Coming up, it's Rob on the
Road- Discovering the Delta. Hit the water with me
for a breathtaking tour of some of California's
greatest waterways, stunning sights... Look at this. ...wondrous wildlife,
and pristine playgrounds. Alright, I can't believe you're trusting me
with your boat. We'll have a
little fun fishing. I got one! And we'll toast this
Golden State treasure, the Old Sugar Mill, along
the great California Delta. >>And now, Rob on the Road-
exploring Northern California ♪♪ >>Welcome to the California
Delta, an unparalleled place of water, wildlife,
agriculture, historic towns and pristine playgrounds
for the explorer in you. It's a water-borne wonderland
that amazes all who enter. Join us as we meander through
a labyrinth of sloughs, with names like
Potato Slough, Snodgrass Slew, Steamboat
Slough, and many more. Let's begin on the water with a breathtaking
slough and delta tour. ♪♪ Welcome to the
Oxbow Marina in beautiful Isleton, California,
along the delta, and we're here with
somebody pretty special. An insider,
Bill Wells, who is the executive director of the
California Delta Chambers. Good to see you, Bill. >>Very good, Rob. Good to see you and
good to meet you, sir. >>Yeah, nice to meet you, too And we got lucky when
I found you, because... you have quite the
insider's guide on a pretty spectacular boat. >>Well thank you very much. Yeah, I've been cruising
my boat for 21 years now, it was actually
built in 1937, so it's significantly
older than me. And I've cruised all
over the delta area; I've been exploring the
delta for twenty years and I'm still not finished. Today, on our journey,
we're gonna go upstream, however, up toward
Dana Slough. It's a little bit more
wilder and sunny. Just have a little
ritual I go through on the way out,
is that okay? >>Oh yeah. >>Okay, it's gonna make
noise, is that alright? >>That's fine. >>Okay. >>We want the real thing. >>Okay, you got it- full
Fresno, is what we call it. ♪♪ [Horn sounds] ♪♪ >>I think it's so
cool how people live on the marina here...
about a hundred homes. ♪♪ >>Okay, Rob, they're gonna
open the bridge for us... >>Okay. >>Right ahead of us. >>Awesome. ♪♪ >>This is the Title Island
Bridge, by the way. [Alarm ringing] >>Thank you! ♪♪ >>Rob, what do you
think so far? >>I am blown away. >>Excellent, yeah. This is, again, one of the
most beautiful waterways in the entire delta. If we watch out, we'll
probably see a lot of bird life and, y'know, maybe
some turtles and other stuff. >>Well that's why I'm- I'm so thankful that
you're doing this, because we really do
try to take people, not just places that
they can go, but maybe places
they can't go, so they can see what
California has to offer. >>Yeah, very good. >>And so, just describe to
me what you see right now. >>Okay, what I'm seein' is huge Blue Gum Trees over
there, they were imported. See a lot of Tules
along the shoreline, which were actually
native plants here. It's- I'm surprised you
don't see any fish jumping... we've had an influx of sea
lions from the Bay Area and frequently you'll see one-
one or two of those floating around, but they
kinda follow the fish, so... I don't see- haven't
seen too many fish. >>It amazes me that
the delta dates back ten thousand years,
to the end of the ice age. >>Right. It's... It
started filling in back then and it's amazing that...
