A few days ago, with a half-hour to kill, I put a line in my favorite spot at the river. With trout, that’s usually enough time to hook up, but not with carp. At least, that’s the way it rolls on our river, and for moi.
California Dreamin’: Could we ever be legally kayaking in the river and watching jumping carp? (Courtesy Weekly Times Now)
But I did get to see one jump way out of the pool, then come down in an inelegant belly flop.
Last year, when I started carping, I’d see this and think “Oh, man, am I ever gonna hook that sucker,” but not anymore. Jumping carp are interested in something, but not eating a fly.
So … why do they jump? Fun? Recreation? Boredom?
I checked the bible — “Carp on the Fly” by Barry Reynolds and friends — to find this passage. Italics are mine:
“Shallow-water hell raisers are exactly that: carp that are making a spectacle of themselves by leaping, splashing, and thrashing in the shallows. These fish seem utterly oblivious to the dangers they may face by drawing attention to themselves.
Often, there is a reason for this, particularly in the spring when carp are spawning. As you might expect, spawning fish are usually not very interested in your fly — they have other things in mind.
True, but this happened in June — no spawn on.
But at other times, these hell raisers are carp that are smashing through schools of baitfish and they’re a very good target for a small streamer.
False for the L.A. River. I’ve never seen a school of baitfish on it.
So … what causes this behavior? Here’s an answer from a carp fishing forum based in Georgia:
“Carp actively break the surface of the water for two reasons. Both reasons are due to water quality/lack of oxygen. If the ph factor is too acidic or the dissolved oxygen count is too low carp come up to seek more comfortable conditions. Carp normally stay and feed and roam on the bottom. When they are on the surface they are almost impossible to catch.”
Sounds good, but who knows (except for that last part, which is true, true!)
I put together this poll from various answers found on the Web. Any fish biologists out there care to clear up this mystery?
This post is “The best of times and the worst of times” for me.
How can you not be happy as a fly fisherman to see the city of Ogden and various players have come together to rebuild this urban river? On the other hand, even with the leverage and political will gaining for our river everyday, we have many, many miles to go before we sleep. To wit:
I want to LEGALLY fly fish our river.
I want to LEGALLY kayak in our river.
I want to LEGALLY walk along its banks.
If you know of other restoration projects that readers of this blog would enjoy, please e-mail me. And thanks to Fly Fishing Frenzy for getting the word out on this wonderful restoration project. Watch the video on the site below.
The Ogden River runs right through the middle of the city. This river has had over 100 years of abuse and neglect and now the city and a host of others are doing something about it.
Andy Dufford of Chevo Studios has been chosen to create a public art piece in conjunction with the river restoration project. His proposal “Water Cycle” is a public plaza with seating and interactive sculptural elements located along the banks of the river. (Courtesy Ogden City Arts)
It was one year ago that Ogden City announced their plans for the Ogden River Restoration Project. The river from Gibson Avenue to Washington Boulevard was not a place you would find many fisherman, let alone families. Abandoned houses, litter and industrial waste kept most people from enjoying this river. But since last January a lot has changed.
“We found trash dated back to the 1870′s,” said engineer Crystal Young, Ogden River Restoration Project. “This is a good example of how the river has been filled by urban development in past practices. And so you can see all of this concrete and cars and trash has filled this native bank and buried these trees and built these banks up to where I’m standing now. All of this is going to be excavated down to the tree level and pulled back as you can see upstream in sections we’ve completed.”
The river bank and the riparian zone has been restored to its more natural state. Thousands of tons of debris has been removed.
They’ve taken out five to seven whole cars, about 14,000 tons of concrete, several car parts, thousands of tons of scrap metal, lots and lots of tires, about 250 cubic yards of shattered glass.
“Up near the brewery, it was a layer about six feet deep,” said Clint Ormond.
But this project is much more than just removing the garbage. Over four thousand tons of boulders have been placed on the river edge to stabilize the banks and put into the river to create habitat for fish. 40 thousand new plants will be planted and these storm water returns have been built to filter the cities storm drains.
“As the storm water drains in here, the plants and the pond itself will capture the garbage and the sediment from the streets. Keep a lot of the salt and oils captured in these ponds and keep it out of the river,” Clint said.
