Sacramento Woman is a Top Western Native Trout Challenge Competitor
Do you love to fly fish and travel? How would you like to get rewarded for the experience? Sacramento’s Laurie Banks found answers to both questions through her journey across 12 Western states to become the first woman to compete in the Western Native Trout Challenge. Banks not only competed, she was a top finisher in the challenge’s “Master Caster” category, meeting the requirement of catching and photographing 18 species of trout in their native or historic waters throughout the 12 states.
She accomplished the feat in 15 months, along with her fishing partner of many years, Ken Davis of Sacramento, who was also a top finisher in the challenge. Davis is well known as an aquatic biologist and photojournalist whose photos have appeared in many periodicals and who has worked on many stream restoration projects, including a number of them at Putah Creek and Lake Berryessa in Solano County.
“What a great challenge for a fly fisher,” said Banks of the effort in a story in the newsletter of the California Fly Fishers Unlimited (CFFU), a five-hundred-member Sacramento fly-fishing club. “It was fun at the time, but now that it’s over I’m not sure ‘fun’ adequately describes the experience. It was also challenging, taxing, enlightening, frightening, exhilarating, frustrating, invigorating, and incredibly rewarding.” (To find out more about the Western Native Trout Challenge, go to https://westernnativetroutchallenge.org.)
Banks is not new to fly fishing, and she is also very involved with the CFFU, having been elected its president in 2014 and currently serving as a member of its board of directors. In 2016, she participated in the Heritage Trout Challenge, a program of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/HTC).
Removing Eel River Dams
The long process of removing two dams on the Eel River in northwestern California has started. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company has said that its 50-year license for the Potter Valley Project dams on the Eel will not be renewed, according to California Trout, which added that work has started on surrendering the operating license, decommissioning, and dam removal.
“This is an important first step in the long road we must travel until the dams are removed,” said CalTrout. “Removal of the Eel River dams (Scott and Cape Horn) would provide salmon, lamprey, and steelhead, including endangered summer steelhead, access to more than 280 miles of prime spawning and nursery habitat.” However, the removal of the dams will occur only following a lengthy approval effort that involves many government agencies.
Legislation Would Extend Steelhead Reporting Card
California lawmakers are considering extending the steelhead reporting card that expires on July 1, 2022. If Senate Bill 1392 is passed, the Steelhead Reporting Program will be extended until January 1, 2028. SB-1392 will also require that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife provide a legislative update on the program before July 1, 2026.
Almost 250,000 of the cards were sold between 2015 and 2019, generating just over $1.6 million for projects that benefit steelhead habitat.
Fish Hatcheries Reopen to the Public
Twenty-one of the state’s 22 fish hatcheries have been reopened to the public, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The facilities had been closed to visitors for nearly two years during the Covid pandemic, although hatchery operations and stocking efforts continued without significant interruption. The Kern River Hatchery remains temporarily closed to the public while water-supply pipelines are being upgraded. The CFDW also says that the public is welcome again at outdoor areas of all other hatcheries, including raceways and picnic spots. Hatcheries offer numerous activities, including fish feeding, nature walks, and educational kiosks.
