Tag: LA River

Inspiration

Fly fishers remember the best of 2022

“Doom scrolling” wasn’t even a thing until 2018, and now Merriam-Webster has selected “gaslighting” as the 2022 word of the year. But good news, many times, is hiding just beneath the surface, in the same way that final swing on an exhausting steelie trip can bring you the best fish of the day. So, what better time to read some environmental success stories from folks who love to fish and know a healthy environment is key. Good news is the best antidote to the bottomless bummer.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

William Preston Bowling, President, South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Chapter board members Karen Barnett and Bob Blankenship partnered with the City of Paramount to design a fish passage in the Lower Los Angeles River. The river goes through several different municipalities, like Compton, Long Beach, Linwood and the City of Paramount has created an exemplary storm drain system from the neighborhood storm water run off through a bioswale in Dills Park. Barnett and Blankenship thought this would be a great place to focus and create an in-channel native plant area with rocks and sandy areas for the fish to relax. The focus area is right below another “River City”… South Gate. This is where Frank Gehry plans to make some sort of riverside park with a ferris wheel. We imagine this to be steel and concrete as a nod to his past creations and just south of it at Dills Park is just the opposite. Taking the concrete sections back to nature with public access to enjoy these areas in hope that one day all the River Cities can do the same, so the elusive Steelhead Trout will return to this urban river as it once did, prior to the 1940s. Check out Bob and Karen’s great work.

Kesley Gallagher

16-time IGFA record holder, 2018 Ladies Tarpon Fly Champion

CalTrout made significant headway this year on the Rindge Dam Project (Malibu Creek); it will be moving into the Engineering and Design phase in 2023. Public Outreach by CalTrout in the LA area has been a focus to increase awareness of the Rindge Dam project and other initiatives this year; also, in 2023, CalTrout will be heading up a West Fork clean-up day in partnership with the Volunteer Fisheries Restoration Crew, Pasadena Casting Club and Patagonia Pasadena; details will be forthcoming.

©Barbara Evripidou/FirstAvenuePhotography.com

Ben Jailler

Author of Fish Camp Fail

Mention the LA River and I think “Them,” “Point Blank,” “Terminator 2” and “Grease.” With the UK’s privatized water companies discharging 2.7 million hours of untreated sewage into our waterways last year, mention any river in England and I think “Richard III.”

More in hope than expectation, two of my fishing mates, Pete and Jon, set-out to explore the Bristol Avon’s urban tributaries in search of wild brown trout and recording a podcast about their adventures. The result was the Fishtolian and it was incredibly inspiring  listening to their enthusiasm for all things wild and showing that, like in LA, life still thrives among the Asdal trolleys, White Lightning cans and floaters.

Bristol calling: The Fishtolian podcasts

Glenn Ueda

Unquestionably, Southern California’s own Yvon Chouinard’s decision to shift  Patagonia’s ownership to Mother Earth, to combat our climate crisis, is undoubtedly the most significant. I value my affiliation with global leader Orvis, as their significant 5% pre-tax donations continue to fund outdoor-improving projects throughout the globe.

From our local watersheds to the most remote South Pacific atolls, we are one world, and need to endeavor to do our part to make a difference. What will you do today to make our world a better place for our grandchildren?

Bernard Yin

Par Avion, and several decades of chasing SoCal trout

– The recent progress on the Klamath River to bring down several dams is truly exciting, refreshing and encouraging. For years we have heard this conversation through the ether and I am sure like many, it’s been hard to think that there was any hope. It looks like the only hurdles remaining are logistics. In other words, the paperwork and the bureaucracy has achieved certain hurdles that were never thought possible. If this can be done on a river as large as the Klamath, when would like to think steps can be taken on smaller drainages; especially when derelict dams are concerned. 

– On a more “local” level, I wish to call attention CalTrout and their efforts, in general terms, to improve the passage between the ocean and the upper reaches of a given watershed. In Southern California, steps continue to be taken on the Ventura drainage, the Malibu Creek drainage, and the Trabuco creek drainage. When I say steps, this can be defined in a variety of ways so it might be best to visit their website to get into the nitty-gritty details but they are serious. Serious in a good way. and making progress.

