Bacher: New steelhead run record set on the Mokelumne River

CLEMENTS − A new record for the number of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River has been set this year. A total of 1,749 steelhead, including 968 adults and 781 fish under 18 inches, have come back to the system this season.

The previous record for total steelhead was in 2018 when the hatchery reported 530 adults and 638 juveniles, a total of 1168 fish. However, there was another year when the total number of adults was over 700 fish.

The majority of steelhead are in the 18 to 24 inch range, with a few larger fish mixed in, reported William Smith, manager of the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery. One of the steelhead returning this year weighed 13-1/2 pounds, but it was apparently from Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River.

Smith said the hatchery ladder will remain up until the end of February, however, staff took down the weir when EBMUD increased releases below Camanche Dam from 330 cfs to 800 cfs to provide flood storage in Camanche Reservoir.

Meanwhile, the hatchery has released its first batch of steelhead yearlings weighing 4 to the pound, about 6 to 8 inches each. A total of 210,000 yearling steelhead are being released into the system this year, according to Smith. The hatchery has taken close to 770,000 steelhead eggs this season.

Smith attributes the record steelhead run to the big water years in 2023 and 2024 to date, along with the CDFW and EBMUD’s analysis of genetic studies and release strategies to improve the fish population.

The record steelhead run follows a record salmon run. A total of 28,614 fall-run Chinook salmon returned to the Mokelumne River in 2023 — 5,700 of those fish were grilse (two-year-olds) and the rest were adults, said EBMUD Manager of Fisheries and Wildlife Michelle Workman.

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The Mokelumne has been providing anglers with some solid steelhead fishing lately. Samuel Boyd Yoro of Watsonville and his nephew Bodhi had a great trip steelhead fishing on the Mokelumne below Camanche Dam on Feb. 9.

“Bodhi caught his very first chrome-bright steelhead,” said Yoro. “His Mokelumne River hatchery fish fought a solid bout, jumping and flipping out, but obviously not able to spit the hook out of its mouth.

“I am so proud of my nephew, Bodhi. He has become such a good fisherman at such a young age. He casts straight. He is very patient in waiting for the fish to bite his bait and he doesn't wake up late.”

No Delta smelt found in CDFW survey: For the sixth year in a row, no Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023.

Once the most abundant species in the entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the point that it has become virtually extinct in the wild. The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta ecosystem.

When no Delta Smelt are found in six years of a survey that has been conducted since 1967, the estuary is in a serious ecological crisis.

The Delta smelt is listed as “endangered” under both the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act.

“No Delta Smelt were collected at any stations from September through December,” reported Taylor Rohlin, Environmental Scientist for the CDFW Bay Delta Region, in a memo published on Jan. 25. “The 2023 September-December index (0) is tied with 2018-2022 as the lowest index in FMWT history.”

She said the absence of Delta Smelt caught in the FMWT is “consistent among other surveys in the estuary.”

For example, the Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) survey of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) caught only five Delta Smelt among 10 sampling weeks (between 9/4 and 11/10) comprised of 1,360 tows (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2023).

Since 2022, the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP), a consortium of nine member agencies, including three State departments and six Federal agencies, has experimentally reintroduced thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt from the UC Davis captive breeding facility in Byron back into the estuary.

“The Delta Smelt Experimental Release Study involves releasing 90,000 laboratory-raised fish into the Delta this season to determine which methods prove the most effective at production, tagging, transport and release of the fish into the wild,” according to a statement from the CDFW. “Learning which plan works best could someday help to supplement the population with a goal of aiding in the recovery of the species. “

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Recently, 32 metal 20-gallon containers were filled with 200 Delta smelt and emptied directly into the Sacramento River into a specially designed submerged cage, the agency stated. The cage provided a safe environment while the fish adjusted to the river temperature and their new surroundings before they were fully released a few hours later into the river.

Through Delta smelt monitoring surveys that are conducted routinely each year, CDFW said it can learn about their health and survivability.

“Last year was the first time we were able to uniquely mark fish from different experimental release events and get decent numbers of adult fish recaptured in our monitoring surveys,” said CDFW Environmental Program Manager Dr. James Hobbs. “We’re releasing adult fish just before the spawning season, and we’re hoping these fish will meet up and produce the next generations.”

“Unfortunately, the same factors responsible for the near disappearance of the fish are still present including a less than reliable flow of freshwater, low food productivity, loss of wetland habitats, predation by non-native species and other reasons. But scientists say the experiment is showing some positive results with survival and recovery of released adults,” CDFW concluded.

The near-extinction of Delta Smelt in the wild and the collapse of striped bass, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad populations documented in the fall survey is part of the larger Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) caused by massive water diversions from the Delta by the state and federal water projects, along with toxics, water pollution, invasive species and other factors.

Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

CDFW Annual Salmon Meeting Set: The annual salmon information meeting, set for 10 a.m. on March 1, covers 2023 spawner abundances returning to the Central Valley and Klamath Basins, 2024 abundance forecasts, and management context guiding the development and implementation of 2024 ocean salmon fisheries. The public is invited to learn about pertinent data and management context shaping the upcoming ocean salmon season.

This meeting will be hosted as a webinar only. The meeting link, agenda and other materials will be posted here as they become available.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: New steelhead run record set on the Mokelumne River