1,100 fish rescued at Caples in first 24 hours

[JerryInLodi]

Over 1,100 rainbows, browns and brook trout have been rescued in the first 24 hours at Caples.

Stories from day one and two as well as about 40 pictures are posted on the CSPA website. More will be posted Thursday and Friday.

www.calsport.org

[Charlie Gonzales]

Jerry got any pictures?

[BigBill]

So, they rescued 4,800 fish, is that it? Are they done?

[JerryInLodi]

BigBill,

It's not a "they." Lots of the people reading this board responded so in many cases, it's actually a "WE".

The final guesstimate is 6,400. An accurate count down to the single digit could be obtained from DFG but that would be the fish released into the pens and would not take into account pen, transport or release mortality. Read
http://www.calsport.org/8-29-08.htm
for the last day's details.

The largest (two) fish released were Macs, both about 20 pounds, both alive.
A 18 pound Mac died in the pens as did two smaller macs. Three other smaller Macs 8 to 15 pounds made it alive to the release point.

The largest brown trout was 14.5 pounds. This fish died when it's lower teeth snagged in the nets and it drowned.
The largest browns to be released were in the 5-7 pound range and there were a number of them.
The largest rainbows released were in the 5 pound range and there were possibly 50 of them.
The largest brook trout was about 17" and looked very healthy when released.

At the end of Friday's operations the lake was still about 30 feet deep at its deepest point. Many fish and many of those, large fish, could be graphed in this area. There is no question that the majority of fish still remain in the lake.

The lake's exposed shore surface was beginning to get very mushy at the waterline on the last day. As the lake recedes further it is questionable whether there will be any firm areas to launch boats or conduct further rescue operations.

DFG plans to return and assess the situation about the third week in September. IF the department believes that a further attempt is possible and if funding can be found (the El Dorado Irrigation District paid for this last effort and would be the logical choice for any further attempts) DFG will attempt a second rescue and most likely will again ask for volunteers.

This second attempt would have a much greater chance of reaching the depths where the big fish are holding since the lake is expected to be only 11 feet deep at that time. The electrofishing boats have a range of only 10 feet in depth, and while they were the most effective tool in the last rescue, would be MUCH more effective in the shallow basin left once the major portion of the lake is drained.

One thing to be considered. Although Caples Lake contained many large fish, (and still does!), ALL of these fish are the products of planting with the exception of the Mackinaw population which is believed to be able to spawn in still water. Caples has no stream allowing for self sustained rainbow, brown or brook trout fisheries. EID has agreed in writing to restore a population of fish well in excess of what the fishery currently sustains including 12,000 large rainbows and browns in 2009 alone.

Sometimes it's a bean-counter decision.

Right now, Chris Shutes, CSPA FERC Projects Director and I are preparing a thank you and questionnaire for the volunteers. We'll be sending it out early in the coming week.

Any of you volunteers have anything to add?

[JD]

And how much money was wasted...err, I mean spent...on this boondoggle...err, I mean rescue?

Better than $15/fish, is my understanding...considerably more if you take fish mortality into consideration (which is probably pretty high).

Personally would have preferred the money go to a wild trout project or something meaningful...

[JerryInLodi]

JD, the Boondoggle, as you called it saved you about $100,000 in state salaries since the tab for the DFG work was picked up by EID.

[JD]

And EID couldn't have spent it on something more useful? Heck, they could have spent the money getting better stock for the inevitable restocking of Caples. DFG still wasted the manpower on this effort which could have been used for any number of more important tasks.

Sorry Jerry, but this really seems to be nothing more than a PR stunt complemented by a misguided "feel good" experience that has not actually achieved a darn thing.

Sorry, not trying to pick a fight but had to vent.

[Scott V]

And EID couldn't have spent it on something more useful? Heck, they could have spent the money getting better stock for the inevitable restocking of Caples. DFG still wasted the manpower on this effort which could have been used for any number of more important tasks.

Sorry Jerry, but this really seems to be nothing more than a PR stunt complemented by a misguided "feel good" experience that has not actually achieved a darn thing.

Sorry, not trying to pick a fight but had to vent.

I am asking you an honest question, if they drained the lake and did nothing for the fish, just let them all die, you would have not been upset at all? I want an honest answer. can you say that you would have rather had all the fish die?

[bolden]

Since there seems to be some discussion now i will add my thoughts on this. First, my dad and i spent wed evening/night and thursday morning at the rescue attempt. Wed. we were on gill net patrol and thursday we did the fish moving.

On the gill nets, we captured about 12 fish. Out of those only 4 lived and as much as we tried we could not revive the 30"+ mack as well as a couple other 20"+ macks. The fish that did live were only 10-13", three browns and a brook. Needless to say, these were basically a failure.

During the fish transfer thursday morning we saw two really big macks, one big brown (around 5lbs), and one big rainbow similar in size to the brown. Besides those fish, almost every other fish was relatively small, looking much like recent planted fish.

Now the reason i mention this is because i have to admit that i believe this was an improper use of money and resources. I would say that from my observations, at least 95% of the fish successfully transfered from Caples to Silver and Red lakes were recently planted fish. As much as i hate to let fish die, most of these fish were probably planted within the past year, so i have to say i don't feel sorry for them.

Obviously saving big fish is a great thing, but the fact is i saw more dead large fish than i saw alive. I worked on the first part of the transfer line and in the same holding pen that gave the only two large macks also killed one huge mack and a few other large fish.

Now we have to look at this entire situation assuming that no fish will survive this winter. So the question i have, is it worth $100,000 and a lot of manpower to save maybe a dozen big macks and less than 100 "large" rainbows and browns?

My numbers are definitely not correct, but they are probably close. Also keep in mind that i do not truly value the recently planted fish in a rescue attempt, and to that end, i personally think this was a "failure".

To sum this up, i do not believe a fish rescue was a bad idea and that we should let all of the fish die, i simply believe that doing the fish rescue at the end of August resulted in a lot of work and no worthy gain. Instead of rushing to get a rescue together as soon as possible, DFG and EID should have waited to conduct the fish rescue until the lake was at its lowest level, which i was told would be 12 feet. Since the electroshock boats only work to about 10 feet, it was a waste to try and reach to big fish that were sitting in 30 feet of water since there was no way they would be reached. If they would have waited however, they could have properly transfered the large majority of fish out of the lake. This would have resulted in much more of the larger fish and what i would have considered a successful rescue.

If another rescue is planned when the water level is at its lowest point i will be there.


If anything is confusing let me know and i will try to make my thoughts a little cleaner.