– I would like to share a more personal anecdote but something that I think would serve as a word of encouragement to anyone who sees anything that is not going well for fish or a water system. A few years ago I noticed that a freshly implemented fish ladder was falling a little short of its intended purpose, because as trout tried to navigate a certain elbow in the ladder (180 degree bend) they would actually miss the ladder and strand themselves on dry ground. Vultures and other birds would hang about during the migratory seasons to take advantage of this. Upon observing this, my wife, Rebecca, and I did our best to document it and reported it to the necessary agencies. Fast forward about a year and some change, baffles were implemented to prevent the fish from jumping out. According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife representative with whom we’ve had good communication, our feedback was considered very helpful bordering on instrumental in creating this fix. We’re not trying to take all the credit for it and we kind of don’t care … . As long as we save a few fish from turning into vulture food! The takeaway is that we all need to speak up. We all need to provide feedback. We need to inform each other and various agencies; alert the world around us to issues that, who knows, might be fixable!

Derek Berlin

Public Engagement Specialist, CalTrout

Two conservation wins that stand out for me, among many others, in 2022 include the progress on Klamath Dam removals, and the international agreement to protect 30% of earths lands and waters in order to preserve the planets biodiversity.

The Klamath dams removal project overcame its last major hurdle in November of this year, with work anticipated to begin in early 2023. The project stands as an incredible example of stakeholders and communities coming together to achieve a difficult common goal. Removing four dams on the Klamath is a critical step toward repairing historic degradations and reestablishing an essential salmon run that once numbered in the millions.

The global agreement to set aside lands and waters to preserve earth’s biodiversity represents perhaps the most ambitious effort ever to curb the unprecedented decline in global biodiversity we are seeing today as a result of human activities. Recognizing the important role of preserving and restoring connected habitat and wild spaces, the agreement formally united about 190 countries in pursuing the target of protecting 30% of earths land and waters by 2030 (30×30) and lays out what the negotiators declare will be concrete benchmarks by which to evaluate progress, as well as funding mechanism pathways. While it’s far from a guarantee that lands and waters will be protected or biodiversity loss curtailed, it is a necessary if not sufficient step forward on a global scale. Both the President Biden and Gov. Newsom administrations have set out similar targets and outcomes in the United States and California, respectively, with their own 30×30 Executive Orders.

Debbie Sharpton

Conservation Director, Southwest Council FFF

— Getting 1,200 acres, the largest parcel left in the Santa Monica Mountains with two miles of ocean frontage, under contract and destined for National Park Service. What a win!

— Seeing the monarch butterfly habitat restoration and collaborations blossom with an increase in the population!

— Seeing the Rindge Dam on Malibu Creek planning and permitting going forward!

– -Seeing endangered species return to historic habitat!–

— Seeing many agencies and NGOs working together to make a difference. 

It’s all very heartwarming.

Al Q

Author, “The Corbina Diaries”

I think the best conservation win is what’s going on in my backyard at Ballona Creek outflow by Marina del Rey.

The intercepter007 is an amazing piece of technology that is sitting in the creek with floating booms, that has been collecting and eating all the garbage and plastic floating out to Santa Monica Bay!

Luis Rincon

Community Engagement Coordinator, California State Parks

Rio de Los Angeles is a good example of how restoration works. This newish park sits in the middle of an industrial zone and residential area in Glassell Park, close to the eastern banks of the Los Angeles River. For 60-plus years, the site was known as Taylor Yard, one of the region’s largest railroad switching yards. When it closed in 1985, community groups pushed to turn the land into a park instead of more industrial space. Partnerships were formed between state and city, and Rio de Los Angeles State Park opened in 2007 with city-supervised playgrounds and athletic fields and state-managed hiking trails with native trees and shrubs. 

