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Clear Lake Hitch
Observation Program
CLERC and the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch are working together to coordinate volunteer fish observation reporting.  This information is used to assess population numbers and spawning patterns, which can later be used to guide preservation efforts.

How To Participate

It's easy to participate in the hitch observation program.  Between January and June, hitch swim up streams and other tributaries around Clear Lake in order to spawn.  During this time, look for schools of fish in creeks around Clear Lake and then report your findings.

Report hitch observations online using the link below.  If you don't want to report online, a paper form is available.
Please remember that negative observations (no hitch seen) are just as valid and important as positive ones.
Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch
Protocol for Monitoring Hitch
Following are the methods to monitor hitch in the tributaries to Clear Lake during the spawning season (January-June):
 
For observations from a bridge:
  • Park car off edge of road (be careful for traffic!)
  • Walk quietly to the center of bridge
  • Peer into the creek from both sides of the bridge
  • Estimate the total number of fish seen, if any (note if no fish seen, too)
  • Record the date, time, creek, bridge location, numbers of fish seen, and any comments such as water clarity or predators such as herons, ducks, ospreys
 
For observations from a creek bank:
  • Make your observation from the same location each time, as if you were observing from a bridge. Do not wander up and down the creek and total the numbers of fish
  • Enter the same information as above
 
The importance of “NO HITCH SEEN”:
  • Please report each time you look for hitch, even if you don’t see any. A “0 hitch seen” is just as important as “40 hitch seen” because we know for certain that someone checked to see if fish were present. Over time, we can tell if the hitch population is increasing or decreasing with that information.
In the spring, when they run up Kelsey Creek, Cold Creek, and other tributaries, to spawn, they swarm in these streams by millions, forming an almost solid mass, so that it is even difficult to cross the fords with a horse on account of them. - Livingston Stone, 1873

What to Look For

Unfortunately, schools of hitch like Livingston Stone described in 1873 no longer exist.  Today hitch are found swimming in schools of several dozen to several hundred.  The videos and photos below are from previous hitch observations:
Hitch in Clover Creek at Bridge Arbor North in Upper Lake, CA on 3/17/2017. (photo by: Will Evans)
This video showing Clear Lake hitch (lavinia exilicauda chi) during their annual spawning run was shot by Tom Smythe.
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The first segment of the film shows fish moving upstream at the Kelsey Creek Detention Structure, a groundwater recharge facility on Kelsey Creek approximately one mile downstream from Kelseyville. The video shows the fish moving through the loose rip rap and through the concrete fish ladder, which was constructed over 20 years ago and is the first fish ladder built specifically for the Clear Lake hitch. The second portion of the video shows Clear Lake hitch spawning in Adobe Creek near Finley. Females, the larger fish, are laying their eggs, while several males cluster around the female to fertilize them.
Hitch in Middle Creek at the Hwy 20 Bridge, Upper Lake, CA, 2/29/2016 (video: Will Evans)

About the Clear Lake Hitch

The hitch, an ancient fish endemic to Clear Lake, live in deep in water most of the time, but every spring the adults work their way up the tributary creeks to spawn.  In the words of biologist Rick Macedo, they used to "mass by the thousands," in an annual ritual "as spectacular as any salmon run on the Pacific coast . . . The tumultuous splashing . . . and the appearance of herons, osprey, egrets, and bald eagles . . . signify that the hitch are in." In recent years the population seems to have declined precipitously, for reasons that are still poorly understood. Streambed obstructions, predation by introduced fish, and food competition all have been suggested as possible causes for their diminished numbers.
On September 25, 2012 the Center for Biological Diversity filed state and federal petitions requesting protection for the Clear Lake hitch under the Endangered Species Act. Read about the listing process, latest scientific assessment by Dr. Peter Moyle, and the hitch status review prepared by the Department of Fish and Wildlife recommending "threatened" status under CESA.
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On August 6, 2014 the California Fish and Game Commission formally listed the hitch as "threatened." For details, check the article that appeared in the August 11 Press Democrat, or watch the live video of the August 6 meeting.

The Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch

The Chi Council is a coordinated resource management and planning group dedicated to the study, protection, and restoration of a viable population of Lavinia exilicauda chi (the Clear Lake Hitch) within a healthy watershed ecosystem. Details of the Council's goals, guidelines and organizational structure are stated in the August 23, 2004 Memorandum of Understanding (updated August 23, 2009) which formally established it as an entity.
At the present time the Council has formulated several immediate objectives:
  • Coordinating and training volunteer population monitoring teams
  • Establishing scientific protocols for the monitoring effort, and maintaining a database of the information learned
  • Encouraging scientific research on hitch and their habitat
  • Enhancing public awareness of hitch and their habitat
  • Gathering and preserving information about hitch and their traditional uses by the native peoples of the Clear Lake Basin
  • Sponsoring habitat restoration projects
All interested parties are invited to attend the Council's meetings. For further information, to sign up for their email list, or to volunteer for the monitoring program contact: chicouncil@lakelive.info.

Chi Council Resources
Picture
Clear Lake Hitch (photo by: USGS)

Chi Council Photo Archive

Additional Resources:

California Department of Fish & Wildlife
Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch​
University of California - Fish Website
US Fish & Wildlife Service
National Geographic
Center for Biological Diversity