Today I drove to Sacramento to attend the DFG Commission meeting and give public comment on the Shadow Cliffs back ponds issue.

I arrived way too early and waited for 4 hours to speak for the allotted 3 minutes. The time came, I talked, and the result was that one of the directors that was running the meeting referred me to talk to Neil Manji who is the Chief of the DFG Fisheries Branch.

Another piece of info I picked up was that the Commission does fishing regulations on a 3-year cycle, and they just completed the latest cycle. So this Shadow Cliffs issue has bad timing and would have to go in as something of an "emergency" change.

Watching the Commissioners for reaction during my 3 minutes didn't give me much of a sense of how they sided on this. I think they were somewhat surprised by my comments and likely had no idea that there was a warm water fishery in the back ponds. Could be wrong, that's just the sense I got.

Any case, I had a chance to talk to Neil Manji one-on-one which was good. He was aware of the issue and had talked to the local biologist. The sense I got was that the DFG didn't really look in to the back ponds when they got on board with the recommendation to close the creek and all it's tributaries.

The good news is that I got the feeling from talking to Neil that DFG will come out in favor of allowing some fishing in the back ponds. This is not a promise, just a sense. A more important question will be how the other stakeholders come out on this.

If EBPARKS, Alameda Creek Alliance and the other large stakeholders agree right off with allowing fishing in the back ponds as I've proposed (barbless, zero take on steelhead/salmon) then it's possible we'll be back fishing the ponds by May.

If there's disagreement then the path forward becomes cloudier. I'll learn much more a week from today when I meet with EBPARKS, Alameda Creek Alliance, and DFG.

Here's a shot of the venue for the meeting. Once the meeting video is published online I will provide a link so you can see me in a suit :P

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/commission.jpg

In my big rule book of life, one of the primary rules is that it's fundamentally wrong to take a day off work and not go fishing. So, being a person of principles I drove home from Sac, grabbed a rod and went to the back ponds.

When I got there I had a nice chat with a couple of the park workers about the ponds issue. Apparently when they got the word to put up no fishing signs they were just as surprised as me and you that the ponds had been closed to fishing. The signs are down now! We chatted for a bit and then I headed over the levy for 2 hours on the water.

Conditions were nice. Cloudy, warm. 2 to 3 foot visibility. Saw a few blossoms in the trees to make me get excited about spring :)

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/blossoms.JPG

Watched an osprey with a trout in it's claws try to outrun some hungry seagulls

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/osprey.JPG

Tell me you wouldn't want to be flipping a nice jig in this cove :)

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/trees.JPG

I had 3 bites during my short session. The first two dropped it. Super soft bites. The last one stayed on there

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/bass.JPG

Enough to make me happy. I drove home. Didn't run over any tackle this time.

The ponds will close March 1. But now the ball is rolling to get them back open. We are still on square one. But today progress was made.