by the time- well, humans came here about
ten thousand years ago, but Europeans came in the
late 1700s and I'm just- there was, again, it was a
vast maze of waterways. Mount Diablo was probably
the premiere landmark around here and when the Spanish
explorers first saw it, they just- all they saw
was a vast inland sea. This is the largest estuary on the West Coast of
North and South America. >>It's huge. >>It is, it is. And it's a- it's a
reverse delta, which is different than say
the Mississippi Delta. This delta, all the
waterways converge and then they go into a one
small area out in the San Francisco Bay, through
Carquinez Straits. Most deltas start out
as a small area and then spread out, so this is-
it's a little bit different. >>And all along the way,
you see beautiful wildlife, you see... lots of
agriculture as, y'know, you see driving out here. We passed sod fields,
orchards, olive groves, corn, windmills, and that's just
in this area of the delta. >>Yeah. >>So much of this water goes
for irrigation as well. >>A lot of it does. >>There's a nice heron
right there. >>And you see
how big they are, you get to get really
close to them here... >>Yeah, yeah. >>...on boats. ♪♪ We're about sixty miles
in from the coast, and there's really only one
other delta in the world that is this far inland, and that
is in Pearl River, China. >>Yeah. >>China! And here we are. >>Yeah so... it's spectacular
to be in a place like this. >>Now when you come out
here with someone... who has never been on
the Delta before, or in a place like this, what are the things
you want them to know? >>Well, I want you to
know how it's still like it was 160 years ago, and if we were traveling
up here in a steam ship, it would look pretty much
the same as it does today... except for the occasional
telephone pole, there's no sign of
civilization around here. It's spectacular for
boaters, number one, but it's also fantastic-
birdwatchers come here, or fishing for sturgeon,
striped bass and salmon is... probably some of the
best in the world here. >>Wow. Do you hear from
people all across the world wanting to know
about the Delta? >>Yes, I get requests from
informations from Europe, Australia, and naturally
all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. >>So why do you love it? >>I love just the peaceful
serenity and being able to cruise my boat on
a weekday and... not worry about anything. When you're driving a boat,
it really takes your mind off whatever other
problems you have, because you're
concentrating on, y'know, exactly what
you're doing that minute. It's not like driving a car
down the freeway where you can pretty much just aim
at the car in front of you, I mean, you really got to be
on your toes every minute. >>May I try it? >>Sure. >>Really? >>Yeah, that'd be
wonderful, yeah. >>Okay!
I'll take you up on that. Alright,
I can't believe you're trusting me with your boat. >>Oh actually, you gotta get
'er sort of to the right here >>Oh, shoot! What is that? >>A big log. >>[Grunt] I am so sorry! >>No, that's okay. >>Okay... alright. >>As I was saying earlier,
that's why you gotta- it's a full-time job. So, move to the left
here just a little bit, it looks like another log or
somethin' sticking out there. >>[Laughing] Yeah, now
everything pops up now that I'm driving. >>[Laughing] Yeah, right? ♪♪ Okay Rob,
now we're approaching the Georgiana Slough Bridge. This is the mouth of the
Georgiana and we'll be entering the Sacramento
River up here shortly. ♪♪ >>Look at this! We just came from the
Georgiana Slough and this is Walnut Grove? >>Yes, Walnut Grove... the only town in the
whole Delta that straddles both
sides of the river. About forty miles
upstream from here is Downtown Sacramento. >>Now what do we have
here on the right, Bill? >>The big shed,
at one point when the steam- steam ships plied up
and down the river, was a produce warehouse
and they would load the- you can see the opening there
was actually an elevator, and they would lower
the produce down and load it on the ships, takin' it to Sacramento
or San Francisco. All these little towns,
by the way, at one point were stops for the ships to
take on wood for fuel. Since that died out and the roads and trucks
have taken over, nowadays they've all been
converted to marinas. >>Alright, we're gonna
turn this thing around. >>Okay. >>You ready? >>Sounds good. ♪♪ >>We just turned this
boat right around. >>Good work, I'm gonna-
you're hired. [Rob laughs] >>So, what do we have here? >>Okay, these are called
the cross-channel gates. They're open now but
you can still see that there are gates there. That is a device that
takes water out of the Sacramento River, sends it
over to the McCullony River. From there it goes
downstream and out to the pumps at Tracy which pumps it
down to Southern California and the desert of
the San Joaquin Valley. >>Wow, so this is where
it goes from. >>Yeah. >>And it- I also see
that there's a- a fork here in the delta,
like so many places, it veers off into different
waterways; what is this? >>To the right, it's
the Sacramento River that takes you to- down to
Isleton and beyond that, Rio Vista, beyond that,
San Francisco Bay. To the left, that
we're gonna travel down, is Georgiana Slough
which will, if we went on it all the
way down in the one it takes us to
Oxbow Marina, but it would take us to
the Mokelumne River, and eventually to the
San Joaquin River. So this is basically a
shortcut between the Sacramento and Stockton. >>The shortcut... >>Yeah. >>Alright, but I think we're
