The California Delta Water Crisis

I recently wrote a paper for my US History class in school, and I wanted to share it with you all. My home waterway is in grave danger, and it is important for all to be informed... Research Paper: California Delta Water Crisis The Peripheral Canals It’s your water. Brief Historical Background: The California Delta, or commonly known as the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is vast. 1,000 miles of waterways link rainwater and snow melt from the Sierra Mountains, all the way to the San Francisco bay. The delta is an integral part of the San Francisco Bay Delta watershed, which includes the largest estuary on the west coasts of North and South America. The Delta, the only inland delta on the planet, was originally populated by the Maidu Indians until Spanish explorers arrived in 1772. Many other groups followed, including fir trappers, miners in the gold rush, and farmers. The Delta farmers of the 1800s needed to find a way to prevent frequent flooding, and large population of Chinese immigrants (who had just completed the transcontinental railroad) were employed to provided much of the labor to build levees. The levees were a monumental engineering feat at the time, as Chinese laborers eventually transformed 500,000 acres of swamp into some of the state’s most valuable farmland . In more modern times, the Delta and its surrounding lands serve as fertile farmland, and recreation for boating, and fishing. The California Delta is rated 8th on a list of the nation’s top 100 sport angling locations, and jet-skiers, wake-boarders; along with everyday boaters take advantage of the beautiful river systems. But today, the Delta is threatened. The Peripheral Canal: Today, the health of the Sacramento River Delta is in danger, threatened by Governor Jerry Brown, and the southern California agricultural industries. The Peripheral canal has been labeled the biggest threat to Northern California Rivers in history . The proposed canal would build two massive ‘twin tunnels’, 40ft tall, and 39 miles long, intended to divert fresh water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and send it to agricultural interests in the desert of Southern California, where fresh water is nearly non-existent. These agricultural water customers already buy Delta water, but not nearly at the scale of the proposed canals, which would move 15,000 cubic feet of Delta water per second. The canal would alter the natural flow of the watershed, and for what? Money. The farms in the south pay for water as if it were gold. The consequences: It is clear that moving such high amounts of California Delta water to the South is a bad idea. Negative impacts are both environmental, and economical. In order to gain a better understanding of the vast problems associated with this canal, I interviewed Delta activist, Bobby Barrack. Bobby is a professional bass fisherman and guide on the Delta, and he is at the front of the battle to protect the Delta. I quickly figured out during our 35-minute phone interview, the problems associated with the Canal are much broader than I imagined. I first asked Bobby to talk a little bit about what the Peripheral Canal is, and how it would affect the Delta environmentally, and economically. “You know, I haven’t really dug into it enough to find out why he [Governor Brown] really wants to get this done. I know his family owns a lot of land in Sacramento, and my hypothesis is that he owns the land that the canals would pass through, and the state would be writing him a big, big check”. I then asked Bobby if it is true that Brown wants to construct the canal, without a public vote. He responded: “Oh absolutely. He thinks he is going to do that. He knows that if it goes to ballot, it will never pass”. Why, you may ask? According to Bobby, the University of the Pacific did the only cost-benefit analysis report of the proposed canal, and “for every $1 spent on the canal, we are going to lose $2.25. This is the only state project that has ever been attempted without doing a cost-benefit analysis. There are red flags all over this thing”. Those numbers speak for themselves. The Peripheral Canals would cost more money than they would ever generate. Bobby Barrack, holding a Striped Bass Barrack compared the planners behind the Canals to “bank robbers in a bank”, and Restore the Delta, an organization devoted to saving the waterways, is the “security guard who can’t arrest anybody, but observes and reports”. One of the most concerning figures Bobby shared with me, was regarding the flow of the Sacramento River in cubic feet per second. The two 40 foot tall tubes can divert 15,000 CFS out of the Delta. Naturally, the water system runs at about 18,000 CFS, but with the water already being diverted through existing aqueducts, it currently runs at about 7,000 CFS. Barrack exclaimed, “These tubes can almost drain the entire Sacramento River”. If more water is diverted from the Delta, there will be devastating salt water intrusion. According to Bobby, “They are going to pull salt water all the way to Discovery Bay”. Barrack went on to state “The first things that will parish are the fish and the migratory fish, mainly being the salmon”. The Pacific Salmon is a 2 billion dollar industry, and the fish need the fresh waters of the Delta to spawn, and hatch future generations. If these canals are built, and utilized at even half their full potential, the Salmon run is gone. The decrease in Salmon is clearly proportional to the movement of fresh water. Bobby described to me: -In 1999, 4.5 million-acre feet of Delta water was diverted. In that year, there were 900,000-1,000,000 adult Salmon . -In 2008, the Salmon season was forced closed due to dwindling populations. There were 60,000 adult fish. In that same year, 6.5 million-acre feet was diverted . An increase of 2 million-acre feet, and there were 940,000 less adult Salmon in the Sacramento River Delta. The loss of the Salmon migration would affect the nation, not just Delta locals. It is a potential loss of unrivaled proportions. There is a bigger player in the whole situation, according to Barrack. Fracking. That is why Governor Brown is so determined to build these canals. Hydraulic Fracking, the newest method for extracting fossil fuels, is one of the most toxic, environmentally destructive practices on the planet. For every single Fracking Well, 5-10 million gallons of water is needed. “They do not have the water to frack the proposed sites. These tunnels are hiding behind agriculture, when really, it’s all about Fracking”. Ironically enough, using Delta water to Frack would only damage our water supply. “All those underground aquifers down there are going to be useless [if we frack]. Because of the Halliburton Cocktail. 400 of the most dangerous, cancer causing chemicals, not known to the common man”. The California Delta is an ecologically diverse, rich ecosystem, and one of the last wild rivers in California. The Delta serves as a cornerstone piece of the SF Bay/ Delta watershed, and the waterway creates millions of dollars in revenue for the state through the Salmon industry, and the surrounding Northern California agriculture. If Governor Brown and the state build the Peripheral Canals, there will be irreversible consequences all over the map. The fresh, fertile waters of the Delta will be lost forever, the plants and animals who call the waterway home will be no more, and the state will lose money as a result of the project. Diverting Delta water also supports the dangerous practice of Fracking, which poisons our drinking water and destroys ecosystems. As Bobby Barrack told me during our interview, the only way to stop the demise of the nations greatest waterway is to promote awareness. Most of the population doesn’t even know this is happening. We can’t let it happen.

