Very nice pictures of pike minnows! By the way, the name was changed several years ago from squawfish to pike minnow to be more sensitive to Native Americans. The origin of some Russian River fishes is an interesting story. From research for our upcoming new book, California Winter Steelhead - "Pike minnow (a.k.a. squawfish) are native to the Sacramento/Sa Joaquin river drainage. The native fish assemblage of the Russian River is somewhat uniquely similar to that of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river drainage. The similarity is theorized to have occurred from a geologic linkage of the river to the Sacramento River via Clear Lake, located northeast of the Russian River in Lake County. It is thought that several million years ago, Clear Lake drained into the Sacramento River via Cache Creek as it does today. This early linkage allowed native fishes from the Sacramento River system to populate Cache Creek and Clear Lake. Cache Creek was subsequently blocked by a lava flow forcing Clear Lake to drain westward into Scott Creek via Cold Creek and the Blue Lakes, and then into the Russian River. This allowed several native fish species from the Sacramento/San Joaquin river drainage to populate the Russian River." Over 50 miles of the Russian River drainage was chemically treated many years ago by California Department of Fish and Game personnel reduce nongame fish populations to enhance salmon and steelhead. Nonetheless, nongame fishes eventually rebounded from the treatment.

Dennis
www.dennisplee.com