History

The Fresno Chapter of The California Striper Bass Association was activated in the Spring of 1995 after the National Marine Fisheries denied the Department of Fish and Game a permit to stock three million juvenile striped bass into the San Francisco Bay Delta.

Dave Hardy and John Poindexter attended a special called meeting with the Director of the Department of Fish and Game in the Bay Area when it was learned the thee million stripers were going to be destroyed in a land fill. Dave and John lobbied the then DFG Director Boyd Gibbons to stock some of the fish into Millerton Lake, which hadn’t been stocked since the 60’s. Dave actually asked the director for a “garbage can full of stripers”. The garbage can of stripers never materialized but that meeting set the stage for the birth of the Fresno Chapter of CSBA.

In 1999 the Fresno Chapter lobbied and was granted funding to stock striped bass into Millerton Lake from the Striped Bass Stamp Committee. In March of 2000, the Striped Bass Stamp Committee was again lobbied by the Fresno Chapter to fund a floating striped bass grow-out pen facility to be located in the O’Neil Forebay at San Luis Reservoir. That facility operated between 2000 and 2003 when funding was denied and raised 45,000 + yearling striped bass for stocking into San Luis Reservoir, Millerton Lake, and Lake Mendocino near Eureka. Since that time, the Fresno Chapter of CSBA has continued to address the stocking of Millerton Lake of up to 3,000 fish per year.

Since its inception the Fresno Chapter of CSBA has been active in the following community activities as well as assisting the local DFG biologists to electro-shock many of the local reservoirs:

- Clovis Rodeo Parade

- Clovis Kiwanis yearly Special Olympics Trout Derby and Wishon Reservoir

- Kids Fishing Day for the physically challenged at the Fresno County Sportsman’s Club

-Millerton Lake State Park CCFORD Days

-The annual CAST for Kids at Millerton Lake State Park

-Christmas Tree habitat projects at Millerton Lake State Park

-Kids Fishing Day at Shaver Lake

The Fresno Chapter and its seven sister chapter’s motto is “Dedicated to the Preservation, Conservation and Enhancement of the Striped Bass”. If this is what you’re looking in a fishing organization, “WELCOME” to our world.