“We’ve tried to make aspects all along this project for everybody. We’ve got some great backdrops here. We’d like to see people playing in the river, fishing, taking pictures. We want to give a little piece of nature right in downtown,” Justin Anderson, Ogden City Engineer.
Fishermen say the restoration project is making a world of difference.
Lee Salazar has been fishing the Ogden river since he was a boy, “Not too bad. Shoot I’ll take them home and fillet them. My wife has been telling me go get me some fish.”
Lee says he’s seen rapid improvements.
“Two months ago, there was beat up houses that people had burned and it looks beautiful now. Compared to the way it used to look, I love it.”
The Ogden River has a good population of brown trout. But last fall, the DWR stocked this portion of the river with thousands of 10 to 12 inch rainbow trout and just last December.
The DWR released an additional 600 18-22 inch rainbow trout some pushing five pounds.
“We have been stocking for a number of years the upper reach of the Ogden River where there is better habitat than there was down here historically. But ever since Ogden City and the other partners have implemented this large scale restoration project there’s actually habitat here in the lower reaches,” said Ben Nadolski, DWR Aquatics Biologist.
“The difference is transformational Adam, it’s a night and day difference. It’s actually transforming a river back into a river,” Nadolski said.
“And those fish is what we want to promote. Hopefully someday we can even call this a Blue Ribbon Fisher. That would be a goal somewhere in the future where we can sustain that growth. We love this river and we are setting it up, it’s expensive, it’s costing a lot of money,” said Bob Geier, Ogden City River Coordinator.
Funding for the $5 million restoration project has come from, Ogden city, the DWR, the Utah Water Quality Board, Trout Unlimited and others. But they still need $1.5 million to complete the project and you can help. To donate, contact the United Way of Northern Utah and designate your donation to the Ogden River Restoration Project.
“The community deserves a place that they can connect with nature again and have a place where they can come and recreate in the outdoors,” said Crystal. “I just think it’s going to be the greatest community asset to Ogden.
It’s a long time until 2040, the date Pasadena, Calif., has set to achieve zero waste. The city sits atop current green kudos of which it can be proud, including Pasadena Water & Power customers using 15 percent less water in 2010 than the previous year, according to the Green City Report.
"Pack it in, pack it out," applies to daily urban living as well as to outdoor sojourns (Barbara Burns).
And it’s about to wade into the plastic shopping bag ban. With bordering unincorporated area Altadena enforcing a ban on them in some markets in July, and all by 2012, the city’s environmental advisory committee meets tomorrow in special session to consider the topic.
After the 2012 deadline, Altadenans visiting the supermarket will have to stash their groceries in reusable bags or pay a dime for a paper one. (Plastic bags used for meat, poultry and fish will be exempt).
According to Jake Armstrong in the Pasadena Weekly, the committee seeks public comment on how best to craft the language of the ban, which would be based on L.A. County’s latest environmental impact report.
Trying to ban the bag without an environmental impact statement can lead a new ordinance to be overturned in the court system. That’s exactly what happened to Manhattan Beach’s ban in the California Court of Appeals in 2010.
“County officials estimate households use 1,600 bags a year and expected that figure to fall by half by 2013 and shave $4 million from cleanup costs,” according to Armstrong.
So far, single-use plastic bag bans have been approved in California in:
– Los Angeles County (unincorporated areas, of which Altadena is one)
— Long Beach
— Malibu
— Calabasas
– Marin County
– San Jose
The plastic bag has become a polarizing cry, with industry and libertarians crying “foul,” and the green movement pushing for an eventual blanket ban. Interesting trivia: they are called “witches britches” in England, apparently because of the way they unattractively flutter in the breeze.
Oh boy, not really the kind of thing you want to read on a Sunday, especially this Sunday, yet there it is: Tony Barboza penned an excellent piece in today’s Los Angeles Timesoutlining species joining the unlucky White croaker on the “do not eat” list.
The familiar "no dumping" warning, featured on sewers around the city (Courtesy ESLPod.com).
From the article: “In the so-called red zone that reaches from Santa Monica to Seal Beach, four fish besides white croaker … are now considered so contaminated with the long-banned pesticide DDT, PCBs and mercury that they too are unsafe to eat.”
