The federal government wants to put righteous ocean going rainbow trout species (aka “steelhead”) in a stream about seven miles from my house. here
Be still my beating heart.
Catching a steelhead is an Apex experience had by the very few fishermen who yearly wade into icy streams in a mostly vain attempt to land these 8-14 pound trout. The allure of steelhead fishing is hard to resist. They are big fish that test a fisherman’s tackle and resolve from the moment they hit. Capable of making runs like a runaway freight train, steelhead strip lines, straighten hooks, snap leaders and generally mock any and all attempts by anglers that set out to catch this overgrown relative of the humble rainbow trout.
So what’s not to like about the reintroduction of a sought after sport salmonidae species that’s literally the stuff of fact-based fishing legends?
Apparently if you’re a city or county official, the answer is reintroducing steelhead forces you to clean up riparian habitat, ban certain commercial pesticides and provide physical structures (fish ladders for example) that let steelhead freely migrate from the sea to spawning grounds.
The reaction of some officials here in north San Diego County has been dismissive “ no one remembers catching one” quipped a non-native Californian city councilman in my home town.
That’s not the case in my family; however, where pictures of San Gabriel Rivercaught 26 to 30-inch long steelhead, hanging from a stringer are parts of our photographic family history
Salmon politics in the western US are multi dimensional and complex. Fishermen want access to stocks of healthy fish, but land developers and others who profit from raw land, do not want to burdened with the cost of restoring riparian habitat to conditions that sustain runs of fish such as steelhead (which, unlike their salmon cousins, don’t begin dying off as soon as they reach their natal waters. The mighty steelhead, instead, creates a new generation and then takes off down stream for the ocean, returning occasionally to reproduce and run, yet again).
There was a time in California and the west when our rivers and streams were loaded with uncountable steelhead and salmon. But that was before widespread development that changed water courses and destroyed spawning beds.
Can today’s streams and rivers be made to support the reintroduction of sustaining generations of fish such as steelhead and salmon? Consider the little Guadalupe River that runs by San Jose International Airport and winds through downtown San Jose, CA.
In recent years, following stream clean-up programs and in-class room salmon fry rearing aquaculture programs , the return of salmon spawning runs to the Guadalupe has become a yearly event.
I don’t even want to think what a king salmon has to go through here. to make it from the open ocean to a spawning bed upstream of downtown San Jose
But I can imagine a sated salmon, spent after spawning, a glass of a fabulous merlot in his fin, happily floating down stream. To die and be consumed by the cultured crustaceans of northern CA.—Jim Forbes 08/22/2009
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