Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3814 June 21- July 5 2019 | Page 16

14
June 21 - July 5, 2019
MAP FEATURE
VOL.38 • ISS. 14
The CDFW’s Fishing in the City program has stocked channel catfish and rainbow trout in urban ponds like this one in Hagen Community
Park in Rancho Cordova for 26 years
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Sacramento Fishing in the City Program Enters 26th Year
O
ne young angler after another
hooked catfish on the pleasant
June afternoon at Hagen Community Park
in Rancho Cordova.
Three-year-old Nolan
Moua and his dad,
Chris Moua of Sacra-
mento, teamed up
to catch a robust
channel catfish just
after I arrived at the
park, stocked that
morning with 1500
pounds of channel cats
through the California
Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s “Fishing in the
City” program. They
hooked the
fish while
soaking
shrimp.
Jackson Trafican landed two catfish
while using shrimp as he was assisted by
Krista Schugt of Woodland.
Finally, 15 year-old Bryce Bowler
caught two cats right in a row, both
of which his father, Bryce Bowler
netted.
Other boys and girls there also
landed the prized channel cats
on the late spring afternoon.
Meanwhile, Richard Muñoz,
who became the coordinator
of the program in October
2017 after the
program’s
founding
coordinator,
Joe Ferreira,
retired,
walked
around
the lake,
sharing
fishing
tips
and
stories
with
anglers and
their parents and
guardians.
Fishing in the
City, now in its
twenty-sixth year
in the Sacramento
area, is the best and
most needed project
that the Department
has ever initiated, in
my opinion. Created
to improve angling
opportunities for the
growing urban popu-
Fifteen-year-old Bryce
Bowler shows off one
of two channel catfish
that he landed while
fishing shrimp at
Hagan Community
Park in Rancho
Cordova on June 6.
Photo by DAN
BACHER, Fish
Sniffer Staff.
lation in the
nation’s most
populous and
most diverse
state, the
Sacramento
program offi-
cially began at
Southside Park
in the summer
of 1993.
When
introduced to
Sacramento
and Southern
California in
1993, novices
and veteran
anglers alike
welcomed
it. Up until
that time,
These two young fishermen display the catfish that they had just caught
young anglers
at Hagan Community Park during the CDFW fishing clinic on June 6.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
generally were
introduced
Fishing in the City program was created
to fishing by the parents and guardians,
in 1993 to improve angling opportunities
grandparents, other relatives and friends.
to California’s growing urban population.
If you didn’t have parents or friends that
Consistent with trends across the country,
were experienced anglers, you were often
California’s urban anglers identified a
out of luck.
lack of free time as the primary reason
The program has been offering fishing
why they don’t fish more or stopped alto-
clinics, free rod and reel rentals and
stocking rainbow trout and channel catfish gether. Many city and regional park lakes,
ponds, and streams were all but forgotten
ponds in close to home ponds in the
as potential fishing sites and many lacked
Sacramento and Stockton metropolitan
adequate facilities, staff, or fish to sustain
areas for all of those years. The program
a fishing program. Some suffered from
also serves the San Francisco and Los
non-point source pollution and habitat
Angeles metropolitan areas.
degradation. All were surrounded by
“We stock channel catfish in the ponds
communities ready to provide the support
in the warmer months and rainbow trout
necessary to create fishing in the city.”
in the cooler months,” said Muñoz.
Before coming to work for the CDFW,
“After our July Free fishing Day, we
Muñoz
worked with the state parks
will be stopping the clinics and plants for
department in Hollister for 8-1/2 years.
six weeks and we will be revamping the
“It’s been great working for the CDFW
structure of the program. We will try to
in the Fishing in the City program. The
make sure our message is still relevant to
the diverse audience that we serve,” noted challenge is that the federal grant money
that funded the program is being reduced
Muñoz.
by 30 percent,” he said.
“We are facing a major budget cuts –
Muñoz also said the CDFW is limiting
after the hiatus we will begin the clinics
fishing
on the ponds to children ranging
and plants again. We are looking at a
from 5 to 15 years old during the clinics.
different structure and different message,
“This makes it more comfortable for the
but the goals and vision of our program
kids. It creates a space for then to explore
will be the same,” said Muñoz.
fishing,” said Muñoz. After the clinics are
According to the CDFW website: “The