Did I read you right? No more Alper stocking of I2? I was there once ... SWEET! Trucks from 2 different places showed up ... one after the other. Had a nice spot there right where they pulled up. Then some clown who thought he was the National Trout Fishing expert of Los Angeles showed up and walked in BETWEEN my rod holders and started casting. Amazing ... then he started giving lectures on fishing. Most amazing thing I've seen in all my years.Originally Posted by TrOuT FeVeR
From the Adopt A Creek website -
BISHOP — Aug. 19 marked the final plant of Adopt-A-Creek heavyweight Alpers rainbows, following close to two decades of the privately-funded non-profit program providing trophy-class rainbows for bishop-area waters.
"The final plant will be the middle fork of Bishop Creek and North Lake," said Ron Scira, who has spearheaded the operation since its beginning in 1994.
"It's unfortunate, but the money we need to operate just hasn't come through, and a lot of people who promised funds didn't produce. Our operating cost has been right around $5,000 a month. We're entirely dependent on private funding. The money's not there and the economy isn't helping."
He added, "It's been a great run, I have no regrets. The program has been very popular with our visiting anglers and has been good for the community from an economic standpoint." The primary funding source over the years was a trading card company, but the economy forced the company to end that commitment last year.
Past years have seen Bishop Creek, Intake II and North Lake on the Adopt-A-Creek stocking schedule, providing anglers with the chance at taking a trophy-class rainbow. Alpers trout stocking from other sources, DFG, Bishop Chamber of Commerce, SCE and private resorts will continue. The program was entirely dependent on private funding.
Scira is the operator of Creekside RV Park and plans to remain in the Bishop area. He will continue to stock private water at his location ("Ron's Pond") with heavyweight Alpers earmarked for his guests.
OUCH
Thanks for taking the time to post
This is truly sad news! I guess my $100 donation to Ron at the last Fred Hall Show didn't help much! I received a nice Adopt a creek shirt though. J/K. On a serious note, the Adopt a creek program really enhanced the Bishop drainage fishery and I can only hope he receives funding for next season and beyond. The fishery will still be good. Just not the same! We've actually been seeing and feeling the effects of the cut backs for a few years now. Lunkers are expensive to stock and Ron's said that his budget has been decreasing for a few years so instead of buying a few 5 plus pounders to stock, his been settleing for 2 to 4 pounders. All of the business owners in town should all agree to pay some sort of tax to fund the program. After all, and I could be wrong but I believe it's the fishing that brings people to Bishop. Not the Mule days or hot rod car shows. Other than that, mainly the gas stations and Schats get business from the peeps on the way to and from Mammoth and June Lake. A few motels and other businesses were supporting him but not many. Wouldn't it be nice if some wealthy celebrity from the LA area who's an avid fisherman heard about this and made a sizable donation! One could dream right? Anyone one know any of the rich and famous who would want to gets some good pub? I believe upper deck donated about $20,000 annually. That's pocket change and a nice tax write off for most of them!
Adopt a creek was awesome while it lasted - but in a tough economy, there just wasn't enough money out there to make it all happen. Ron didn't have the time or energy to run it anymore. He tried to get me to take it over but I'm too swamped running my own business to put the effort into rebuilding the program. The 20K from Upper Deck was well over half the total funding - pretty much impossible to take a hit like that.
At some point, I believe that a new program will make an appearance - but it will probably take a season or two for that to come to fruition. Until that time you're pretty much down to South Lake or Sabrina if you want a chance at a big fish once the holdovers from this summer are gone. We usually give adoptacreek 1000 or so each year, we'll probably put those dollars in the creek between our resort and Weir Pond to get the most bang for our buck now that the program is no more.
One other thing to note, fishing doesn't carry an economic monopoly in Bishop.....tourism is a lot more varied in Bishop than one would think. I wish it was as big a deal in Bishop as it is to the summer June Lake economy because we'd probably get more public funding for fish stocking programs.
Smitty--
That last paragraph of your above post was an eye-opening surprise to me. I figured angling was AT LEAST 75% of the tourism draw for the Bishop area. And I prefer a spinal tap to visiting Bishop either for Mule Days or the Tri-County Fair. And the car shows.....whatever. I like my old cars restored, not reworked and trailered.
I'll be up your way again soon for Fall color trout fishing.
Fishing is probably 75% of my business and the rest of us in the canyon, but not for the valley. All the big events, fairs, and other activities (climbing, photography, snow activities, offroading, dirt bike riding etc) make up for a huge part of area visitors. For instance, there are as many climbing shops as tackle shops. I didn't quite realize it until I lived here....but there is a lot going on that was simply off my radar because I didn't partake in those activities.
See you soon...things are just now starting to yellow up a bit and the evening chill is here, fall fishing has arrived.
i agree. then pups need to chill. this site is all about fishing!
Hey Jared...
Thanks for chiming in. You of all people on this board knows best on how the closure of the adopt a creek program will affect the Bishop area so I appreciate the response. I'll still be hitting the area about 3 times a year as I have been doing for many many years now regardless. I have no doubt that the fishing will still be great. I'll just miss the fact that we anglers had a great shot at catching some nice sized fish out of the small creeks up there. That's what kind of set the Bishop drainage apart from other areas for me. There's nothing like testing ones skills by trying land a brute on UL gear in a small creek. I know there's still big fish in the Lower O but it's usually too hot over there for my liking and the scenery around the Lower O just isn't very pleasant comparing to spots in the upper elevations. Same goes for the Upper O, McGee creek, E Walker, and Hot creek. I guess the only other small creeks in an Alpine setting that holds some big fish would be Rush and Robinson creek. Either way, I enjoy the fishing and scenery almost as much the catching. No complaints here. Just a little sadness.
Like FlyTyingreloader said, your last paragraph was an eye opener for me too. I also assumed that the fishing would draw the majority of the tourism in your area. In all my years up there, I've seen the masses of photographers in the fall, know and spoke to a few rock climbers, know others and go off roading myself up there, and seen the fair and car show crowd. They all pretty much had 1 thing in common, they all love to fish the area as well while up there (except for most of the photographers! lol). Maybe it's who I surround myself with! lol.
I'll be up there towards the end of October for our annual 'near closer trip'. We stayed at your place last year and the guys loved it so it's safe to say we'll probably be making a reservation in the near future. Hope to see you then.
Last edited by RiverWalker; 09-14-2011 at 02:04 PM.
But this doesn't mean Alpers will be eliminated from the Bishop area completely correct? DFG will still do their scheduled stocks?
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