https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDNO305RU64
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Bill;
Thank you for posting this video. In my new book California Winter Steelhead, Life History and Fly Fishing there are several references to the Santa Clara and most all other California rivers that historically or currently have runs of winter steelhead. And yes, the Santa Clara river once supported excellent winter steelhead runs. For example the January 1918 the Los Angeles Herald newspaper reported "- “C. L. Miller returned to Los Angeles today with a 30-inch steelhead trout he obtained in the mouth of the Santa Clara river”. Early reports placed the average annual run in Santa Clara River as high as 9,000 adult winter steelhead. It would be absolutely wonderful to see steelhead restored to their former abundance in any of these river.
Dennis
www.dennisplee.com
Yes Dennis.......I am excited every time I see a dam coming down and some stream restoration.
This is in S California and some of you may not know what and where it is. I am for restoring rivers but there are other local waters that are more practical to restore.
Santa Clara River is a several hundred feet wide swath of dry sand with water only after rains. There have not been steelhead for over 100 years since it has been nothing more than a path for runoff from rainwater and floods. It runs from east of Santa Clarita (Magic Mountain) and downstream from I-5, it runs for another 45miles alongside SR126 and dumps into the Pacific south of Ventura Harbor, immediately after the Ventura Waste Water Treatment plant discharge.
The last 25 miles, from Fillmore to the mouth is where the restoration is envisioned. There are 2 wild tributaries (Sespe Creek & Santa Paula Creek) but 99.9% of the water is taken for agriculture or consumer use. A 3rd tributary, Piru Creek is the outflow of Lake Piru - CA Water Project water from SJ Valley canals is piped into Pyramid Lake (alongside I-5 on Grapevine) and almost all the water is piped out to Castaic Res and onto LA. A small amount is released into what is called Piru Creek which flows for about 7 miles into Lake Piru, where almost all of the water is diverted for local use and agriculture. The outflow is usually about 2-3ft wide and 2 inches deep, and disappears into the sand when it hits the Santa Clara River.
Restoration of the Santa Clara River will require finding an alternative water supply for not only the Santa Clara River Valley (SR126) but also for adjacent areas from Camarillo to Ventura. Agriculture is one of the largest industries plus the area is one of the fastest growth areas in the state.
Just downriver from I-5, Newhall Land & Development already has approval to build an entire town of 100,000+ similar to how N L & D developed the Santa Clarita Valley. I think N L &D already has a water allotment for that development.
Maybe someone with more experience in the area can post their thoughts. I have hiked and swam in the upper reaches of Sespe, Santa Paula and Piru creeks, but never fished them.
Jim
In my opinion an easy way to create an impact for Steelhead and Salmon in Norcal is to stop pumping the water out of Trinity River and over to Whiskeytown/Sacramento River. Then let that cold water go down the Trinity/Klamath when river temps rise instead. I am sure that is not a popular suggestion for some and it does not increase the square area of spawning habitat but, it's a pretty easy and inexpensive way to help improve the conditions up there when the water temp rises which could prevent some fish die offs and help the smolts to get down the river and into the ocean.
Much of the water in California has been tunneled and moved all over the place years ago, mostly for AgricultureQuote:
Originally Posted by tcorfey
Once you put a dam on a river it stops the access to the upper reaches for spawning and also stops the nature life of the river which is periodic high water flushing to clean our the willows, etc, and to keep the nature flow of rocks, stones and gravel coming down from the headwaters to the ocean.
The water use in California is just a big corrupt money grab for the last 100 plus years.
We can only hope to save a few of our rivers and still keep the wild steelhead and wild salmon alive for the future.
We need a few good rivers with no hatcheries on them to keep strong genetic strains thriving for the future of our wild fish.
I think the Klamath river (Fall Run) and the Eel river (Winter Run) would be the ones that would be the best to work on?
What do you think......
The Santa Clara River is just one of many Southern California rivers that once supported large runs of winter steelhead and sport fisheries. Most all were gone by the middle of the last century. In California Winter Steelhead – Life History and Fly Fishing I wrote about winter steelhead life history and evolution, and descriptions of California steelhead rivers including those which historically and currently support winter steelhead runs. In the book I chronicle California’s rich winter steelhead fly fishing history, the resources and fishing opportunities that have been lost, but also highlight opportunities for California winter steelhead fishing still available today. In doing so, I hoped to preserve a part of California’s steelhead fishing history. Without interested anglers and others, we will continue see these resources and opportunities lost.
Dennis
www.dennisplee.com
Over my 50 years in the fishing tackle business in Sacramento I met hundreds of old southern California transplanted anglers who moved up to this end of the states for work, ect. They talked about fishing their little SoCal coastal winter steelhead rivers.
Some talked about using a 9' fiberglass fly rod, big fly reel, braided backing, some ~30# mono, then a short leader of 15# mono, a rubber core lead sinker and some 10# leader to a snelled roe hook. I think they used salmon roe or steelhead roe that they strip cast under the blackberry bushes for wild fresh winter run Steelhead.
Over the past 100 year all those little coastal steams have been dammed up and that fishing is mostly gone now.