Posts tagged: hat creek

CalTrout Receives $650,000+ Grant To Restore Hat Creek Fishery

December 11, 2012, by Tom Chandler 11 comments

In what would seem to be final and absolute proof that I’m experiencing early onset CRS Syndrome (Can’t Remember… uh wait a minute), I completely forgot to post about CalTrout’s Hat Creek restoration win.

They received a $650K (plus change) grant to restore California’s iconic Hat Creek, which once drew folks from all over the country, but in recent decades has suffered at the hands of invasive muskrats, a sediment plug (courtesy the area’s quirky geology), and a few other insults (you can see Hat Creek’s problems outlined in the video at the bottom of this post.)

CalTrout Director Jeff Thompson (left) at Hat Creek.

Hat Creek’s once bountiful weed beds and bug hatches are a remnant of their former selves, and it’ll be interesting to see how both rebound once they’re given a chance (for the record, Hat Creek still produces good fish, but they lack much in the way of cover).

You can find the details of the restoration announcement here.

It’s good news for those who knew Hat in its prime, and I’ll post details of the recovery plan once I beat them out of the project person.

See you at Hat Creek, Tom Chandler.

CalTrout Launches Hat Creek Restoration Effort

June 14, 2012, by Tom Chandler 1 comment

To those who fished it in its heyday, Hat Creek was enchanting and often cruel. Its trout were picky, its hatches dense, and its underwater weedbeds a deep, gorgeous green.

It was CalTrout’s first big conservation victory in 1972; back in 1983, it boasted approximately 5,000 fish per mile.

Today, that population has fallen to approximately 1,000 fish per mile.

Hat Creek in better days (image courtesy Val Atkinson)

It’s gotten bad enough that CalTrout is launching a restoration effort; you can read all about what’s happened to Hat Creek and learn what CalTrout wants to do about it here.

At the end of the article you’ll find Mikey Wier’s first sizable video effort for CalTrout: The Hat Creek restoration video (or you can see it here sans article).

Read the article or watch the video; either way, you’ll know a lot more about Hat Creek than you did (and why excessive sediment is not our friend).

UPDATE: Forgot to embed the video. I’m old…

See you on Hat, Tom Chandler

The Underground’s 2010 Season Opener Preview Post (or, We Prevaricate and Lie)

April 22, 2010, by Tom Chandler 12 comments

The 2010 general trout season opener is fast approaching, and while I’m the first to admit it doesn’t have the cachet it used to (more and more of California’s trout waters are open to C&R fly fishing year-round), it’s still a point in time that demands a little recognition.

This year – due to an above-normal snowpack in California’s mountains and rainy/snowy spring weather, a lot of rivers will likely be high.

You Are Now Free To Move About Our Rivers

(Note I said “high” and not “unfishably high.” The last time I pronounced the Upper Sac “blown out and unfishable,” someone wrote to say they’d had their best day ever on the river.)

What follows is a loose assemblage of rumors, half-truths, guide promotion and outright lies.

At no time should any of my readers actually believe anything they read in this forecast (I’m a fly fisherman after all), nor change their carefully laid plans based on this information.

Void where prohibited by law.

The Upper Sacramento

It’s high. And with all the low-level snow still piled up in the hills, it’s likely going to stay high.

As of this writing, the Upper Sacramento is running around 3000 cfs at the Delta station (the bottom of the river), which means you’ll find fishable spots, but the midsummer program – wandering up and down the riverbank fishing every likely spot – is a non starter.

That said, local guide Craig Nielsen has reported some monster fish hookups, though I’d suggest some local knowledge of the best high-water holes is needed before you’re going to get your net slimy. Read more →