I mentioned "Creel Surveys" under the "Fred the Baker" post, Packer asked about them, instead of burying this in the other category, I thought I'd answer him here.
Sometime mid-summer, the Fish and Game biologist that usually comes to the Fish Commission meetings mentioned that he was thinking about starting up a creel survey program, having somebody walk around and asking fishermen and women about their fishing experience that day, a few simple questions, no law enforcement involved, just collecting information.
I volunteered to do some surveys in Rock Creek Canyon, it sounded like fun. It took a while for him to get the forms figured out, and printed up, I finally got them a couple of weeks ago, and have done two surveys around Rock Creek Lake, last Sunday, and yesterday.
I was right, it is fun, and interesting. I just walk around, find people who are actively fishing, ask them how many are fishing, how long they've been there, what they've caught, what kind of fish...pretty simple.
The interesting part....I can talk to one party who has a stringer full of fish, go 50 feet and talk to someone who is getting skunked. I've always known that a small thing wrong in a person's set up can make a world of difference, so I asked the biologist if it was okay to give people helpful tips so they may catch more fish. I'm still figuring out how to be tactful when I do something like that, I think I'm gaining on it.
This summer I've helped at a couple of kid's fishing events, one at Hot Creek Hatchery (it is just as easy to catch a fish in a hatchery as you might think it is, but the kids loved it), the other one was at Snowcreek, a whole bunch of Desert Springs fish had been dumped into a couple of ponds, some up to 5 pounds...this one was different, a lot of Dads showed up with their kids, most were open to suggestions if I saw something they could do different and better, but....I also had to deal with a lot of guys who really had no clue as to what they were doing, and refused any help...I watched one father with a little girl and boy who flat out wouldn't accept any ideas, his kids both watched other kids catch fish while they didn't due to their father's ego...they were there for hours, and left empty stringered.
That's why I have to be tactful, I don't want to p*** anyone off.
To answer your question, Packer, there's not a whole lot going on up there...unless you know what you're doing. I find people who have full stringers of fish in a few hours, then some who have been skunked for hours. In two weeks I've only seen rainbows, no brooks or browns, nothing over 12", although we all know there are big fish in there. I'll keep doing it weekly until it snows or the season ends. Really looking forwqard to next season, I can start early and hopefully get some good results.
