By Ray Schelble
Dam Repairs to Drain Yuba
(May, 2003) RMAs have known for some time that Yuba was being drained this year for dam repairs, but how long and how much it would impact the reservoir wasn’t known. How the project would proceed, the impacts on the reservoir and what could be done to speed Yuba’s recovery were discussed at two meetings of the Yuba Habitat Committee on April 17 and May 8, 2003.
The April 17 Meeting
The details were firmed up just before the April 17 meeting and presented at the meeting. As the plan stands now, Yuba will be gradually drained through the summer. According to the water users, Yuba should be empty by August 15 and begin refilling about October 1.
The dam repairs, which have been mandated by the state, include a new outlet structure with guard gate, a seismic stabilization berm and riprap on the upstream face. It was originally hoped that a smaller, secondary dam would be built uplake from the dam to retain some water and some fish. However, Clyde Bunker and Dean Anderson of the water users informed the committee that funding was not available. They did, however, say they would be in favor of a secondary dam if the DWR could find the money to build one. After much discussion, it was decided that the expense and time required to build a secondary dam would most likely be prohibitive, not to mention dealing with the muck at the bottom of the reservoir to anchor it. Don Wiley of the DWR Central Region was going to explore using DWR construction crews and report on it at the May 8 meeting.
What this means is that what is left of the Yuba fishery will be lost and will have to be started from scratch after the lake starts filling again. Plans are to replant the reservoir with perch as soon as possible after the work is completed and then with walleye at a later date.
The May 8 Meeting
At the May 8 meeting, Wiley reported that a secondary dam could be built by DWR construction crews in about a week near the island in the narrows. After considering the costs and the benefits that would be realized, the committee decided that it was better to spend the money and effort on replanting perch after October 1 when the reservoir started refilling. Bunker reported that the water levels are dropping already and are about a week ahead of what they anticipated this year. He also said they anticipated little to no runoff this spring.
After some research, Wiley found a source in Arkansas that could provide 100,000 yellow perch that could be delivered to the reservoir in mid October for $40,000. This would provide a good start on bringing the fishery back. Committee members and others will be researching funding sources and working through DWR channels. It is likely that perch would be planted for two to three years before attempting to plant walleyes, but there is a possibility that enough walleyes will make it through to repopulate the reservoir by then without outside help. There was discussion on trying to get some rainbow trout to plant to provide a fishery in the meantime.
Impacts of Draining the Reservoir
Because of the impacts to the fishery, an emergency order has been signed by DWR Chief Kevin Conway increasing bag limits. Effective May 19, daily limits on Yuba will be increased to 12 walleye, 12 northern pike, 16 channel catfish, 8 trout and 20 yellow perch. Then, from August 15 through December 31, 2003, the reservoir and river within the high water line of the reservoir will be closed to all fishing. It is likely that the closure will extend past December 31.
In spite of the obvious negative effects to the fishery, the state park and the local businesses who profit economically from Yuba’s anglers, there are a few good points. First, the fishery is near the bottom of a down cycle and the loss of fish and fishing will be as minimal as it can get. Wiley pointed out that the adult walleye population decreased from 21,000 adult fish in 2001 to about 5,000 in 2002. If the reservoir had been drained five years ago when the fishery was hitting its peak, it would have been a disaster to anglers.
Second, the drained lake will add another season of growth for brush growing along the shoreline and below the water line, which will provide a great benefit to the perch as the reservoir refills. Yuba State Park Ranger Chris Evans said at the April 17 meeting that state parks would prohibit ATVs below the high water line and enforce the ban to protect this brush. Anything that helps the perch also benefits the lake’s walleyes that use the perch as forage.
Third, draining the reservoir will knock back the numbers of carp, although this will likely be temporary.
Bunker and Anderson made it clear to the committee that the water users share the opinion of the anglers when it comes to draining the reservoir. Unfortunately, the state leaves no choice but to make these safety-related improvements to the dam. The information they provided the committee has been invaluable.
The water users also expressed their support and interest in the ongoing efforts to create yellow perch habitat in the reservoir. In recent years, RMA and B.A.S.S. have joined forces with the DWR Central Region and other parties to enhance habitat. The biggest concern, they said, was that habitat structures would break loose and interfere with the reservoir’s outlet structure, which has not happened. The DWR Central Region monitors all habitat structures in Yuba on a regular basis.
President Wes Schneider, Will Jefferies, Terry Opheikens and Ray Schelble have represented RMA on the committee. Anyone with any questions or concerns is encouraged to contact these committee participants. Representatives from B.A.S.S., the DWR Central Region and Salt Lake office, Utah State Parks, Yuba water users and the consulting firm of Bowen, Collins and Associates also participated.
In another activity related to the Yuba Habitat Project, six artificial Christmas trees were planted in Deer Creek’s Rainbow Bay on April 29. The trees were from two trailer loads purchased on closeout from K-Mart with funds provided by RMA and the Habitat Council. Because Deer Creek offers better water clarity than Yuba, the trees can be better observed to get some documentation of how well they work and how well they hold up. Mike Slater and Richard Hepworth from the DWR Central Region assembled the trees and came up on a windy day to install them. RMAs Will Jefferies and Ray Schelble met them at the reservoir and got in a little fishing, too. (Not much catching, though.)
