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Amazing Flood Pix: CA Delta Feb. 11, 2017

February 11, 2017 By JD 24 Comments

We took JD-Force 1 up today to get a bird’s eye view of the flooding in California. There’s been a lot of talk about the spillway at Oroville Dam lately, but I also wanted to see how the lower end of the system was faring. What we saw was amazing!

Starting with Liberty Island in the North Delta. Look at the debris and the whitewater…

The Rio Vista Bridge looks like it doesn’t have much clearance right now. Lots of homes and businesses on the shore either flooded or getting very close…

Looking down Cache Slough towards Rio Vista. The current speed and amount of debris in the water is staggering…

Hidden Harbor where Steamboat and Cache Sloughs meet..

A closer look at the bottom end of the Liberty Island area, where Prospect and Cache slough meet…

The Wimpy’s and New Hope area of the Mokelumne River, where the houseboats broke loose on Friday. All the house trailers are gone…I hope everybody was able to get out in time…

Apparently, the Deep Water Channel is the only clear water in the state…

 Looking north towards the Causeway. The bypass looks like the Amazon…

Unfortunately, there are lots of homes and farms either flooded or getting very close…

Sadly, there will be lots more structures inundated I’m afraid by the time this is all over. Look at the rapids caused by the road…

More properly and structures underwater…

Willow Berm Marina on the Mokelumne River seems to be hanging in there…

A wide, bird’s eye view of Liberty Island. So much junk down there it’s insane…

Filed Under: uncategorized Tagged With: california, delta, flood, mokelumne river, sacramento river, san joaquin river

Know Your Fish: The Sacramento Splittail

June 5, 2012 By JD 7 Comments

Here’s an interesting critter that most folks have never encountered: The Sacramento Splittail. Even if you live in its home range of Nor Cal’s Central Valley and Delta regions, it’s not a fish commonly encountered. Part of that is due to the fact that Splittail aren’t considered a gamefish and their relative obscurity is also a function of them not being present in large numbers anymore. Sure, there are isolated populations of these guys but they’re nowhere near as abundant as they were before the valley’s rivers were dammed.

These cyprinids prefer to spawn on flood plains, but with reservoirs controlling the flow of the Sacramento and her tributaries, the flooded spawning habitat they prefer occurs only intermittently these days.

While they kinda look like a mountain whitefish crossed with a pike minnow, Splittail are actually kinda cool looking beasts when you get ’em up close. The oversized upper lobe of the caudal fin for which they’re named give’s them a bit of a “brown bonefish” vibe. Unfortunately, splitties can’t burn line like the bones of the flats, but they can actually put up a decent scrap on light gear.

Splittail once ranged from San Francisco Bay to Redding but now are most commonly found in the Delta and the Sacramento’s lower reaches…up to about the town of Verona, at the confluence of the Feather and Sacramento rivers. He’s a greedy little bugger that mainly feeds on the bottom on clams, crustaceans, and insect larvae, though I’ve seen them take insects off the surface in the early mornings and I’m pretty sure they also eat small fish.

In the winter, they’ll migrate upstream and look for flooded areas in which to spawn (typically in March).

Filed Under: Exotic Species Tagged With: delta, sacramento river, san francisco bay, splittail

Anti-striper bill gutted before hearing!

April 12, 2010 By JD 2 Comments

I got an email Monday night with some good news! It was sent from Dave Hurley over at USA Fishing who had received the news that Assembly Bill 2336, the “anti-striper” legislation has been gutted and amended prior to Tuesday’s hearing at the Capitol. Apparently, Assembly Member Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) has once again underestimated the angler opposition to this bill and, just like last year when she introduced a similar one, ended up backing off at the final hour.

This is awesome, though we can’t rest yet — this battle isn’t over as there’s a lawsuit pending that would declare open season on striped bass. That’s coming around this summer. In the meantime, here’s the letter passed on to me by Dave, from John Beuttler, Conservation Director of the
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance: Click here to read more…

Filed Under: uncategorized Tagged With: ab 2336, delta, jean fuller, striped bass

CA to declare war on striped bass?

March 13, 2009 By JD 3 Comments

anarchy-striperHave you heard about the kookey new Bill that would basically declares war on California striped bass?

Introduced by Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield last Friday, AB 1553 would lift fishing restrictions on striped bass, which are non-native to California. The rationale is stripers are invasive, apex predators that devour endangered fish such as Delta smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon and the soon to be listed longfin smelt.

By allowing for anarchy-style fishing (no size or bag limits), striper populations could be severely effected by over-harvest, resulting in yet another opportunity lost for the state’s anglers. In addition, the bill would cancel any revenue raised by the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp that was slated for striped bass recovery.

“This bill is just trying to strike a balance,” Fuller said. “The state’s water system is failing and we are taking all these steps to alleviate the impact on endangered fish, which has a major effect on people up and down the state that don’t have enough water.”

California native fish expert, noted biologist Dr. Peter Moyle from U.C. Davis says this about it:

“There is no hard evidence that striped bass specifically have caused any fish declines or even suppressed fish populations in the Delta, although it is certainly possible under the right circumstances.” Read his entire response at Alex Breitler’s blog in the Stockton Record.

And there’s the rub. It’s all about the water. She’s throwing stripers under the bus when the real problem with the Delta system is a lack of water. If you need any more proof of that, just look at who’s backing the bill — the Modesto Irrigation District and the Kern County Water Agency. Kinda says it all doesn’t it?

Even tiny shakers like this will be fair game if AB 1253 passes...

Even tiny shakers like this will be fair game if AB 1253 passes...

There’s no denying that striped bass eat untold thousands of salmon and smelt. But so too do largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, black and white crappie, channel catfish and a whole host of other non-native species. Are we going to try to get rid of them all, too?

Plus, before we started exporting record amounts of water out of the Delta in recent years, you never heard much talk about the so-called “striper problem.” Stripers (and all those other invasive species I just mentioned) have co-existed with salmon and smelt for 150 years. The massive, record-high water diversions have come about only over the past few years. Is it a coincidence that so many fisheries are suddenly in dire straits? I think not…

We aren’t addressing the issues here, people, and by doing that we will see the decline of all our fisheries.

Hope those suckerfish can hang on…they soon may be all we have left!

Filed Under: uncategorized Tagged With: ab1253, delta, lift fishing restrictions, striped bass

Another Swimbait Salmon!

December 16, 2008 By JD 2 Comments


Reformed salmon angler Tony Koregelos of Sacramento, CA shows off a chrome 20-pound Chinook salmon that ate a swimbait intended for striped bass in the California Delta.
Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Trophy Room Tagged With: delta, delta striped bass, delta striper fishing, king salmon, merced river, san joaquin river, swimbait

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