Some years ago CA Fish and Game came up with the idea that all of the algae
from Bridgeport reservoir was clogging the CA section below the reservoir,
and prohibiting any fish reproduction. They tried to flush out the algae
with the highwater flows but it did not help fish reprodution. It's hard to
sya whether they caused any damage. Another year during a time of drought,
The East Walker Water District decided that a third crop of alfalfa was
worth draining the Bridgeport reservoir. They drained the reservoir over
everyone's objections and doomed the fish downstream during the winter. As
you mention, Cal Trout took them to court and there are now regulations
concerning the amount of water that can be released. During the winter
when the temperatures are warm, this can be as low as 15 cfps. However
there have been times when the Nevada Division of Wildlife was concerned
about the health of the fish and requested that the flows be increased, I
believe to 50 cfps. The Water District has happy to accommodate them.
However we're talking about ancient history.

During most of the 90's there was an abundance of snowfall and water in the
Walker basin. With the higher waterflows, natural reproduction took off and
fishing in the East Walker was "trophy fishing". However recently there has
not been much snow and the fishing has really fallen off. Also, the
publication of several articles about the East Walker increased fishing
pressue and didn't help. Natural reproduction is necessary since little of
this river below the reservoir is stocked.
Now there may be some controls over fishing during the winter months when
the flows are low and the fish lethargic. Hopefully we'll get enough snow
in the future so that we can get back to type of fishing that occured in the
90'3


"Ernie" wrote in message
m...
steve,
It wasn't the farmers it was the Nevada water board, which strange as it
seems, controlled the flow even though the water is in California. I was
up
there the year it happened and the fellow who owned the Marina was so mad
he
was spitting nails. It was just a sea of mud. I drove down below for a
mile or so and the stream was also a river of mud. They won't do it
again.
Cal Trout and other groups took them to court and put limits on how much
they could draw.

"steve" wrote in message
...
Not sure if I got the terminology correctly, but this has always been a
trophy trout stream that has had its trophy fish killed off by the
farmers. Is anyone trying to get it this status, or are the farmers too
big of a obstacle?




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