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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>The best of times, the worst of times</span></font></b>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>- Tom Stienstra <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Sunday, July 31,
2005 <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/31/SPGE2E0R6H1.DTL"
title="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/31/SPGE2E0R6H1.DTL">http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/31/SPGE2E0R6H1.DTL</a></span></font></b>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This is the summer
tale of two rivers joined at the hip, the Trinity and Klamath in <st1:place
w:st="on">Northern California</st1:place>, one flourishing, the other dying. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Trinity,
refreshed from a Clinton-era decision to restore flushing river flows this
spring, is full of fish and the river canyon is filled with life, with ospreys
and eagles the most evident. The Klamath, diverted and dewatered by the
government, farmers and environmental law alike, had another fish kill this
past week, this time 100,000 young chubs and minnows dying and washing up as
floaters in the section below <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Klamath
Falls</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State></st1:place> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Trinity starts
from the drops of melting snow in the Trinity Alps and pours its way through
mountain canyons in some the state's most beautiful country. <br>
Highway 299, from Weaverville to Blue Creek, provides access for fishing,
rafting and swimming, and is one of the prettiest drives you can make
(especially on a chopper). The river merges with the Klamath at Weitchpec and
then pours to the sea. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>When steelhead and
salmon migrate upstream and reach the confluence, they choose whether to turn
right up the Trinity or left up the Klamath. Tasting fresh, cool water from the
Trinity this summer, they are turning left. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The best
flyfishing in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
could be on the Trinity right now. The section of river from <st1:City w:st="on">Lewiston</st1:City>
Bridge on downstream to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Steel</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bridge</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, and beyond
through the canyon, is loaded with what anglers call "half-pounders."
These are actually juvenile steelhead that range 10 to 16 inches. They are
joined by a sprinkling of adult steelhead in the 18- to 22-inch class, and a
sprinkling of large brown trout. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Fish
galore <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This is an ideal
place to bond during an outdoor experience, whether it's father/son, husband/wife,
or pals out to get their chain pulled. Linda Spence and Tony Vecino from Mill
Valley had this experience first-hand this past week, flyfishing here for the
half-pounders, all catch-and-release. Linda caught 21 (keeping track), Tony caught
about 25 (he estimated), plus three in the 18- inch class. An 8-pound brown was
also caught and released by an unidentified angler (witnessed by a guide). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>You use
trout-sized gear, No. 5 or 6 fly rod, set up with floating line, a strike indicator,
and make short casts with nymphs; the red Copper John, No. 16 stonefly nymph
work best. Get out at dawn and expect a mid-day slowdown. In the evening, you
may luck into a surface bite, where you switch to dry flies such as a No. 16
E.C. caddis (with a tailing shuck) or mayfly patterns such as the Cahill or Parachute
Adams. Since the strikes are on top, everything is visual, the most exciting moment
in fishing. For the browns, use sinking lines and Muddler Minnows or sculpin
patterns. Many times I just like to watch the water run past, maybe scan for my
favorite bird, the water ouzel, darting up and down the river, and at dusk, the
swallows flying zig-zags, snatching insects. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Back in the day,
when the Trinity and Lewiston Dams were first constructed, along with a giant
pipe to get the water to the Sacramento River near <st1:City w:st="on">Redding</st1:City>,
90 percent of the river was diverted and shipped to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
Salmon and steelhead were just about wiped out. Some 25 percent of the flows
were restored in the early 1990s, and this spring, flow levels were officially
doubled. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Just add water,
goes the saying, and you get fish. The opposite is also true. Take it away and
they die. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>The
Klamath puzzle <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Klamath, which
once produced so many salmon that Jedediah Smith said "you could walk
across the river on their backs," is getting hammered all on fronts. This past
week's fish kill was caused by low flows and warm water. That set off a huge algae
bloom and die-off, and in turn, a loss of oxygen content in the water. The fish
suffocated to death. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Sound familiar? It
should. In 2002, a massive kill of king salmon, estimated by most as about
50,000 adult fish (other estimates are 43,000, 68, 000 and 200,000) in the
mid-Klamath, was officially caused by "disease" brought on by "stress."
But regardless of what the politicos say, even a potted plant sitting behind a desk
in <st1:City w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City> or <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Washington</st1:City> <st1:State w:st="on">D.C.</st1:State></st1:place>
knows in their roots that this fish kill was caused by too little water in the
river. In 2001, another fish kill on a Klamath Tributary, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Scott</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>,
was caused when farmers simply "dewatered" the river. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>After the fish
kills, the blame-game has degenerated into chaos: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>--
Environmentalist blame farmers for taking all the water they can get out of the
Klamath system to grow hay and potatoes. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>-- Farmers blame
environmentalists and the Endangered Species Act for requiring that water be
left at high levels in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> to protect something
called a suckerfish, an endangered species. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>-- Duck hunters
and bird lovers blame both for not making enough water available to the Klamath
National Wildlife Refuge, the most important migratory habitat for pintail
ducks and bald eagles on the Pacific Flyway. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>-- Fishermen blame
all of the above, plus the state and federal government, because they see the
final result: low, warm water running down the Klamath River, algal blooms, few
fish, the occasional floaters that don't make it -- and mass die-offs that have
occurred three times in five years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What's wrong with
this picture? What's right? You need only look at the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place>, again flourishing after once being decimated. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In the drought of
1976-77, with diversions high and the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place>
reduced to a warm creek, only 13 steelhead returned to the state's fish
hatchery there. Yet last year, with an increase in flows, 4,500 steelhead made
the trip. If this year's arrival of half-pounders is any indication, there's a
chance of wall-to-wall steelhead this fall. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So just as is
required by state and federal law, you start with how much water is required to
keep a river and its fish, birds and wildlife in good shape. What is left gets
split up among those who want it. That works. Everything else, as you probably
figured by now, doesn't. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For a river, it's
simple: Just add water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Fishing the Half
Moon Bay coast is featured on the TV show "Great Outdoors With Tom
Stienstra," and airs at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on KBHK-44 and Bay Area Cable 12.
Kayaking to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Angel</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Island</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> is featured at 3
p.m. on KPIX/CBS-5. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>E-mail Tom
Stienstra at tstienstra@sfchronicle.com. <br>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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