Forgotten Treasures #3: TROUT FISHING IN THE BERKELEY HILLS

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
link.net...

I grew up in the Berkeley hills. El Cerrito. The creek down the street
from my house was not covered over in those days (1950's) and the
steelhead could travel all the way up to the railroad tracks a block
below my house. Was a trash grate there that kept them from coming up
further. The still spawned and the creek 2 blocks up would have lots of
smolts and minnows swimming around. Only fished sal****er in those days
off the shore and Berkeley pier as well as off boats.

I didn't think this one was an especially good bit or writing. What makes
it interesting is the reference to quality trout fishing in close
proximity to a major metropolitan center in what I presumed to be marginal
habitat anyway, and the fact that brookies were already well established
on west coast streams at least as early as 1915. I was kind of hoping
that someone familiar with the area would offer comments. Thanks.

Wolfgang


You want better writing, send me money. El Cerrito was the 2nd town over
from Berkeley. My house was 6 miles from UC Berkeley and I fished the
Berkeley Pier at the Foot of University Ave. Road my bike there. There
were lots of streams uncovered in the 50's that held steelhead that fed San
Francisco Bay. We still get steelhead and salmon in Walnut Creek, the
stream and not the town, that flows behind the Sun Valley Shopping Center in
Concord. Cordinices creek that flows through part of UC Berkeley had
steelhead. We still get steelhead trying to run up Alameda Creek in Niles,
but are stopped by the BART transit line bridge. There were only probably
8 million people in the whole state. We passed NY for the most populous
state with about 13 million in about 1959 or 1960. The largest run of
salmon in the lower 48 run up the Sacramento River, which enters the bay on
the Northeast end.

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
news

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
link.net...

I grew up in the Berkeley hills. El Cerrito. The creek down the street
from my house was not covered over in those days (1950's) and the
steelhead could travel all the way up to the railroad tracks a block
below my house. Was a trash grate there that kept them from coming up
further. The still spawned and the creek 2 blocks up would have lots of
smolts and minnows swimming around. Only fished sal****er in those days
off the shore and Berkeley pier as well as off boats.

I didn't think this one was an especially good bit or writing. What
makes it interesting is the reference to quality trout fishing in close
proximity to a major metropolitan center in what I presumed to be
marginal habitat anyway, and the fact that brookies were already well
established on west coast streams at least as early as 1915. I was kind
of hoping that someone familiar with the area would offer comments.
Thanks.

Wolfgang


You want better writing, send me money.

Hm......

Even taking into consideration a possibly confusing typo....."or" where it
should have been "of".....I can see no reason that my comment on
Hutchinson's offering should be misconstrued as pertaining to yours. In my
second sentence above, the antecedent to "it" in "What makes it
interesting..." seems to me to refer pretty unambiguously to Hutchinson's
piece.

At any rate, I have at my disposal the resources of the entire Milwaukee
county federated library system, the Butler, WI library, the libraries of
sundry universities and colleges, and those of dozens of other communities
in southeastern Wisconsin......and all within an hour's drive. And then,
there's the internet (including ROFF, of course) and my own humble
collection of printed matter. All of this is available to me at no charge
whatsoever, and some of it is indisputably good.

Moreover, your relatively few contirubtions here thus far make you a more or
less unknown quantity as a source of reading material. I trust you will not
take it amiss if I hold on to what few shiny new nickels remain in my
possession for the nonce.

On the other hand, sans further evidence, one can hardly dispute the
possibility that your offer to barter good writing for cash was made tongue
in cheek, in which case.....

El Cerrito was the 2nd town over from Berkeley. My house was 6 miles from
UC Berkeley and I fished the Berkeley Pier at the Foot of University Ave.
Road my bike there. There were lots of streams uncovered in the 50's that
held steelhead that fed San Francisco Bay. We still get steelhead and
salmon in Walnut Creek, the stream and not the town, that flows behind the
Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord. Cordinices creek that flows
through part of UC Berkeley had steelhead. We still get steelhead trying
to run up Alameda Creek in Niles, but are stopped by the BART transit line
bridge. There were only probably 8 million people in the whole state.
We passed NY for the most populous state with about 13 million in about
1959 or 1960. The largest run of salmon in the lower 48 run up the
Sacramento River, which enters the bay on the Northeast end.

