Highway 20 access on the lower Yuba river.

[Brian Clemens]

Alot of foot-in-mouth disease here:

This thread is about the installation of a gate on a public road, blocking a legal access along the highway 20 easement on the North side of the Yuba River. When I reported it to various agencies for corrective action, I got a bunch of bullshit answers, or no response whatsoever, and no action from the Yuba County Sheriff, Yuba County Board of Supervisors, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, some confirmation (but no action) from the State Lands Commission and Bureau of Land Management; in writing. Each agency got at least two inquiries, usually three. It isn't private land that this gate is on. By "bullshit", I mean hearsay there were meetings, but there are no meeting notes, no records of anything on any agenda. Just slap that gate in and put up a private property sign on a public road. Then make shit up that there was a decision when there wasn't.

Now, whoever this "Yuba Anglers" skitch is that's selling access to pass an illegal gate on a public road, you ain't selling it to me. Your selling it to guides, who hawk it to clients, that this major tributary, and navigable waters, is "private". It isn't. Never was. Isn't now. You guides who bought these access rights to pass that gate are supporting illegal activity. I will not do business with you. I encourage anyone else who reads this thread not to do business with you. You aren't helping the situation. You are making it worse for everyone except yourselves.

So to Herr Clemens or anyone else who wants to hijack this thread, start at the beginning please. But now that you mentioned it, everything you say about sturgeon passage and the need for separating stripers is absolutely false; the Daguerre passage project is a fantastic, well researched project precisely as it is currently designed, which includes effectiveness over a huge range of flows. Although CDFW (and the State generally) has been woefully remiss in it's protection of angler access, they do much better when it comes to basic science. That's because they know; you obviously don't; and they know better than to listen to your gibberish. It's like average Joe telling the Corps of Engineers how to make flood control design decisions on the American River. After publication of final environmental documents, all public disclosures and meetings, plans and specs, bids and contract award. Just look outside they don't like what they see from the bike trail and whine like babies. None of them know squat either. And so on it goes. Jeezus. No good....errr....make that GREAT project goes unpunished these days.

Wow......
So to start off with a question, what have you done besides a phone call to change the situation. As I've stated I've personally chatted with John Messick and I've stated what's going on with the South Side gate, told you about the North Side as well. So have you pushed forward to remove that gate? If not then maybe stop whining about it, put the big boy pants on, maybe apologize to the people on here and ask for help. 1 person will not get this done. But i have a feeling with your piss poor attitude, no one is going to help you now. I know personally, I wouldn't want to cuz your attitude stinks.

If you actually went to my original comment you would have seen what I stated about the road accesses being blocked but I guess you missed that.

As far as daguerre goes, clearly by the way you talk about it you dont fish below daguerre very often if at all. You clearly have no idea about its design plans, what is or isn't happen or really anything for that matter. However, i do and while im not on the stockholder board, i get the insider info sorta speak. As far as fishing below daguerre, funny i never see you down there fishing. Hmmmmm. So how can you determine how well this works if yoj don't see what the stripers do or how they feed down there year round. 20-40lbrs. Most of these statements of yours are quiet laughable actually to where I almost spit out my beer. Truly shows your ignorance on the fishway situation and how detrimental it will be of the stripers and shad get above daguerre. You do realize right now there are no ladders on this fishway right?

The nature like fishway is a good idea, but is severly flawed, 1) it will fill in after the first big rains. 2) I guess you are OK with stripers up above daguerre dam, guess you are OK with shad above daguerre dam, both of which are invasive species and they are extreme predators to juvenile salmon trout and steelhead. I spend more time below daguerre than any 6 guides I know, and I can tell you without a shadow of doubt cdfw has done 0 studies of any kind outside of Daguerre Point dam pool. NONE. I spend easily over 60 days just between beginning of May to the end of July and all they do is putt their jet back and forth in the pool for an hour and that's it. Or they sit and throw bait catching whatever eats. So don't give then praises for doing nothing. Nice.

Funny how you want to make those fighting against this fishway like myself and others, like Mikey Wier the bad guys. So what if I tell you again CalTrout is against this, TU against this, NCGASA against, Syrcl and many more. How about these people mentioned below for instance, any of then ring a bell. Pretty big names. Aaron had been the director of the recent projects on the Yuba and he's against this fishway and it's current design. Get a clue buddy and please educate yourself on the true matters at hand on this fishway.

Aaron Zettler-Mann
Executive Director
South Yuba River Citizens League

Chris Shutes
Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

Frank Rinella, Chair
Conservation Committee of the
Gold Country Fly Fishers

Meghan Quinn
California Dam Removal, Program Director
American Rivers

Mark Rockwell
Director and VP of Education
Northern California Council, Fly Fishers
International

As for the gates, this would have been a great platform to ask for help, and there are people working on it, I stated what I've done so far, but unfortunately your disrespectful remarks towards those trying to put a roof over their heads and food on the table, with no other means to fish the Yuba right now was uncalled for. This is why you have failed when it comes to regaining access on the Yuba as a wade angler. This was the very best platform to do it, the amount of help you could have recieved then using social media as a backer would have been astronomical, I for 1 would have been a huge asset and helped you put anyway I can in regards to the people I know in Yuba County, the county I live in and the connections I have in this industry. But you blew it.

Here you are complaining about access which truly does suck and we should be fighting together to get it back, but it won't matter when the stripers get above daguerre. It will be the Stan and Lower Sac in Redding all over again.

One last question for ya Amoeba, have you attended any of the public hearings for the nature like fishway? Have you added any input on it? By the sounds of it probably not, everything I've stated it first and second hand information. Down to cdfw not wanting to truck sturgeon 100ft above daguerre to see if they would even successfully spawn before spending 100million on this devastating fishway,cuz they are to fragile. A 30 to 100yr old fish to fragile, but the will truck 10s of millions of salmon fry from Coleman or feather river hatchery in a truck hundreds of miles to the bay. LETS SEE YOU MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE.