Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3822 Oct 11-25 | Page 18

16 Oct 11 - 25, 2019 MAP FEATURE VOL.38 • ISS. 22 The Discovery Park boat ramp is one of the most popular places to launch a boat to go salmon fishing in the Sacramento area. Photo by DAN BACHER, Sniffer Staff. Chinook Action Improves After Run4Salmon Tour of Sacramento River D uring the Winnemem Wintu Run4Salmon last year, salmon fishing in the Sacramento Area was excellent. As we were getting ready to board the boat upriver from Discovery Park to Colusa last year, two boats came into the launch ramp with early limits of salmon. We also saw productive fishing on the run upriver from Pittsburg to Sacramento with James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service last September. Anglers in boats and those fishing off the Walnut Grove Boat Docks displayed chrome bright Chinook salmon. This year has been different, as the fish seem to be behind on their appear- ance upriver to spawn. We travelled in two boats for the Winnemem Environ- mental Justice Tour with Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, on September 17 from Pittsburg to Sacramento. In the first boat with Captain Shaun Rainsbarger of Shaun’s Guide Service were Chief Sisk, Desirae Harp, Run 4 Salmon Organizer, and Sisk’s son, Pom Tuiimyali. Meredith Williams of the DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances Control) and Ana Mascarenas of DTSC. Filmmaker Will Doolittle filmed the event. In the second boat, skippered by Captain James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service, were Anecita Agustinez, Tribal Policy Advisory for the Depart- ment of Water Resources (DWR), Barbara Cross, DWR Tribal liaison, and Deidi Reyes, DOGGR Outreach Coordinator for Cal EPA. Speakers for the tour included Gary Roberts, Pomo Ceremo- nial Leader, and myself. Filmmaker Toby McCleod filmed the event. “For years I’ve heard Chief Caleen, the boat captains, fishermen and all water people saying how needed it is to bring our government officials on this part to give them a first-hand experience on what we are working to protect,” said Niria Alicia, tour organizer, in explaining her reasoning for organizing the tour. After were send off with song by Run 4 Salmon participants at the Pittsburg boat ramp, we journeyed upriver to through the Delta to Sacramento. On our boat, Gary Roberts, a Pomo ceremonial leader who formerly was a well driller, explained the threats to the Delta posed by the many gas and oil and other pipelines that cross the river. All three officials took notes. Roberts noted the presence of old and existing wells on the river as we travelled upstream. I explained how necessary it was to protect the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the America, from the many threats to it, including the Delta Tunnel, climate change, continuing massive water exports of the Delta. Dino Hieb landed this chrome-bright king salmon while trolling a Brad’s KillerFish lure on the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento with Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service. Photo courtesy of RUSTIC ROB’S GUIDE SERVICE. Anecita Agustinez, Tribal Policy Advisor for the California Department of Water Resources, and Barbara Cross, Tribal Liason for DWR, in front of the Delta Cross Channel Gates in the boat of James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service during the Run for Salmon’s Environmental Justice Boat Tour fon September 17. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. toxic chemicals and climate change. Both boats stopped at the Delta Cross Channel Gates above Walnut Grove and begin drifting upriver, due to the reverse flows based by pumping the water from the Sacramento into the Mokelumne, the San Joaquin and then the South Delta pumps. “Imagine if you were a salmon,” Netzel told the three state officials. “The water doesn’t go to the ocean – it goes to Southern California and big farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.” We also stopped half way through the trip at Mel’s Ice Cream, where we ate some great lunches and ice cream. There were lots of people fishing on the Walnut Grove Dock both on our trip out and down the river, but we didn’t see any fish caught. Netzel and I did see one salmon on one stringer on a boat during our trip down from the Sacra- mento Yacht Harbor to Pittsburg in the morning. On a sheet discussing the tour for the partic- ipants, environmental points of interest also included. • the DOW Chemical Plant at Pittsburg that currently produces latex, agricultural chemicals, fumigants, fungicides and hydrochloric acid; • the Rio Vista Army Reserve, where they are several petroleum contaminated sites as a result of underground storage tank leaks, as well as metal contamina- tion in the soil and dioxin contamination