Since I was 8 years old, roaming around the logging roads of the Siletz River on the Oregon coast with my father, I have had a love affair with the amazing steelhead. Now the few that remain in Santa Barbara are once again being endangered for political reasons.
First, just a bit of history. Up until the late 1940s and prior to the construction of the Bradbury Dam in 1953 — the dam that created Lake Cachuma — the Santa Ynez River had one of the finest runs of Pacific Coast steelhead on the West Coast. Steelhead are rainbow trout that are born and then reside in their natal rivers for about one to three years, and then go to the ocean to live for another one to four years. They return as large fish ranging from about four to 20 pounds.
It is estimated that the run of steelhead that returned to the Santa Ynez was between 10,000 and 20,000 fish, maybe more. I've seen the pictures. I've talked to the old timers. Yes, they simply pulled them out of the river with pitchforks. For thousands of years the Chumash based part of their culture on the local Santa Ynez steelhead trout. During the 20th century many people came to the Santa Ynez area to fish for steelhead.