Hi Anglers,

I also had a chance to talk with Curtis Milliron today. He reiterated the information I received from Dr. Dwayne Maxwell. Curtis was very generous with his time, and he appreciates anglers that want to inform themselves of the situation and especially those who share the info with other anglers.

Basically at this point, it seems that we just have to sit and cross our fingers that our favorite waters will be stocked again, if stocking has not resumed already. The evaluation process will be easy for some places, very difficult for others. Curtis informed me that at many locations, stockings will likely resume with little difficulty. However, some areas will be delayed, and some areas may never resume stocking. Once an evaluation is completed for a particular body of water, a conclusion will be made whether stocking will resume or not. The conclusion will be either yes or no, no in between actions, like stocking less than normal or stocking for a shorter time period, etc.

Curtis also thinks that the phrase "decision species" may not have been the best choice to describe these sensitive species. If an area supports any one of the 84 "decision species", it does not necessarily mean that that location will not be stocked. They are going to consider mainly the "top" "decision species" ("critical decision species") as part of their evaluation protocol. For some decision species, such as the willow flycatcher, Curtis told me that the lack of impact on them from trout stockings will be relatively easy to show.

The steelhead issue is very critical for some waters. The DFG does not want to do anything that could potentially jeopardize the genetic pool of the existing population. Any body of water in which native steelhead is involved, the evaluation process will take longer and there is the potential that stockings will never resume. For us S. Ca anglers, that could potentially include Cachuma, Casitas, Castaic, Piru... yikes! The DFG does understand the significant importance of resuming stocks at these locations, if at all possible.

DFG has already looked into planting sterile trout as one of their potential answers to this dilemma. They have one equipment which is capable of producing sterile trout by the "pressure shock" method. This equipment has been sent to the hatchery in Shasta, and apparently already in operation. They can produce up to 150,000 eggs per day, but apparently mortality of these sterile trout is very high (around 50%). This procedure produces the triploid sterile trout. Also, they have purchased some sterile trout and stocked these in certain areas already. However, the sterile trout from Shasta and the purchased ones combined, will not even come close to the planting goals of DFG. By the way, arent the triploids the ones that get real big? Will they eat all the bass?... Will we end up chucking bass shaped swimbaits for giant mutant trout??

As anglers, I asked what can we do to help along this evaluation process? The answer was, basically not much. I do believe that the DFG is trying to resume stockings as soon as possible in many areas. They are getting pressure from the hatcheries that do not want to keep on feeding their fish that are ready to be stocked (not to mention pressure from the anglers). I also know that they are severely understaffed. If this process is going to proceed as fast as possible, then no doubt their biologists would have to work extra and go beyond their normal duties. If that is the case, I don't think it can hurt to send them courteous messages stating how important stockings are to the fishing community and that any efforts to get the evaluations completed as soon as possible would be greatly appreciated.

I also got the feeling that Curtis is the right person to be in charge of the evaluation protocols. If the evaluation ends up with the conclusion that my favorite bass haunt will no longer receive trout, will I be able to live with that? Well, that is a question I havent answered yet...

Fumio