The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Yes, sorry for the long winded post, but all the hinting at issues needed to be laid out and put on the table in the light. The issues are many so the post needed to be long.

I, myself, am not a boater... but I know many boaters who fish and some anglers that boat, so it doesn't take a conspiracy to get boaters posting about boating issues.

I'm going on vacation startig tomorrow... so, Aloha and I hope you all put a check in the mail to CT (heck, to FOR too!). If you like rivers, if you like fish it is just the right thing to do. Even the Germans and French called a truce and started to work together.

B-

Thanks for the posts Bjorn. As in all situations, the complexities often result in no-one being fully happy with anything. But CT's efforts probably resulted in a better answer than if they had not participated.

As with everything else in life where politics are concerned, nothing is black and white and few are 100% satisfied with an individual or with an outcome.

When I vote for a politician or support a cause, I try to see the big picture, because I don't always agree with all the parts of the whole.

How often have I voted for the lesser of two evils!

Phil wrote:
But CT's efforts probably resulted in a better answer than if they had not participated.

Phil, do you honestly think that so?

Sure, there could have been even more instances of out-of-season pulse flows; yet, the damage to the aquatic insect population from the ramped-up flows that did go forward are still with us today.

Until I receive an apology or an explaination as to why CalTrout signed that blasted "aquatic invertabrae genocide pact," the money I would have given to CalTrout goes to organizations that haven't so egregiously dissapointed.

I was going to say the same thing... then again I was going to get out of this conversation about a lost cause.

But to put it bluntly Phil: No. It would have been a MUCH BETTER answer if they abandoned the table and/or didn't show up at all. I would have taken that as a gesture of refusal of such a disgusting pact (???).

x Bjorn: no personal beef with you here. I hope you'll have a blast in Hawaii, I mean it! Regarding the pulse flows or better, the process to get at it AND the pulse flow: I know that if they had done what they did to the Upper Sac, you would be singing a completely different song. I don't mean that you care for a stream more than another, but I'll take it you know the Upper Sac pretty well. What would you say if now, out of the blue, somebody (CT, TU, FOR, AWA, whatever...) came and said: It's a dead fishery, now we'll fix it... ?

Bruce,

CalTrout has done some excellent work on our behalf.

I am not very good at compromise. In fact, I can state catagorical that I sorely lack that skill. Just because I took CT's action very personally is no reason why you should not support them. Once again, they have fought for us.

I imagine that eventually I'll be able to let go of my personal bitterness toward CT. But after thirty years of donating my hard-earned money -- I'm just an honest wage earner of modest great means -- it's going to take me quite awhile to get passed this. That, I know, is my problem.

In retrospect, I should have kept this to myself. But know this, in my entire life I've rarely felt so betrayed. I must have held CT on a pedestal.

Foolish me.

Oops, that is of modest means.. there's really nothing "great" about my means.

I definitely defer to others on the Board related to this issue. I am not at all aware of most of the specifics of this situation. I have been involved in other CT projects and have been impressed with some of the work I've seen. I have been a contributor over time.

Dries,
Thanks. This time tomorrow I'll be maybe feeling a little more human after flying to HI with a 15 month old... good grief... not looking forward to that flight, just the being there. I may also be wading out on Anini Beach looking for something with fins. We'll see.

I know that if flows got put in that jacked up the McCloud or Upper Sac I'd be pretty mad... I can't argue with that. When the Upper Sac got killed off back in 1991 I wasn't a fly fisher yet, but I did live in Dunsmuir (having grown up there) and I felt the profound sadness that came with losing something that I loved. All I can say is that the fight over this is probably harming our interests other places. It weakens our (anglers) combined weight. If every angler actually supported CT they might have enough money to hire more staff and take on even more... or they could buy the part of the McCloud that's for sale for the low, low bargain price of only $14,750,000. I work in a very similar organization to CT and I know how skinny budgets are, how tight the bank accounts get and how much more there is to be doing out there.

And on that note... good night.

B-

"Soap-dodger," Cool term!

I have no indication of you being a "spoiled snob," a spoiled brat maybe, but not a snob.

For the record, I have never been a "boater," I don’t even own a float tube. I may buy a canoe so my wife and I can fish lakes together. I have fly fished for 30 plus years; have not used an indicator/bobber since I was a kid; and can count the number of times I have fished a nymph on one hand. I occasionally fish streamers but it is almost always a dry fly on the end of the tippet for me. Now that is a snob.

I am not from, nor have I ever lived in, the bay area. I grew up in rural central California and now live in the San Joaquin Valley. The Sac and the Trinity are not my home waters. As for dams that hinder migration or spawning, the McCloud or otherwise, I would like to see them removed. However, that is not practical (yet). Natural flows are the best but that is just the opinion of an unwashed unaffiliated Republican engineer.

Also, I have no indication that you’re a “brat” either. Peace Bro

Thanks for your honest assessment of CT...and yourself. I can certainly understand your feelings.

Compromise is my middle name, so I can understand that necessary evil.

I have decided that having an organization like CalTrout, even if flawed, is better than no CalTrout at all.

Nothing to avert...I don't support the organization under discussion because of 2 reasons,

Both are personal...

One, they had a drunk jerk running around at the Fall River Access, creating a safety hazard and threatening members (READ: CONTRIBUTORS) who were following the Access/Tresspass Guidelines with arrest and the then Executive Director (when he wasn't taking extended fishing vacations provided by who-knows-who) indicated that the drunk was acting in good faith...both of them can go replicate genes with themselves...
and the other reason is that they spend money fund raising by sending solicitations to folks who don't want to receive the solicitations and ignore those persons requests to stop wasting contributors money and not to send them anymore...

there are better places for me to spend my hard earned discretionary income that is earmarked for charity than sending it that organization...

Paul