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Spraying fish toxicant in treatment of City of Son Diego's to/ce Hodges to 

 remove over-popufation of carp. 



(Fish and Game Photo) 



The extremely heavy floods of December, 1955, cre- 

 ated more than $100,000 in damage to hatcheries, fish 

 screens and ladders essential for the protection of the 

 State's steelhead and salmon. 



WARMWATER FISHERIES 



Early in 1954 the Wildlife Conservation Board 

 assigned its highest priority to development of warm- 

 water fisheries by placing a h\draulic engineer full 

 time on the job of investigating possible projects. 

 More than a dozen projects, of several hundred investi- 

 gated, were presented to the board for its consid- 

 eration. 



The program is directed toward utilization of exist- 

 ing impoundments, access to other existing impound- 

 ments, and creation of new impoundments. 



By means of dredging, weed control, and construc- 

 tion of parking areas, boat ramps, or other access 

 devices, 15 lakes with a total area of 14,361 acres have 

 been acquired or developed, or are in the process of 

 being acquired or developed (completed, 3,830 acres; 

 under way, 4,194 acres; planned, 6,337 acres). One is 

 a trout lake and 14 are warmwater lakes. These lakes 

 were formerly either closed to fishing or unsuitable 

 because of shallowness or lack of access. Nine public 

 angler access sites totaling 109 acres were acquired 

 and 20 others averaging five acres each are in the 

 planning state. Most of them are located along the 

 Sacramento River and in the Delta region. 



HATCHERY PRODUCTION INCREASED 



A consolidation of the hatchery program has re- 

 sulted in more efficient production, and a change in 

 planting policy by the commission has increased the 

 size of catchable trout. 



In 1955 the number of catchable trout dropped 

 slightly from the previous year to 7,585,000 but the 

 weight increased to a new all-time high of 1,240,576 



pounds. The weight increase is partially due to a late 

 1955 policy change by the Fish and Game Commission 

 which increased the planting size range of catchables 

 from 6-8 per pound to 4-6 per pound. A total of 

 18,000,000 fingerling trout and salmon weighing 85,000 

 pounds was planted, nearly doubling the previous 

 year's fingerling production. 



ROUGH FISH CONTROL WORK 



Heavy emphasis was placed on control of rough 

 fish populations through use of chemicals. The Russian 

 River, and the entire drainage of Putah Creek were 

 treated to reduce rough fish. The Russian River proj- 

 ect was the largest chemical treatment program ever 

 undertaken on a river system. A total of 286 miles of 

 stream was treated to eradicate squawfish, suckers, 

 roach, and carp, and thus improve conditions for nat- 

 ural reproduction of steelhead; and 57 lakes, compris- 

 ing 11,447 surface acres, were treated for the same 

 purpose. At the end of the biennium, the rough fish 

 appeared to be making a comeback, but were still not 

 up to their former numbers. iMeanwhile, summer trout 

 fishing greatly improved after the treatment of No- 

 vember, 1954. 



San Diego Reservoir 



A "California first" was marked up on January 31, 

 1956, when the City of San Diego chemically treated 

 Hodges Reservoir with fish toxicant. More than 100 

 tons of carp were removed from this domestic water 

 supply reservoir and the fish kill was believed com- 

 plete. 



No similar project involving a large supply of pota- 

 ble water had been attempted heretofore in California. 

 The project succeeded in improving both water qual- 

 ity and conditions for a sport fishery. San Diego is 

 one of the few cities that has long permitted fishing 

 in its domestic water supply and the success of the 

 San Diego program is of far-reaching importance to 

 anglers all over the State. 



Other major habitat improvement work consisted 

 of the construction of a large number of pool-creating 

 devices in some of the smaller streams and flow main- 

 tenance dams throughout the State. A new rock- 

 masonry flow accelerating structure, an improvement 

 over the log and rock dams and deflectors tried in 

 1953-54, was developed and installed on some South- 

 ern California streams. 



CONSERVATION EDUCATION 



Major efforts were exerted by the Conservation 

 Education Section to increase public understanding 

 and acceptance of sound deer management practices; 

 prevention of damage to streams by logging opera- 

 tions; and the complicated effects of water develop- 

 ment on California fish and wildlife. 



With licensed sportsmen most specifically con- 

 cerned, and additional millions of people also vitally 



