Low stream flows prompt restrictions on Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin county fisherman

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
New regulations designed to protect spawning steelhead and salmon during exceptionally low stream-flow conditions already are putting a crimp in the fishing season, prompting closures of most coastal freshwater fisheries in Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino counties beginning today, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The main stream of the Russian River, the Laguna de Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa Creek and the Napa River, between Napa and Yountville, are still open to anglers.
But most all other coastal tributaries where fishing normally would be allowed from the Golden Gate to the Humboldt County Line will be closed until rain or some other circumstance raises water levels enough to warrant reopening, Fish and Wildlife officials said.
Under the revised regulations, adopted in December but only in effect since Monday, access to creeks and rivers in Marin and Sonoma counties for fishing is tied to the flow rate on the South Fork Gualala River at the Mendocino County border.
Read more via Low stream flows prompt restrictions on Sonoma, Mendocino, | The Press Democrat.