When the drought dried up irrigation water on the trails, volunteers used buckets and wheelbarrows to keep new plants alive until they were established enough to go without regular water. This lead to more birds and creatures who find shelter and food in the natural areas, including the endangered least Bell’s vireo, a small river dwelling bird in decline. 

Restoration work is more than rebuilding the land and creating habitat. You’re also restoring a piece of nature for people, to step out of their urban environment, just by crossing the street. This park is a gateway. We want them to be inspired by what they see here, so they go further to see places like Sequoia or Yosemite.

Top 10

On New Year’s Eve, 10 different LA River stories from 10 consecutive years
Photo by Damir Mijailovic on Pexels.com

Much to my surprise, I’ve been writing/curating this blog for the past 10 years. Too legit to quit or something else all together? All I know is I started writing because I was fixated on a river running through Los Angeles that I’d never visited after living here for more than 30 years. Just finding access back in the day was difficult enough, but then to also consider you could catch fish in it seemed improbable at best.

Fast forward to the end of 2021 and our river has become famous, and not just in the movies. Carping the LA is now on fly-fisher bucket lists. That, of course, isn’t because of my writing, but I can say that the blog has grown up in a similar way to our beloved river. As you think about the end of the year, here are 10 winter stories in chronological order I thought you might enjoy.

I’ve made lots of friends through river work and hope you will be lucky enough to do the same. Eventually, some of the concrete will come out, and new habitat will go in. As poet Lewis MacAdams used to say, “We will know our work is done when the steelhead return.” So be it.

Happy New Year and see you on the river, Jim Burns

Dec. 23, 2010 — Carp clubbing takes river to new low

My son and I went out last week for some fishing on the city’s river. As we were leaving the water, we came upon a couple of friendly gents who intimately knew the area. Both had on caps; both had on backpacks; both had good senses of humor; and one should have been arrested:

“You don’t need that rod to catch carp down here,” said the one.

How could you not ask?

“What you need? You need a baseball bat, a Louisville Slugger, that’s what you need — a bat!”

Dec. 10, 2011 — ‘Improvement Overlay’ is Councilman Reyes’s next approach to coaxing money from the feds

Lots of buzz this week about a proposed ordinance to establish the Los Angeles River Improvement Overlay District. That’s a mouthful to say to Washington, “hey, Obama, where’s our money?”

Cash, authorized by Congress, is needed to complete an essential Corps  study that analyzes the effects of ripping out lots of concrete. Currently, the last phase of the study is years behind schedule. Until it’s finished, Reyes’ river project can’t be completed.

Dec. 29, 2012 — Lariverflyfishing rings in New Year with 20,000th visit

I was pretty stoked about that number back then …

Nov. 13, 2013 — Seven tips to follow when stalking LA River carp

My favorite tips is No. 1: Don’t be in a hurry.

Dec. 18, 2014 — FoLAR seeks anglers for Long Beach fish study

Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) in partnership with the Aquarium of the Pacific will host Phase 3 of a scientific fish study with help from the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. We need Citizen Scientists, in this case, volunteer anglers to help us catch what is in the soft bottom section of the Los Angeles River at Long Beach.

This is a rare chance for you to fish in an area that one does not normally access, contact WPB@FoLAR.org to hold a spot. Fishing will start at 2pm until dusk on Saturday, January 3rd, 2015.

Dec. 15, 2015 — Musings written in pencil: LA River Top 10 laundry list

No. 6 “Off Tha’ Hook” celebrated its second year. It’s become a party down by the banks on Sept. 3, a Dept. of Fish and Wildlife “free day,” when no license is required to fish. Best memory: the number of children fishing at least doubled over last year. I’m a sponsor for next year, so come on down. The entry fee will be reduced, according to FoLAR.

Dec. 2, 2016 — River Health Update: Biologists and volunteers return to work on the Upper River Fish Study

On our return to Sepulveda Basin, to continue the upper river fish survey, we captured 203 fish, a far cry from the more than 3,600 tilapia fry caught this time last year.