Another Yuba Habitat Committee meeting will be held on June 9 to discuss further details, what can be done to best take advantage of the empty reservoir and how to proceed to re-establish the fishery.
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Blue Ribbon Fisheries Council Approves Funds for Yuba Perch
(June, 2003) The draining of Yuba Lake this summer has changed a few plans and created uncertainty about the reservoir’s future. The reservoir will be drained by August 15 to upgrade the dam and will remain empty until October 1.
In an important action at their May 22, 2003, meeting, the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Advisory Council (BRFAC) approved $40,000 for the purchase of 100,000 perch to be delivered to the reservoir after it begins filling this fall. The perch will be three to five inches long and should give the reservoir a jump start on a comeback. Don Wiley and Richard Hepworth from the DWR Central Region presented Yuba’s situation to the council members with video tape and a Powerpoint presentation showing the cooperative effort made by the DWR, RMA and B.A.S.S., businesses, governments and others to improve habitat on the water. After the presentation and a discussion, the BRFAC voted unanimously to fund the perch. Will Jefferies and Ray Schelble from RMA attended the meeting to support the proposal.
In addition to the trees, it is likely that the DWR will ask for volunteers to catch perch by hook and line to put in the reservoir this fall, probably from Jordanelle Reservoir. Information will be passed on to RMAs as it becomes available.
The Yuba Habitat Committee will meet again on June 17 to discuss what can be done while the reservoir is drained to improve habitat.
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Latest from the Yuba Habitat Committee
(July, 2003) The Yuba Habitat Committee met again on June 17, 2003. The reservoir is steadily going down to meet the August 15 date to start work on the dam. On July 2 it was 20 percent full according the Sevier River Water Users web site at omni.sevierriver.org.
The group decided that, with the reservoir being drained, we should wait until the water comes up before installing any more habitat. The plan is to put in the artificial Christmas trees (which have been doing very well up at Deer Creek) in about next March or early April, just before the perch spawn. Plans are proceeding to plant 100,000 perch this fall.
In looking at the opportunities presented by the low water, the DWR Central Region’s Don Wiley had an idea to construct some bottom structure while the water level is low. Certain humps and bottom structure in the lake draw fish and often it doesn’t take much difference in the bottom to have fish hold on it. Don suggested building some small humps or ridges, maybe as small as 2 to 4 feet high, in areas of the reservoir that would be accessible to anglers at low water. These would be too deep to help spawning perch in the springtime but could add bottom structure that would improve the opportunity to catch fish. They would be small enough to not present a boating hazard and could help improve the walleye harvest levels to better manage the fishery. Bring your ideas on this to the July meeting and we’ll talk about it.
The next Yuba Habitat Committee meeting was originally scheduled for July 29 but has been changed to July 30 at Yuba Lake State Park.
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Clubs Help DWR Bring Yuba Back
(December, 2003) When Yuba Reservoir was drained for dam repairs this summer it seemed like an exclamation point at the end of an era. The reservoir’s plump, aggressive walleyes and perch had been thinning out in every sense for the past few years. To many, completely draining the reservoir seemed to underscore the demise of the fishery.
But that is not by any means the case. In the past several weeks, the DWR, at times with help from Rocky Mountain Anglers, B.A.S.S. and others, has been busily at work providing for the water’s future. Credit for keeping things moving along and coordinating the work goes to Central Region Aquatics Manager Don Wiley and his staff, who have done an outstanding job.
More Habitat Work
One of the first orders of business was to begin habitat work on the shoreline. By working with contractors the DWR was able to add a couple of shelf structures along the shore. One, an access road for the contractors from the dam along the south shore, was simply left as it was. The contractor also cut another shelf into the shoreline from the dam toward the state park. Once the water comes back up, both these roads will provide shoreline irregularities that fish can use.
Another project involved the construction of a rock reef, visible on the south shoreline east of the dam and state park. This location was chosen in part because of the inaccessibility of other areas of the reservoir to heavy equipment because of the soft ground. Using $19,000 in Habitat Council funds and some donated time and machinery from B&H Stone, boulders were arranged in rows perpendicular to the shoreline, similar to the arrangement of the Christmas tree reefs several years ago. This perpendicular arrangement will make it more likely that at least part of the structure will be in the water as the reservoir fluctuates. These reefs were not located as shallow as other habitat in Yuba to provide some deeper structure in the reservoir. Their effect on the fishery will be evaluated in the coming years. Judging by how they look on dry land, the reefs will be a great addition.
Fish Stocking Efforts
In recent weeks the Yuba fishery has gotten a big boost for its short term and long term well-being. First, a generous plant of rainbow trout was added. This included about 1,500 nine to ten inchers and about 60,000 smaller fingerlings. Many of you remember those nice, fat Yuba rainbows that were quite common several years ago. There’s little doubt that these trout plants will do well.
