Sac Bee article " Anglers calling for emergency closure of American River to fishing"

[Jeannie W.]

Here is a link for the article:

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/08/6057693/state-urged-to-close-american.html

[winxp_man]

This state is such a joke. Yet the aqueduct going down to SoCal is full to the brim!!!! Oh I know how about this be a lesson why the hell SoCal needs to come up with its own idea for water and that dry spells happen regardless and that NorCal will not always be there to sustain the water needs for SoCal!

Imagine if we had the dam piece of crap delta pipes put in already it would destroy the delta or what ever is left of it! I agree to a river closure if water has to go lower. It just sucks knowing the reason why we get to where we are at! And that we have to suffer here in the upper part of the state! Damn greed and money and people that do not seem to know crap and are politicians!


But anyways thanks for the post Jeannie.

[Mark Kranhold]

Hah! To avoid salmon eggs that have already spawned! Sorry but the majority of those redds are dead and dry on the banks of the creek now ! What a way to start out a article, sounds like they don't know there head from there ...! It is sad but I sure hope anglers that are fishing ,fish with true etiquette of the sport of steelheading.

[Big Jim]

This state is such a joke. Yet the aqueduct going down to SoCal is full to the brim!!!! Oh I know how about this be a lesson why the hell SoCal needs to come up with its own idea for water and that dry spells happen regardless and that NorCal will not always be there to sustain the water needs for SoCal!

Imagine if we had the dam piece of crap delta pipes put in already it would destroy the delta or what ever is left of it! I agree to a river closure if water has to go lower. It just sucks knowing the reason why we get to where we are at! And that we have to suffer here in the upper part of the state! Damn greed and money and people that do not seem to know crap and are politicians!


But anyways thanks for the post Jeannie.

I found this - what you said, in pictures: http://www.fishwithjd.com/2014/01/05/the-only-river-in-california-that-isnt-bone-dry-wtf/

Jim

[Jeannie W.]

Thanks guys! I agree with you! Jim, I saw that same article with the photos. It's all about money, politics more money and selling water and a whole bunch of people that could care less about the fish and any of the rivers. They have plenty of water down south! How about the politicians get together with Hollywood and purge their pocketbooks and build some desalinization plants!!
If they close the river to fishing are they going to close it to those who teach fly casting on the river too...........? I hope not! Most of the salmon have already spawned and most of the fishermen and fisherwomen know how to recognize the reds and they stay off of them. Maybe if the DWR wouldn't have sent so much water earlier last year there would be more water now!! Gee what a concept!! I have been really suspicious of the timing on the water releases all last year. Seems like nothing the DWR has been doing makes any good sense!

[Black Cloud]

I think it is going to be a bad year. That high pressure system has been sitting in the NW pacific for 13 months, it is 4 miles high and 2000 miles long. That is why the east coast got our rain and snow. This could be worse than '76.

[tascaso]

I remember '76, I was farming back then; we had to sink some wells and pump the acquirer to stay in business. It completely changed the face of farming as our water deliveries from our district have been curtailed since then and never restored to the pre '76 levels.

CA has some really scary data on droughts lasting decades in its past. We maybe heading into one at this time. There are theories that the cycle of a few years of drought and then wet are precursors to droughts that can last decades.

Of course this could all change and we could get deluged in March, April and May! This is really hard stuff to predict!

[Troutsource]

Here's some technical National Weather Service talk on the aforementioned drought potential from today's forecast discussion :

"Sounding like a broken record...but just no signs of a significant
pattern change to warrant excitement about rain for Norcal. The only
records we are breaking are the occasional max temp records...and
adding to the consecutive days of no rain during the rainy season
for DTS...now up to 39 days which is 4th all time with the record of
44 days back in 1976...which we seem destined to tie/break early
next week. BTW...1976 was also characterized by a persistent west
coast ridge during the cool (negative) phase of the PDO."

The "negative phase of the PDO" can last decades:

"PDO:
Pacific Decadal Oscillation - a recently described pattern of climate variation similar to ENSO though on a timescale of decades and not seasons. It is characterized by SST anomalies of one sign in the north-central Pacific and SST anomalies of another sign to the north and east near the Aleutians and the Gulf of Alaska. It primarily affects weather patterns and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and northern Pacific Islands. Two main characteristics distinguish PDO from El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO): first, 20th century PDO "events" persisted for 20-to-30 years, while typical ENSO events persisted for 6 to 18 months; second, the climatic fingerprints of the PDO are most visible in the North Pacific/North American sector, while secondary signatures exist in the tropics- the opposite is true for ENSO. Several independent studies found evidence of just two full PDO cycles in the past century: cool" PDO regimes prevailed from 1890-1924 and again from 1947-1976, while "warm" PDO regimes dominated from 1925-1946 and from 1977 through (at least) the mid-1990's. Causes for the PDO are not currently known. Likewise, the potential predictability for this climate oscillation are not known."

