Inland Fisheries 



Caitle Lake, Siskiyou County, with Mt. Shasta in the background. The department has conducted angler use studies on this lake. 



— Fish and Game Photo by Joe Wales 



Highlighting inland fisheries developments were in- 

 creased hatchery production at reduced costs, elimina- 

 tion of commercial fishing from the Sacramento-San 

 Joaquin Delta, establishment of a silver salmon run in 

 the Sacramento River, proof of the threadfin shad's 

 value as a forage fish, and many new waters opened 

 to public fishing. All but the commercial fishing and 

 silver salmon (see Salmon and Steelhead section) are 

 detailed in this portion of the biennial report. 



Water utilization projects continued to require a 

 great deal of investigational work to protect existing 

 fisheries threatened by alteration of habitat, as well as 

 to provide fishing in the new habitat resulting from 

 these projects. 



Listed in Table 30 are some of the major new 

 reservoirs first opened to public fishing during the 

 biennium. By far the largest, and perhaps most im- 

 portant, of these is 19,600-acre Berry essa Reservoir 

 created by the Monticello Dam on Putah Creek. This 

 large reservoir was stocked with smallmouth bass, 

 largemouth bass, redear sunfish, and white catfish dur- 

 ing 1957. By the spring of 1958, excellent fishing was 

 being enjoyed by thousands of anglers. 



If this fishery follows the pattern of other reservoirs 



of this type, it will remain good for several years and 

 then decline. 



Learning how to maintain the excellent fishing that 

 exists for the first few years in most large warmwater 

 reservoirs is one of the department's most challenging 

 problems. 



Existing and proposed new reservoirs have a tre- 

 mendous angling potential. These reservoirs fall into 

 a number of diverse categories, some of which are: 



( 1 ) Coldwater regulating reservoirs such as those 

 formed by Keswick and Nimbus Dams. 



(2) Warmwater reservoirs such as Lake Havasu. 



(3) Large, primarily warmwater, fluctuating reser- 

 voirs such as Folsom, Shasta, and iVIillerton Lakes. 



(4) Coldwater reservoirs such as Edison and Hun- 

 tington Lake. 



(5) Waters that provide habitat for both trout and 

 warmwater fishes, such as Lake Hennessey, Big Bear 

 Lake, and Isabella Lake. 



Each category, and often each reservoir, presents 

 unique management problems. How to produce the 

 maximum amount of fishing in these reservoirs will 

 require all-out effort by fisheries research and man- 

 agement personnel in future years. 



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