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Outdoors Q&A: Where’s the Year-Round Trout Fishing?
Q: What was the basis for opening the East Walker River, Hot Creek and the Upper Owens River to year-round (adding winter months) fishing when most other waters in the area don’t open until the last weekend in April? Which other waters in California are now open to year-round angling? (Troy R.)
A: In March 2007, 10 waters throughout California were opened to winter angling, including the East Walker River, Hot Creek and the Upper Owens River. Before this, many trout-bearing waters in the state were closed from Nov. 16 through the Friday proceeding the last Saturday in April.
state Department of Fish & Game biologists from the Heritage and Wild Trout Program work to improve, enhance and increase angling opportunities for wild trout throughout the state. They looked for waters that were previously closed during the winter months that could be opened to angling when biologically justified.
According to Fisheries biologist Jeff Weaver, the newly opened waters were selected because they are highly productive streams with robust trout populations and are generally accessible during winter months. Each stream was assessed based on its individual merits. Additional waters may qualify for future consideration for winter angling opportunities.
Part of the rationale supporting the opening of additional waters is that scientists from other states have not observed significant impacts to their fisheries in waters open year-round. Several research articles have also concluded that catch-and-release mortality is greater during warmer summer months than during cooler winter months. Angler usage is expected to be low during the winter months because of inclement weather and difficult access conditions. It is also important to select waters that provide reasonable access to anglers in different parts of the state.
The other seven rivers opened to year-round fishing included the American, East Fork Carson, North Fork Yuba, Pit, Truckee, Little Truckee and Tuolumne. There is a zero bag limit on these waters from Nov. 16 through the Friday proceeding the last Saturday in April and only barbless artificial lures/flies may be used.
In addition to the 10 waters listed above, there are other trout-bearing streams in California open to year-round angling, too, such as the Upper Sacramento River
Click here for DFG Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations or for more information.
Q: If an abalone diver takes a legal-sized abalone, is it legal for him to return it to the same rock if he does not remove more than three abalone during the day? I know some divers who will dive for several hours and may “pop” one to three abalones without damaging them, and keep none of them, returning all of them to the rocks where they were removed. I don’t think there is anything, technically, in the laws that prevents this, but maybe there should be. (Anonymous)
A: There is a law prohibiting this both for the health of the abalone and to prevent high-grading. All legal-sized abalone detached must be retained by the person who detaches it. In addition, no undersize abalone may be retained in any person’s possession or under his control. Undersize abalone must be replaced immediately to the same surface of the rock from which detached. (FGC Section 29.15[d]).
In addition, according to DFG Lt. Dennis McKiver, no person shall take more than 24 abalone during a calendar year (FGC Section 29.15[c]). If the diver takes three legal-sized abalone and puts them back, those abalone still count toward both the diver’s daily and yearly limit. This means divers must still record those abalone on their report card so as to not exceed their yearly limit.
If a game warden sees someone take a large abalone that is obviously larger than seven inches and the person puts the abalone back, this person has just violated Section 29.15(d). If that person then doesn’t record the abalone, he is guilty of failing to complete the Abalone Report Card as required. Game wardens on the North Coast have written several citations for this, usually to trophy hunters looking for that elusive 10-inch abalone. The wardens try to convince people hunting for trophy abalone to measure them before removing them from rocks.
Q: My buddy and I are part of the ever increasing population of airgun hunters. We typically take rabbits and ground squirrels, but would like to use these .22 precharged pneumatics for turkey and other upland game, such as quail and dove. While we believe the regulations cover the turkey hunting explicitly, can you confirm if it is also legal to take dove and quail with these weapons? Thank you. (Jason C., Windsor)
A: You can take rabbits and squirrels with any caliber pellet guns, but for wild turkey you must use 0.20 caliber or higher. Air rifles cannot be used for the take of quail and dove (CCR Title 14, Section 311[f]).
— Carrie Wilson is a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish & Game. Her DFG-related question-and-answer column appears weekly at www.dfg.ca.gov/QandA/. She can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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