getting ready to turn. It amazes me how
you know all this. Where are these trees
from that you talked about that were imported? >>The Blue Gum Trees
are from Australia. >>Really? >>Yeah, they brought 'em in-
they're all over the Bay Area but they've brought 'em
for various purposes at different times. At one time, I know
they were gonna make railroad ties out of 'em, but the wood is so hard
and brittle it doesn't work. >>So how old are they? >>These are- they're probably
sixty or seventy years old. >>Wow. [Wind blows] >>We're back at
Oxbow Marina. >>Rob, I'm so glad
you were able to come with me today
and I hope you- again, you saw ten miles of
thousand miles of waterways, but it's a spectacular
ten miles and you'd have to make
a few trips back here and see the rest
of it with me. >>Oh, many, many more. Y'know, I leave here with
such beauty of the delta... just engraved in me, so thank you for such a
behind the scenes tour. >>You're very welcome. ♪♪ >>The California Delta
is paradise for boaters and fisherman. You could explore for decades and never see everything
the delta has to offer, but wherever you
explore you'll find an abundance of wildlife
including herons, egrets, ducks and geese,
and of course, fish. We're goin' fishin', huh. >>We're gonna go try to
catch some fish today. >>Let's hit it. >>Alright. ♪♪ >>We just launched in
Brannan Island State Park, about three miles
from Rio Vista, and we're here with
Mark Wilson who's a fishing
consultant and expert. Good to see you, Mark. >>Yep, I've been
born and raised here in Sacramento area,
raised all my life and I've been down here
fishing all my life. We've got the equipment
here- duck finder and a GPS unit, and that
shows where the fish are. We're on Three Mile Slough,
we just launched the boat. We've got about a mile
and a half to go to the Sacramento River. The other direction
is a mile and a half to the San Joaquin River. >>Now I said you're a
fishing consultant. Does that mean you
have a secret and know where the fish are? >>...They have tails,
they move around but I'm gonna take you to some
of my known hotspots today. Rob, if you want you could grab that rod on the
console- that one. >>Okay. >>And it's got a line
counter on it. Do you know how to operate
those fishin' rods? >>Yep. >>Then could you
let it out to 140 feet? >>Well now that... >>There's a counter
right there. >>Oh the counter rod! Okay. ♪♪ ...Maybe I don't. >>Turn around and face
the camera please. >>[Laughing] We need you
on all of our shoots! >>Put the rod- lure over the
water, turn the rod over- reel's on the upside. There's a lever
right here... >>Uh huh. >>Pull it down...
there goes the line. >>Oh. >>That lure's workin'. When the fish hit it,
there is no doubt. We are targeting
striped bass, and a little bit later
on there'll be salmon and steelhead comin'
through this area. There are sturgeon in the
waters, a lot of catfish, largemouth and smallmouth
black bass, crappie, bluegill >>And how big can
the striped bass that we're trolling for get? >>Personally,
my biggest is 51 pounds. >>Whoo! >>They can get up into
the 60 pound range here on the West Coast. >>Wow, that's big. >>Probably your average
fish is gonna be around 6 to 8 pounds, and there'll be some
smaller, younger ones, and there'll be
some bigger ones. >>Look how big the herons
are that are flying by, too. I mean they're just-
they're huge. >>There's our rookery
down here, nesting area. >>They're so big. So this is a beautiful heron in the middle of this
green patch. The herons are blueish grey,
and the egrets are white. >>You see that dead tree
with the nests in it? That is a nesting tree
for the herons. >>Yes! >>And there's some more
behind it to the left. >>We see the windmills
behind here, and to give you another
shot of where we are, straight in front of the
boat is Mount Diablo- just spectacular. ♪♪ >>Quite often I used
to tell people, "Where are you fishing?" I says, "Right there
by Mount Diablo." >>[Laughing] That way you're
not giving your spot away. >>You can see it
from Sacramento, you can see it from
almost Bakersfield. I mean it is a landmark. There's a white egret over
there on the shoreline. >>Oh yeah, it's right there. Straight in front
of the rod. They're everywhere out here,
this part of the delta is just filled with so
much wildlife. I think I see ducks. [Ducks quacking] This is highway 160
on the left, so this would be
Sacramento down to Antioch. >>Yes, Arden Way,
it dead ends Arden... and 160 starts there and goes all the way to
highway 4 and Antioch. >>All of a sudden the water
has noticeably changed. It went from the smooth
horseshoe bend... I assume now to the
Sacramento River. >>We're on the main channel
of Sacramento River and the deep-water channel that
goes up to Sacramento. It's a lot wider, we've got
more current out here now. >>It just feels
so much more massive. >>Yes. This is the main
river system in California. >>When is the best time
of the year to fish? >>The best times-
there's two times, springtime around
probably April and May. And the other time
would be in the fall- October, November. >>What do you call a slow
day fishing? Nothin'? >>A slow day, of course,
is nothing- very good, Rob. >>[Laughing] I'm learning. >>You're pretty sharp. Zero to about
three or four fish. >>Oh, really? Three or four, that's-
that's not bad for me. >>And... a good day is
probably five to fifteen. >>Every area of the
delta is different and you could explore
this for years and still see something new is
what you've been saying. >>That is...
