Operation No Trout left behind Lower little Truckee

[Reel Ventures on the Fly]

I was so proud and honored to be apart of this. Along with local Truckee guides Stefan Mcloud (our fearless leader), Trent Kirschner and CDFW we were able to save hundreds of fish from there certain demise due to the zero flows which accrued over night on the lower little Truckee. Mountain Whitefish , Sculpin, Rainbows, Browns and even a Redside were all relocated to much more habitable waters. Stefan Mcleod jumped to action and brought this situation to the attention to CDFW (DFG) who showed up the next day with there equipment to safely shock and transport the fish, it was quite remarkable and at the same time sad because many fish did not make the dramatic drop in flows.

For more pics goto my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/reelventures.ontheflyhttps://www.facebook.com/reelventures.onthefly

Thanks again to everyone and please go check out Stephan Mcleod at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stefan-McLeods-BlueWater-Photography/104797669637446?sk=info
By far one of my favorite photographers.

.

[Dan LeCount]

It was nice to meet you Garrett, thanks for coming out and supporting the cause.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks to all who helped....what a great thing.

[TyV]

Would like to tip my proverbial fishing cap to each and every one of those people who participated! As Jim said recently, the action to dewater without giving the fish a chance to move out with a slow lowering is nothing short of criminal! Insert expletives here.

Thanks again, your actions are appreciated greatly. Saving some is way better than the alternative.

Ty

[tcorfey]

Can anyone explain why they went to no flow on the Little Truckee? What happened and why?

Regardless of the reason you guys are heroes for jumping in and saving fish like that!

[Reel Ventures on the Fly]

This is the lower little Truckee coming out of Boca going into the Truckee river. Hope that clears things up.

[Dan LeCount]

People own water rights downstream, they tell the watermaster when they get their water and when to turn it off. He just does what he's told. From what I understand, there's a few people at the state that perform in a "watchdog" type role to make sure flow changes don't dramatically effect wildlife (particularly fish in this case.) From what I've heard, a few of those people were asleep at the wheel basically. Its not unusual for the Little Truckee below Boca to get turned way down(although not completely off) it's just this time this stretch was full of fish because of the conditions and they in fact turned it off. Before that the Truckee was running really warm and most of the other cold water inflows were very low. They had Boca pumping at 250CFS, sucking up fish like a vacuum. Watermaster turned off the flows and a lot more fish then normal got trapped. We rescued maybe a handful of fish, the vast majority are still trapped up there in the deepest pools, out of reach currently. Some folks saw some fish approaching 30" in the exit pool from the dam. It was a valiant effort, but in the big picture, the damage was done, and the rescuing we did accomplish was more of a gesture since most of the fish were still trapped. Still I'm sure those little fish we did save appreciated it.

[Mark Kranhold]

Great job, nice wildlife management we have in charge! Lower the flows slowly to give aquatic wildlife time to acclimate to change...Freakin dumb a$$'$. Hats off to Stefan and the gang!

[tcorfey]

Okay

I just read the news reports. Thanks for the additional follow-up, that is bad news.

I also read in the Reno GJ that if Lake Tahoe drops below its natural rim (and it is getting close) it will mean even less water to the Truckee.

That would be really bad...