Outdoor Notes / Earl Gustkey : Lower Rush Creek Battle Is Put on Hold

The legal battle pitting Eastern Sierra fly fishermen and environmentalists against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power over Lower Rush Creek has been put on hold while the California Department of Fish and Game studies the creek.

Lower Rush Creek flows for seven miles from the Grant Lake dam, under Highway 395 and eventually into Mono Lake. It’s normally dry because the DWP diverts the water into the Upper Owens River and eventually into the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

In 1984, an unusually wet year, Grant Lake filled, and rainbow trout were washed over the dam and into Lower Rush Creek, where they spawned. When the DWP began to shut off the water in the creek, the Mammoth Fly Rodders, California Trout and the Audubon Society filed suit to preserve the wild trout fishery. The suit is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 4 in Mono County.

The DWP is under court order to maintain a flow of at least 19 cubic feet a second in Lower Rush. Because runoff in the Sierra is 160% higher than normal, the creek’s flow is about 350.

Said Dick Dahlgren, California Trout’s area manager for the Eastern Sierra: “We want to get a quality fishery there, and it will take more than 19 cubic feet per second.”

DWP spokesman Ed Freudenburg said that replacing water allowed to flow into Lower Rush Creek in dry years would cost about $3.2 million. He also said that lost energy would cost about $2.1 million more.

“The DFG says there are 16,000 fish in the creek, so it costs $350 to maintain each fish there for a year,” Freudenburg said.

Cost of the DFG study, expected to be about $160,000, will be paid for by both the DWP and DFG.

The Fish and Game Commission may consider whether or not to ban lead shot during waterfowl seasons in much of Northern California at its meeting next Friday in Sacramento.

The commission tentatively decided in April to reject federal regulations, which call for a ban on lead shot. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is facing a suit from the National Wildlife Federation to ban lead shot nationwide in favor of steel shot. Many biologists believe that spent lead shot in waterfowl areas leads to lead poisoning in waterfowl and bald eagles.

If the commission rejects the federal regulations, the decision could result in the closing of all federal hunting areas in all of Lassen and Modoc counties; portions of Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama and Plumas counties; and five national refuges--Sutter, Colusa, Sacramento, Delevan and Cibola.

Beginning in July, the DFG will launch a two-pronged study of the Salton Sea. The first phase will entail a study of spawning habits of the sea’s four sport fish, orangemouth corvina, croaker, tilapia and sargo. The second phase will be an attempt to learn what maximum salinity levels will be reached that will allow fish to survive in the sea.

The $600,000 study will be financed by Wallop-Breaux Sport Fish Restoration Act funds.

Increasing salinity and severe water level changes are some of the problems facing the sea.

Briefly Hunting licenses, deer tag applications, mammal hunting regulation booklets and zone A, B, and D deer tags are now available at DFG offices in Southern California. . . . Comprehensive master plans for the Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuges have been approved and are available for public inspection at numerous San Joaquin Valley libraries. . . . Night fishing is under way on the Isle of Redondo fishing barge, 1 1/2 miles off the Redondo Beach Marina. . . . Applications for Camp Roberts’ deer and wild hog hunting permits are available by writing the Camp Roberts Wildlife Program, Dept. of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 6327, Los Osos, Calif., 93412-6327. The special hunts will be held Aug. 30-Sept. 7. . . . Hunters with questions about deer tags can call (916) 739-3380 during business hours, or (916) 739-3571 for 24-hour recorded information. . . . The Fish and Game Commission has sent a letter to California’s Congressional delegation, sharply criticizing the land and resource management draft plans developed by the U.S. Forest Service. The plans, the commission wrote, will be “extremely damaging to California’s fish and wildlife resources” if implemented. Eighteen national forests cover about 20 million acres in California.

New Book Titles: “Fishing in Southern California,” by Ken Albert (Marketscope Books: $13.95). A how-to guide to techniques and sites for Southland lakes, streams and ocean. “The Henry’s Fork,” by Charles E. Brooks (Winchester Press, $24.95). A look at arguably America’s greatest trout stream, by a master fly fisherman. “Freshwater Fishes of California,” by Samuel M. McGinnis (University of Chicago Press, $22.50). A comprehensive, illustrated guide to California freshwater fish. “The Green Beret’s Compass Course,” by Don Paul (Paul Publications, $5.95). A former Green Beret’s guide to a simple no-map system for navigating in the wilderness. “Hatches II,” by Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi (Winchester Press, $29.95). An updated version of a 1975 book instructing fly fishermen how to read insect hatches on North American trout streams.