PAUL KREW CUSTOM BAITS

Soft plastic lures catch bass.

We all know this, and we all take advantage of these colorful shapes of rubber nearly every time we are out on the water, am I wrong? However, if there is ever a problem with soft plastics for bass, it is that there are nearly HUNDREDS of different brands that are all selling the same basic shapes. It is quite the problem, because there is nothing worse than being out there on the water and wondering to yourself wether you could have gotten more bites with say, a KVD brand beaver with coffee scent, rather than the salty Reaction Innovation beavers that you had in your boat.

There was a time when I struggled with this as well, but now, after discovering Paul Krew Custom Baits, this is no longer a problem for me.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret:

Who is Paul Krew? Well, it is hard to say, all I know about the man is that he hand pours the best soft plastic fishing lures that I have ever set my eyes on. If you are unaware, "hand pouring" is a process in which a lure maker creates his own soft plastics, usually one lure at a time, by pouring home cured plastisol (super high quality plastic specially for special effects and fishing lures), with dyes and flakes and powders all added in, into open face molds of say... a craw... or a worm. Hand poured baits are famous for being much, much higher quality than that of store bought plastics. In other words, the baits are more durable, and softer to the touch. One draw back to hand poured lures is usually that colors are not as unique as store bought plastics but, when it comes to Paul Krew, this is far from the case...