Then, RMA and B.A.S.S. got together with DWR personnel on November 12, 13 and 14, 2003, to catch some mature perch from Jordanelle Reservoir to transplant to Yuba. As Doug Miller described in his coverage on his Doug Miller Outdoors TV show, it looked a lot like tournament day as anglers spread out across the reservoir. Because cold weather had driven the perch deeper, the challenge to anglers was to find perch that were shallow enough (in general, in less than 30 feet of water) so they would not have fatal problems with their swim bladders due to the change of depth. Several pockets of shallower fish were found the first day that drew clusters of boats. Late in the day, George Sommer and Dan Smith found the mother lode of shallow perch in a small cove. This fishing hole received all the anglers’ attention for the next two days. According to official estimates about 500 perch were transplanted. Depending on a few variables such as how many mature females were in the mix, at 20,000 eggs per female Don Wiley estimates they could result in up to 5 million eggs in Yuba next spring.
After that, on November 24, a truckload of 50,000 two to five inch perch was delivered to Yuba. Purchased from a Minnesota hatchery with $20,000 allocated by the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Advisory Council, these fish were lucky to make it here. Besides having to deal with bad weather most of the way, the delivery truck got locked up sideways with a semi on an icy South Dakota highway and cracked one of their holding tanks. Fortunately, they were able to transfer the perch to other tanks and continue their journey. At Yuba, after inspecting the load for other species of fish, plants or nuisance species on the boat ramp, the perch were released through flexible tubes. They all appeared very lively and healthy and quickly dispersed.
Media Coverage
The ongoing work on Yuba has received a good share of media attention. Doug Miller of KUTV Channel 2 has had several informative segments recently on his show about the trout plants and the Jordanelle transplant operation. (Thanks to Brad Cutler for ferrying Doug and his videographer around for the day.) Brett Prettyman brought along a photographer and did a story on Jordanelle for the Salt Lake Tribune, and Ray Grass of the Deseret News also did an article. KUTV Channel 2’s Reese Stein did a great news segment on Saturday, November 29, about the November 24 perch delivery. Besides drawing attention to the ongoing work at the reservoir, the media coverage has helped educate anglers on some of the challenges facing our fisheries and how diverse interests are coming together to work on them. In the case of Yuba, these interests have included: the DWR; Utah State Parks; the Sevier Bridge Water Users; anglers, including Rocky Mountain Anglers and B.A.S.S.; property owners; the Habitat Council and Blue Ribbon Fisheries Advisory Council; construction companies and businesses from the private sector and; other agencies such as local governments.
Down the Road
The next Yuba project for anglers will likely be in March, when some 160 artificial Christmas trees, purchased from K-Mart last year with funds from Rocky Mountain Anglers and the Habitat Council, will have to be assembled and placed as spawning habitat. Again, B.A.S.S. member Trace Meyers has agreed to pour concrete bases for the trees. Since perch spawning habitat needs to be relatively shallow, it was decided that placing these just before the spawn will allow a better idea of where water levels will be.
Yuba reopens for fishing on January 1, 2004. Other than having to immediately return to the water all yellow perch, limits on other species will again be in effect. Hopes are that the trout planted this fall will grow quickly and provide a boost to the fishery in the short term, both to keep anglers on the water and to help maximize use of the state park facilities.
In a couple of years, the status of the walleye will be assessed. Retired Central Region Aquatics Manager Charlie Thompson observed that after the reservoir nearly dried up in 1979 the fishery came back without any help. It is expected that will again be the case with the walleyes, after the perch have had a chance to gain a foothold. Hopefully, with some more work, some care and some patience, we will again have a rising perch/walleye fishery in three to five years that will sustain itself better than the boom and bust fishery of years past.
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Volunteers Plant Artificial Trees at Yuba
(May, 2004) Over 20 volunteers from RMA, B.A.S.S. and others joined DWR employees on Saturday, April 17, 2004, to put together and “plant” artificial Christmas trees at Yuba, the latest project in the effort to improve habitat there. About 180 trees were assembled on concrete bases and boated out to strategic areas of the lake. Tracy Myers of B.A.S.S. arranged to have the bases poured and the DWR provided lunch and drinks.
Rather than wire them together into reefs as was done with the real Christmas trees several years ago, these trees were dropped in loose clusters, similar to the trees that were tested in Deer Creek last year. They were mainly placed into Walleye Bay near the narrows and around the new rock reef on the shoreline east of the boat ramp. In mid-April the rock reef was almost completely submerged.
The artificial trees were purchased at a K-Mart liquidation sale in May, 2002, with $2,000 from the Habitat Council and $500 from RMA. The retail value of the trees was almost $13,000.
Volunteers included John Tomich. Mike Ptaschinski, Brad Cutler, Kevin Lund, Will Jefferies, Wes Schneider, Clay Schneider, Kriss Garcia, Mike Garcia, Rod Miller, Ryan Miller and a friend, George Sommer, Dan Smith, Greg Carn, Ray Schelble, retired DWR biologist Charlie Thompson and several others. Don Wiley and Mike Slater spearheaded the day for the DWR, and several other DWR employees showed up to help.
Yuba is known for its muddy water, and it was surprising to see how clear the water is now. It still has a turquoise color, but the bottom is very visible to surprising depths. One explanation was the absence of carp due to the reservoir being drained last year.
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