Day eleventeen, what have we learned...

DFG is saying the letter to FWS is going next week. This is really (no joke) pretty fast progress so I'm still feeling happy about Los Vaqueros potentially getting trout soon.

DFG indicates they don't have a full allotment of trout ready to go to Vaqueros should it open, but they do have some. So we may really see trout soon there.

I also learned today that the Pre-stocking Evaluation (PSE in acronym form) for San Pablo Dam is waiting one last approval before DFG trout can be stocked there again. The vibe is that's it's close. FWS doesn't seem to be involved in that one.

With San Pablo full of water and trout plants, there's some hope that big bass fishing could one day be good again. It's a small hope though with the ratio of spotted bass to largemouth bass somewhere around 20 to 1 at this point. We'll always remember the glory days, but San Pablo will never be the lake it once was.

I can tell you in no uncertain terms, San Pablo was the best Nor-Cal bass lake for fish over 15lbs up until 2006. There were dozens of fish from 15 to 19+ pounds in that lake. If not for the barni fishermen that illegally stocked spotted bass in the lake, it might have had a chance to regain that prominence.

The word at Coyote is that DFG doesn't have the resources to conduct the needed studies to secure approval to stock trout again. The blame on this one can be directed at the Santa Clara County Water District 100%.

You see... lake managers that manage their lakes for fishing like East Bay Regional Parks did the frog and steelhead evaluations themselves and provided DFG with the data. So places like Del Valle and the front lake at Shadow Cliffs could get trout right away after the initial shut down of stocking.

But the Santa Clara County Water district, from every indication I've gotten, doesn't care about fishing at their lakes. The park rangers and their union may be in favor, but the water district people could do without the hassle of recreational lake usage.

They're in it for the water, and things like stocked trout, quagga mussel, and MTBE fuel are all just a thorn in their side.

Someone should step and and run for the board. It's a free country after all. Do these people look like they ever go outside?

http://www.valleywater.org/About/BoardMembers.aspx