As the rains come down and the creeks flow strong again, I’m going to be the old little kid standing on the Cathedral Oaks Bridge directly over San Jose Creek, watching intently for steelhead.
If I’m lucky enough to see one, I’m going to be one extremely excited old kid, cheering that fish on!
I’ve had my grandkids down to San Jose Creek near that bridge many times over many years to play in the water and study nature.
Our local creeks offer wonderful short hikes, perfect for teaching kids about the natural order and the blood and guts of the food chain.
We have found pools, even in late summer and early autumn, which were waist deep and had hundreds of steelhead fry just waiting for an opportunity to swim down to sea.
This year is the very first year I can recall when that stretch of San Jose Creek was bone dry. Any young steelhead that were there have become food for other critters as their pools dried up.
Droughts are devastating and the food chain is ever hungry.
Now that El Niño is coming for us and — according to the forecasters — bringing loads of rain, that stream will flow again.
Thanks to all the great work done in the lower stretch of that creek, fish will be able to swim up it, utilizing holding spots where they can rest up.
We may again have steelhead spawning and the fry growing in our streams.
If we are entering a wet series of years, the local population of sea-run fish has a fair chance of building up and taking its place again in the food chain of the water.
Getting the process going, however, may be surprisingly difficult for the first spawners.
When there is a series of wet years and therefore multiple class years of fish, the youngest spawners are strong fish but still small enough that they don’t need much water in the creek.
They might find it easier to get up the creek and find a suitable habitat, but once there, the bigger fish get first dibs on the good spots. Being big and tough has its advantages.
Problem is, it has been enough years since we’ve had a good spawn with a good return to the ocean of fry from San Jose Creek that those fish have grown large at sea because they have been denied access to the creek over dry year after dry year.
We’re hoping that this El Niño winter will bring enough rain to raise that creek level to where the big spawners can make it all the way up to where they need to be.
I’ll be right there on that bridge, cheering them on!
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
