Overview

As of January 1, 2010, the Bay Delta Stamp is no longer required for anglers in the Delta. Money collected in past years will still be used to fund projects benefitting sport fishing within the Delta boundaries.

The Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp (BDSFES) Program was established in 2004 to benefit Bay-Delta sport fisheries. Exhisting law requires a person to first obtain a BDSFES before sport fishing in the tidal waters of the San Francisco Bay Delta and the mainstem of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, including major tributaries, below the most downstream dam.

The BDSFES Program has authority to spend approximately $1 million a year on projects that benefit sport fish populations, sport fishing opportunities, and anglers within the stamp's geographic range. The Department of Fish and Game solicits proejcts for funding annually through the Proposal Solicitation Notice process. The BDSFES Program has funded a wide range of projects including warden overtime for sturgeon poaching, salmon acclimation, sturgeon forensics, fishing access facility improvements, salmon spawning habitat restoration, salmon escapement monitoring, angler surveys, fish tagging programs, and more. For a complete list of stamp-funded projects click on the Funded Projects link at the top of the page. For more information on the BDSFES Program and funding opportunities, please contact Karen Mitchell by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or at (916)445-0826.

FUNDING

The stamp costs $6.30 annually. Fees received by the Department are deposited into a separate account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund.

PURPOSE

The Department will spend the funds to benefit sport fish populations, sport fishing opportunities, and anglers within the stamp's geographic range. In addition, funds will be used for the long-term, sustainable benefit of the primary Bay-Delta sport fisheries including, but not limited to, striped bass, sturgeon, black bass, halibut, salmon, surf perch, steelhead trout, and American shad.

Expenditures will be consistent with state and federal Endangered Species Act requirements and applicable commission policies.

THE COMMITTEE

The Director will appoint a nine-member advisory committee and they will serve at the Director's discretion for terms not more than four years. The Director will appoint people who will be able to balance the perspectives of different anglers.

The advisory committee will recommend projects and budgets for the expenditure of BDSFES revenue. The Department will give full consideration to the committee's recommendations.

TERM

This stamp remains in effect until January 1, 2010.

FUNDED PROJECTS

Project descriptions, funding, and status (.pdf)

Spurred on by recent rains, endangered coho salmon are returning to the Russian River to spawn, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) reports. In an effort to protect and ensure the safety of the returning coho, conservation groups and fishery managers are conducting an educational campaign to ensure that steelhead anglers can differentiate between a coho and a steelhead trout.

“Because coho salmon can be easily mistaken for steelhead by a novice or uninformed angler, it's imperative that we make every effort to educate anglers about the differences,” said Brett Wilson, Senior Hatchery Supervisor for DFG's Bay Delta Region “Angler cooperation is vital to our efforts to replenish this diminishing species, which was once commonly found in these waters.”

Hatchery-reared steelhead trout and coho salmon are easily mistaken for each other because they are similar in size and both have a clipped adipose fin. Last year an endangered coho salmon was entered in a local fishing contest by an angler who mistakenly thought it was a large steelhead.

Kent MacIntosh, Northern California President of Trout Unlimited, said that his organization will be placing identification signs showing the differences between coho and steelhead at popular fishing areas along the Russian River. On weekends, Trout Unlimited personnel, DFG game wardens and Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) biologists will make personal contact with anglers fishing in the river, showing them pictures and ensuring that they can accurately identify each species.

The Russian River coho salmon population faced near-extinction in 2000. In an effort to re-establish the listed coho species to the Russian River Watershed, the Russian River Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program was launched in 2001. The program, which oversees the spawning of captive-reared wild coho broodstock, produced 92,000 fingerling coho salmon that were returned to tributaries of the Russian River last year.

Most of the coho salmon returning to spawn this winter were hand-raised in the Broodstock Program. They were released in small tributaries of the Russian River in 2007 and spent two years in the ocean before returning as adults to spawn.

