the lower reach of the river because of
rising water temperatures.
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) combined efforts to rescue the fish. Staff
netted the salmon, implanted radio transmitters in
22 of them and moved them upstream to cooler water,
so they can continue their spawning migration.
"Due to the extremely low number of returning fish
this year to Butte Creek, every fish is important,"
said Joe Johnson, DFG Fisheries Supervisor. "We
didn't expect to find 123 fish, but we were
prepared. We tagged all of them and place radio
transmitters in two groups of fish in two areas. We
want to find out how many of these stranded salmon
will survive to spawn, and what the results are for
this type of rescue."
Snorkel surveys conducted at the end of June only
recorded 300 salmon in this area, instead of an
expected 3,000 to 5,000. A variety of factors may
have delayed or altered the normal migration timing
and pattern, including a late spring and cold high
flows out of the Yuba River.
The water in the Butte Creek pool where the fish
were stranded is significantly warmer than the rest
of the river, creating a thermal block that causes
the migrating salmon to dive to the bottom in search
of cooler waters. As long as the water remains warm,
the fish will not move forward. This particular spot
on the river has been a trouble spot for spring run
salmon in previous years.
DFG fisheries staff and NOAA biologists solved the
problem by setting seine nets to capture the
stranded salmon. Biologists then used dip nets to
capture fish out of the larger seine net and place
them in a net pen. Each fish, some of whom weighed
up to 30 lbs., was carefully moved from the net pen
in dip nets by a line of workers to transfer the
fish up a steep bank. The fish were then loaded into
a hatchery truck and transported up river for
release, thus moving them around the warm water
thermal block.
This year, for the second time, DFG, NOAA and staff
from the University of California, Davis implanted a
percentage of the rescued salmon with radio tracking
devices, while the rest were tagged with small,
external colored tags. The trackers will enable
biologists to monitor how rescued fish behave after
being rescued and if they contribute to the overall
salmon population.
Butte Creek's spring run Chinook salmon have been
listed as a threatened species since 1999. More than
$35 million has been spent by state, federal and
private parties on restoration and recovery efforts
on the watershed. Over the past decade, changes in
habitat and water management have helped the
population rebound somewhat, but Central Valley
salmon populations can still vary significantly from
year to year. Over the past ten years, the run has
averaged 6,000 fish, but today, surveys indicate a
much lower salmon return.
Waterfowl
Fall 2010
It's
time to start looking ahead to the Central Valley
2010/ 2011 waterfowl season. No, the season
won't open for a few more months but NOW is the time to
start checking out blinds for the coming season.
The
Richmond Hunting Club will have a limited
number of blinds become available in the
summer of 2010.
The "RHC" is a not for profit member owned
cooperative with over 18,000 acres of leased and
owned land in the Colusa, Delevan and Sac triangle
angle. I have been a member since 1997 and along
with my two sons (and many friends) we have enjoyed
some of our best waterfowl and upland game
days on the RHC properties.
Family memberships are just $500. per year and all
members have access to not only all 18,000 areas but
four clubhouses that have bunkhouses, showers and RV
parking with full hookups.
Two man water blinds (not open to general members) are just
$1700 ($850 per seat) making the RHC not only one of the best but
the most affordable clubs in the Valley. The RHC is
one of the oldest and has been open for over 5 decades. Being a not for profit club is the reason
they can offer their members such affordable
prices.
If you are interested in a tour of the club,
available water blinds and other properties
please call Gerry Gossett at 707 484-0557. Be sure
to mention USAFishing to save $50 on your first year
of membership.
Mike Aughney
Commission Approves Limited Salmon Season on
Central Valley Rivers
by Dan Bacher
The California Fish and Game Commission, during
a teleconference in Sacramento today, voted 5 to 0
to approve a limited fishing season targeting fall
run chinook salmon on the Sacramento, Feather and
American rivers. The season is based on the decision
by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) on
April 15 to give 12.6 percent of the Central Valley
fish allocation to the in river fishery, according
to Neil Manji of the California Department of Fish
and Game. The PFMC set a harvest target of 8,200
fish for the three rivers. The allocation by
sub-quota is 2,000 fish for the American, 2,000 for
the Feather, 2,600 for the Upper Sacramento and
3,600 for the Lower Sacramento.
The Feather River season will run from July 31 to
August 31 from 1,000 feet below the Thermalito
Afterbay Outfall to the mouth.
The American River season will run from October 30
to November 28 from Ancil Hoffman Park to the mouth.
The Lower Sacramento season will run from September
4 to October 3 from the Highway 113 Bridge to
Carquinez Bridge.
The Upper Sacramento River season will run from
October 9 to October 31 from the Deschutes Road
Bridge to 500 feet above the Red Bluff Diversion
Dam.
The Upper Sacramento River season targeting late fall chinook salmon will run from October 9 to
December 12 from 150 feet below the Red Bluff
Diversion Dam to the Highway 113 Bridge.
“The reason for closing the area right below the
Thermalito Afterbay Outlet was because there is a
substantial amount of illegal snagging that takes
place there,” said Manji. “If we had allowed fishing
in the outlet, the quota would have been reached
early in the season.” There will be a bag
limit of two chinooks in all of the open sections of
the Central Valley rivers. “There was a question of
whether to do a daily creel update to see if the
quota is reached, but it seemed more appropriate to
close the fishing during the peak of the runs as we
have done,” said Manji.
The season is controversial because it is based on
an ocean abundance estimate of 245,000 fish this
year by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Last
year the federal biologists estimated over 122,000
Sacramento River Chinooks would return, but only
39,530 fish, less than the third of the number
forecasted, actually returned to the rivers to
spawn.
Nobody from the public spoke in support or
opposition to the season during the teleconference,
although Paul Weekland, a veteran Fish and Game
Commission meeting attendee, questioned whether or
not there would be adequate enforcement on the
rivers to make sure that the quota is not exceeded.
We
here at USAFishing strongly support fishery conservation,
unfortunately we can't say the same of most California
anglers. We are at a crossroads and unless anglers support
conservation groups (that our currently waging a losing
battle against the multi- million water lobby) we will lose
every key fishery that is connected to the delta.
The state water projects
are being consolidated and the governor is looking to toss
the only Bay-Delta
protections we have and ship water from Shasta and Oroville
directly to LA swimming pools and subsidized cotton farmers
in Westland's. If these water projects go through you can
kiss goodbye (as in forever) our salmon, striper and
sturgeon fisheries. We don't have a salmon season this year
or last because of too much water being pumped from the
delta. If these water projects get passed we will have no
salmon seasons in the future. At no time in the past has it
been so critical that our readers understand these issues
and support the work that the
California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance
is doing.
Bottom line..... It's
time for all anglers to support our fisheries or in a few
short years there will be NO salmon, striper or sturgeon. No
group has done more over the past two decades to protect
fisheries than CSPA. In the past two months USAFishing
readers have raised nearly $10,000 for the CSPA but much
much more is needed.
Become part of the
solution!
Mike Aughney
Upcoming Events:
USAFishing proudly
supports the many fishery and wildlife
organizations that benefit anglers and hunters
throughout Northern California. Does your
organization have an upcoming event? Contact us
at
fishsite@aol.com and we will gladly post the
information on our reports pages.
California Waterfowl
2010 Dinners and Youth
Events Calendar
River Levels:


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