20 years after the spill on the Upper Sac....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/assignment_7&id=8126390

[Jaybinder]

It would be very interesting to read any firsthand accounts you guys have. What were the days and weeks following the spill like? Was Trinity lake affected? Anyone on the river the day it happend? Tell us your stories.

[Dave Neal]

Whoa. Hard to imagine that WAS 20 years ago! Time is really flying by...

Glad they stuck to the plan of letting the wild trout repopulate, instead of rushing in to re-plant with pellet fed junkies.

If I remember correctly, many of the wild trout were up the tributaries spawning, but the aquatic insect food base was impacted by the spill. Nature is an amazing fixer when we just leave it alone.

I don't get an opportunity to fish the Upper Sac, but very rarely, it's such a beautiful river. Anyone within a couple hours of there... you are so lucky to have that river!!!

[NorCalDrifter56]

I agree! Having the Sacramento river (upper and lower) as my fishing backyard is a luxury.

The upper Sac is a jewel and the spill was like a sucker punch to the gut for all of us locals. Its hard to explain but I remember feeling disrespected by the southern part of the State. I understood that it was an accident...but with other environmental accidents fresh in my memory and the the politices of how California uses (misuses) its water made it feel like no one really cared. It was devistating. The railroad put up a little planted pond near the Railroad Park (little resort) and the debate about how to recover raged on.

New protections were placed on the bridge and over time the river has recovered spectacularly, and my skepticism has subsided.

Of course recently the 'powers that be' have decided to raise the flows on the McLoud and the Pit...hmmmm......(insert the sound of exasperation here).

I am sure that over time we fishermen will adjust to the new conditions.... and nature will cover our tracks much like it did with the upper Sac.

Curtis Cole
NorCaldrifter56@yahoo.com
California Guide, Licensed and Bonded

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

My 2 favorite times to fish the Upper Sac are somewhere around June, depending on the weather and snow pack each year and in the late fall, mid-October to mid-November.

If you go up there be sure to contact the "Ted Fay Fly Shop" before you go to get some accurate info.

There are lots of places to stay and camp too.

Lots of good restaurants.

If you want to really learn the river I would go the first day with a good local guide.

The fact that this river is open to Shasta Lake and has a great cold summer flow from underground springs make it a winner.

[JayDubP]

I remember visiting the Upper Sac about 3-4 weeks after the spill- the river looked like it had been scrubbed. No vegetation at all, just really clean rocks-- and no signs of life in the water.

The about 6-8mos later I drove by and stopped at Simms-- and saw one trout swimming and then some fish feeding on the surface (mosquitos?)-- Can't tell you the pleasure that gave me-- sign that the river was recovering.

Now to me the Upper Sac is a magical place-- a place that is owed respect for coming back.
I am not an overly religious man, but I am glad God chose to let us fish it again.

[Rich Morrison]

Boy do I remember when I heard what had happened. My Dad and I had been up there for three days camping at Sims Flat and fishing all over the area just two weeks before the spill. I remember being heartbroken as well as thankful that I had a chance to fish it before it was gone forever. I'm glad to know I was wrong about that bit.

[Brig Jones]

I live in Redding with a wealth of excellent waters close at hand. Despite this, the upper Sac is my favorite. I usually fish it once per week after run off. I was fishing at simms three days before the spill. From my perspective, it has made a good recovery, far better than I dared hope back then.

This not a scientific observation, but I think the spill has affected the hatches and insect "demographics." Gone are the prodigious caddis hatches near dark. They hatch now in smaller numbers, and seem to share the waters with more stoneflies and mayflies.

I am glad that hatchery trout were not used to restore the fishery. I also enjoy the new regs allowing fishing year round, despite the fact that I rarely do well in the winter on the upper Sac.

Brig Jones, Redding.

[Jgoding]

Maybe it's changed since I fished it last, but we fished it the first year it was open after the spill I believe. I remember being amazed on a couple evenings. We caught lots of fish in the 14"-16" range and the caddis hatches were epic.

I just remember taking a break from fishing one evening and looking upriver.... There was a cloud of caddis coming off along with some octobers I think (something really big). At the peak of the hatch there must have been 10-20 fish coming completely out of the water at any given moment along with tons of rising fish... it was amazing to see. I remember tying a huge deer hair winged bug and tossing it into a riffle... I got a huge grab and for two seconds line just screamed off my reel as the fish tore upriver and then it was gone.... my heart was pounding for a bit after that one....

[Brig Jones]

I seem always to fish Simms, but do fish as high as the canyon on occassion. So maybe my experience is affected by location.

Here the difference as I see it. Pre spill, you could take you time driving up, because you could absolutely bank on clouds of caddis coming off about 45 minutes before dark. Now, such happens but far less often. Some nights just fizzle out.

Fly list is short: elk hair caddis, prince nymph, size 18 or smaller may fly nymph--black, dark lord, stonefly nymphs, and caddis emerger.

according to calendar, add stonefly adults, green drake, and October Caddis

lots of others work; these are consistently good.

Best of all: strong pre spill fish have returned.

