Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3801 Dec 22-Jan 4 | Page 16
16
Dec 21, 2018 - Jan 4, 2019
MAP FEATURE
VOL.38 • ISS. 1
The Mokelumne River offers solid fishing for Chinook salmon and steelhead, along with striped bass, largemouth and smallmouth bass and
catfish.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
T
Record Numbers of Salmon Return to
Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery
he Mokelumne River Hatchery
in Clements is hosting the return
of big numbers of fall-run Chinook
salmon from the ocean this autumn.
The run is behind the numbers seen
last year at this time, but this run is
still going to be one of the top three
recorded on the river.
The count over Woodbridge Dam
on the Mokelumne to date is 16,300
salmon, including 5,654 jacks,
according to William Smith, hatchery
manager. The final numbers of salmon
going over the dam won’t be available
until January 2019.
A record number of fall-run
Chinook salmon, 19,954, went
over Woodbridge Dam in the fall
of 2017, the highest number
since 1940. Early dam counts
indicated an increase over last
year’s run, but the numbers
since then have fallen around
1600 fish behind those of last
year.
More fish are on the way,
as evidenced by continuing
reports of salmon being caught
in the Mokelumne below
Interstate Five, the South Fork
Mokelumne and Hog and Beaver
Sloughs as the salmon season
neared its end on December 16.
“One of our hatchery
employees, Jake Aucel-
luzzo, recently
landed a bright
14
lb. salmon while fishing a Rat-L-Trap
for striped bass in Hog Slough,” said
Smith.
This fall produced superb fishing in
the lower Mokelumne River, South
Fork Mokelumne
and sloughs
adjacent to
the river. The
anglers caught
the fish while
both trolling
with spinners
and plugs
and jigging
with a
variety
of
spoons.
For example, Kristin Lanza-
rone-Scribner of Sacramento and Eric
Webb had a great day in October when
they landed four hefty salmon while
jigging in the Mokelumne. It was
Kristin’s first ever time salmon fishing
– and she went home with her two fish
limit!
When I went to the hatchery on
November 29 to take photos, the river
and hatchery were plugged with salmon
ready to spawn.
The steelhead numbers reported to
date are behind those of last season’s
record run., but still robust. To date,
the hatchery has
counted 116 adult
steelhead and 227
half pounders
(juveniles). That
compares to 406
adults and 34
juveniles last season to
date.
A record for the number
of steelhead returning
to the Mokelumne River
Fish Hatchery in one season
was set earlier this year. The
hatchery trapped 530 adults and
638 juveniles, a total of 1,168 fish.
That compares to 719 adults and 402
juveniles the previous season, a total of
1,121 fish.
This is quite a turnaround for the
river, since no steelhead came back to
the hatchery, located on the river right
below Camanche Dam, for 10 years
from 1976 through 1986. Again in
Kristin Lanzarone-Scribner of
Sacramento landed this hefty Chinook
while jigging with Eric Webb in the
Mokelumne River on October 13.
Photo by ERIC WEBB.
1998-1999, no adult steelhead returned
to the facility.
That doesn’t mean that there weren’t
any rainbows in the river during these
years. The river hosted a popular
resident trout fishery for fly, bait and
lure anglers, but relatively few of the
100,000 steelhead yearlings released
every year went to saltwater and
returned.
The river, before the listing of the
Central Valley steelhead under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA), was
managed as a catchable trout fishery,
rather than as a wild steelhead or trout
river. The CDFW regularly stocked
the river with catchable size steelhead
in the 10 to 15-inch range, hatched
from steelhead eggs obtained from
the Mokelumne and Nimbus Fish
hatcheries.
There are many factors behind the
record salmon and steelhead runs
in recent years on the Mokelumne.
“Strong returns confirm the health of
the Mokelumne River, making this a
welcoming home where salmon can
survive and thrive,” said Jose Setka,
EBMUD Manager of Fisheries and
Wildlife. “The strategies at work are
proving successful and are leading to
a robust population of salmon in this
river.”
Setka said the record salmon returns
are a result of efforts that have focused
on fine-tuning water operations,
including managing cold water in
Camanche and Pardee reservoirs to
maintain good spawning conditions,
releasing pulse flows of 1,500 cfs from
Camanche Dam to attract fish, restoring
gravel habitat and using tagging data
to evaluate hatchery release strategies.
Additional measures include trans-
porting juvenile salmon by barge and
feeding them a specialized diet to assist