very good, yes. >>What is your favorite
thing about this part of the Sacramento River, Mark? >>I know it, I was born
and raised in Sacramento and I've been fishing this
area most of my life. I'm a catch and release guy,
I keep some for the table. >>Back on shore, you told me
you were seventy years old. >>Actually I'll be
seventy-two in August. >>That blows me away,
because you hopped out here and run circles around us
when you brought this boat in the water and you are
in fantastic shape, I think fishing
keeps you young. >>Well that too,
yes it does. >>Looking at your map,
we are on a hot spot now. >>Yes we are, it's a place
called The Old Dairy, this is hot spot number
five for today. >>Alright, well let's
see if it works. I got one. I promise.
[Laughing] Oh wait, it keeps
going way out. >>Yes it's pulling line. >>It's still a
hundred feet away. It just caught me off guard
so much, sorry about that, I didn't mean to
scream so loud. Oh my gosh, look!
Oh, let's let it go. >>He's not hurt. >>I can't believe
I caught that thing. >>Pull them by the bottom
lip, real tight, that is a keeper striper about twenty
to twenty-one inches long, and it probably weights
about three pounds. >>Three... Three? >>Three. >>Well I thought I had
a fifty pounder. I didn't mean to
scream so loud, Mark. Oh... gosh, sorry. I'm proud that
I've done this before, but that thing was big, it just really
caught me off guard, that thing hit
out of nowhere. >>It's like kids
catching a fish. >>And we just came under
the Rio Vista Bridge. >>Yes we did. >>This was built in 1945
right after World War Two. >>They use to go across
by ferry before that. >>To the right here,
is Ryer Island and this is the real McCoy
too, the Rio Vista Ferry, it's actually an
extension of Highway 84; this thing can hold up
to eight vehicles. >>Fish on. >>Oh there's a fish
on there for sure. >>And there's Rob with his
second fish of the day. >>This little fella needs
to get back in the water. >>And... >>Alright, there you go. >>Oh look at him go. >>Got a fish. Oh it's big. >>Now that's pretty close
to a keeper size striper. >>Can it bite? >>No, there's nothing
there to hurt you... >>Whoa!
I say we let him go back. >>Just throw him in the
water head first. >>Ready, bye. >>I enjoy watching
people catch fish, especially you Rob,
you get excited. >>But you know,
it is a thrill Mark, I mean there is a
thrill to it, it just, when it bites
it's like... Mmm! I feel like I disrupted the
serenity of the Delta. >>I'm sure you did. >>What is the message Mark? What is it for you that
you want to share? >>I'm teaching people
how to catch fish. >>We've been out on the
delta for a few hours now, but you've been doing
this for decades. >>And I still enjoy it,
I'm still doing the same path I probably made a
thousand times, and I still enjoy doing
the same troll. >>As you travel the delta, you'll discover small
historic towns such as Courtland,
Locke, Walnut Grove, Isleton, and Rio Vista,
that's just to name a few. Many of these towns
were created around the levy system. They have deep roots
in history and a thriving agriculture
presence today. ♪♪ >>Cheers, cheers, cheers... >>California is world-famous
for its wines and the delta is no exception. This is the Old Sugar Mill
in Clarksburg right off of the
Sacramento River and it's home to ten custom
wineries inside this amazing, one of a kind, century old,
massive building. Well the man behind
the magic, the wonder behind the winery, is John Carvalho,
good to see you, John. >>Good to see you, Rob. >>What a beautiful place. >>Thank you,
thank you so much. >>What a- I mean you just
walk in the door, and it just takes your
breath away. >>It does, the brick,
the warmth, copper, just everything, and it's
been here a while. >>I remember the
first time I came here, and I just stopped
out front and thought "My goodness,
what is this place?" And I guess I ask you
that question, it's an old sugar mill
that's a hundred years old. >>It is. It's an
old sugar factory, these were the
sugar warehouses. Sugar beets were
processed in our area. Really this Sacramento,
San Joaquin area was known as the Sugar Bowl
of California in the forties, fifties,
and sixties. The opportunity to
try to reach back and bring back to processing
and an ag base was that opportunity
I came across in 2000. We opened our doors here
in the Galleria in 2005; we were the only winery... >>Now flanked with
ten boutique wineries... >>Absolutely, yes
everybody's right here, their own tasting rooms,
all the different wines. >>This building I do want
to say was originally built in a different
part of the country in a very different era, so we'll tell you about
that coming up. ♪♪ Look at what we found on the other side of
