What Do the Terms “Wild Trout Water” and “Heritage Trout Water” Mean?
In the early 1970’s, the California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) adopted a Wild Trout Policy that provides for the designation of “aesthetically pleasing and environmentally productive” streams and lakes to be managed exclusively for wild trout, where the trout populations are managed with appropriate regulations to be “largely unaffected by the angling process.” Additional responsibilities were given to the California Department of Fish and Game’s Heritage and Wild Trout Program with the passage of SB 192 (the Trout and Steelhead Conservation and Management Planning Act of 1979), which has been superceded by SB 384 (2007). SB 384 (Fish and Game Code Section 1726 et seq.) requires the Heritage and Wild Trout Program to conduct a statewide inventory of trout streams and lakes, conduct ongoing evaluations of designated and candidate wild trout fisheries, and annually recommend to the CFGC 25 miles of streams and one lake for designation as a Wild Trout Water.