SCWA has a video counting station at Mirabel Dam that provides an account of most fish returning to the upper reaches of the Russian River. Most of the coho reared at Warm Springs Hatchery return to spawn in tributaries located below the video station and thus are not counted by the video station. However, four coho salmon have been recorded passing over the dam and a fifth coho was recently found dead on the river bank.

In addition to the five coho, 1,770 Chinook salmon and 30 steelhead have been recorded by the video station since October. Weekly counts and video of salmon and steelhead are provided online at www.scwa.ca.gov/chinook.

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) commends Shasta River irrigators for their recent timely action to protect Chinook salmon. Their voluntary decision to reduce or cease legal water diversions during the irrigation season allowed more than 1,000 Chinook salmon congregated in the lower portion of the Shasta River to successfully continue their spawning run.

DFG has been monitoring the return of Chinook salmon to the Shasta River since 1930. This year's fish count began on September 4; when DFG scientists reviewed the data, it became clear that low flows and warm weather, along with disease and unusually high predation rates, were threatening the spawning run.

“Once irrigators were notified of the situation, many responded without hesitation,” said DFG Senior Fishery Biologist Mark Pisano. “Although they could have continued their legal water diversions upstream, some chose to release more water to aid the fish holding in the canyon. DFG believes this action helped minimize the potential for a major fish die-off.”

Adjudicated water diversions in the Shasta River are governed by a complex set of rules identified in the Shasta River Decree (#7035). Irrigation is allowed from April 1 through October 1 each year and water rights holders are not legally required to alter their operations to assist the fish runs. The voluntary decisions made by these water rights holders - such as Shasta Big Springs Ranch, which shut off ranch irrigation entirely - contributed an estimated 13 cubic feet per second to the river flow.

A limited recreational fishery season for Central Valley Chinook salmon will open on Nov. 16, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) announced today.

From Nov. 16 through Dec. 31, 2009, the fishery will be open on the Sacramento River from 150 feet below the Lower Red Bluff (Sycamore) Boat Ramp to the Highway 113 bridge at Knights Landing. The daily bag and possession limit is one salmon. In April, the Fish and Game Commission approved this very limited fishing opportunity due to the present stable status of the late-fall run.

This fishery provides very limited access to late-fall run Chinook, which are presently not listed as threatened or endangered at either the federal or state level. The season will open after the fall run has migrated upstream past this section of river, and before the winter run arrives. The rest of the Central Valley basin, including the Sacramento, Feather, American and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries, will remain closed to salmon fishing.

DFG biologists conducting the Central Valley Angler Survey will closely monitor angler effort and harvest during this fishery. Anglers are required by law to participate in the survey (FGC Section 8226) and must not fillet their catch before bringing it to shore so that biologists have the opportunity to collect data on the catch and determine the presence or absence of coded wire tags on the fish. Biologists will collect all heads from salmon missing an adipose fin in order to recover the tags, which provide information on the race and origin of the fish and the contribution of hatchery production to the fishery.

The 2009 status of Sacramento River fall Chinook will be determined by DFG and other biologists as the year progresses. Surveys conducted this fall will be used in early 2010 to formulate regulations for the 2010 salmon fishing season. The final results will not be known until all data are collected, assembled and analyzed for review in regulatory processes by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission.

DFG advises all anglers to be aware of the fishery restrictions before taking to the river. Snagging (impaling or attempting to impale a fish in any part of its body other than the mouth by use of a hook, gaff, bow and arrow, or spear) is strictly prohibited. It is also unlawful to kill or retain in possession any fish that has not voluntarily taken the bait or lure in its mouth.

Game wardens will be strictly enforcing these regulations, along with the one salmon daily bag and possession limit.

All regulations regarding general fishing methods and gear restrictions that apply to Central Valley salmon can be reviewed on the DFG Web site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/regulations. More information about the 2009 California salmon fishery can be found at: www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/salmon.

daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2009/10/13/chinook-salmon-update

indiancountrynews.net/index.php

www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2212535.html

http://www.prweb.com/releases/SalmonTroutSteelhead/FlyFishingDVD/prweb2929174.htm