This quote from a 2003 Los Angeles Times article says a lot about fishing the West Fork of the San Gabriel, at least downstream.

” ‘The trash needs to be cleaned up,’ said Jason Conway, 27, who traveled from San Bernardino for the trout. He had just reeled in a six-incher.”

Or maybe this, also from the LAT, but from 1988:

” Since 1981, the West Fork, one of the most heavily fished streams in the state, has endured a man-made flood, fire, drought and a destructive release of mud from Cogswell Dam that reduced the fish population.

“’It has been hit with every disaster possible,” Edmondson said. “It has been so beaten down. This stream is a real underdog.’ “

Edmondson is Jim Edmondson, who at the time was  the Southern California manager for California Trout, the non-profit dedicated to the preservation of wild trout in our state. He was looking for bug life, one of the keys to a healthy river, and he found it.

Flash forward more than 30 years and the West Fork seems periodically bound to be smote by God, or at least the weather, and just as surely to come back to life.

In 1979, the Department of Fish and Wildlife (Then called Department of Fish and Game … times change) estimated around 20,000 trout enjoyed life in the water of the West Fork. But two years later, while repairing Cogswell Dam, the county Flood Control District released an estimated 200,000 cubic yards of silt into the stream, killing thousands of fish and burying their spawning ground, according to the LAT. That caused CDFW to sue the Department of Public Works for $2 million.

Five years after that, a fire around the river burned close to 4,000 acres of bush that held soil in place. Without it, winter rains pushed mud by the tons downstream, again burying trout spawning gravel. And, according to the article, “Just a year after that, the Public Works Department released tons of water while testing valves at the dam during the spawning season, flushing away much of a generation of trout in 70 minutes, Edmondson said.”

But the good news from all of these fish-tragic events –that Public Works, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife would meet regularly, study water flow and release water more slowly from the dam to avoid damage — echoes today.

I had quite a round robin with these three agencies over the last several weeks trying to track down a tip from a guy who told me he spoke with a biologist who was releasing trout at the bridge before the East Fork parking lot. By the time I got there, he was nowhere to be found. Emails to both the Forest Service and CDFG at first floated along without any definitive answers.

Then, several Saturdays later, while fishing with two TU buddies on the West Fork, we struck up a conversation with three guys in a red pickup truck, headed down from Cogswell Dam. The driver wore a brown CDFW shirt. He confirmed that during ongoing work on the far side of Cogswell, the department had, indeed, been saving trout, relocating them to both the West and East forks. If only I’d not been under the influence of trout fever, I would have gotten his name.

At any rate, here’s what I’ve found out, officially. No, say the agencies, there are no fish being relocated from Cogswell, but, yes, Los Angeles County Public Works is moving fish out of the San Gabriel Reservoir construction area, which includes portions of the West Fork and East Fork San Gabriel River.  In general, fish captured in the West Fork are relocated farther upstream in the West Fork. Fish captured in the East Fork are relocated farther upstream in the East Fork. This is all part of the San Gabriel Reservoir Post-fire Emergency Restoration Act that began in June, 2021, and will run through 2026, according to Lisette Guzman of Los Angeles County Public Works.

The number of fish relocated varies week to week, depending on the areas fished and site conditions. The fish species that are relocated include the Santa Ana sucker, Santa Ana speckled dace, arroyo chub, and our favorite rainbow trout.

“On a typical day, fisheries biologists begin their day by coordinating with other project activities that could affect aquatic resources,” Guzman said via email. “Captured fish are placed in aerated coolers and monitored regularly while fishing activities continue.”

Once the fish arrive at their new homes, they are inventoried, released and monitored. These ongoing efforts are split between the East Fork, the West Fork and the North Fork. When is the last time anyone caught a fish on the North Fork?

Any of us who fish these waters regularly and over time have seen a jump in numbers and size of rainbows this season.

Joseph Stanovich, an environmental scientist who monitors the trout population in the upper San Gabriel River for the CDFW put these efforts into perspective.

“Spawning grounds are influenced by water availability and water quality for our native resident rainbow trout. Water temperature, forage and size of habitat availability are big players in how fast they develop,” Stanovich said. “It can take a half-year to a year to get to hand size, but based on environmental variables it’s hard to estimate.”

This season, a hand-size trout, once all I caught in this watershed, has given way to bigger fish.

See you on the river, Jim Burns