the tasting rooms. What's going on in here? >>Well Rob, we have a number
of tanks as you can see because there's also a
number of customers in here. There's Clarksburg
Wine Company, a custom crush facility, meaning they can make wine
for a number of wineries. >>And it is active, that
too will be taken out and hooked up to one of
these big containers filled with wine and
bottled right outside. >>Yes, and we
do that regularly, mobile bottlers
come right in, so we can actually
bottle the wine on the site and not have to move the
wine to another site. >>So that means here that
the grapes are crushed, the wine is made,
it can be bottled; it can be sold, and tasted,
thus the word wine hub. >>Absolutely. >>At the Old Sugar Mill. >>Absolutely, that was my
hope when I started this and kind of dreamed,
and ten years now and we're seeing it
come to fruition. >>Guess what John,
it worked. >>Yes, I think it has,
right? >>You know, many places
across California say their wine is the best,
their wine is unique, the most flavorful,
the best palette, where does the delta wine,
unbiased now, where does it rank and
why is it different? >>Well all the
different areas- y'know, all areas have
a little different makeup because of your soils and
your air temps, right? We have a unique location, we are a
Clarksburg Appalachian, right here
next to Sacramento, we're still a cool
grape region because of that delta breeze which is
really a delta wind, right? And it blows in nice
and cold at night, cools everything down. So our Appalachian has
really nice quality, I mean very good quality
fruit which then we're able to transform into some
really good quality wine. >>Who knew that the
delta breeze was helping the wine be
what it is... you knew. >>And more and more are
finding out, absolutely. You know, our area has over- I think it's eighteen
thousand acres of grapes, I think there's only
3 or 4 percent actually stay in Clarksburg,
that other ninety-five plus goes off to all the
different directions. ♪♪ >>This blows me away. Seventy-five feet tall,
if not more, 60 thousand plus square feet
of a mill and it's massive. >>It is, it really is. Rob we're looking at
the Plaza right now. There used to be a
60 thousand gallon molasses tanks where
this grass is. >>Wow. >>Railroad track are
still underneath about three feet down. >>Oh right here,
this was the railroad. >>And this railroad went right
into the Galleria actually >>How interesting. >>And they'd load up the
box cars with all these hundred pound sacks of sugar. Yeah, it really is
fascinating- by hand, all of it by hand. >>Now this building
was built in Utah. >>In 1917,
original construction, I understand it's- I think
it's Springfield, Utah, dismantled it and
brought it here in '34. >>So they took it
apart in Utah, they shipped it here
on the railroad, and within a year it
was up and running. >>Just amazing. There's photos inside that
shows October of '34, this is nursery area, it's just dirt and then
August of '35 it's a factory
ready for production. >>That is just fascinating. Can we go inside that
building over there? >>Oh we should,
yeah, let's go. ♪♪ >>Look at this building,
inside is spectacular. This was the boiler room? >>Yeah that's it, boiler was
in here, it's like a brick building within the
brick building here. >>Clearly keeping the
historic significance of this place was
important to you. >>Very important, it's
quite a facility and again to let it showcase itself and
have that presence again, old bones, old soul... >>Old bones, old soul,
new life. >>That's it, yeah, correct. >>It's just a great showcase for really the
old construction. >>Love to have all the
guest come and see it. >>And coming back inside where it all began
here in the show, the Galleria, all the
beautiful Delta wineries being celebrated right
here in the delta, right through those doors,
you see grapevines. >>You see those chardonnay
grapes, right there, and they're growing
really well right now, so we're probably couple
weeks ahead this year. >>Well John,
thank you so much. >>You're so welcomed,
thank you. ♪♪ >>What fun. One thing we've learned,
you could spend a lifetime finding your fun along the
California Delta. That's going to do it
for us this time, we'll see you soon right
here on Rob on the Road. ♪♪ >>I need a minute.
[Laughing] That was wild! I don't know why I get so
startled, I apologize. >>Doesn't bother me at all,
I enjoy it. >>I feel like I disrupted
the serenity... of the delta. >>I'm sure you did,
all of them cars stopped over there on the bank to
watch you catch that fish, like you had a whale on
or something. To order a DVD copy of this
program call 888-814-3923 or visit kvie.org