We've got much the same situation here along the southwestern shore of Lake
Michigan, roughly from the Michigan-Indiana state line to north of
Milwaukee. Despite a population well in excess of ten million and badly
abused watersheds, there are impressive runs of steelhead and salmon on many
of the tributary streams, as well as significant (and improving, in recent
years) populations of at least some native species. Water quality on some
of these streams has been brought up enough so that the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources and various cooperating organizations have invested a
great deal of time, effort and money in restocking sturgeon into waters from
which they've been absent for over a century. Here's wishing us all good
luck!

Wolfgang

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
news

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
link.net...

I grew up in the Berkeley hills. El Cerrito. The creek down the
street from my house was not covered over in those days (1950's) and
the steelhead could travel all the way up to the railroad tracks a
block below my house. Was a trash grate there that kept them from
coming up further. The still spawned and the creek 2 blocks up would
have lots of smolts and minnows swimming around. Only fished sal****er
in those days off the shore and Berkeley pier as well as off boats.

I didn't think this one was an especially good bit or writing. What
makes it interesting is the reference to quality trout fishing in close
proximity to a major metropolitan center in what I presumed to be
marginal habitat anyway, and the fact that brookies were already well
established on west coast streams at least as early as 1915. I was kind
of hoping that someone familiar with the area would offer comments.
Thanks.

Wolfgang


You want better writing, send me money.

Hm......

Even taking into consideration a possibly confusing typo....."or" where it
should have been "of".....I can see no reason that my comment on
Hutchinson's offering should be misconstrued as pertaining to yours. In
my second sentence above, the antecedent to "it" in "What makes it
interesting..." seems to me to refer pretty unambiguously to Hutchinson's
piece.

At any rate, I have at my disposal the resources of the entire Milwaukee
county federated library system, the Butler, WI library, the libraries of
sundry universities and colleges, and those of dozens of other communities
in southeastern Wisconsin......and all within an hour's drive. And then,
there's the internet (including ROFF, of course) and my own humble
collection of printed matter. All of this is available to me at no charge
whatsoever, and some of it is indisputably good.

Moreover, your relatively few contirubtions here thus far make you a more
or less unknown quantity as a source of reading material. I trust you
will not take it amiss if I hold on to what few shiny new nickels remain
in my possession for the nonce.

On the other hand, sans further evidence, one can hardly dispute the
possibility that your offer to barter good writing for cash was made
tongue in cheek, in which case.....

El Cerrito was the 2nd town over from Berkeley. My house was 6 miles
from UC Berkeley and I fished the Berkeley Pier at the Foot of University
Ave. Road my bike there. There were lots of streams uncovered in the
50's that held steelhead that fed San Francisco Bay. We still get
steelhead and salmon in Walnut Creek, the stream and not the town, that
flows behind the Sun Valley Shopping Center in Concord. Cordinices creek
that flows through part of UC Berkeley had steelhead. We still get
steelhead trying to run up Alameda Creek in Niles, but are stopped by the
BART transit line bridge. There were only probably 8 million people in
the whole state. We passed NY for the most populous state with about 13
million in about 1959 or 1960. The largest run of salmon in the lower 48
run up the Sacramento River, which enters the bay on the Northeast end.

We've got much the same situation here along the southwestern shore of
Lake Michigan, roughly from the Michigan-Indiana state line to north of
Milwaukee. Despite a population well in excess of ten million and badly
abused watersheds, there are impressive runs of steelhead and salmon on
many of the tributary streams, as well as significant (and improving, in
recent years) populations of at least some native species. Water quality
on some of these streams has been brought up enough so that the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources and various cooperating organizations have
invested a great deal of time, effort and money in restocking sturgeon
into waters from which they've been absent for over a century. Here's
wishing us all good luck!

Wolfgang


Our problem with the sturgeon is the Russian immigrants. 100,000 in
Sacramento alone, and several groups have been busted as well as Russian
Deli's in San Francisco for poaching sturgeon and making selling caviar.