For the first time in several years, anglers at northern California’s premiere rainbow trout fishery, EAGLE LAKE have something to brag about, and it’s the size of the fish.  The average size has improved remarkably over the past two years…and it is not by coincidence. 

In recent years, anglers have complained that the trout are “smaller and there’s not as many big fish as there used to be”.  Well…that was partially true. There were more small fish, but it was a result of a planting procedure enacted by the Department of Fish and Game.  Paul Chappell, the now retired DFG Fisheries Biologist, and Randy Benthin, DFG Regional Biologist, developed a program to plant 50% of the hatchery-reared fish into the lake in the spring and the remaining 50% to be introduced in the fall.  The move was multi-faceted…The spring planters grew all season long and by late fall were in the two and half to three pound range.  The fall planters sustained less fishing pressure because they were planted after the traditional end of summer fishing activity.  These fall fish were held in the hatchery longer, grew to a larger size prior to planting and subsequently had the ability to more easily ingest the lake’s population of natural food sources.  Larger mouths can eat larger meals, primarily made up of the lake’s population of tui chub minnows. That meant that these fish would have the opportunity to eat and grow, “unmolested “  by anglers during the late fall, winter and spring months and be in prime condition when the lake opened for fishing on Memorial Day weekend. 

As a result of the planting program, Eagle Lake has more small fish year ‘round. ..but it also now has more large fish year’ round too.  The goal of the program was to give at least 50% of the planters the opportunity to learn to survive on what the lake had to offer and basically jump start the growth rate of rainbows for anglers to enjoy…AND IT WORKED.  

At the same time, Chappell and a dedicated crew of local California Inland Fisheries Foundation - Project Eagle Lake Trout (P.E.L.T.) volunteers were determined to save every last fish that returned to Pine Creek to “naturally spawn”.  Early in the run, torrents of water run down Pine Creek for a very few weeks to sometimes months depending on the annual rainfall and snowpack.  Thousands of fish pour into the small creek on the western shore, near the town of Spalding, as soon as they sense the flows.  Lined by sharp volcanic rocks and boulders, Pine Creek is a hazardous natural path for the fish to enter to spawn.  As water levels fluctuate with run-off and freezing temperatures, big mature ready-to-spawn rainbows can easily become stranded in pools or become injured and die trying to get upstream to spawn.  The volunteers carefully monitor the creek and team together in rescue efforts to ensure that the fish do not get stranded and after spawning, return successfully and healthy to the lake.