Dec. 1, 2017 — Huck Finn retelling along the LA River in debut novel

Dec. 16, 2018 — Holiday Twofer: Zinke out, rockfish in

So, it was with great holiday pleasure that I paged through the print Los Angeles Times this morning, to find two memorable events: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is following former scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruit out the revolving Trump door, pursued by a cloud of more than a dozen ethics violations. Here’s a summary of what he did during his close to two years in office. Top of mind for me was his tone deaf response to millions of comments asking him not to recommend shrinking Bear’s Ears National Monument. 

Dec. 13, 2019 — Help restore Southern California Steelhead habitat

Sespe Fly Fishers was awarded a $1,500 grant from Fly Fishers International. The multiple-page grant request was submitted by SFF Conservation Chair Randy Nelson who worked on the application for several days.

The funds were awarded to help Sespe Fly Fishers, in partnership with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, to restore the habitat of the endangered Southern California Steelhead along several tributary streams of the Ventura River.

Dec. 29, 2020 — Ten things to cheer about in 2020

We’ve never experienced anything like this year that’s coming to a close, both collectively and individually. As my wife and I watched the Christmas star last week, its first appearance in some 700 years, it made me wonder. As a writer, I’m all about signs and portends, so I thought it could either mean the coming apocalypse or a brighter future, as it did so many centuries ago. I chose the latter.

Fishing

End to a tough year
  • KEEP ‘EM WET: Andrew Catt, owner of Dreams on the Fly, releases a beautiful Brown back to the Owyhee River. (Credit: Jim Burns)

Those of a certain age will remember Porky Pig’s sign off, “ba-dee, ba-dee, ba-dee, that’s all folks,” as the 2021 fishing season ends on many of our rivers today. And if you remember the joys of Porky Pig and his friends Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny and hapless Elmer Fudd, you probably hope for another year, instead of taking it for granted.  I certainly know I do.

If 2020 was our COVID year, 2021 has been all about reentry, and it’s hard to figure. Everybody seems to be mad and raging about something.  I have opinions, but my posts, all 635 of them, are not political here on LA River. I just began my 11th year, which is hard to believe.

The moon shines brightly before dawn on the banks of Oregon’s Owyhee River, named for the old spelling of Hawaii. (Jim Burns)

Also, as readers have noticed, I don’t write nearly as much as I used to. I’ve trimmed back on traditional print as well, so you won’t see my byline in California Fly Fisher, but I’ll continue for Fallon’s Angler. At this point in my life, I get to be choosy.

Back to the year. From Western press reports, I expected overrun river conditions along the likely suspects, where new anglers would resemble a herd of raging bulls in Pamplona. Heat, passion and too much flask time can lead to inconsideration for your fellow anglers. So can just plain etiquette ignorance. One of the beautiful things about fly fishing is how much respect we have for each other on the water, as well as for fish and their habitats. Let’s not lose that beautiful part of our sport as our numbers increase. “Share the water.”

Sign from the West Fork in better days. (Jim Burns)

I still mourn the loss of the West Fork of the San Gabriel because of the Bobcat Fire, which, as it turns out, is irreplaceable as a beauty spot within a short drive from L.A. that had lots of small rainbows, a bike lane, shade and happy times. When it will actually return to those conditions, is anyone’s guess, but the stream is slated to reopen April 1, 2022. I hope that date isn’t another sign of things to come.

I was lucky enough to fish the nearest good water from L.A., the Kern, in winter and spring with no other anglers in sight on the 20-Mile Stretch. I went out with Rob Buehler of Buehler Brothers fame, on each occasion. Great guide and great guy.  

Spring became summer with the drought tightening a dry, dusty grip across the West. Did you know Elko, Nevada, still has a fly shop and a weekly fishing column? The columnist and shop owner, Joe Doucette, even calls you back when you’re trying to find a spot to catch a Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park. For lots of reasons, that didn’t happen (yet), but my chats with Joe led me to a beaver pond in Nevada’s Ruby Range, full of small, radiant cutties. My wife and I missed a mountain lake, but even with a sky dirty gray from persistent Western wildfires, those small fish were a wonder to behold.

