Lake Davis, Calif. reopens to fishing

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has announced that sport fishing has resumed again on Lake Davis.

According to DFG, recent and future scheduled trout plants will guarantee good opportunities for anglers for years to come.

"We are aggressively re-establishing the fishery so that anglers can pursue the excellent trout fishing they were accustomed to at Lake Davis," said Randy Kelly, the acting manager of the Lake Davis project.

Last month, DFG planted more than 31,000 Eagle Lake trout from its American River Hatchery, ranging in size from one-half pound to more than three pounds. Additional plantings of nearly one million trout are planned later this year.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lifted the temporary public safety closure of Lake Davis prompted by the Lake Davis Northern Pike Eradication Project.

Although currently frozen over, Lake Davis and the area surrounding the reservoir is now open.

The Department of Public Health has confirmed no detectable levels of the chemicals used to treat the reservoir in the surface waters of Lake Davis.

After several years of control and containment efforts at Lake Davis, the state moved to eradicate the predatory, non-native northern pike last September. DFG officials treated the Plumas County reservoir, which is on USFS land, and its tributary streams with CFT Legumine, a new liquid formulation of rotenone, one of the only chemicals licensed to kill fish in California.

Keeping pike out of Lake Davis and other California waters benefits everyone. Pike devastated the Lake Davis fishery and have negatively impacted the local economy since 1999, when they reappeared in the reservoir after an eradication project in October 1997.

Escaped pike could have caused irreversible ecological and economic harm to other areas of the state and region, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

It is a crime to introduce pike into California waters, with a maximum penalty of $50,000 and up to a year in jail. Violators can be liable for damages caused to property, sport and commercial fisheries, and local communities which depend on those fisheries. An introduction of pike into California waters will be investigated and prosecuted.

to the extent allowed under the law. A reward of up to $50,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who unlawfully places or plants, or causes to be placed or planted, any live fish, fresh or salt water animal, or any aquatic plant into any state waters.

For information, go to www.dfg.ca.gov/lakedavis or call (530) 832-4069.