Added to the list:
— Barred sand bass
— Black croaker
— Topsmelt
— Barracuda
This revelation, which comes from increased scientific scrutiny, not more dumping, led me to wonder about the Los Angeles River and its carp and other fish populations. The FOLAR fish study from several years ago found surprisingly low levels of toxins in the resident fish population.
Is the L.A. River, butt of many a poo-poo joke, actually cleaner than our slice of the Pacific Ocean?
KCET’s gorgeous new ‘Departure’ series provides a lot of great information & the latest news about navigating the L.A. River, the ongoing challenges of obtaining official access to the river, & other tales about life along the river. I hope that you’ll support their efforts while getting questions answered about our green business in development and your role in a future river expedition this year. Feel free to post comments in order to open up discussions. Or perhaps send this notice around your email circles… or post a link on your favorite social media site. Thx!
Kayaking activist George Wolfe was instrumental last year in establishing the Los Angeles River as a "navigable waterway," which invoked the Clean Water Act. (courtesy George Wolfe)
1/4: LA River Expedition (2:54) — a brief history of how the ‘2008 LA River Expedition’ played a key role in protecting the river and its watershed
2/4: It’s Surreal (4:03) — on the quirky, “surreal” nature of the L.A.River
3/4: The River – Beyond a Glance (5:41) — what it’s like to physically navigate the L.A. River in a boat
4/4: Accessing the Water (3:46) — regarding recreational activities on the river + the challenges of creating a proper access policy
A couple other items:
* If you feel inspired to help push the process along (and it can help), I recommend that you contact your city councilmember, county supervisor or state political rep(s) and urge our local governmental agencies to create a clear, comprehensive LA River recreational use policy so that you can start using your river via LA River Expeditions in spring 2011.
* L.A. River Expeditions has been honored in the past few months with two environmental awards for its conservation work on behalf of the L.A. River: the ‘Green Paddle’ (presented by the American Canoe Association) and a ‘River Warrior’ award (presented by the Resources Renewal Institute). To see more info on those, see our News page at http://www.lariverexpeditions.org/page_news.php
UPDATE: Under “the snowball is rolling” category (with apologies to my home town, Chicago, worst storm since 1967 …), the Calabasas city council heard an ordinance at its last session about “regulating the use of plastic carryout bags and recyclable paper bags and promote the use of reusable bags in the City,” according to a memo from the city attorney. Next step, slated for Feb. 9, is to formally adopt the ordinance by adding it to the city’s municipal code.
The name says it all ... (courtesy Rock the Boat).
Take a look at the new trailer for the upcoming doc, “Rock the Boat.” It’s so inspiring to see what George Wolfe of L.A. River Expeditions and other activists have done in a short period of time.
I’ve railed against plastic bags before in this space, so it was with glee that I read the Los Angeles Times today (legacy edition with black coffee and oatmeal) to find the Santa Monica City Council voted to ban them, beginning in September. Oh, and that vote was unanimous.
How many plastic bags do the good citizens of this beach city use in a year, you rightly ask? The advocacy group Heal the Bay estimates the number in excess of 25 million.
LA Public Works removing debris caught by booms from the L.A. River after a storm event. (Courtesy Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
According to the piece, Heal the Bay began pushing the issue two years ago, which stalled amid industry threats of a lawsuit. After the city’s environmental review of the proposed ordinance, the language was softened to include reusable polyethylene bags. These bags, according to an L.A. County environmental study, are stronger than single-use bags, and can be wiped clean, a good start for using them over again, instead of tossing in the garbage.
And, stores will now be able to charge a dime per paper bag within city limits. To avoid fees, just bring your own.
So far, single-use bag bans have been approved in :
— Los Angeles County
— Marin County
— San Jose
Next week, Calabasas considers whether it wants to join the growing movement.
Anyway, if you’re reading this at work, take a peek at a preview for “Plastic Planet,” a new doc from Europe. I’m wary of “shock-jock docs,” which seem so evenly reported, but many times stack the deck a la the later works of Michael Moore. Admittedly, I’ve only watched the trailer, but will rent it.
With apologies to the musical of almost the same name, some encouraging news from Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes’ office. This afternoon, this motion was presented to the Los Angeles River Ad Hoc Committee to study — and hopefully recommend for approval — non-motorized boats on the river. Expect findings in 90 days. I don’t know about you, but I’m marking my calendar, because
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