Steelhead on the Ventura River

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5521469097671574491&hl=en#

[Covelo]

Whenever I view images like those in this video or talk to those who experienced fishing back in the day, I am amazed at just how abundant these fish were. I read that the steelhead population on the Russian River was estimated to be once be over 50,000 fish. Over 19,000 fish in the San Lorenzo. These numbers are huge by today's returns. I believe many do not understand just how many fish there used to be. Our expectations are so low now and we have settled for a few fish which we call a good return.

Thanks for the link.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Almost every Steelhead river in California has been damned which basically killed them.

My old friends who are the generation of my parents, the great generation, use to fish the Russian River before the dam. They said that was so good that it was all the further anyone from the bay area or Sacramento had to drive for Steelhead.

It was not till they damned the Russian that people started driving further north like to the Gualala, Garcia and Eel Rivers for Steelhead.

Very sad that they ruined some of the best fishing in the world for Steelhead.

On the bright side, they have started taking dams down now. This is huge.....

[inclinejj]

It sounds like the old guys who came in my dads shop when I was a kid.

Always telling me kid you should have seen the fish in the river..

Even the small coastal streams had great Steelhead and Silver Salmon runs

[wjorg]

I love how the dams were created to mitigate floods and store water. Now you find the rivers with the worst floods in CA are downstream of dams with silted in reservoirs while the farmers of that watershed still bemoan they dont have enough water.....