The State of California is now entering the final phase of its process to bring a logical, coherent framework to our trout-fishing regulations. Beginning last year, draft proposals have been circulated, modified, and recirculated. Now we start the public hearings through which the California Fish and Game Commission will review, perhaps modify, and adopt the rules that anglers presumably will begin to follow in 2021.
Perhaps the biggest potential change for fly fishers is the opening of many trout waters statewide to year-round angling, with the proviso that from the middle of November through the last Friday of April, barbless artificial lures must be used and no fish kept. In other words, catch-and-release angling would now be allowed for many rivers, rills, and rivulets that for decades were closed during the “off season.”
Excluded from this statewide rule are trout streams for which special regulations have been created to achieve fishery-specific objectives. These special regulations are of three types: seasons (10 variations) and, clumped together, possession limits and gear restrictions (7 variations). What this effectively means is that at least initially, you’ll need to refer to the next regulations booklet perhaps even more often than you do now.
Well over a hundred waters are proposed to have special regulations that differ in some way from the statewide stream and lake regulations. Many of these waters will be of interest to fly fishers. Here’s a partial, but still lengthy list of such waters, along with how angling regulations are proposed to change from the rules that are currently applied. Note that “year-round C&R” beside a particular water means angling there would now be restricted to catch-and-release only with barbless artificial lures. “Artificial lures” means a shift from bait or from no angling. “Barbs allowed” means a shift from barbless artificials and always indicates that taking fish is allowed. Proposed changes also often apply to a water’s tributaries.
Alambique Creek: season shortened; C&R.
Almanor Lake tribs: season shortened.
American and forks above Folsom Lake: C&R season lengthened.
Antelope Lake: season shortened.
Arroyo Seco: season shortened.
Bear Creek (Shasta and Siskiyou): season shortened; take reduced; artificial lures.
Bear Creek (San Bernardino): barbs allowed.
Bear (Placer): season lengthened.
Berryessa Lake tributaries: season shortened; take reduced.
Big Sur: season shifted.
Boulder Creek: artificial lures.
Bridgeport Reservoir: gear and take restrictions lifted.
Burney Creek: year-round C&R.
Butano Creek: season shortened; C&R.
Butt Creek: season shortened.
Caples Creek: year-round C&R.
Carson, East Fork: C&R lifted; limited take, barbs allowed.
Cedar Creek: limited season; artificial lures.
Clear Lake tributaries: year-round C&R.
Convict Creek below U.C.: season shortened; gear restrictions lifted.
Cottonwood Lakes: seasons shifted; barbs allowed; limited take.
Crooked Creek: year-round C&R; flies only.
Crowley: barbs allowed.
Davis Creek (Modoc): season shifted and extended; C&R removed.
Davis Lake tributaties: season shifted and extended.
Deadman Creek below 395: no take.
Deep Creek: barbs allowed.
Dismal Creek: season shifted and extended; C&R.
Eagle Lake and tributaries: season shifted and extended.
Eel above Pillsbury: new season; artificial lures.
Eel, Middle and North Forks: season shifted and extended; barbs allowed; take reduced.
Fall: year-round; limited C&R season.
Feather, North Fork: C&R season shifted and extended.
Golden Trout Wilderness: year-round; barbs allowed.
Goose Lake and some tributaries: limited season; C&R.
Grass Valley Creek Reservoir: C&R removed.
Hat Creek, Britton to Baum: year-round C&R.
Heenan Lake: season extended.
Hennessey Lake tributaries: season shortened; take reduced.
Hilton Creek: season shortened; gear restrictions lifted below Crowley Lake Drive.
Hobart Creek: season shifted; take reduced; artificials only.
Independence Lake: season shortened; C&R.
Kern upstream of Johnsondale Bridge: barbs allowed.
Kirman Lake: year-round; barbs allowed; minimum size.
Klamath above Iron Gate: year-round; limited C&R season.
Lagunitas Lake: barbs allowed.
Lane Lake: year-round; artificial lures.
Laurel Lakes and tributaries: yearround; barbs allowed; size limit.
Lee Vining Creek: year-round; limited C&R season.
Little Truckee, Stampede to Boca; yearround C&R.
Los Gatos Creek: year-round C&R.
Martis Creek: year-round C&R.
Martis Lake: Gear restrictions lifted; open year round.
McCloud River: year-round; some use of barbed artificials, some C&R.
McGee Creek below 395: season shortened; C&R removed.
McLeod Lake: year-round C&R.
Meiss Lake: short season C&R.
Merced: year-round; C&R during off season.
Mill Creek: year-round C&R; flies only.
Milton Lake: year-round C&R.
Owens, upper, from Benton to Big Springs: year-round C&R.
Owens, upper, from Benton to Crowley: year-round; limited take; short artificials-only season.
Owens, lower: changes to C&R season and boundary.
Parker Creek: year-round C&R.
Pine Creek (Modoc): special regulations lifted.
Pine Valley Creek: barbs allowed.
Pit River: changes in take; artificials on North Fork.
Portuguese Creek, West Fork: season shifted and extended.
Prosser Creek below dam: year-round C&R.
Putah Creek: C&R extended to Solano Lake.
Robinson Creek: C&R season lifted.
Roosevelt Lake: year-round C&R.
Rush Creek below Grant Lake Dam:
year-round C&R.
Sacramento, upper: off-season artificials for Dunsmuir stretch; increased take and barbs allowed below Sweetbriar.
Salmon Creek above Hwy 1: C&R season added.
San Luis Rey, West Fork: barbs allowed.
Silver Creek: limited artificials-only season.
Slinkard Creek: year-round C&R; flies only.
Sonoma Creek: season shortened; C&R only.
Squaw Valley Creek: year-round C&R.
Stanislaus, Middle Fork, Beardsley to Spring Gap: year-round; barbs allowed.
Stanislaus, Middle Fork, Spring gap to New Melones: year-round.
Stevens Creek: year-round C&R. Stony Creek: Year-round C&R.
Tahoe tributaries upstream to first lake: lengthened season, C&R only.
Trinity above Trinity Lake: C&R season shifted.
Truckee: C&R stretch extended, f lyonly stretch removed; barbs allowed below Prosser. An alternative proposal would retain and extend the fly-only stretch and require barbless hooks below Prosser.
Tule, North Fork: C&R and flies-only regulations lifted.
Tuolumne, from O’Shaughnessy to Clavey Falls: barbs allowed; size limit removed.
Twelvemile Creek: year-round C&R.
Truckee, Upper: C&R season lengthened.
Van Duzen: season shortened; artificial lures.
Walker Creek: year-round C&R.
Walker, East Fork: year-round limited take with barbed artificials; minimum size.
Whiskey Creek: Special regulations lifted; season shifted.
Wolf Creek (Mono): year-round C&R; flies only.
Yellow Creek: year-round C&R.
Yuba, North Fork: Year-round; barbs al lowed on C&R stretch; off-season C&R below Ladies Canyon Creek.
For information on the regulationchange process, visit https://wild-life.ca.gov/fishing/inland/trout-plan/regulation-simplification. A complete
list of proposed changes to regulations and their justifications is at https://nrm.
dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?Documen-tID=175721&inline
Public comment on the proposed changes can be made at the California Fish and Game Commission’s “discussion hearing” on August 20 in Fortuna, and the “adoption hearing” on October 15 in Oakland. The commission’s meeting agendas will be posted online at https://fgc.ca.gov/Meetings/2020.
