McCloud River Redband's
Chris has been itchin' to add the McCloud River Redband (MCR) Trout to his list of California Heritage Trout, so we finally made the trek up to the MT Shasta area. While it is quite easy to catch a MCR in the Upper McCloud River, as the DFG considers any wild rainbow caught above the upper falls to qualify as an MCR, that section of river is heavily stocked with hatchery rainbows and the parentage of any wild fish is likely suspect. So off we went to a little creek that was established by the USFS & DFG to serve as a genetic brood stock pool for the MCR. Many years ago pure strain MCR were very rare in the upper McCloud drainage due to mixing of the gene pool with hatchery rainbows. Fortunately, A UC Davis fisheries biologist found a remnant population of MCR in a small creek that emerges from a series of springs and flows for only a mile or two before disappearing into the volcanic soils. Genetic testing at UCD confirmed that these were "pure strain" MCR, and the DFG & USFS decided to establish several populations of these fish transplanted into several other remote headwater streams to provide a genetic "refuge" for the MCR. These creeks were closed to fishing for many years to allow the MCR to thrive and repopulate the streams. Recently, a few of these streams were re-opened to fishing, since the MCR population was stable and no longer threatened, but sadly, no special regulations were added to protect these fish. In accordance with my usual policy of not naming specific locations for environmentally sensitive areas, I will simply call this stream "Redband Creek", to protect these fish. If you would like specific names and locations of these creeks, please feel free to PM me and I will gladly supply them as this trout is part of the CA Heritage Trout Challenge.
This is a small brushy creek that is quite challenging to fish!
It's easy to see how they got the name redband!
The redband really shows up nicely in underwater pictures!
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