Odd Old News: The Advent of ‘Gasoline Boats’ for Fishing and a Stream Report From 1907

Fishing on Eel River [Image from the
Palmquist Collection in the Humboldt Room of HSU]

This week Odd Old News takes a look at how great fishing was in Humboldt County in 1907. From time immemorial local waters have provided the area’s 1st People with life-sustaining fish harvests. In the modern era Humboldt County has had a long history of being a destination for recreational fishing, and successful commercial fishing.

In the first decade of the 20th century commercial salmon fishing took off, partly enhanced by fish hatcheries, but primarily due to the advent of the use of the “gasoline boat”. Whereas motorized boats were uncommon in 1900, five years later they were in almost universal use.

“The reported catch for 1899 was 461,460 pounds of salmon credited to Eel River, while in 1904 the catch was 2,664,206 pounds, an increase of nearly two and a half millions of pounds in less than five years.”(Humboldt Times, 1/13/1906). Faster travel made for more fishing trips and fresher salmon hauls. However, this technological advance was a double edge sword. As well as increasing local prosperity, gasoline boats made it possible to come up the coast from San Francisco, illegally dynamite fish, and speed away.

“Trinidaders assert that their one time prolific cod beds are being rapidly ruined and robbed by a lot of ‘higher-ups’ in the trade of fish piracy. That speedy power boats, fitted up with all the appliances for dynamiting and carrying fish in large quantities, come up at all seasons from San Francisco and dynamite the rock cod banks about a mile and a half out to sea from Trinidad, and take vast quantities of the fish to the city market, is the assertion of people who are in a position to know whereof they speak. The charge is further made that most all of the fish sold in the San Francisco markets, whether from Trinidad or other parts of the California coast, are dynamited fish, as dealers in fish know from the fact that the flesh of the fish is soft and the bones broken from the effects of the explosive used…. The matter is one of concern to the citizens of the historic town, for at one time they had the finest fishing grounds along the coast. Their famous rock cod bank was known far and wide. —the people are convinced that the only effective way of meeting the emergency is to equip some official with a speedy boat and have him patrol the coast. Those cod banks off Trinidad are now almost exhausted” (Blue Lake Advocate, January 4, 1908).

Residents of Humboldt county know that the 1955 and 1964 floods largely ruined salmon fishing in local rivers and our “Sportsman’s Paradise”, less attention has been drawn to the decline of trout populations. Turn of the 20th century news reports from Garberville often told of people going to the South Fork of the Eel, or its East Branch to easily catch a string of trout in a short period of time. What follows is a description of the “good old days” of fishing in Humboldt County with an emphasis on the trout populations of local streams.

TELLING OF OUR FISHING STREAMS
Humboldt Times
August 3, 1907
Humboldt’s fame as the sportsman’s paradise is exploited In the California Promotion Committee’s magazine for August, to which Secretary George Kellogg of the Humboldt Chamber of Commerce contributed the following able article:

Among all the sections of this favored state none is more favorably situated for fishing abundance and variety of fishing for the sportsman and for the commercial fisherman than is Humboldt County. Situated on the northwestern coast of California, with 120 miles of bold and rugged coast line; with a landlocked bay of 28 square miles of tidal area; with a half dozen rivers of greater or less importance flowing directly into the sea, and innumerable smaller streams as feeders and branches, which flow throughout the year by reason of the abundant and well distributed rainfall, which never fails in this section —surely one need not look farther for a conjunction of all the favorable conditions which tend to produce ideal fishing grounds.

First, taking up the fishing in Humboldt from the sportsman’s viewpoint, as most interesting to the greatest number of people, let it be said that conditions here cannot be excelled anywhere in civilized climes. With the opening of the fishing season in spring, heretofore on April 1st, but changed by the last legislature to May 1st, the smaller and more accessible streams are the Mecca of the devotees of rod and reel, and the brook trout of California the fitting object of pursuit.

