Checking On the Steelhead Fishermen Below Monte Rio

Sunday January 5, 2020 Monte Rio CA.

Monte Rio paddle

It seemed like a good day to go down to Monte Rio and put my boat in the water and see how the steelhead fishermen were doing so off I went around 1PM.

Up stream

I put my boat in the water and looked upstream and could see several fishermen in the water fishing away.

Down stream

I turned and looked down river and could see some boats down in the slot fishing so I headed on down that way to see what was going on today as far as fishing goes.

Fish need the beaver back

I pulled in on the side of them out of the current and we shot the bull for awhile. We got on to old time fishing so they got my spiel on beavers and how they were wiped out of California around 1800, totally wiped out of all of our streams and that is the main reason the fishing is not good in California these days. The beaver used to keep water in all the dry creek streams around here until they wiped them out and started the great fish decline.

They had one fish on the stringer and as far as I know it was the only one caught down this way today.

It’s simple

And the worst part of this story is no one is doing a damn thing about getting them back even though they are the key to having a good fish population. It was one of the biggest environmental disasters that has ever hit the fish and it’s mostly forgotten and they are doing everything to get the fish back except the right thing which is to get the dam makers back in our creeks so there’s water for the fish to spawn and be safe and grow up to be smart fish so they can survive in the ocean.

It’s really a shame all these people that are working on bringing the fish back have their heads in the dirt on this one. Mother nature will bring the beaver back but it will take a lot longer to do and the fish will suffer until it happens and so will the fisher people.

I left them thinking on this and dropped down the river a little to these next two guys which live down here and were fishing away. Of course I chatted with them a bit and one of them mentioned beaver so I went into my spiel once more.

Eventually I went a bit further down the river.

I went by this great blue heron fishing off this log.

Villa Grande Pool

And made it to the Villa Grande Pool here. It was late in the day and the sun had gone behind the mountains.

Without the sun I didn’t sit around the Villa hole too long and started back up the river towards Monte Rio.

I passed by several pairs of mallard ducks resting along the water’s edges.

I’m coming up on to Monte Rio where the sun is still shining.

Busy boat ramp

I could see several boats loading at the boat ramp up ahead so I paddled on by to give them time to get out of my way. Most of the fishermen are fairly fast at getting off the boat ramp which they were.