The Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Rancho Cordova has released 420,000 young American River steelhead into the Sacramento River just upstream of the I Street Bridge in Sacramento so they can make their long journey downstream to the ocean.
The fish made it through both drought conditions last year and winter flood conditions this season, thanks to the hard work of the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFW) staff.
“Staff at Nimbus Fish Hatchery nursed the young steelhead through several potentially devastating conditions, including drought-induced high water temperatures in the hatchery last summer and winter flood conditions that nearly cut off usable water supplies and carried dangerous levels of silt into the hatchery’s normally clean water distribution system,” according to a news release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
“The fish we released will be returning to the American River over the next two to four years, and we are proud and relieved to have brought them this far,” said Gary Novak, the Nimbus Hatchery manager. “Steelhead are hardy, but considering their size and the number of environmental obstacles cropping up in rapid succession, they still needed human intervention in the hatchery to ensure a better chance of survival in the wild.”
Due to the high water conditions, the juvenile fish are expected to make “excellent time” traveling down the Sacramento River to the Bay and eventually on to the Pacific Ocean, according to Novak. Losses to predators are believed to be lower during turbid water and high flow conditions.
“During January and February 2017, water releases from Nimbus Dam reached 80,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is well above the normal 6,000 to 10,000 cfs,” according to Novak. “ The high flows created conditions that dislodged exceptional amounts of debris, clogging the intake structure at Nimbus Fish Hatchery and creating near-lethal levels of nitrogen in the water. Hatchery staff worked around the clock over a month-long period to keep the water intake open, clear water distribution points, tanks and raceways of silt, and install aerators to lower nitrogen levels.”
Novak said fish health assessments by CDFW pathologists found the steelhead to be in” satisfactory condition and near the average weight for fish their age” prior to release. It remains to be seen how the stressors of living in turbid water and enduring some periods of high nitrogen levels will affect the fish.
”A good water like this one is an indication that will probably have a good run of steelhead 2 to 3 years from now,” said Jay Rowan, CDFW North Central Region.
Annual returns of adult steelhead to Nimbus Hatchery have varied widely in recent years, from a high of 3,409 in 2013 to a low of just 150 the following year.
In 2013, my fishing buddy, Rodney Fagundes, found top-notch fishing for steelhead while using plugs, spoons and bait in the stretch of river below the fish hatchery. We in fact experienced one of our best days ever steelhead fishing, hooking 14 fish and landing 9 in one day.
However, next year local anglers and indigenous groups pressured the California Fish and Game Commission to close fishing on the river during the steelhead run to protect the few fish that returned to spawn in the river in low water conditions of 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) and less.
The hatchery has trapped 558 Eel River-strain adults and 23 half pounders, 207 Coleman Hatchery steelhead, and 267 Central Valley strain adults and 1 half pounder to date this season, according to Novak. The run has slowed down, but the hatchery ladder is still open for returning adults.
The hatchery staff has taken a total of 345,739 eggs total to date, while their goal in normal years is a million eggs by end of February.
“We took 7,000 eggs when we spawned last week and we will keep spawning fish until they stop coming to the hatchery,” he explained. “We are only keeping the fish ladder open later in season because don't have enough eggs yet. We ran the trap this morning and there were 15 steelhead in it.”
“Most of the fish that have returned to to hatchery lately have been two-year-old Eel River strain in the 2 to 6 lb. range, rather than the 4 year-olds in the 9 to 16 lb. range that showed up earlier in the season,” he said.
He also noted that they took a relatively fresh Chinook salmon over 20 pounds at the hatchery last week, an unusual thing for this time of year. “I would never thought we would see a salmon here in March,” said Novak.
Bureau of Reclamation water releases from Nimbus Dam into the American River are now down to 5,000 cfs and few people have been out fishing lately.