Circus left town- with a major mess

Well folks, party’s over...season ended last Wednesday on my local river down here in Santa Cruz. If you read any of the local reports down here you’ll hear about a bullshit season or "This year was a bust"...well, if you’ve got any brains at all you’ll get out there and see for yourself...This season in my opinion was good, fish were caught...big fish at that...and many days were spent on the water trying to figure out what the hell was going on, what fly…color..water is too low…river is blown...fish are up-stream..downstream…who gives a shit. I was fishing, swinging flies and having a blast, not to mention I learned more this year about steelhead than any other year of my life…sure I got up north and got out to the coast (even though my local river is about a 30 minute drive from the ocean at its head waters)...and when I look back and re-cap the season I find that my favorite days were the ones spent on the little river behind my house…some of those days I spent looking for fish…not to cast to...but just to watch. I had a blast and I have to say I am a little sad I won’t be around next season to expand on my knowledge down here...I will be up on a river somewhere in northern CA or southern OR. The season here was fun but its short and crowded, I don’t think I will ever experience the challenge and frustration that I did down in Santa Cruz, as a fly fisherman you are outnumbered 10-1…not with lure guys but with bait guys, bouncing roe…these guys seem to have so little respect for the animal they are hunting…I have now counted 10 fish that I have found dead due to poor handling (witnessed 5 of those), on a river that gets a run of no more than 300 adult fish you’d think the government would intervene and make it a fly only or at least Single barbless Artificial lures only…sure its barbless hooks but I only saw DFG on the last day of the season (way to do your job douchebags)...I called cal-tip to inform them that fish were being killed and laws were being broken but it seems as if steelhead have few friends down here...and its the Anglers who have the choice to make a difference...sure fly fishing is expensive but where is the fun and challenge in suspending scented bait under a bobber, maybe I am an arrogant fly fisherman but shit...Id rather drink a few beers and watch the fish than have one swallow my hook and die...enough of my "Hating", all I ask is if you are going to fish for endangered fish…educate yourself and bring a net or handle them properly, every fish counts. So the last day ended with a skunk, and a zoo of bait guys. My girlfriend and I went down to the river yesterday with some garbage bags to clean up after the pigs and maybe get a chance to see some spawning fish (that were not getting slammed with bait)...we did clean up alot of hooks, mono, roe sacks, Styrofoam eggs and general litter...fresh litter…fisherman kind of litter...Not only did we go and fill our bags, pockets and backpacks with garbage but we also found some dead fish. I wish I had my camera because one of those fish had a treble hook stuck in its gills...and this was a trophy hen, a fish that could have reared many more...the line was not broken but cut cleanly with about 8 feet of line left hanging off the hook...A sad sight…and a very big message, one that I don’t feel personally comfortable talking about in my blog…Ive got enough opinions. We went out and cleaned up, I wish that I could do more to help the fish...and to a point even my barbless small gape hooked flies are definitely not HELPING the fish. These fish need friends and I’ll be down on the river for the next couple weeks just cleaning up after the circus...too bad I wont be around next year because this river has taught me more than any other, the fish need more friends...something needs to happen, I am not sure what the "Santa Cruz Fly Fisherman Club" does but they sure as shit don't take care of their watersheds.....




Im sorry for the rant...I had to get it out. Not all gear guys are bad, we are all in this together and it sucks when you feel like there is no we down here...just a bunch of lazy workers killing wild fish. Ive seen it first hand, and ive done shit about it. All I ask is if any of you out there fish the San Lorenzo...please, take care of her...if you do that, she will pay you back with more than you could ever ask for.