The West Branch of the Feather River was a place I had never heard of before I met my wife. Her family had a deep history stretching back 100 years. Her grandfather was issued one of the first 10 badges of the fledgling California Game Wardens, and was an officer when the Board of Fish Commissioners changed the name to the Fish and Game Commission. He had a department issued horse for patrolling an area from Mt Lassen south to the entire Feather River Basin. My father in law, was born on the ridge and told me of his going out with his father with barrel carrying mules, to stock the high streams and lakes of Butte County after the devastation wrought by mining and the timber industry . The trout he helped stock, are the ancestors of the self sustaining Rainbow and Brown Trout which can be caught to this day all over the Feather River Drainage.
If I spent more time with a rod in my hand instead of a camera, could I out fish my wife? No way!
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I witnessed my wife hook an est. 30 inch brown trout here and lose it after a 45 minute fight.
I like to fish, I love being by a stream. I traded some cut rounds of fire wood for replacing a lost picnic area’s benches in exchange for a raft trip on the American River from Chili Bar to Folsom Lake. I’ve canoed on the Russian, solo rafted the Truckee below Fanny Bridge to the take out near Squaw Valley, had a guided day trip on the Snake and another at maximum spring runoff on the Merced. Being on the water is fun, being up to my knees in the water, up to my elbows catching Caddis, May Fly and other nymphs is better still. Dropping those captured bugs into a riffle or pool below a cascade or waterfall on a fly rod and waiting for a strike is second behind eating a freshly caught trout dinner.
West Branch Feather River obstacle course
Watching my wife fish is often more fun than doing it myself. She has been exploring this canyon since she was 11. Her father satisfied himself that her skills were adequate by tossing her off a cliff into a deep pool to ensure she could save herself. A good test of survival of the fittest! She thinks it’s funny and is surprised that others think this is odd. Growing up a boomer was unlike today’s helicopter parenting techniques. The water during Spring runoff is cold and sometimes so high it reaches life threatening levels and can’t be waded. Around June until the end of August, a pair of tennis shoes (better felt soled wading boots), long pants, long sleeve shirt for sun protection, a hat and fishing vest are all one needs to have a great day out doors. If an explorer gets too cold from wading, a short rest on a sun soaked rock along the banks or in the stream will quickly take the chill away. Some pools can only be swum at 20 plus feet deep, and riffles can go waist high with the current strong enough to knock you down. A flotation type fishing vest covers both safety and fishing needs.
We called these Elephant Ears, for size and shape.
Stream side flora includes alder, wild azaleas, wild lilacs, tiger lilies, and innumerable other flowering plants (some I couldn’t find in botany references) grasses, ponderosa pines, white fir, cedars and a variety of other species like the ones shown to the right. The broad leafs of these we used to line our creels and help keep our catches fresh. At one time I had a photo of a Ghost Orchid from a damp shady spot 10 feet away from the river. It was lost in a hard drive crash.
Long tailed may fly nymphs were caught by turning over rocks and grabbing them before they scurried around the side to hide or drop off into the water. Stick and pebble encased caddis larva could be spotted and plucked from the tops and sides of rocks or boulders in deeper pools and faster eddies. The centipede like helgramite, was by far the most favored trout food. Found in slower water with more of a muddy bottom, it’s hellish appearance was deserved and one can deliver a painful bite to the uninitiated.
On one trip, we had caught several of the meanies and upon returning to camp, they were still living so I placed them aside in a cup. My wife made coffee, and asked what I did with the bugs? “Bugs what bugs?” I waffled. “What did you do with them”, she demanded? She had filled our coffee cups never thinking that I had left tomorrow’s bait in them. Turns out they were parboiled in the bottom of my coffee cup with the Kahlua and cream, earning me the admiration of her nephews and me the name of Uncle Helgramike. It was really difficult to remain in my denial. If you really want to shudder at the thought, check this out for a big yuck factor: images.search.yahoo.com/...
Western Tanager, West Branch of the Feather River. Easier to look at than those previous images.
In our many trips to the river, from when I lived in Placerville, though the time we lived in Magalia, the river became my favorite stream. It had beautiful terrain, wonderfully clean water, fantastic trees, and a variety of wild life. In addition to the Tanagers, we could see or hear, hawks, jays, wood peckers and the tiny little chickadee types. We did come very close to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, when the West Nile Virus clobbered the bird population along the river in 2007; few were heard and fewer seen. On different occasions we have found water snakes, a gopher snake and once a rattlesnake. We had a chance encounter with an otter that was closely watching our fishing techniques. A star mole swam across the river and my wife’s boot as she tried to figure what the heck was leaving a wake over the pool. One morning I had the pleasure of pointing out a swimming and then wading mink.
Water Ouzel (dipper), WBFR
I had hoped the river would remain a self sustaining fishery. That may not end up being the case. Sierra Pacific has closed access to much of the roads on the lands they own and have locked the gates. This includes access to islands of Forest Service lands owned by you and I. Retson Crossing, and Kimshew Falls have been cut off to public access. This in spite of the facts that the bridge at Kimshew and road were built with WPA funds during the Great Depression. SP alleges it was abandoned and claims they own it now, the county and state seem as if they could care less.
During the drought years, PG&E diverted much of the river to feed their small power plant at De Sabla. The water stolen from the river dried up the stream below the dam, killing aquatic insect life and fish for hundreds of feet downstream. Now Pacific Gas and Electric are trying to sell their powerhouse and rights without concern for restoring the water to where it belongs. Once used to turn the small generator, it is drained into a different watershed, Butte Creek. Friends of Butte Creek want the status to remain the same to save another nice stream at the expense of the original source.
Inskip Area, WBFR
The greatest danger to this, and other rivers, isn’t too many people trying to use it. The danger is from too few people knowing enough to care about this wonder in their back yard. It sits just an hour up Skyway from Chico and all of the students attending college there. Whiskey Flat can be driven (carefully) with a 2 wheel drive vehicle. The Inskip access is best done with either AWD or 4x4. This is one case where more people knowing about it and how access is being denied, could help save it. There is little danger of loving this stream to death.
The most likely demise will be the practice of clear cutting the canyon sides above the river. Current practice and evidence suggests both encroachment too close to the river bank, and logging on terrain that may be too steep and by law prohibited. When clear cuts remove shading from the river course, the water temperatures can quickly go above those that either brown or rainbow trout can long tolerate. Warmer waters also reduce the availability of the free oxygen that trout, other fish and aquatic insects can breathe. To add further insult to injury, the steeper and now barren slopes allow for a detrimental increase in silting during heavy winter storms and snow melt. Water borne silt in a trout stream, smothers insect larva and nymphs, incubating eggs and fry, clogs the gills fingerlings and adult fish and degrades the water for terrestrial fauna as well.
Trout filled stretch and pool on West Branch of the Feather River
What I fear most is that this little known river will be further damaged under our current regime. With the attacks on the EPA, USFS, and desire to transfer public land to private hands, a multi pronged attack on this river and other streams like it could well be in the cards. I wouldn’t put it past the current owners, PG&E, and the administration to determine this could help alleviate the pressure downstream on Lake Oroville. The trees have largely been “harvested” with the remaining timber stands a near mono-culture, the river is being diverted, there is no human population living within the canyons, so some functionary might think it a good place to build another water storage and hydroelectric dam. That such a plan would destroy a wild and self sustaining fishery would be a crime. Let’s fix the problems we already have, allow access to the people it rightfully belongs to and enjoy this gift that mother nature has placed in our backyard.
