FIELD REPORT
California can truly be a land of extremes. From extreme drought to heavy flooding in just two years. What a wild ride it has been. After suffering through five of the driest years of my lifetime now we are having one of the wettest winters I can remember. A series of atmospheric rivers pounded California throughout the winter months. Mammoth claimed the most snow they have ever received in the month of January. The Eel River in Northern California peaked at 230k csf, the 12th largest river level in recorded history. The Lower Sacramento River had been flowing at over 90k csf, the biggest it’s been in 20 years. Every river in Northern California has been flowing at levels we have not seen since the New Year's flood of 1997. Large reservoirs like Folsom, Melones, and Oroville that were down below 20% capacity two summers ago are now up to 90% or 100%. As the outreach coordinator for California Trout and a fly-fishing ambassador for Patagonia, I often get asked: “How is all this water affecting the fishing?" Well, the simple answer is; It’s great for the fish, not so great for fishing in the short term but it certainly will be in the long run.
There is a simple rule that applies to most situations: more water = more fish. Now this is not always the case but as a general rule it will apply to native salmon, steelhead, and trout.
As far as fishing goes, it’s very hard to target and catch fish during high water events but for the native fish's sake, they are actually great. Let’s talk about a few of the ways high water events are good for native salmonids in California.
Access
One of the main benefits to high water events is that they provide access to more habitat. When we have large amounts of rain, fish like salmon and steelhead that are known for traveling large distances to spawn have access to an increased amount of habitat. Extreme high water events allow fish to pass over obstacles that would otherwise be impassable at lower water levels like small water falls, cascades and even some dams and weirs. Have you ever watched a salmon or trout trying to jump a small water fall? Then have you ever seen that same river at flood stages? Chances are that little water fall is no longer a water fall and more of a bump under a mass of water. And while floods look super turbid to us, there’s always a soft pocket of hydrology somewhere that fish can take advantage of. Salmon and steelhead are highly adapted and opportunistic and they use such events to pass obstacles and reach habitat that may have been cut off for many years previous.
Fish and Flows
By Mikey Wier