Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3726 Dec 8-21 | Page 26
26
SALTWATER
Dec 7 - 21, 2018
VOL.37 • ISS. 26
Fish Sniffer Subscriber
Caught and Released
Potential State
Record Steelhead
R
OCKLIN- Any time you fish on
the North Coast’s legendary Smith
River, you have a chance of catching a
new state record steelhead.
Fish Sniffer Paul Galvan, a long time
Fish Sniffer subscriber,
reported in February 2018
catching a wild steelhead
that if he could have kept
it, could have been a
possible new California state
steelhead record.
At 37 inches long with 24
1/2-inch girth, the fish would
have been approximately,
28.66 pounds, beating the
old record by over a pound,
according to Galvan.
The official state record
steelhead of 27 pounds, 4
ounces was set on the Smith
by Robert Hailey of Crescent
City on December 22, 1976.
“Every year myself and my buddy
go to the Smith in search of a trophy
steelhead and four years later here we
were,” he said. “As we made the 8-hour
drive to Hiouchi, California, I was a little
concerned because the water level was
really low. it was at 8.3 feet and the best
fishing there is at 10 feet, so the lack of
rain really had me concerned.“
“As we woke up at 5:00 am with only
4 hours sleep the excitement was pouring
out of me,” he explained. “As we drifted
down the Smith from Jedediah Smith
State Park to Ruby Park and seeing no
real signs of fish, my excitement started to
dwindle. Our guide Jim Mitchell decided
we would head up river to the
forks and make our way down
river and try some plugs. He
said maybe the fish need to see
something different.”
“We were at the cable hole
when we let out the plugs and
decided to have lunch while we
back trolled the plugs,” Galvan
recounted. “I got about halfway
done with my sandwich when
my plug just got smashed by a
steelie. I took the rod out of the
pole holder and the fight was
on. It drug us down to Jedediah
Smith Park where we finally
landed it - and what a beauty.”
“It was 37 inches long with
a girth of 24.5 inches. I thought I lost the
fish about 3 times, but luckily I managed
to land this hog of a fish,” he stated.
Previous to catching this huge fish, the
biggest steelhead he had ever caught was
12 pounds, caught on the Smith River
also, in February 2016. In addition to the
Smith, Galvan also fishes for steelhead on
the Trinity and Smith rivers.
As this publication went to press, a
series of long-awaited storms had arrived.
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Paul Galvan of Rocklin landed this massive 37 inch Smith River steelhead last winter. In a
few weeks steelhead will once again be surging into the Smith and anglers will be on the
hunt for trophies!
Photo courtesy of PAUL GALVAN, Rocklin.
This is expected to drive good numbers
of Chinook salmon up the Smith from the
estuary. Behind them in December you
can expect the river’s legendary steelhead
to begin moving into the system.
For the latest information on the Smith
River and other North Coast rivers subject
to low information, call the CDFW 24
hour recorded message line at (707)
822-3164.
Fishermen Petition
Water Board to
Control Pesticide
Pollution
The Smith, located in the redwood
region of the far northwest corner of Cali-
fornia near the Oregon border, is known as
the state’s most pristine coastal river. The
legendary river produces huge steelhead
and king salmon for anglers fishing from
shore and boats every year.
Yet this gem is threatened by massive
pesticide pollution from lily bulb farms
in the river’s estuary. This estuary, along
with other river estuaries up and down the
coast, provides key habitat for juvenile
salmon, steelhead and coastal cutthroat
trout on their migration.
To stop the decline of the Smith
River’s precious fishery, the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Asso-
ciations (PCFFA), Institute for Fisheries
Resources, and Environmental Law Foun-
dation on November 1 petitioned the State
Water Resources Control Board today to
regulate large scale pesticide pollution
from lily bulb farms in the Smith River’s
estuary.
The Smith is the state’s last undammed
and undiverted coastal river, but fishermen
say pesticide pollution is killing salmon
and impacting the fishing and recreational
industry in this rural and economically
depressed area.
In October, the North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board announced
that it was abandoning a seven-year long
process to establish a permit for lily bulb
cultivation in favor of a “purely voluntary
program” for this Wild and Scenic River,
according to the three groups.
“The Smith River salmon restoration
potential is unparalleled,” stated Noah
Oppenheim, PCFFA Executive Director.
“Despite its outstanding upstream habitat
quality, the Smith has the state’s heaviest
pesticide use per acre directly adjacent to
its estuary, with virtually no regulatory
oversight.”
In contrast, California salmon fisheries
are heavily regulated by the federal
Pacific Fishery Management Council
and California Department of Fish and
Wildlife — and North Coast fisheries
have been severely curtailed or closed in
recent years. “It’s time for other industries
that impact ours to clean up their act; our
coexistence depends on it,” emphasized
Oppenheim.
Oppenheim said at issue is roughly
2,000 acres of the Smith River’s estuary
farm land that is used for lily bulb
farming,
“Growers use nearly 300,000 lbs. of
fumigants, herbicides and fungicides
yearly in the estuary,” he stated. “The
estuary is critical habitat for coho salmon,
a threatened species. Residents and federal
agencies have complained of health
impacts, drinking water contamination,
and impacts to salmon from unregulated
pesticide use from farms for over 30
years. Recent studies have confirmed
water contamination in the estuary.”
The petition by the three organizations
claims that the Regional Board has failed
to follow its own laws and policies by
proposing a voluntary program. The Water
Code and State Board policies require
an enforceable permit for agricultural
pollution that contains certain concrete
features.
The groups say that recent tests detected
17 pesticides in the tributaries and ditches
that feed the estuary, 10 instances of
contamination of the aquatic life, and
copper contamination up to 8 times the
levels that are toxic to salmon.
“These are major violations of state
and federal law,” said Regina Chichizola,
a local policy coordinator for Institute
for Fisheries Resources. “It would take
very little regulation and action to stop
the pesticides from entering the Smith
River. Simple actions like stopping direct
chemical runoff to creeks, not spraying
in the rainy season, creating streamside
buffers and restoring salmon habitat could
protect public health and the economy on
the state’s wildest river.”
“The water in Smith River belongs to
all Californians,” said Nathaniel Kane,
attorney for Environmental Law Foun-
dation. “The Regional Board’s failure to
regulate lily bulb farming violates
laws intended to protect people
and ecosystems from exactly
this kind of contamination.
We are petitioning today to
demand the accountability
and results that the law
requires.”