Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3710 April 27- May 11 2018 | Page 20
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April 27 - May 11, 2018
MAP FEATURE
The Wilbur Road launch ramp is one of three launch ramps located on the Thermalito Afterbay.
VOL.37 • ISS. 10
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Thousands of Steelhead Planted In Thermalito Afterbay
N
o fish gets me more excited than
steelhead, whether I catch these
often-elusive fish on a river or on a
reservoir. I love their hard strikes, their
unpredictable and often spectacular
battles, and the beautiful photo targets
they make after you land them, as well
as their propensity to take a wide array
of baits, lures and flies.
One of the most unique steelhead
fisheries in the state in the landlocked
steelhead fishery at the Thermalito
Afterbay Outlet. After a couple of years
of absence, the landlocked steelhead
fishery is back at the afterbay this year.
As several TV and newspaper
reporters awaited at the boat ramp at
Larkin Avenue, two
California Department
of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW) Feather
River Hatchery
trucks drove
down to
the
water and stocked the second batch of
49,944 steelhead that day.
The last plant brings the total num-
ber of steelhead stocked in the Afterbay
this season to over 231,682, according
to Penny Crawshaw, hatchery manager
2.
The facility was hoping to release
these fish at a catchable size of two to
the pound, but the water temperature
was too cold to produce the
conditions for the fish
growing quickly
this winter. The
fish ended up
being be-
tween three
and four to
the pounds
when re-
leased.
The
landlocked
steelhead
fishery
at the
afterbay has been a very popular fishery
since it first started in 2007 when the
hatchery planted 10,000 juvenile steel-
head in the afterbay.
The hatchery workers stocked
181,738 of the put and grow fish,
starting at 11 to the pound and finishing
at 8 to the pound in January, February
and March. These were followed by
the 49,944 “put and take” steelhead be-
tween three and four to the pounds that
were stocked on April 4. (The remain-
der of the fish are earmarked for the
kid’s fishing derby to be held in C