The Clear Lake hitch is beginning its spring run in area creeks and streams. Photo by Philip Murphy.

LAKE COUNTY – The streams are running, and so are the hitch.

The hitch – Lavinia exilicauda chi – is a fish that's both native to Clear Lake and important to local Pomo culture.

Beginning last week observers began spotting schools of hitch making the spring run in local creeks.

The Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch's Web site, www.lakelive.info/chicouncil, reports that the hitch is a filter feeder – eating mostly plankton – and can reach 14 inches long and weigh more than a pound.

The fish began making their way through Adobe Creek last week, said Tom Smythe, a water engineer with Lake County's Water Resources Division and a hitch watcher.

A school of 300 hitch was spotted in the creek at Soda Bay Road on Tuesday, with another a smaller school spotted in the creek at Finley East on Wednesday, he said.

Kelsey Creek's run also just started this week, with a school of about 50 hitch reported at Quercus bridge Wednesday morning, according to Smythe.

On the other side of the county, Alley Creek, a tributary of Clover Creek north of Upper Lake, also has hitch running, Smythe said.

Smythe said he's seen the hitch run anytime from February to April. “This is more or less normal.”

In 2008, large numbers of hitch began to be spotted consistently around March 10, according to the Chi Council's tracking reports.

The year before that, the run also started around mid-March, with thousands of fish spotted at a time. The years 2005 and 2007 appeared to be two of the strongest for hitch numbers in recent years.

“They usually run about a week, more or less, in an individual stream,” said Smythe.

This hitch was part of a school that was estimated to include 5,000 or more fish that was spotted on Kelsey Creek Wednesday morning. Photo by Philip Murphy.

He added, “They don't really follow a schedule.”

The gates of a groundwater detention dam, located on Kelsey Creek approximately one mile north of Kelseyville, also are being opened up to help the fish, said Smythe.

When he saw the fish in the creek on Tuesday morning they started draining the dam, which was opened up on Wednesday so the fish can move through.

The dam, the gates of which are closed to help groundwater recharge, will have its gates held open for approximately a month, depending on how long the run is, Smythe said.

Smythe said the dam's gates are only closed if there's sufficient flow through the creek. They've been unable to close the gates for the last two years due to lack of rain.

This year the dam's gates were closed on March 6, according to the Chi Council's Web site.

Hitch observer Phil Murphy reported a huge school of as many as 5,000 hitch below the detention dam in Kelsey Creek on Thursday.

He said he's never seen such a large school in his 15 years of being in the area. It's usually a few hundred at best, but this time the creek was black with them, he said.

The hitch's population appears to be down from historical levels and has notably declined in the past five years, the same time as the Chi Council has been doing observations, said council member Victoria Brandon.

Brandon cited a statewide survey of freshwater fish by University of California, Davis professor Dr. Peter Moyle, which found the hitch were in all of their historic range, which includes all of Clear Lake's tributaries. Large spawning schools had been found in many creeks, but in the years since the report came out Adobe and Kelsey creeks have become the most reliable for spawning.

She said some creeks which used to support large runs now don't have any hitch at all. The most notable of those is Seigler Canyon, where no spring runs have been seen since about 1995.

The detention dam's gates were opened up this week to allow the hitch to pass through. A school of hitch was at the base of the dam on Wednesday. Photo by Philip Murphy.

The council was just named “Conservationist of the Year” by the county's Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee for its efforts to study, protect and restore the fish. Brandon said the award will be presented at a Board of Supervisors meeting in April.

Sarah Ryan, environmental director for Big Valley Rancheria, said Big Valley, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake and Robinson Rancheria have all received US Fish and Wildlife grants to study the fish.

Big Valley's $50,000 grant covers a year of hitch study, said Ryan. Habematolel also has received a one-year grant, and Robinson two years. Robinson also is working a hitch hatchery.

The tribes are collaborating to study the fish, Ryan explained.

Ryan said they're monitoring water quality on all of the creeks in the Big Valley area, which she said number about seven. That requires checking water chemistry three times a week during the hitch run.

They'll also be tagging several hundred hitch and using electronic reader equipment. “We'll be able to see where they go,” said Ryan.

She said it will be interesting to observe the fish's behavior. The study, she said, will “start piecing together the bigger picture of what is it that these hitch need.”

The fish's dropping numbers are a basis for the grants to the tribes, Ryan said. Not that long ago there were tens of thousands of the fish during a spring run.

“The tribes have been concerned about this for quite a while because tribal members still consume these fish and use them,” she said. For that reason they were able to convince Fish and Wildlife officials that the grants were necessary to support the monitoring effort.

Ryan said Big Valley is asking for an extension of the grant to continue the work. Having several years of data will be very useful to the effort.

Ryan said the community is invited to come out to a special hitch tagging demonstration planned for 10 a.m. Saturday, March 28, on Adobe Creek at Rancho de la Fuento, 2290 Soda Bay Road.

She said they'll demonstrate for the community how the fish are tagged as part of the monitoring operation.

Brandon said the group is always looking for volunteer observers. Visit the Web site at www.lakelive.info/chicouncil or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The council's next meeting is at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, at the Lake County agriculture building, off of Lakeport Boulevard at Highway 29 in Lakeport.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The hitch are now being monitored by local Indian tribes, thanks in part to Fish and Game grants. Photo by Philip Murphy.

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