Paul runs his business directly through his Facebook page (link at the bottom), which is how I first discovered this hand pouring wizard. On this page, Paul tantalized my curiosity with stunning photographs of his work. Each of these pictures contained lures like none that I had seen before, containing incredibly vivid colors, creative shapes, and perfection down to the last detail. The pictures just kept on coming, worms, floating snakes, frogs like none that I had ever seen, amazing drop shot minnows, the list goes on and on. It seemed every day Paul would put up a new photograph that put on the wow factor and, quite honestly, called to my wallet. But to my dismay, I resisted! I must be loyal to my good ole "Yum Dingers" after all, right? Wrong. Christmas rolled along and what did I find in my stocking? Not Paul Krew Custom Baits, that's for sure, but there was a $50 bill from my aunt so I went to town on Paul's Facebook page... Maybe going a little over the prescribed budget...

I ordered the following:
3.5 inch DS Shimmer Shad in Watermelon/Silver Shad
4.5 inch Striker Swimbait in Natural Shad Silver Flake
4 inch Flipn/Pitchn Craw in Natural Blue Craw
4 inch Renaissance Craw in Black and Blue Flake, Blue Tips
3 inch Paddle Tail DS Minnow in Glass Minnow Purple Pearl Vein
4 inch Curly Fat Head Minnow in Watermelon Gold with Purple Pearl

Let me tell you, the baits are even better in person. They came in a big box, carefully packaged in zip lock bags and stuffed with newspaper for transport.

The first thing I noticed was the colors, WOW. Not one brand of mass produced baits on the planet comes close to these colors, and every bait seemed to take on a slightly different hue depending on the angle, or amount of light in which I was observing. They are more like little works of art that I was reluctant to stick a hook into.

The second thing that stood out to me was the feel of the baits. They are softer than Yamamoto, and as strong as a huddleston trout when you try to rip them.. Paul, if you are reading this, I promise I only broke one for scientific purposes.. Anyways, back to the point, they are almost so soft that you cannot stop playing with them in your hands, but it doesn't matter because they sure as heck aren't going to break on you!

The craws came with a special coating of fine salt, which has stuck incredibly well even to the baits that I have been messing with for a couple weeks, as well as a bottom layer of plastic with a salt formula. If a bass chomps on these, they will not want to let go for a long time. The bait fish imitations came with mirage eyes attached as well, and they are stuck on there pretty well. No "Dean Rojas Warmouth" typed glue on these eyes, they will stay fixed.

Here are some pictures of these little pieces of bass candy straight off of Paul's page:

Paul Krew Custom Baits are the top plastic that I have every used, hands down. The customer service is great, Paul really wants to please the customer, and he will do his lures in any color that you can think up. He even allows you to send him a jig, or a picture of a living creature and he will match the color scheme down to the last detail.

If you want to put more fish in your boat, and fish something other than those basic mass produced brands that the fish in your lake see all day, I urge you to try out Paul Krew Custom Baits. You will not be disappointed.

_______________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or even ideas for future write ups, let me know below and I will make sure to read and respond to everybody!

Tight lines, spring will come soon enough, 

"L"

"Get em' while they're hot!"

 www.facebook.com/paul.krew.9 

WELCOME

         Hi there! Welcome to my blog. It is here, on this page, that I am going to share with you everything that I know as an angler, --- wait a minute. Why would you even want to listen to me? It's a great question, and the best way that I can answer this question is by saying this: I am in no way shape or form, a master of the craft of bass fishing. I haven't won the bass master classic, I haven't won the Forest Wood Cup, heck, my personal best bass is only about 6.5lb. But what I offer to you, through this blog, is my passion for this great sport of bass fishing, a sport in which I have been learning about and diving into head first since the good ole days as a 6 year old that snagged a largemouth one day while blue gill fishing with night crawlers on the CA Delta. It is here, my friends, that I will share everything that I find interesting, everything that I learn, everything that I think you as the general public would be interested in knowing, given the fact that I can tell you, and I invite you to join me as we explore the greatest activity that the world has to offer- ok, at least it my opinion.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, if you have any comments, questions, and of course SUGGESTIONS/REQUESTS, let me know below.

Sincerely,

L