Central Valley Angler Survey Database

The Central Valley Angler Survey, or CVAS, monitors sport fisheries in the Sacramento River system, from the Carquinez Strait to Keswick Dam near Redding, and on the lower Mokelumne, Yuba, Calaveras, American, and Feather rivers. CVAS was a year-round survey from 1991-1994, 1998-2002, and 2006-2016, and included the Yuba and Calaveras rivers during portions of those periods. During fiscal years (FY) 2017-2020, CVAS was scaled back to a 5-1/2 month survey, focused on the Chinook Salmon sport fishery from July 16 through December 31, but resumed year-round surveying beginning FY 2021. Data are collected to estimate angler effort, catch, and harvest of key species using expansions of spatially and temporally stratified data. Data collected from 1991 through 2016 were used to generate estimates of fishing effort, catch, and harvest of Chinook Salmon, steelhead trout, Rainbow Trout, White Sturgeon, Sacramento Splittail (2007-2016), Striped Bass, and American Shad. During fiscal years 2017-2020, CVAS focused only on generating estimates of fishing effort, catch, and harvest of Chinook Salmon in support of the West Coast Chinook Salmon management process. Data collected are based on eight survey runs per month in each of 24-27 survey sections that cover the entire survey area. Data include counts of boats and angling parties in each survey section to estimate fishing effort on a daily timestep. Data are also collected during angler interviews and include information about individual angler effort, and biological data on the catch. Heads are collected from Chinook Salmon that possess a clipped adipose fin to recover coded-wire tags that provide information about the hatchery origin of the fish. Biological information collected on the catch of anglers encountered by survey staff. Data includes location, species, length, weight, any external markings or tags observed, scale sample collection information, and sex of fish. This data and metadata were submitted by California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Staff though the Data Management Plan (DMP) framework with the id: DMP000421. For more information, please visit https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/Sci-Data.