[Sammy]

great post

[Rockman]

I moved up to Shasta prior to the spill in the mid 70's to go to College of the Siskiyous. Between studies, I fished the upper Sac. & the McCloud when time allowed. I fell in love with these two rivers and swore some day I will retire there. I was devastated and angry when the spill took place. But nature has a way of healing, and God blessed mother nature to heal quickly. The bug hatches are different, but still great. In Sept. of 09, I was lucky enough to buy a home in Dunsmuir and can now call the upper Sac. my home waters. I feel blessed to be able to fish it frequently, and share my home with friends who are always in awe about the beauty of the river and the mountain. The reg's that were changed after the spill, I believe did help it recover. I pray, the diasaster that took place never happens to anyones river again.

[Frank Alessio]

The Upper Sac is a fantastic fishery... It is not in the same drainage as Trinity Lake. I know of someone who caught fish in Downtown Dunsmuir a month after the spill. The river was planted after the spill... The fish from Mt. Shasta Hatchery are excellent fish... My Grandfather used to say once those fish have been in the water long enough to key in on flys they are healthy fish... When I was a teenager I supplied a lot of locals with Trout for the table and was rewared with such items as Italian Sopressata.... Boy those were good times... I sold my flys in Sam's meat market in castella when I was 13 years old and had steady customers for some years... They were kind people...Now that I am older I do not count fish anymore (Bull%$^&) My best three evenings in a row I Caught and Released 98 fish using a two fly method I learned when I was very young.... I love The Upper Sac...Frank

[ronrabun]

That DAY, 6 am. -
I woke up in my work residence in Davis at 6am with the Sacramento TV News reports of the Spill. I immediately contacted Fred Gordon and he gave me the immediate local river observation with tearing eyes from the Metam Sodium gas eminating from the river. With my fishing residence a block away from his, I jump in my car and headed to Dunsmuir. Emergency vehicles were up and down the I-5 river canyon.

About 1pm as I crossed the South First Street bridge (at the sewer ponds) and could see hoards of dead fish lining the the banks and gravel bar. A putred gas smell was about the air. DFG staff were already investigating the damage the fish and I stopped. What they and I discovers were over a thousand fish within the 500 foot shoreline in all sizes up to 15 pounds. How did I only know by intuition that this stretch of water, in which I had fished hundreds of times since my first day on the Upper Sac in 1976, was home to 10 fish in excess of 10 pounds when I had only caught fish up to 6 pounds.
Little Castle Creek was packed with trout that had the sense to escape the main channel.

I would say these were the very first assessments of the damage and shortly after, around 3pm. the chemical would had made it's way nearly 40 mile jouney into Lake Shasta. This raised the ante of the over all effects since the whole Northern California water supply was now in jeopardy.

As I met up with Fred, he explained the alarm began around 2pm and the chemical had reached Dunsmuir around 5am a 6 mile jouney at mid summer flows around 450 cfs. I told Fred what I saw at The Bridge and said lets head to Cantara. We did and walked to observe the tank care in the river on its side. We talked with SP, DFG and other folks on the site. We primarily discovered 19000+ gallons has leaked from the single wall tanker care that had been 'rubber banded' off the Cantara Loop Bridge because the train car sequence had unloaded cars before the loaded tank cars causing the cars to pull off the curve's track. No 'pusher' engine was being used to the train's load was sequenced unsafely. The bottom line of the chemical's impact was centered around it's honey-like consistency and capability to kill every aquatic fish, insects and plants it contacted, AND those also being impacted by the active gas that is created with MTS, water and oxygen mix. So a river predominant with cascading rock gardens, pools and white water heading downhill at 30 feet per mile became the perfect mixer. Then the predominent secondary emergency of the jelly pluming in the lake jumped to the forefront aside from any medical emergencies which were few luckily because the nature of the chemical, the impact zone was held within the river channel area.

After seeing enough or what we could, I mentioned we should go fishing up at Ney Springs and the Canyon to see what fish had scurried up stream. Also, I figured the river would be closed to fishing soon. I fished for an hour landing 20 some fish, browns and rainbows up to 10 inches. I believed this was proof to me that no effects of the chemicals had streatched more than a couple hundred feet above the spill site. AND that there was a large population of fish that had survived within the Upper Canyon.

I returned to my house and chatted with neighbors with the smell still in the air. Also, I immediately contacted the officers and conservation members of the Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers to initiate our stakeholder participation. I believe Richard Izmerian was President at the time.

My day ended with a return trip to Davis because the Fish and Game Commission was already having a meeting in Sacramento and certianly would have to address this situation.

Spill Day 2 - I was promptly at DFG's Commission's Office's in Sacramento along with another hundred folks including the media. I commented on my upstream fishing experience with hope that area might remain open to CnR fishing even in the short run. The Commission Emergency closure covered the river the tributaries.

If you would like more my perspectives from the last 20 years I would be glad to blog on.

But, I think the first day told us alot about what we might expect from the recovery of the Upper Sacramento River over the last 20 years that we will reflect upon on July 14, 2011.

In the last 20 years, we have seen nature's healing; mass publicity; environmental politics; biological assessments; surveys; strategic planning; a 20-30 fold increase in angling days; recovery to Blue Ribbon Trout Streat status (full recovery?) and so on. These topics and more would fill megs of writing, viewpoint and opinions.

Simply, I could I say "the Upper Sacramento through all these events and actions, has returned the river the days before I observed dead on the 500 foot streatch of river on July 14, 1991?

Simply, I believe not with all the love I have for the Upper Sac as my cherised home waters.

Ron Rabun
Dunsmuir Streamside Resident
Fly Fishing Guide and Educator