Originally Posted by
Bill Kiene semi-retired
I fished the Pit River for 40 years with my brother Dick and some of my dearest old friends.
It "was" my favorite wild trout stream.
The summer and fall flow then was about 120 cfs and it was warm in the fall and fun to wet wade/swim.
In mid-September we would hit the Isonychia mayfly emergence.
For real reasons unknown the powers to be have raised the flows to 380 to 550 cfs which has made it pretty much unfishable for most.
I have been told that very few guides are on the Pit River now that the flows are so high.
I am 70 now and tried it once last fall and it is over for me.
Sad to see that for some weird reason they have basically destroyed the river for fly fishing.
There are tons of fish but it is very hard to wade now.
They also run the water up to over 1000 cfs about once a month in the summer for rafters.
This will destroy the insect population.
What do you think?
..
Respectfully I'd have to differ with your sentiments about this river having been "destroyed". In fact, I'm quite pleased that there is more water flowing down those canyons these days. It already gets very warm in the summer, so I see more water as a good thing for the fish (a bit cooler, more oxygenated, etc). We as anglers just have to adapt. Sure the Pit is not for everyone, no one ever said it was an easy river to fish. I am ok with that; I'm not nearly as concerned with how easy the stream is to wade and/or fish as I am with the health of the fishery as a whole. To me, 330+/- cfs on Pit 3 and 420cfs for Pit 4 is still a bit on the low side really. I've fished both a fair bit higher, and yes it is tough, but again I'm ok with that. Not sure how long I'll be able to wade and fish there, but I intend to keep at it as long as I can before moving on to fish other streams with easier wading.
As far as the WW releases, they are pretty few and far between on the Pit 3,4, and 5 reaches. There is one or two in Sept I think and there was one scheduled for August but I am not sure if it happened or not? There are a few others for the Pit 1 reach above lake Briton. I don't know how much of an impact that will really have, but I will say that the insect life seems quite robust so far on all reaches.
I only make this point as I really cringe at the whole idea of ever managing/regulating stream ecosystems with ease of fishing for anglers as being a major deciding influence. Just ensure that the fish are happy and healthy and the potential for great fishing will follow.
JB
JB
"Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am"
- unknown
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