California Wild Trout and Heritage Trout Water

Lakes and Streams Designated to Support Wild Trout Policy

Sep 25, 2009 Ret Talbot

The California Wild Trout Policy designates various rivers and lakes in an effort to conserve wild trout species and provide recreational angling opportunities.

The Heritage Trout Challenge, administered by the California Department of Fish and Game Fisheries, is a program in which the angler attempts to catch six different types of native trout from their historic drainages. For the purpose of the challenge, a historic drainage “includes the trout’s native range (in California) and other waters within the drainage(s) where that native range is located.”

There are two classes of water in California that will be of particular interest to the trout angler. They are:

Wild Trout Waters
Heritage Trout Waters

Wild Trout Water

The California Wild Trout Policy was adopted in the 1970s by the California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC). That policy made provisions for managing certain state waters for wild trout. Each year, pursuant to SB 384, the Heritage and Wild Trout Program conducts an inventory of trout waters in California and recommends 25 miles of streams and one lake for designation as a Wild Trout Water. All Wild Trout Waters share the following characteristics:

Open to public fishing and able to support a recreational fishery
Free from stocking of domestic strains of catchable-sized trout
May be supplemented with suitable hatchery-produced wild or semi-wild trout strains when necessary

In order to maintain appropriate habitat to support wild trout in Wild Trout Waters, the Wild Trout Policy mandates that "All necessary actions, consistent with State law, shall be taken to prevent adverse impact by land or water development projects affecting designated Wild Trout Waters."

Heritage Trout Water

Heritage Trout Waters are synonymous with Wild Trout Waters, except that Heritage Trout Waters must also have the following characteristics:

Support indigenous strains of native trout populations
Include the historic drainages of those native trout populations
Present an opportunity for anglers to catch a native trout while at the same time conserving the species, subspecies or type of trout for which the angler is fishing

List of Heritage Trout Waters

Currently designated Heritage Trout Waters include:

Eagle Lake
Clavey River
Heenan Lake
Upper Truckee River
Upper Kern River
Upper Piru Creek drainage

Eagle Lake

Located in Northern California near Susanville, Eagle Lake contains mostly, if not entirely, native species of trout. Most notably, it is home to the federally threatened Eagle Lake rainbow trout. The resident population is hatchery spawned due to degradation to Pine Creek, the historic spawning grounds.

Clavey River

An undammed river in the Sierra Nevada, the Clavey flows for nearly 50 miles from its origin to its confluence with the Tuolumne River. The Clavey River is home to native rainbow trout.

Heenan Lake

Heenan Lake near Markleeville is home to the Lahontan cutthroat trout. It is used as a source of Lahontan cutthroat eggs for stocking programs. Yearling cutthroats are reintroduced into Heenan Lake each year.

Upper Truckee River

The angler will find Lahontan cutthroat in the Upper Truckee near South Lake Tahoe. They were reintroduced to the river after being outcompeted by invasive brook trout. The brookies were eventually eradicated, and now the Upper Truckee is home to one of the only populations of high-elevation Lahontan cutthroats found in the Sierras.

Upper Kern River

The Upper Kern from Tyndall Creek in Sequoia National Park to Johnsondale Bridge is the longest single piece of Wild Trout Water in California. The Heritage Trout Water portion extends from Tyndall Creek to the confluence with the Little Kern and may have both Little Kern golden trout and Kern River rainbow trout.

Upper Piru

The Piru is located north of Los Angeles, and the upper section above Pyramid Lake is home to some of the most beautiful landlocked steelhead (rainbow trout) in all of California.

Fishermen in California have some unique trout fishing opportunities thanks to the Wild Trout and Heritage Trout Water programs.

The copyright of the article California Wild Trout and Heritage Trout Water in Hunting & Fishing is owned by Ret Talbot. Permission to republish California Wild Trout and Heritage Trout Water in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Native California Golden Trout

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