Hitch in spotlight at Clear Lake

At one time they jammed creeks from shore to shore

A fish that has been swimming in Clear Lake for more than 1,000 years has captured the local spotlight. It's the hitch. At one time the hitch was a primary food fish for local Indian tribes. Hitch by the thousands ran up the streams that feed Clear Lake. It is considered a native fish of Clear Lake.

Local Indian tribes would net or trap the hitch and then string them on ropes and dry them in the sun because there was no refrigeration in those days. A dried fish would last all summer and was good eating. What made the fish so desired was that its flesh carried very little fat and its meat was all protein.

Hitch spawn by migrating up the tributaries that flow into the lake. At one time thousands of hitch would annually migrate up these streams. In fact, old photos show hitch from shore to shore in Kelsey Creek during their peak spawning runs. Oldtime residents said they would throw large rocks at the hitch, killing hundreds.

The hitch spawn runs from March through June. During spawning activity, four or five males often attend each female. Male hitch exhibit a rusty color on their paired fins during spawning. Their eggs are large and non-adhesive, meaning they don't stick to the bottom and drift, but instead hey lodge between rocks and gravel. The eggs hatch in about five days. Within a week the young fry migrate back to the lake. The young stay in the shallows for several weeks before migrating to deeper water.

Hitch can live up to five years. Scientists say the lake is lower than normal this year and the streams have diminished, which will impact their spawning success.

Adobe and Kelsey creeks are the primary creeks where hitch spawn. Middle Creek is also a hitch spawning area as are Manning Creek and Scotts Creek. Hitch are not strong swimmers, which means if the streams hold fast water, large rocks or dams, the fish might not be able to spawn. Manmade barriers continue to impede the success of the spawning hitch.

Hitch have a list of natural predators and one is the largemouth bass. An adult largemouth can eat a minnow as long as 8-10 inches. The young hitch aren't very good at escaping the adult bass. Actually, the bass and hitch spend time together in the same shallows. The bass are laying eggs and spawning and the hitch are staging in the shallows in preparation for spawning.

There have been suggestions made that the bass be removed from Clear Lake, but that would be disastrous for the tourist industry and local economy.

There are several questions that need to be answered. The big one is do hitch spawn in the lake when they are unable to migrate up the streams? Some scientists claim they will spawn in the lake and others say they won't. A complete study of the lifecycle of the hitch needs to be done by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).

Like all our fish the hitch play an important role in the local environment. The hitch problem shows just how important it is to know about the fish and other wildlife that live here