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