You can get the forecast discussions here: http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=STO&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1

You can also get long-term precipitation forecasts from Accuweather here: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/sacramento-ca/95814/month/347627?view=table

...unfortunately, it shows only 2.1" of liquid through February (at one point, it was showing 12" over a 10-day stretch in February).

[troutless]

Well that was a cheery read.

[Walter]

Thanks guys! I agree with you! Jim, I saw that same article with the photos. It's all about money, politics more money and selling water and a whole bunch of people that could care less about the fish and any of the rivers. They have plenty of water down south! How about the politicians get together with Hollywood and purge their pocketbooks and build some desalinization plants!!
If they close the river to fishing are they going to close it to those who teach fly casting on the river too...........? I hope not! Most of the salmon have already spawned and most of the fishermen and fisherwomen know how to recognize the reds and they stay off of them. Maybe if the DWR wouldn't have sent so much water earlier last year there would be more water now!! Gee what a concept!! I have been really suspicious of the timing on the water releases all last year. Seems like nothing the DWR has been doing makes any good sense!

I am surprised at how many experienced anglers can't recognize a redd. Or even realize wading around them tosses up sediment that flows into the redd and helps choke out the eggs suspended in the gravel bed. I used to fish somewhat responsibly around salmon redds for trout and egg eater steelhead but I gave that up. Long casts and dont get greedy wading too close but people cant control themselves. Close the spawning water.

I saw more than once guides on the Sac in 2002 using motor wash to stir up the redds and then drift into fish biting like crazy. The guide I was with would slingshot lead split shot at the side of those boats.

[Tony Buzolich]

I started to write this twice and quit thinking "why stir up more crap" when it's already been said and probably decided by those with "the money" like Jeannie said.

At the ISE show last week I stopped at the DWR booth next to the Fish & Wildlife booth. What caught my eye was a large banner saying "Save the Delta". Ya, I like hearing that. Lets see what the guy there has to say about the tunnels they're planning and what it'll do to impact the delta. So I asked, "How are these tunnels going to improve the flushing action we need to clean the sediment and salt out of the delta?" His answer just about floored me. He was quick to agree we need to flush out the delta,,,,,"but the pipes or tunnels AREN'T going to affect that at all". Obviously he's already been paid and brainwashed by those "with money".

He went on to say (and this gets REALLY good) "What we need to do is stop tearing down these dams they're all talking about and build MORE of them. "And"( he goes on), we need to raise the height of all of the ones we already have". I'm choking a little but I let him continue with his paid oratory until I couldn't take it any longer. I asked him to clarify this a little more and he continued on about building more dams, more reservoirs, and not letting it just "drain out to sea" I think were his words.

Still overwhelmed but feeling a bit argumentative I asked him again about sending so much of our water south. "Look" he said, "it's pretty simple. What's more important, Animals, or People?". Yep, that's pretty simple all right. He continued by saying that 90% of the population of California live SOUTH of Sacramento. Obviously money talks and he's been bought by those who pay his wages and can only profit from some higher up down south, and with this I left.

Feeling more than a little depressed I walked to the Fish & Wildlife booth next to them where a cute girl was handing out brochures. She smiled, and I asked how she felt about all the low water conditions and what it was doing to the salmon and steelhead. She was quick to say that yes we are having drought conditions and things are bad for lots of wildlife. I continued and asked about the redds and dying eggs in the gravel. She lost her nice smile and was now quite serious saying that with the high water flows in late summer it pulled lots of salmon up river. "Then" she said," they (DWR) cut the flows leaving great numbers of salmon to die in warm shallow water". I asked, "don't you guys have something to say about this?". She replied by asking me if I've ever heard of a "biological opinion". A biological opinion is a written statement saying what F&W believe will be the result or impact of another party's doing something that affects the wildlife concerned. Fish & Wildlife have written many, many, biological opinions concerning the affects of poor water regulation,,,,,,,,,, only to have them rejected or vetoed by the governor or his cronies. This (our) governing power, has the ability to ignore and veto whatever it wants under the guise of being for the greater good.

Well, this ended my day. Now I've gone from being a bit depressed with the DWR people to totally bummed out by the knowledge that our government doesn't seem to care about our salmon or steelhead as long as they get the water they want AT ANY COST.

I meet up with my buddies and I've gone from being depressed to down right mad. It was a long ride home back to Yuba City and I couldn't get over feeling the frustration of wanting to do something good while at the same time knowing we're fighting against those with the money that talks.
Tony

[Troutsource]

If the Auburn Dam were in place, wouldn't there be more water in the American now? More hatchable eggs?

[Black Cloud]

The best dam sites require a small dam that can store massive amounts of water, Auburn would store very little water compared to its size. It was also sitting on a seismic fault.