Killing Off the Clams at Castaic: 12.06.08

[George Cawthorn]

Since I had not done well at the Lagoon my last time out I figured I'd give the west ramp area of the Upper Castaic a shot. Due in part to the fact that I had heard from a friend that one of his buddies had nailed a nice 4 lb. LMB from the shoreline up there the day before.

When I arrived at around 8:00 AM air temp was 64, water was 64, it was a little breezy. Barometer was 29.95 and had been holding pretty steady for the past five days or so. Water clarity was very good.


I started out fishing a dropshot muddog that I had set up Tiffany style using a 1/2 oz egg sinker for extra casting distance in the wind. I wanted to get into some deeper water with this set up. I had heard some reports that the bass were off deep in as much a 50 ft. and the only way I was gonna get that far offshore was with the heavier weight.


Had no bites on that and had fished it on and off with the Ika throwing out now and then for good measure.

After a while the fishing police showed up and did a license and bait check. A guy who was set up not far from me was really glad he had his two pole stamp this year.


This was the first time I had seen them this year and it's not that I don't like the fish police it's just that the spot was not producing so after that I decided to move on over to the east section of the west ramp area facing the dam.

I had come down a rocky trail to the point I was on and you could see how low the water level was and how steep the bank can get in some spots. This can be dicy on foot especially because the wave action loosens up the gravel and rocks and it is very unstable. One wrong step and you might quickly find yourself sliding down into the water.


I decided to take a flatter path back around the cove toward the launch ramp and I noticed that there were literally millions of dead clams along the beach. I had seen a few before but never in concentration like this.


And oddly just a slight distance up the beach, maybe ten feet or so there were almost no clams at all.


I was pondering this on my walk over to the other side. I remembered this weird incident a while back when while fishing at the Lagoon I had clam shells come back on my hook on two different casts. I didn't make much of it at the time.

When I got where I was going on the other side you could also see how far down the water is but it's not so steep on this side.


I had had no bites going for the LMB with the Ika and muddog so I figure I's switch over to a #2 spinner with a bucktail and see if I might be able to get into a striper.


Fished this for a while and the breeze was starting to kick up. Then I saw it in the water right there in front of me.... dead clams floating by right in front of me. And when I noticed that this one looked like a Quagga I felt this cold twinge of fear go through my body.

Check this out......... this may well be the reason that the bite has been so bad at Castaic during a time when it is traditionally good.

Pulled back view of dead clam floating by.


Zoom in.


Sample photo of Quagga.


So now I was thinking about Casitas being closed and the problems they had had at Havasu and Westlake and this all of this started to add up for me. If the invasive clams had gotten into Castaic and they wanted to kill them off with a water treatment it would make a lot of sense to do that when the water was real low.

It would take a lot less of whatever chemical they use to get a desired concentration of it in the lake if there were a lot less water. The beach photos started to make sense to me too.

And also all of the water in the Lagoon feeds in from the upper lake so whatever they did up there would eventually have to flush out through the Lagoon too.

All of this was a little hard for me to digest. Things have to be done and after all the primary purpose of Castaic is for drinking water.

Anyway I am not an expert on the subject, I'm only looking at what is in front of me and trying to make sense of it. I've been fishing at Castaic for over five years and never seen anything like this before.

I decided to reel in my rig and split.


No bites for me on this trip.

These little critters can cause mucho big problems in water facilities and especially with large water pumping equipment......... I'm sure there is plenty of that to worry about at Castaic.

I am hoping that whatever they have done to the water doesn't mess up the fishing too bad for too long.

The following is some info I found on the Quagga.

These major biofouling organisms can clog water intake structures, such as pipes and screens, therefore reducing pumping capabilities for power and water treatment plants, costing industries, companies, and communities.

Recreation-based industries and activities have also been impacted; docks, breakwalls, buoys, boats, and beaches have all been heavily colonized. Many of the potential impacts of Dreissena are unclear due to the limited time scale of North American colonization.

Nonetheless, it is clear that the genus Dreissena is highly polymorphic and has a high potential for rapid adaptation to extreme environmental conditions, possibly leading to significant long-term impacts on North American waters.

Also, the colonization of deeper water by D. r. bugensis, exposes the quagga to a new range of environmental conditions and new habitats.

It causes many of the same problems (damaging boats, power plants, and harbors and destroying the native mussel population) as the equally invasive zebra mussel of Russia. It is also displacing native burrowing amphipod (Diporeia hoyi) from the deep waters of Lake Erie.

In January 2007, quagga mussels were discovered at a marina in the Nevada portion of Lake Mead, and two other lakes on the Colorado River, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.

In 2008 the threat of quagga mussels being introduced at Lake Casitas and Westlake Lake in California from recreational boating resulted in the lakes banning the use of outside boats.

As of March 2008, other lakes such as Castaic and Lake Cachuma are considering similar bans. In June 2008, the mussels were confirmed in Lake Granby, Colorado. The larva form of quagga mussels were found in the water.

[swimbait101]

if castaic has those clams, i am going to sream

if the lagoon has them, i am switching my main lake to piru

[ronlehman909]

Nice report Geo...I hate those days when the fish won't cooperate! You raise a lot of questions about what's going on up there and down in the lagoon.

[brendanc]

Geo,

You might have tried asking that D.F.G. officer... he might have the inside track on what's going on. If not check with the folks in the fisheries department in his office:

DFG Website - Quagga Page

They even have a place where you can report a sighting:
Report Invasive Species