Very late report, and I had some reservations about sharing this, but I wanted to share something very encouraging in this age of environmental and fisheries collapses.
I was out with a friend doing some hook-and-line sampling for our senior theses on some of the native fishes (Sacramento suckers and pikeminnow) in Lower Putah Creek. We had zero luck on our target species, but we did catch something very special for this section of the creek: a rainbow trout. For some context, Putah has been heavily modified by human activity; its course was redirected away from the city of Davis by the 1940s, leading to channelization and erosion, damaging native habitat. This was then exacerbated by droughts in the '80s, which led to fish kills and general degradation of the habitat as there was simply no water for the creek. After a series of legal actions, the Putah Creek Council was able to secure pulse flows from Solano County to ensure continued water supply and make the habitat more suitable for native fishes. This effort paid off with the return of Chinook salmon to Putah in 2013, while upstream of the diversion dam, a thriving wild trout fishery was established. Ever since then, the number of salmon returning to the creek has steadily increased. Even in the face of a catastrophic fish kill in 2021 caused by unmanaged runoff, adult salmon were still observed moving up the creek this fall, while my friend had caught some out-migrating juveniles earlier in the year, suggesting continued resilience. Which then brings us to the trout. Ever since 2008, Upper Putah Creek has been designated as a Wild Trout Water, which, among other things, barred stocking, leaving the trout population in that stretch of the creek self-sustaining. Coupled with extensive restoration work, Upper Putah has grown into a premier wild rainbow trout fishery, despite its proximity to a major urban center. However, downstream of the diversion dam, conditions are still not what would be considered 'ideal' for trout, being slower, warmer, and choked with introduced vegetation, with silty bottoms less amenable to salmonids. And yet, here I was, holding a trout in Lower Putah, several miles downstream of the diversion dam. I don't know where this fish came from, whether it was washed out by a juvenile during the pulse flows from Upper Putah, or had somehow found its way through the Yolo Bypass and into the creek. But it was there, and it had grown into an adult against all odds. And it was not alone either; a second fish had followed it to the bank, before darting off upon seeing our shadows. It was quickly released, and we moved down the creek, completely dumbfounded. We never did catch any of our target species, but we had seen something just as valuable: hope, resilience against insurmountable odds.
I was out with a friend doing some hook-and-line sampling for our senior theses on some of the native fishes (Sacramento suckers and pikeminnow) in Lower Putah Creek. We had zero luck on our target species, but we did catch something very special for this section of the creek: a rainbow trout. For some context, Putah has been heavily modified by human activity; its course was redirected away from the city of Davis by the 1940s, leading to channelization and erosion, damaging native habitat. This was then exacerbated by droughts in the '80s, which led to fish kills and general degradation of the habitat as there was simply no water for the creek. After a series of legal actions, the Putah Creek Council was able to secure pulse flows from Solano County to ensure continued water supply and make the habitat more suitable for native fishes. This effort paid off with the return of Chinook salmon to Putah in 2013, while upstream of the diversion dam, a thriving wild trout fishery was established. Ever since then, the number of salmon returning to the creek has steadily increased. Even in the face of a catastrophic fish kill in 2021 caused by unmanaged runoff, adult salmon were still observed moving up the creek this fall, while my friend had caught some out-migrating juveniles earlier in the year, suggesting continued resilience. Which then brings us to the trout. Ever since 2008, Upper Putah Creek has been designated as a Wild Trout Water, which, among other things, barred stocking, leaving the trout population in that stretch of the creek self-sustaining. Coupled with extensive restoration work, Upper Putah has grown into a premier wild rainbow trout fishery, despite its proximity to a major urban center. However, downstream of the diversion dam, conditions are still not what would be considered 'ideal' for trout, being slower, warmer, and choked with introduced vegetation, with silty bottoms less amenable to salmonids. And yet, here I was, holding a trout in Lower Putah, several miles downstream of the diversion dam. I don't know where this fish came from, whether it was washed out by a juvenile during the pulse flows from Upper Putah, or had somehow found its way through the Yolo Bypass and into the creek. But it was there, and it had grown into an adult against all odds. And it was not alone either; a second fish had followed it to the bank, before darting off upon seeing our shadows. It was quickly released, and we moved down the creek, completely dumbfounded. We never did catch any of our target species, but we had seen something just as valuable: hope, resilience against insurmountable odds.