In 1990 I learned that the native trout of Big Sur in California were subject to a take of five per person per day with no limit on size.  The rivers were relatively small and easily accessible and the whole thing was just poorly managed so I set out to change that.  I soon joined ranks with noted biologists from Hopkins Marine Station and NOAA (Dr. Jennifer Nielsen) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium (Dr. Randy Kochevar) and the University of California’s Big Creek Reserve (Dr. John Smiley) who volunteered to process my findings and incorporate them into their own studies.  I gathered a team of fly fishermen and biology students to go with me into the headwaters of the watershed and get mitachondrial DNA samples and photographic/video evidence of the fish.  In the process we discovered several unique subspecies of Onchyrinchus Mykiss, the endemic rainbow trout and southern steelhead.  There was a distinct sub on the Little Sur River that carried parr marks into adulthood, had deep crimson gill covers, white tipped fins, and most notably and orange spot on the dorsal fin.  There was another one from Mill Creek in the north of the range that was deep purple and black.  A third was found on the Big Creek/Mill Creek watershed in the south of the range that was silvery blue.  We found one hybrid brown/rainbow on the Big Sur River that was probably a holdover from the days when the locals hand stocked the river.  Throughout the range we found southern steelies and discovered that they don’t always go back to natal streams but to any stream mouth that is open in a given area, which made sense considering Southern California’s frequent drought conditions.

I funded the Big Sur Wild Trout Project with profits from two Cameron & Smith fly fishing stores that I opened which specialized in custom hand made split bamboo fly rods and exotic fly tying materials, one store in the town of PeeGee and the other in Big Sur, thereby getting the anglers to fund their own regulation.   Apparently that was a first for the industry.  I was given awards from various groups including the RockRoller Award for 1998 from Abel Fly Fishing Reels.  My crew and I got the DNA samples and I got the photographic and video documentation and the rules were changed to make the entire watershed catch and release dry fly barbless only with some critical habitat being shut down to all access.  In short it was a great success that only took six months to begin to show results.  One day in the fall of 1998 I was out on the river and realized that the only people I’d seen out there for years were the ones that came with me so within a month I shut down the stores and packed in the operation.  Now, for the sake of science and to some extent nostalgia I survey the rivers there about once every 5 years and turn over the updated findings to NOAA and Hopkins Marine Station and the University of California.  The rules have changed but little since we were operating and the area is still much better protected than before we got there.

Here are some photos and video from those days.