In the 1970’s, young Montana biologist Dick Vincent discovered that stocking hatchery-reared trout on top of wild trout populations in the Madison River actually suppressed trout fishing. Based on his research, the state of Montana prohibited stocking streams occupied by wild trout populations turning fisheries managers’ attention to restoring habitat quality after decades of pollution, damming, and drying up streams. The shift in focus to quality stream habitat changed the trajectory of Montana’s legendary trout fisheries from a steady decline to world class. Since Montana’s wild trout policy took hold, angler conservationists with Trout Unlimited and its partners have unleashed four decades of restoring streams and the quantity and quality of the cold, clean waters trout and anglers depend upon. Wild Trout: A Montana Fish Story chronicles Montana’s conversion to wild trout fisheries and the profound changes still evident in our beloved trout fisheries.
Cindy and I joined up with several volunteers from Sac-Sierra Trout Unlimited (SSTU) to assist DFG, Forest Service and El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) employees with the electro-shocking of Caples Creek on Wednesday November 19th.
We left the house nice and early to ensure that we could stop at Cook's Station to get some breakfast. Once again their biscuits and gravy were top notch.
We arrived at the Kirkwood Inn around 8:15 AM and waited for the others to show up. There were 2 EID employees, 5 DFG employees, Jann Williams from TU/Forest Service, along with the 5 SSTU Volunteers. We unloaded the vehicles and sorted out the gear. Then we proceeded to haul the gear up over the hill and down into the valley below. It took about 20 minutes to get the gear down to the beautiful meadow. Part of the hike we were walking through snow and ice.
CONSERVATION PROJECT (Nov. 12th, 2008)
The USFS would like our help to complete a stream restoration project on a tributary to the Silver Fork of the American River. The heavy equipment work has been done and all that remains is to replant the area to prevent erosion and provide habitat for the fish and other aquatic species.
We will meet at 9:30 AM at the fire station in Kyburz . The fire station is on the left side of Highway 50, just east of the Kyburz Store & gas station. We will caravan/carpool from there to the work site. With a sufficient number of people, we should be done early afternoon.
Wear durable but comfortable work clothes, sturdy boots or shoes, a jacket and hat. Bring lunch and snacks, gardening gloves, garden tools such as a shovel and hand trowel (or an old spoon for digging in the soil), and a 2-gallon watering can if you have one.
Please sign up by contacting Barbara Bania at
Let me start by giving a little background information for those of you whom I have not met. My name is Dustin Rocksvold and I am the President of the Amador Flyfishers. I am also the webmaster for the Sac-Sierra Chapter of Trout Unlimited. I received Barbara's call for help, and since Caples is almost in my back yard, I figured I should help out. I work for PG&E and live in Pioneer. Pioneer is located on Highway 88 on the way up to Caples & Silver Lake.
The Chapter will assist the USFS with installing Large Woody Debris (LWD) on 5 tributaries of the North Fork Cosumnes River in the Capp's Crossing area. The exact locations will be determined by stream assessment using USFS LWD protocols. Stream assessment will begin in October 2009. Project planning will follow during Summer 2010.The Chapter plans on submitting an Embrace-a-Stream grant proposal for this project, after the assessment and planning is complete.