Each of the smaller streams flowing into or near by Humboldt Bay teem with the finny beauties, running from six to 12 Inches or more in length, and to these the attention of the Eureka anglers is first turned. One or two hours’ travel from Eureka will suffice to bring the fisherman to Salmon creek, Elk River, Ryan’s Slough, Freshwater, or Jacoby creek, and from each of these streams many well filled creels are the reward of anglers throughout the early months of the season. Going further away toward the north, Mad River, Lindsay Creek, Little River, Maple Creek, Redwood Creek and Prairie Creek each may be reached by from a few hours to a day’s travel, and each offers the highest class of sport to fly, to troll, and to bait fishermen. Indeed, the gamy fish of these streams are somewhat larger than in the smaller streams emptying into Humboldt Bay, and cutthroat trout of from 12 to 16 Inches In length are & common occurrence. While treating of this northern section of the county, space must be taken to dwell a little upon the lagoons—Big Lagoon. Stone Lagoon and Freshwater Lagoon—three large brackish lakes, situated behind the coast sand dunes some forty miles north of Eureka. During the early part of the season these lagoons offer an especially favorable outing for the fisherman. Not only may the ordinary trout be caught here in abundance, but steelhead trout may here be found from twenty to thirty inches in length, and weighing from five to fifteen pounds each. And at the mouth of Maple Creek, where it empties Into Big Lagoon, rainbow trout of marvelous else, from 12 to 30 inches in length, may be taken on the fly or troll. These handsome fish are also found in Stone Lagoon, a few miles further up the coast.

Fishing on the Van Duzen [Image from the Palmquist Collection in the Humboldt Room of HSU]

South of Humboldt Bay the county is equally as well provided with trout streams. Bear River and the Mattole along the coast, and the Van Duzen, Lawrence Creek, Laribee Creek, the South Fork of Eel River, and Its various branches, all offer the finest of early season sport, while most of them continue to yield fine fish throughout the open season. But chiefest of all the piscatorial sport in Humboldt is fly fishing for steelhead trout in Eel river, beginning usually in July, and extending on throughout the season, the month of September being accounted the best of the season. All things combine to make this the acme of the real sportsman’s season. The river is broad and contains long reaches and pools where these finny beauties swarm. The river is open, the background of the finest, the gentle sea breezes give just the right amount of ripple, no better opportunity exists on earth for prime sport in fishing. The steelheads fresh from the ocean, are strong and vigorous, and the fight they put up before yielding to the angler’s wiles Is worth a long journey to experience. These fish run all the way from one-half pound to twenty pounds in weight; the smaller being denominated “half pounders,” the larger “Steelheads.” Fly fishermen have been known to catch in a day’s sport from eight to ten steelheads and 30 to 60 half-pounders, the latter varying from one-half pound to one and one-half pounds.Many other varieties of fish are also caught during the season, especially by those using trolls or bait. Ordinary trout, salmon trout, chub salmon, king salmon, all these add to the variety of the sport. Many San Francisco sportsmen are aware of the fine sport to be had on Eel River, and make annual pilgrimages to the resorts along that river. Gregg’s, 18 miles from Eureka; Fortuna, 20 miles; Alton 24 miles; Weymouth’s, 26 miles; Scotia 31 miles, all have their contingent of anglers from abroad as well as their local clientage.A government hatchery at Price creek, near Weymouth’s, yearly hatches millions of salmon eggs, the fry being mostly deposited in Eel River, near its mouth. A station for gathering steelhead spawn has also been established there, thus maintaining and increasing the supply of this truly royal game fish.

In Humboldt Bay many varieties of edible fish are caught throughout the year. Among these are rock cod, flounders, smelt, herring, perch, tomcod, Alaska pickerel, and sea trout, and at certain seasons salmon. In the ocean outside the bay are caught rockcod, halibut, sea bass, hake, and occasionally the true cod and the salmon.

With the first rains of the fall comes the run of salmon on Eel River, Mad River, and the Klamath, and then the harvest of the net fishermen begins. About two and one-half million pounds of fresh salmon are shipped to San Francisco each year, while an additional half million pounds are salted and shipped In barrels and tierces, either to San Francisco or Portland. The unwillingness of the people of Humboldt to admit Chinese labor prevents operation of a cannery on lower Eel river, as the owners claim they cannot compete with canneries elsewhere on the coast without making use of cheap Asiatic labor. But the people of Humboldt prefer to go without the cannery rather than to give a foothold for the Mongolian.

Of crabs, from twenty thousand to thirty thousand dozen are annually shipped to the San Francisco market.

Altogether the salmon, crabs, and other fish and shellfish shipped from the county return to the fishermen a yearly revenue of from $lOO,OOO to $200,000, varying greatly In different years, according to the conditions of the market, the run of fish, etc.

The fish markets of Eureka are at all times supplied with an abundance of fine food fishes from the bay and the ocean. Rockcod, halibut, perch flounders and the salmon being the principal varieties; these, with crabs and clams, enable the European to pursue a “fish diet” to any extant desired.