Weather Extremes in California
With near record snowfall this past winter, we pulled into Mammoth a couple months ago to a pure winter blizzard. I could barely see the stoplight. Even hardy Mammoth mountain folks repeatedly shared with me how sick they were of snow.
With the historic pendulum of California weather for the moment turned the other way, the state's rivers are in fabulous condition. Though Hot Creek was the only eastern Sierra stream fishable due to high water at the time, great angling has finally arrived.
Far away, up in the northwest corner of the state, many of our steelhead rivers rarely or barely came into fishing condition during the season. Yet this is a source of encouragement for future seasons, as spawning tributaries were opened up to returning fish which had been completely inaccessible during the drought.
Rivers and streams in the coastal region will always remain vulnerable, though projects to provide restoration on three of the regions iconic streams are ongoing and underway. Even further north from the Eel, Trinity and Klamath, rolls California's gem steelhead and salmon river, the Smith. Congressman Huffman's work has already contributed protection from a proposed nickle mine on the Smith River's North Fork and he gives us an overview in this installment of Craig's Corner.
If there was ever a season to get out and explore the grand diversity of rivers and streams across the state, this is it. For angling and outdoor aficionados, maps are unfolding and plans being laid.
Craig's Corner
by Craig Ballenger, CalTrout Ambassador