Lower Yuba River ‘fishway’ advances. The anglers who fish there have concerns

An agreement to build a waterway allowing fish to swim freely past a dam on the lower Yuba River has moved forward as part of an initiative that also includes returning a threatened salmon species to another part of the watershed.

Federal, state and local agencies have partnered on the potentially $100 million project and tout its goal of restoring access for a variety of fish species to parts of the river system walled off for more than a century.

“Together, these actions will help us fight challenges to fish health and repopulation in the Yuba River through creative, science-based solutions,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton “Chuck” Bonham, in a news release. “This initiative will also lead to better water supply reliability, as we modernize an old water diversion in a collaborative, comprehensive approach between water users and fisheries agencies.”

But local anglers have raised concerns about the project, fearing that the free-flowing bypass will allow predatory fish, particularly striped bass, to access a section of the river seen as a haven for certain species.

“They’re allowing predator fish into a sanctuary,” said Frank Rinella, a Yuba River angler with Gold Country Fly Fishers.

Reopening the river

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Yuba Water Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service announced Friday that their agreement, called the Yuba River Resilience Initiative, had been made official.

The deal centers around a “nature-like fishway” to bypass Daguerre Point Dam, which since 1910 has been a dead-end for several fish species swimming upstream on the lower Yuba River.

The dam’s current fish ladder limits which species can jump over the dam. The new fishway would function in place of a fish ladder, allowing all species to swim around the structure and reach a stretch of the river that runs more than 10 miles before hitting Englebright Dam.

The design around Daguerre Point Dam calls for building a modernized water diversion to channel water for irrigation south of the Yuba River. The diversion would direct water into the irrigation system while a new screen system keeps fish in the river.

The project is expected to cost about $100 million when factoring in maintenance over time, paid for by Yuba Water Agency with help from $30 million in state funds. Construction is expected to begin in early 2026 and may take about two years, water agency officials have said.

As another part of the initiative, wildlife workers have begun reintroducing spring-run Chinook salmon to their original habitat, a stretch of the North Yuba River upstream of New Bullards Bar Dam.

The threatened salmon species has been blocked from returning to that part of the river to spawn for decades since the construction of Englebright and New Bullards Bar dams.

The state and federal partners manage the salmon reintroduction, which Yuba Water Agency has agreed to fund with $750,000 annually.

Pushback from anglers

The planned waterway bypassing Daguerre Point Dam drew the ire of some anglers familiar with the 10-plus mile section of the river upstream of the dam.

The fishway would effectively become an extension of the river, meaning virtually any fish could pass through it. The agencies have explained it as a way of expanding spawning habitat for salmon, steelhead, lamprey and sturgeon. But anglers have argued that salmon and steelhead already utilize the water, and that a path around the dam would clear the way for striped bass to prey in what’s currently a sanctuary.

“Our concern is striped bass and shad, which are known predators to salmon and steelhead,” Rinella said.

Protecting white and green sturgeon is a priority for the state, agency officials said at a meeting with anglers in March, and poaching of sturgeon on the lower Yuba River has become an issue.

“The small amount of benefit (the fishway) is going to be for the sturgeon population doesn’t even come close to the damage that allowing stripers up above the Daguerre dam is going to create,” said angler Gary Flanagan.

Rinella said that anglers have asked the agencies to consider building a fish ladder mechanism or weir at the entrance to the fishway to test whether it keeps striped bass out while allowing the other species through, and to “truck and haul” sturgeon upstream if needed.