{"id":503,"date":"2015-06-24T20:34:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T20:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendarees.com\/?p=503"},"modified":"2015-11-04T20:26:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:26:05","slug":"fishing-the-l-a-river-no-joke-socalwild-september-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/?p=503","title":{"rendered":"Fishing the L.A. River – No Joke, SoCalWild, September 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rosi Dagit was pleased. The environmental scientist was at the banks of the Los Angeles River near North Atwater Park in Atwater Village waiting for anglers to bring over their catches in large orange buckets. \u201cThis is the best citizen scientist program,\u201d she said adding that often she\u2019s the one wading in rivers and streams catching critters for surveys and research. \u201cI have it easy today!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Dagit and her cadre were tasked with weighing, measuring and cataloging the fish that were caught as part of the first ever Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) \u201cOff tha\u2019 Hook\u201d fishing derby.<\/p>\n

The catch and release event took place on September 6 which was designated as one of the \u201cfree\u201d fishing days (aka no license needed and therefore open to all) from California Fish and Wildlife the entity that governs fishing on the river.<\/p>\n

FoLAR organizers say that the derby strengthens the vision that the river is a living, breathing entity worthy of recreation, wildlife viewing and, yes, fishing. Members of the Los Angeles Rod and Reed Club<\/a> were on hand to show off their fly casting prowess\u2013 some actually hiked up the waders and make it an immersive experience.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/a>
THE WATER\u2019S FINE \u2014 Who needs hip waders?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was an official contest (most fish caught, biggest catch) but that was just an excuse for fishing folk to be out in the picture perfect postcard early morning. Anglers casted off amidst the lush river surroundings with horseback riders on the Griffith Park hills in the background. Birds swooped over the water \u2013 Canada geese, mallards, black-necked stilts along with assorted shorebirds and immature egrets.<\/p>\n

Deep in the river bank, you could hardly tell you were in one of the world\u2019s largest cities.<\/p>\n

\"WHERE<\/a>
WHERE ARE WE? \u2014 Oh yeah, right next to the 5 Freeway\u2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Helping Dagit compiling the data was Sabrina Drill, Natural Resources Advisor for UC Cooperative Extensive who worked on the FoLAR 2008 fish study in the L.A. River.<\/a> That study was eight days long and involved four locations. The fish most seen from that study? Mosquitofish, tilapia and green sunfish.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course our methods for catching fish were different today,\u201d she says describing how using a drag net yields different fish than using a rod and reel. Its bottom feeders vs fly catchers.<\/p>\n

That was evident by the fish caught at this derby \u2013 one large carp and the rest were large-mouth bass, albeit on the small size.<\/p>\n

\"CARPING<\/a>
CARPING AROUND \u2014 The first official fish of the contest was a big ol\u2019 carp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"OPEN<\/a>
OPEN WIDE \u2013 Large mouth bass were the fish most caught at FoLAR\u2019s Fish Derby.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat was the first data that we have on the fish life in the Los Angeles River,\u201d chimed in Dagit about the 2008 study. \u201cHow lame is that? The river is right here. We have to pay attention to what we have in our own backyards.\u201d \u00a0(Note: another fishing derby is planned for Oct. 4 in the LA River near Long Beach.)<\/p>\n

Dagit spends a lot of energy patrolling the coastal streams for the steelhead trout; that fish used to be found in the Los Angeles River along with arroyo chub, stickleback and maybe even speckled dace.<\/p>\n

\"BACK<\/a>
BACK YOU GO \u2014 All fish caught at the derby were released back into the L.A. River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Dagit and Drill are enthusiastic but realistic about seeing a bounty of fish return to the L.A. River. Right now, there are too many physical barriers (not to mention dam gates) that would prevent the ocean\u2013swimming trout to make its way up freshwater streams for spawning. Still, that didn\u2019t stop folks from sporting t-shirts that declared, \u201cFishing for carp, waiting for steelhead\u201d in anticipation of the return of that historic trout.<\/p>\n

On that day, one could imagine heading down to a river that could be alive with flapping fins and rainbow scales. Stay tuned. Stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n

\"NOT<\/a>
NOT EASY LIFE \u2014 Fish in the L.A. River can survive\u2026but more work needs to be done to make it a better environment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u2014 By Brenda Rees, photos by Martha Benedict<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was younger, I loved fishing back in Minnesota with my grandfather and cousins. The L.A. River has the potential to be a vibrant waterway, according to many enthusiasts, scientists and more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socal-wild","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-large"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}