It's official now, though most of us were well aware prior to Governor Brown announcing California is currently in a drought. The situation is serious enough that damage has already occurred to our anadromous fisheries. More damage is likely if these conditions persist, especially if water diversion from the Sacramento River system increases over the next few months.


Famed Central Valley fishing guide JD Richey is justifiably concerned, and shared some facts and figures recently. "Coleman National Fish Hatchery plans to release another 73,000 juvenile salmon this week to almost certain death in the drought-stricken Sacramento River. The planned release follows releases of almost 750,000 baby salmon over the last five weeks -- ignoring warnings from salmon advocates the fish are unlikely to survive. Federal officials overseeing the controversial releases admit conditions are very bad for salmon but insist on releasing the fish at the hatchery anyway.


Richey is not fishing for steelhead in the American River this season, and is in favor of closing that season down due to the low water conditions. He has had good success lower in the Delta, however, fishing for stripers above the Rio Vista Bridge. Richey reports most fish are of a "decent" grade with a few in the ten-pound range.


Locally, sand dabs and Dungeness crab are the main menu item. Stagnaro's Sportfishing is running crab and 'dab combos on their six-pack boat Sea Stag, and working sand dabs only on the big Velocity. Ken Stagnaro reports "On our last trip we got crab limits and 35 'dabs per guy. Velocity has been getting big numbers on sanddabs as well."


The drought conditions have rendered our local streams virtually unfishable for steelhead. Further north, the fishing is somewhat better. Allen Sansano from San Jose worked the lower part of the Russian river recently for some limited success. Sansano said "Twenty-nine inches of steelhead love. I used a bobber and jig. On my third cast into a hole that another guy just left. He had been working that hole all day and hadn't caught anything in the last 3 hours. He did catch and release a 12-pound native earlier. I lost another on the very next cast. Broke the leader right after the hookset. Stupid me pushed the splitshot up the 6-pound leader and guess where it broke."


Allen Bushnell can also be heard on KSCO radio 1080 AM Fridays at 6:45 a.m. with a fish report. Contact Bushnell at [email protected]