Sad state of affairs - scuba divers spearing big Stripers.....

[John Sv]

"To avoid confusion here, water in California is not managed exclusively for Salmon."

Made me laugh! Cheers!

[mogaru]

Ok, sorry-- shouldn't have assumed you're a spear guy. I remember on the old thread spear guys posted repeatedly statements like spearfishing is perfectly legal (ignoring the county ordinance), so it makes sense their other fantasy would be 'the Sheriffs have backed off of enforcement'. The Sheriffs are fully commited to enforcement; all we have to do is be patient and work together to help them.

Aaron, that's great news about black bass and striper fishermen united and a rally against the delta tunnels. I hadn't heard about that, or I probably would've attended.

If you would like to know more about this topic, google "spearfishing in the American river" and go to "fishing with JD" and you will find a lot of info on this issue (who propose it and how the DFG agency approved it). The whole thread will provide you with a lot of info and in some instance what happened when someone called the DFG ........

[mogaru]

Also on a google search "spearfishing on the american river" comes an old thread from Kiene's started by Jeff Putnam backed on june 11th 2016 which has opinions from most of the guys from this current thread. From the search on google you can go to other links from spearfishing website which contains opinions/positions from rangers and DFG officials. The water lords and their powers have a long reach and use "others" to get rid of the fish in the rivers so there won't be an obstacle for their greed.

[Rossflyguy]

[QUOTE=winxp_man;180855]The amount of black bass and striper fishermen that went to rally against the tunnels I would say where bigger then salmon fishermen. Most of the lakes I have been to this summer had save the delta stickers and taking to some I would say it was a huge impact on fighting to not have the water grabbing tunnels built. When it comes to salmon it’s more meat guys vs guys that fish for sport (most meat guys don’t care enough). So the tunnels might have been a go had stripers and bass not existed in the delta.

Sorry but water flow management for game fish is meant for salmon. Not sure what point you were trying to make about the tunnels but the only fish that has priority for water flow is salmon. Someone had said they’re allowing spearfishing to kill off all the fish. My point was the only fish that gets flows changed are salmon.

And meat guys are striper fisherman too. Pretty sure there are far more “meat” fisherman than whatever other type you think there are. Only other organization besides the conservationists that stopped the tunnels were the BASS guys. That’s a huge money market and those guys were against the tunnels too.

[Rossflyguy]

I believe taking apart the spear gun before going into the water was the only legal way to walk it to the river. You’d have to reassemble it while in the water though. This was brought up in an earlier arguement about the same issue. Honestly, if they wanted more water it wouldn’t be the striper that would be the deciding factor.

[Rossflyguy]

To avoid confusion here, water in California is not managed exclusively for Salmon. at a high level, water is managed for agriculture, food control, municipal and environmental purposes. Salmon are emphasized because they're targeted as a valuable commercial fishery. Like it or not, Black Bass, Steelhead, Stripers, Shad and many other marine species are included in water for environmental purposes.

I think you’re confused. The only fish species in the Central Valley that gets water flows changed are salmon. I didn’t say the are top priority to the state government. We don’t adjust flows for any other species. Just in case you were confused.

[Darian]

Rossflyguy,.... Not confused. Now that you've brought it down to valley rivers and excluded the state priorities, your point is easily understood but I'm still not in agreement with you.

"We don’t adjust flows for any other species."

Flows/pumping have been altered to accommodate the protected Delta Smelt for one example. If you include the entire valley, you might be painting with too broad a brush....

[Rossflyguy]

Rossflyguy,.... Not confused. Now that you've brought it down to valley rivers and excluded the state priorities, your point is easily understood but I'm still not in agreement with you.

"We don’t adjust flows for any other species."

Flows/pumping have been altered to accommodate the protected Delta Smelt for one example. If you include the entire valley, you might be painting with too broad a brush....

No I’m not. You guys keep bringing up the delta. All rivers feed the delta and that water is regulated by the dams. We don’t control water flow out of the dams to save the delta smelt right? You know exactly what I’m talking about. The whole point I’m trying to make is killing stripers isn’t going to effect water consumption by big AG either way. If striper were wiped out tomorrow that wouldn’t change water distribution. This is my entire point. This point goes back to the main topic.

[Mark V]

Rossfly you're wrong if you think possession of a disassembled spear gun is legal on the banks of the AR.

The last Ranger I spoke with emphatically said that possession of disassembled spear gear is just as illegal as fully assembled spear gear. He said he would ticket that guy just as fast as he would ticket a guy with a disassembled handgun. I think most spear guys are smart enough to know when they're breaking the law; they just hope to escape enforcement.

Another thing ignored by the apologists of spear guys is the DFW Regs limit spearfishing to May 1 -Sept 15, and no spear fishing is permitted any time of year in the designated salmon spawning areas. The designated salmon spawning area of the American river is all the water between Nimbus Dam and a point one mile downstream from Arden Way.

That's the entire upper half of the river from Gristmill upstream that's banned from spear fishing.

[mogaru]

Let's not kid ourselves, let's not be naive. If it wasn't for the fish, call it smelt, salmon, striper etc, etc, the agribusiness would take all the water. These powerful people would do anything to eradicate fish from our rivers so they can take as much water as they need. Water releases from dams flow into the delta where a system of weirs distributes it to the water lords are dictated based on their needs and if they could they would take twice as much. The fish are the only thing stopping them from doing it.