Wednesday January 8, 2025
CDFW —
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has returned California’s only native sunfish – the Sacramento perch – to its namesake city and county, recently stocking 3,000 mostly juvenile fish into a pond at Granite Regional Park to create a unique urban fishing opportunity.
Granite Regional Park is already part of CDFW’s Fishing in the City Program and receives regular stockings of rainbow trout in the winter and channel catfish in the summer to provide fishing opportunities for urban and suburban residents.
While those stockings will continue, Sacramento perch could complement those offerings with a year-round fishery at the small, former quarry pond surrounded by office buildings, soccer fields and parking lots.
“It’s an experimental, pilot effort,” said Max Fish, a Senior Environmental Scientist within CDFW’s Fisheries Branch. “We’re trying to assess whether the fish do well in the pond first and foremost and, if so, whether anglers enjoy this unique experience to interact with a heritage fish being brought back to the Sacramento area for the first time in many decades.”