Next, I skipped Idaho’s Henry’s Fork out of agoraphobia, and instead went desert fishing on the awesome Owyhee River in Oregon at the Idaho border. Andrew Catt and I left Boise at 4:30 in the morning to beat the unrelenting summer heat. After an hour’s drive, we found very cold water and very active browns, even as the temperature soared into the high 90s.

Hanging with Seattle Pat on a cold night in the Western Sierra (Credit Jack Train)
TUSC’s Luis Rincon gets snowbound after the group woke up to an unexpected snowfall. (Credit Michelle)

The end of the season found me on the Western side of the Sierra last month with Trout Unlimited South Coast friends and new friends. The water levels at Edison and Henderson were heart-bracingly low, as was the drive into the back country through acres and acres of Camp Fire burn. We’d cancelled our trip with Jimmie Morales last year because of COVID, so it was pretty amazing to have Pat from Seattle, Jack, the nomad, and Rocky from Texas come join in. Several of our group without all-wheel drive vehicles got snowed in and had to spend an extra day. (Some have all the luck … .)

As for the LA River, it continues to be the source of crazy stories, like the one my friend, Bob, told me recently about the opera singer who enjoys the same carp honey hole. Only in LA, right? Earlier in the year, Bob and I couldn’t figure out what the mysterious raindrops in a forlorn pond were all about, until with a net he and his fiancée, Karen, discovered lots of large bullfrog tadpoles coming up for air. At first, I was madly casting to them, thinking they were blue sunfish rises!

So, readers, my fishy advice? Enjoy getting outdoors; enjoy the camaraderie of those of like mind; put yourself on a social media diet; show the ones you love how much you actually do love them and keep a little in reserve for those who come off cranky, but probably just need a hug. Keep it light and easy streamside, our refuge. This year I fished with guys who have wildly different political views from mine, and guess what – we all enjoyed each other’s much-needed company.

What will next year bring us all? As Porky Pig might stutter, “Stay tuned, folks … .”

See you on the river, Jim Burns

News

Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers remove more than 5,000 pounds of trash in three hours
A volunteer at the Trout Unlimited South Coast chapter LA River cleanup joined 2,735 others on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 35 beach, river and inland sites in Los Angeles County for the 32nd Annual #CoastalCleanupDay. Volunteers covered 50-plus miles of area on land and underwater—removing 5,051 pounds of trash and 156 pounds of recyclables in three hours. (Credit: Miranda Robin)
Bugs

‘Like insects waking to th’ advancing spring’
Trout Unlimited’s Bob Blankenship spotted this mayfly near the LA River. Spring is in the air. (Courtesy Bob Blankenship)
The mayfly has played a role throughout human history, appearing in the lower righthand corner of this famous Albrecht Dürer‘s engraving The Holy Family with the Mayfly, 1495. Lasting only a few hours, depending on the species, the mayfly symbolizes the transitoriness of life. (Courtesy National Gallery of Art)

In shoals the hours their constant numbers bring
Like insects waking to th’ advancing spring;
Which take their rise from grubs obscene that lie
In shallow pools, or thence ascend the sky:
Such are these base ephemeras, so born
To die before the next revolving morn.
— George Crabbe, “The Newspaper”, 1785

Mayflies are totally prehistoric, with their distinctive wing profile. More than 3,000 species make up the Ephemeroptera, a wonderful word I first read just recently in an old British tome about bugs on the water. If you have spent any time at your vise during the pandemic, I’ll bet you’ve tied more than a few dries, as well as imitations of the rest of their life cycle, which is mostly spent as a nymph.

See you on the water, Jim Burns

Creatures

Name this former aquarium dweller
Found in the LA River by TU’s Karen Barnett and Bob Blankenship while pulling out trash, this popular aquarium fish is also known by an alternative name, which comes from its ability to detect changes in barometric pressure and react with frantic swimming or standing on end. (Courtesy Karen Barnett)