War on stripers?

As one of California's most popular game fish species, striped bass are suddenly at the center of the state's long-running water wars. Introduced to California in 1887 from the United States' east coast, the stripers are a "non-native" species that reached a peak abundance of over 3 million fish in the early 1960's. Once established, the stripers enjoyed protective regulations on par with any native species, and co-existed readily with the salmon, steelhead and other native varieties.

The water-users group "Coalition for a Sustainable Delta" formally filed suit last month against the Department of Fish and Game for violating the Federal Endangered Species Act. Consisting of mostly agricultural water-users from Kern County and around the state, CSD maintains that state regulations protect the non-native striped bass, a known predator of several native endangered and threatened species including the Delta smelt.

Michael Boccadoro, spokesperson for CSD said, "It is extremely counter productive for the state to implement programs that protect a known predator of federally protected threatened and endangered species at a time when federal courts are ordering significant cutbacks in water pumping operations to protect the same species."

In essence the lawsuit contends that laws protecting striped bass with size limits, bag limits or any other restrictions are illegal because the species is a predator on endangered species in the Delta system.

Numerous sportfishing-related groups oppose the suit. Dave Hurley of the California Striped Bass Association said, "The state water contractors are playing hard ball. They now want to blame the striped bass for the decline of the Delta smelt, longfin smelt, king salmon and other fish in the Delta to divert blame from the state and federal water export pumps, even though the striped bass successfully co-existed with native species for over 120 years."

In addition to striped bass, the majority of what are considered "game fish" in Northern California waters are introduced "non-natives" that were brought here in the late 1800's or early 1900's; including shad, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, black crappie, white crappie, all catfish species, brown trout, brook trout, lake trout, kokanee salmon and even the lowly carp, bluegill and sunfish.

Interestingly, our own west coast salmonid species like Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead were successfully introduced throughout the Great Lakes region in the 1960's. Understandably very popular with anglers, these species are now considered "naturalized citizens" by the various state fish and game departments.

Lake Oroville

Prospects on Lake Oroville this week are fair at best, reported Fil Torres at Oroville Outdoors. "It's [Lake Oroville] still cold and relatively tough fishing", said Torres. "All of the water flowing into the lake is cold too. Our best hope is that dirty water warms up quicker than clear water."

"The weekend bass tournaments had winning weights of around 11 pounds [for five bass], and top individual fish of just over three pounds. That is an improvement in size from the previous week. Best bet will be to go down 30 to 50 feet and drag a jig, a darthead-rigged Senko or a dropshot-rigged worm.

"Bass anglers are catching a lot of incidental coho salmon. The cohos are down at the 30 to 40-foot level and are hitting on dropshot baits and small plastic worms. We have not gotten any reports from anglers specifically targeting cohos."

Torres added, "The Thermalito Afterbay is still kicking out decent numbers of steelhead up to three pounds for anglers drifting nightcrawlers with the current. All of the major launch ramps on Lake Oroville are also open, including Lime Saddle, Bidwell Canyon and the Spillway."

Smith River

The traditional Smith River lunker steelhead run has been a little off this week, reported local guide Kevin Brock who usually spends the entire winter season on the Smith. "It's [steelhead fishing] been tough the last couple of days", observed Brock. "The weather has been sunny bluebird days and 67 degree temperatures. We have been catching a couple of steelhead a day, but there have been a lot of small fish. We did get an 18 pounder this week, and a 19 pounder last week, but most have been the ???bluebacks' running only four to six pounds. It is unusual to see so many small fish before mid-March.

"Most all of our fish have been biting on cured roe with a puff ball, but some have been caught on a #35 Luhr Jensen Hotshot. The crowds have been small, so we have been able to get by with using 10-pound test fluorocarbon leader material. When the water is low or crowded, I usually drop down to eight-pound test fluorocarbon leaders.

Fly Fishing School

Local fly-fishing and fly-tying legend Lincoln Gray will conduct Fly Fishing Schools on some prime area waters this summer. The Lake Almanor sessions will take place during the famous "hexagenia hatch" from June 17 to July 10, targeting rainbow trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass and salmon. Daily tuition is $225 per student. Other sessions will also be available on Digger Creek Ranch and Clear Creek Sports Club for trout, bass and sunfish. Call 520-6895 for more information.

Trout plant
The Department of Fish and Game planted catchable-size trout this week in DeSabla Reservoir.

Send your outdoor news items to Steve Carson via e-mail to scarson@sunset.net.